#315 Milt Bolling - Boston Red Sox

Milton Joseph Bolling
Boston Red Sox
Shortstop

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'1"  Weight:  177
Born:  August 9, 1930, Mississippi City, MS
Signed:  Signed by the Boston Red Sox as an amateur free agent before 1948 season
Major League Teams:  Boston Red Sox 1952-57; Washington Senators 1957; Detroit Tigers 1958

Died:  January 19, 2013, Mobile, AL (age 82)

One of 11 call-ups by the Red Sox in September 1952, Bolling would return to the team in 1953, winning the everyday shortstop job.  He'd have his best season in 1954, playing in a career high 113 games and batting .249 with six home runs and 36 RBIs.  Bolling struggled defensively however, leading the league with 33 errors committed.  He missed almost the entire 1955 season after suffering a broken left elbow in a spring training game.  Bolling returned to the Red Sox in 1956, but Don Buddin had taken over the regular shortstop duties.  Dealt to the Senators in April 1957, Bolling would see his last regular playing time, appearing in 91 games for Washington and making 51 starts at second base.  His final action in the majors came with the Tigers in 1958.  Bolling appeared in exactly 400 games, batting .241 with 50 doubles, 19 home runs and 94 RBIs.  Following his playing days, he returned to the Red Sox organization, where he'd spend more than 30 years working in the team's front office and as a scout.

His younger brother, Frank Bolling, was an infielder for 12 seasons with the Tigers (1954, 1956-60) and Braves (1961-66).  The Bolling brothers were teammates in 1958 with the Tigers, and Frank Bolling was an All-Star with the Braves in 1961 and 1962.

September 15, 2007

Building the Set
September 22, 2007 from Dad's eBay purchases - Card #304
Our first son Doug was born in December 2006, and this happy event led directly to my Dad visiting us on a more regular basis.  Dad was living by himself at this point in Mays Landing, New Jersey and he didn't enjoy the 40 minute drive north to our house.  Among all the very positive memories I have of my Dad, one of my few negative memories is the fact he absolutely seemed to loathe driving and that loathing increased exponentially if there was traffic or if it were dark.  But he made the trips anyway, sometimes staying no more than an hour, because he was so incredibly anxious and excited to spend time with his grandson.

By the time his second grandson (Ben) was born in April 2010, my Dad's health had started to fail and whatever visits we had were pre-arranged or consisted of us visiting him.  Which is why these visits during Doug's infancy and first few years are so special to me.  My Dad would show up usually unannounced, ecstatic to see Doug, there would be some small talk and we'd complain about the Phillies, and then he'd leave.  But on his way out, he'd always say he'd see us again in a few days and I'd look forward to these visits.

This background is needed to better explain how this Bolling card came into our set.  In 2007, My Dad's days mostly consisted of an occasional round of golf, calls and visits to his kids - my sister and me, watching cable news, an afternoon nap and scouring eBay.  Most (but not all) of his eBay purchases benefitted me in the form of 1956 Topps cards we needed for our set.  He'd show up at our house for a visit with Doug and nonchalantly hand me one of his recent purchases.  He brought this Bolling card, by itself, on September 22, 2007.

Throughout 2007, I suspect he had a backlog of purchased 1956 Topps cards piled up on his desk at his house, and he'd grab one or two to deliver to me as he was heading out the door to make the 40 minute drive to visit Doug.

The Card / Red Sox Team Set
In a rare occurrence this late in the set, Topps re-used Bolling's photo from his 1954 and 1955 Topps cards here.  Perhaps that's Mickey Mantle (#135) sliding into third base with Bolling applying the tag?  The runner is wearing #7, a number Bolling didn't wear, and the fielder appears to be wearing Red Sox-style stirrups.  The back of the card explains the lack of action the prior year because of Bolling's fractured elbow.

1956 Season

Bolling appeared in only 45 games with the Red Sox, batting .212 with three home runs and eight RBIs.  He wouldn't get his first start until August 16th, eventually starting 17 games at shortstop and eight games at second base.

1953 Topps #280

1954 Topps #82

1955 Topps #91

1957 Topps #131

2007 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-MB

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1953 Topps #280
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (6):  1953-58
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2007 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-MB

Topps erroneously pictured Lou Berberet (#329) on Bolling's final flagship card in 1958, but they corrected the error 50 years later with Bolling's card in the 2007 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs insert set.

22 - Bolling non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 1/3/25.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database

SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

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Set Order: #314 Hobie Landrith - Chicago Cubs / #316 Jerry Coleman - New York Yankees

Order Collected: #301 Marv Grissom - New York Giants / #254 George Crowe - Milwaukee Braves

#309 Don Blasingame - St. Louis Cardinals

Don Lee Blasingame
St. Louis Cardinals
Shortstop

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'10"  Weight:  160
Born:  March 16, 1932, Corinth, MS
Signed:  Signed by the St. Louis Cardinals as an amateur free agent before 1953 season
Major League Teams:  St. Louis Cardinals 1955-59; San Francisco Giants 1960-61; Cincinnati Reds 1961-63; Washington Senators 1963-66; Kansas City Athletics 1966

Died:  April 13, 2005, Fountain Hills, AZ (age 73)

Don Blasingame played 17 years of professional baseball, with 12 seasons in the major leagues and 3 more seasons in Japan in the late 1960s.  He found the most success early in his career as the every day second baseman for the Cardinals between 1956 and 1959, taking that position over from future Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst (#165).  He earned MVP votes in 1957 when he hit .271 with career highs in home runs (8), RBIs (58), runs scored (108) and stolen bases (21).  Blasingame was an All-Star in 1958.  In 1960, Blasingame married Sara Cooper, the daughter of Walker Cooper (#273), a teammate of Blasingame's with the Cardinals in 1956 and 1957.  

After a brief stint with the Giants, Blasingame became the regular second baseman for the Reds, playing in the 1961 World Series against the Yankees, before Pete Rose took his starting job in 1963.  He played two and a half seasons with the Senators and 12 games with the Athletics before heading to Japan.  Blasingame played for the Nankai Hawks between 1967 and 1969, and later served as a coach in Japan between 1970 and 1978.  He'd go on to manage the Hanshin Tigers (1979-80) and the Hawks (1981-82) before returning to the U.S.

January 28, 2006 - Celebrating Dad's 62nd birthday

Building the Set
December 3, 2005 in Ft. Washington, PA - Card #277
This was a relatively late edition to our set and one of eight cards we purchased at the 93rd Philadelphia Sports Card Show held at the convention center in Ft. Washington.  My notes say we purchased this Blasingame card for a little less than $6.  With the Ocean City baseball card shows long gone by now, our only options for local baseball card shows were the "Philly Shows" held in Ft. Washington or the occasional mall baseball card show. 

My Dad didn't like the drive to Ft. Washington, and this would have been one of only a few shows we attended together in this location.  Looking at my records of when and where we purchased our cards, a full year would go by before we'd add any more cards to the set.

The year-long hiatus in collecting the set came at a time my wife and I were expecting our first son and as we moved into our first real house.

The Card / Cardinals Team Set
This is Blasingame's rookie card, and he'd go on to appear in nine more Topps flagship sets.  Looking at the card more closely, I wonder if a Topps artist artificially extended the green background behind the action shot of Blasingame, covering over additional fans or whatever else was next to or behind Blasingame in the original photo.  The cartoons on the back of the card highlight his speed on the base paths, his success in the minors in 1955, and he strong defensive skills.

1956 Season

Blasingame appeared in five games with the Cardinals in 1955 as a September call-up, and he officially replaced Schoendienst as the club's regular second baseman in 1956.  Blasingame started the season at shortstop, making 49 starts at the position, before sliding over to second base in mid-June and making 96 starts there.  In 150 games, he batted .261 with 22 doubles and 27 RBIs.

1957 Topps #47

1958 Topps #199

1961 Topps #294

1962 Topps #103

1965 Topps #21

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1956 Topps #309
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (10):  1956-65
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1978 TCMA The 1960s I #84

58 - Blasingame non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 9/30/24.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database

SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

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Set Order: #308 "Chuck" Harmon - Cincinnati Redlegs / #310 Steve Gromek - Detroit Tigers

Order Collected: #303 Jim Dyck - Baltimore Orioles / #31 Hank Aaron - Milwaukee Brewers

#304 Frank Malzone - Boston Red Sox

Frank James Malzone
Boston Red Sox
Third Base

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'10"  Weight:  180
Born:  February 28, 1930, Bronx, NY

Signed:  Signed by the Boston Red Sox as an amateur free agent before 1947 season
Major League Teams:   Boston Red Sox 1955-65; California Angels 1966

Died:  December 29, 2015, Needham, MA (age 85)

Frank Malzone manned the hot corner for the Red Sox for over a decade, and in total spent nearly six decades in various roles with the club.  Malzone first got the chance to play regularly in 1957, and he'd reward manager Pinky Higgins with the first of eight All-Star Game selections and by finishing second in the American League Rookie of the Year voting to the Yankees' Tony Kubek.  Malzone also won the first of his three Gold Gloves that season and drove in a career-high 103 runs.  On the way to that first Gold Glove, he became the first player to lead the American League in every defensive category (games, putouts, assists, double plays turned, fielding percentage) as well as errors.  Dependable at the plate, Malzone hit .276 with the Red Sox over 11 seasons.  He left the club briefly following the 1965 season, finishing up his playing career with the Angels.

For his career, Malzone batted .274 with 1,486 hits, 133 home runs and 728 RBIs.  He re-joined the Red Sox as a scout in 1966 and he'd serve as a scout and instructor until the early 1990s when he joined the team's front office.  He was among the inaugural class of inductees into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 1995.

Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1965 Topps blog.

Building the Set
January 27, 2001 from Moorestown Mall Baseball Card Show - Card #226
For Father's Day in 2021, we attended my youngest son's piano recital and then travelled to the Moorestown Mall (in nearby Moorestown, NJ) for a baseball card show.  I don't spend a lot of time in malls, but I thought this one looked vaguely familiar.  As it turns out, I was at the very same mall 20 years earlier with my Dad for his 57th birthday.  We paid $60 for four cards for our 1956 Topps set, with the biggest purchase being the Harmon Killebrew card (#164) that set us back $38.  Based on my checklist at the time, we got a good deal on this card as I had the Killebrew card listed as one of the more valuable cards we still needed at a range of $60 to $100.  The other three cards added were this Malzone card, Carl Erskine (#233) and Ellis Kinder (#336).

The Card / Red Sox Team Set
This is Malzone's first Topps card, and his rookie card can be found in the 1955 Bowman set.  The action shot shows Malzone about to apply a late tag to a baserunner that could be the Tigers' Bill Tuttle (#203), the Indians' Hank Majeski, or the Nationals' Pete Runnels (#234), as those three American Leaguers all wore #5 during the 1955 season.  The cartoons on the back highlight his successful minor league season in 1955, as well as his six hits in a double header against the Orioles on September 20th.  Malzone had just made his big league debut a few days before, pinch-running in a game on September 17th.

1956 Season

Malzone began the season with the Red Sox, but batted just .165 through 27 games, and was demoted to the Triple-A San Francisco Seals in the beginning of June for the remainder of the season.  With the Seals, Malzone batted .296 in 87 games with six home runs and 42 RBIs.  He'd be back in 1957 as the opening day third baseman for the Red Sox.

1955 Bowman #302

1958 Topps #260

1959 Topps #558

1962 Topps #225

1966 Topps #152

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1955 Bowman #302
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (11):  1956-66
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2015 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-FM

96 - Malzone non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 8/18/24.

Sources:  
1965 Topps Blog

Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

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Set Order: #303 Jim Dyck - Baltimore Orioles / #305 Brooks Lawrence - Cincinnati Redlegs

Order Collected: #233 Carl Erskine - Brooklyn Dodgers / #336 Ellis Kinder - St. Louis Cardinals

#258 Art Ditmar - Kansas City Athletics

Arthur John Ditmar
Kansas City Athletics
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'2"  Weight:  185
Born:  April 3, 1929, Winthrop, MA
Signed:  Signed by the Philadelphia Athletics as an amateur free agent before 1948 season
Major League Teams:  Philadelphia Athletics 1954; Kansas City Athletics 1955-1956; New York Yankees 1957-1961; Kansas City Athletics 1961-1962

Died:  June 11, 2021, Myrtle Beach, SC (age 92)

Art Ditmar pitched in nine seasons in the majors, all with the Athletics or Yankees.  He was the Athletics' starting pitcher on September 19, 1954, the franchise's final home game at Philadelphia's Shine Park before their move to Kansas City in 1955.  He'd lead the league with 22 losses in 1956, a year in which he pitched a career-high 254 1/3 innings.  Ditmar was dealt to the Yankees in February 1957 in a massive 13-player deal that saw the Yankees also add Bobby Shantz (#261) and Clete Boyer.  With the Yankees, Ditmar settled in as a swingman and fifth starter, winning 13 games in 1959 and 15 games in 1960.  He appeared in the World Series with the Yankees in 1957, 1958 and 1960, starting Games 1 and 5 in 1960 against the Pirates.  Ditmar was hit hard in both starts, not lasting through the first inning in Game 1 and getting pulled in the second inning of Game 5, as the Pirates would win the Series in seven games.

Ditmar returned to the Athletics for the final two seasons of his career, and he'd retire in early 1963 after not making the Yankees' squad as a non-roster invitee in spring training.  In 287 games pitched, including 156 starts, Ditmar was 72-77 with a 3.98 ERA and 552 strikeouts over 1,268 innings pitched.

Building the Set
December 2, 2000 from Raleigh, NC - Card #219
I went nuts and bought 16 cards for our 1956 Topps set on this day at the Sports Card & NASCAR Collectibles Show in Raleigh.  My records show the 16 cards set me back $55 which I would have considered to be a small fortune back then.  I hadn't yet moved back north yet, so I was still living in Raleigh at this time planning for my eventual escape.  I would have provided my Dad with an updated checklist following this show as he was back in New Jersey.

The Card / Athletics Team Set
Ditmar's rookie card can be found in the 1955 Bowman set, and this is his first Topps card.  The first cartoon panel on the back of the card refers to Ditmar as the "No. 2 man on the A's pitching staff in '55," and I'm assuming the top pitcher was Alex Kellner (#176).  Ditmar was 12-12 with a 5.03 ERA in 1955 over 22 starts.  Kellner made 24 starts and was 11-8 with a 4.20 ERA.  The final cartoon panel references his education at American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts.  Ditmar would receive his bachelor's degree in 1962 and would later return to the school as their basketball and baseball coach.

1956 Season

Ditmar was a workhorse for the Athletics, and as mentioned above, he threw 254 1/3 innings in 44 appearances, including 34 starts.  He was 12-22 with a 4.42 ERA for the last place Athletics, making 14 more starts than the next closest starting pitcher - Lou Kretlow, who started 20 games.  He threw 14 complete games, including a pair of shutouts, which made him the key to the 13-player deal the Yankees swung with the Athletics following the season.

1955 Bowman #90

1957 Topps #132

1959 Topps #374

1961 Topps #510

1962 Topps #246

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1955 Bowman #90
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (7):  1956-1962
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2011 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-AD

50 - Ditmar non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 8/11/23.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database

SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

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Set Order: #257 Bobby Thomson - Milwaukee Braves / #259 Sam Jones - Chicago Cubs

Order Collected: #237 Jose Valdivielso - Washington Nationals / #264 Ray Monzant - New York Giants

#253 Irv Noren - New York Yankees

Irving Arnold Noren
New York Yankees
Outfield

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Left  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  190
Born:  November 29, 1924, Jamestown, NY
Signed:  Signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent before 1946 season
Major League Teams:  Washington Senators 1950-1952; New York Yankees 1952-1956; Kansas City Athletics 1957; St. Louis Cardinals 1957-1959; Chicago Cubs 1959-1960; Los Angeles Dodgers 1960

Died:  November 15, 2019, Carlsbad, CA (age 94)

Irv Noren spent 11 years in the major leagues and briefly appeared in the professional National Basketball League, playing three games for the Chicago American Gears during the 1946-47 season.  Drafted by the Dodgers, Noren won Pacific Coast League MVP honors in 1949, batting .330 with 29 home runs and 130 RBIs.  With no room on the Dodgers' major league roster for him, the club sold him to the Senators before the 1950 season.  Noren had a great rookie year in Washington, batting .295 with 14 home runs and 98 RBIs (both career highs) while finishing 15th in the league's MVP voting.  He'd join the Yankees in 1952, playing all three outfield positions and seeing action in the 1952, 1953 and 1955 World Series against his original club, the Dodgers.  (The Yankees would win Championships in 1952, 1953 and 1956.)  His career year came in 1954, and as the Yankees' regular left fielder, he batted .319 with 12 home runs and 66 RBIs, while making the American League All-Star team.

Over the final four years of his playing career, Noren spent time with the Athletics, Cardinals, Cubs and finally the Dodgers, appearing in 26 games for the team in 1960.  Noren was a career .275 batter with 65 home runs and 453 RBIs.  Noren pivoted to coaching and scouting in the early 1960s, and he was a coach with the Oakland Athletics when they won World Championships in 1972 and 1973.

Building the Set
August 16, 1987 from Cooperstown, NY - Card #47
This was one of the first four cards we purchased in the summer of 1987, officially marking the beginning of us collecting the 1956 Topps set.  As told now frequently in our set's origin story, and most recently with the post for the Walt Dropo (#238) card, I was essentially gifted with a shoebox of vintage Topps baseball cards in the summer of 1983 or 1984.  Within the spoils were 44 cards from the 1956 Topps set – by far the most cards from any one set.  I studied them, I sorted them, and I pretty much memorized every detail of those 44 cards.

A few years later, in the summer of 1987 while on a family vacation, I was giddy with excitement when we came across a few 1956 Topps cards in the Walker Gallery on the main drag in Cooperstown, New York.  It was our first trip to Cooperstown, and details from that family vacation still make up several of my most important core memories from my childhood.  My Dad and I studied the cards for sale and he casually asked me the question, “Why don’t we try to put together the whole set?” We bought four cards that day for $9.25, including this Noren card which was all of $2.50.  Those cards, along with the 44 from the magic shoebox, became the basis for our 1956 Topps set.

That small but incredibly meaningful purchase meant so much to me that I tacked a Walker Gallery business card to my bulletin board in my bedroom on 12th Street, where it hung for years.  I also felt compelled to clip the price tags from the rigid plastic sleeves in which each of these cards were originally purchased.  I knew then I wanted to remember everything about the purchase, and these are included at the back of our 1956 Topps binder, along with other ephemera from baseball card shows, stores and special occasions when cards were added to our set.

The Card / Yankees Team Set
What's going on with the fielder in the action photo?  That can't be a natural shadow due to the lighting of the photo, and it seems as if Topps purposely blacked out the player.  This is Noren's first Topps card since his appearance in the 1953 Topps set.  The back of the card celebrates his minor league MVP wins in both 1948 and 1949.  It's crazy to think the Dodgers couldn't find room for him in their outfield, given the 1948 regulars were Gene Hermanski, Carl Furillo (#190) and Marv Rackley.  In 1949, Duke Snider (#150) joined the group so maybe Noren's main competition at the time was Snider.

1956 Season

Suffering from chronic knee ailments, Noren was limited to 29 games all season with the Yankees, with 21 of those appearances coming as a pinch-hitter.  He batted .216 overall with a double and six RBIs, and completely missed the World Series, which the Yankees won in seven games over the Dodgers.  In February 1957, Noren was part of a massive 13-player trade between the Yankees and Athletics, ending his time in the Bronx.

1950 Bowman #247

1951 Bowman #241

1953 Topps #35

1957 Topps #298

1960 Topps #433

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1950 Bowman #247
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (9):  1951-1953, 1956-1960, 1973
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2011 Topps Lineage Autographs #RA-IN

48 - Noren non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 6/2/23.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database

SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

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Set Order: #252 Vernon Law - Pittsburgh Pirates / #254 George Crowe - Milwaukee Braves

Order Collected: #229 Harry Brecheen CO - Baltimore Orioles / #280 Jim Gilliam - Brooklyn Dodgers

#247 Bill Sarni - St. Louis Cardinals

William Florine Sarni
St. Louis Cardinals
Catcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'11"  Weight:  180
Born:  September 19, 1927, Los Angeles, CA
Acquired:  Drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals from the Shreveport Sports (Texas League) in the 1949 minor league draft, December 5, 1949
Major League Teams:  St. Louis Cardinals 1951-1952, 1954-1956; New York Giants 1956

Died:  April 15, 1983, Creve Coeur, MO (age 55)

As a teenager, catcher Bill Sarni played in parts of four seasons in the Cubs organization, and he was playing with the unaffiliated Shreveport Sports when the Cardinals selected him in the 1949 minor league draft.  Sarni would spend the 1950 season back in the minors before making his big league debut on May 9, 1951.  After appearing in 36 games with St. Louis in 1951, he'd see just three big league games in 1952, and spend all of 1953 back in the minors.  In 1954, he assumed regular catching duties for the Cardinals when Del Rice was injured in early June.  Sarni would enjoy his best season, batting .300 in 123 games with nine home runs and 70 RBIs.  He led all National League catchers with a .996 fielding percentage and with 12 double plays turned.  Sarni would again serve as the most used catcher by the Cardinals in 1955, and was dealt to the Giants as part of a big 10-player trade in June 1956.  Sarni would appear in 78 games for the Giants to finish out the season, his last action in the majors.

During spring training in 1957, Sarni suffered a heart attack at just 29 years old, ending his playing career.  He'd serve briefly as a coach for the Giants in 1957 and as a coach for the Rochester Red Wings in the Cardinals' organization in 1958.  In 390 major league games, Sarni batted .263 with 22 home runs and 151 RBIs.

Building the Set

Summer of 1983 or 1984 in Millville, NJ - Card #30
This was one of the Original 44, and I re-told the story of how my Dad and I started collecting this set with the Walt Dropo (#238) post, back in February.  Seven of the Original 44 came from series one, with 11 coming from series two, and this Sarni card is the twelvth of 16 from series three.

The Card / Cardinals Team Set
A quick search of Getty Images led me to the original photograph used for the action shot here.  That's the Dodgers' Jim Gilliam (#280) being tagged out by Sarni in a play at the plate on May 5, 1955.  In the bottom of the fifth, with the game tied at 3-3, Gilliam doubled to lead off the inning, went to third when Pee Wee Reese (#260) grounded to second, and attempted to score on a Duke Snider (#150) grounder to second.  Cardinals' second baseman Red Schoendienst (#165) threw home to catch Gilliam, but the Dodgers would ultimately win, 4-3.  That's home plate umpire Frank Dascoli about to call Gilliam out.

The back of the card highlights Sarni beginning his professional baseball career at the age of 15.  In 1943, he appeared in 33 games for the Double-A Los Angeles Angels in the Pacific Coast League.

1956 Season

Sarni was the opening day catcher for the Cardinals, and in 43 games with the club he batted .291 with five home runs and 22 RBIs.  On June 14th, Sarni, Jackie Brandt, Dick Littlefield, Schoedienst and two players to be named later were traded to the Giants for Al Dark (#148), Ray Katt, Don Liddle (#325), Whitey Lockman (#205) and cash.  Hal Smith (#283) and Katt would become the primary catchers for the Cardinals, with Sarni serving as the primary catcher for the Giants for the rest of the season.  In 78 games for the Giants, he batted .231 with five home runs and 23 RBIs, and his last game as a major leaguer would unexpectedly come that September 18th.

1954 Topps #194

1955 Bowman #30

1957 Topps #86

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1954 Topps #194
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (3):  1954, 1956-1957
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1994 Topps Archives 1954 #194

11 - Sarni non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 4/22/23.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database

The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

Previous Card / Next Card

Set Order: #246 Tom Gorman - Kansas City Athletics / #248 Bob Porterfield - Boston Red Sox

Order Collected: #238 Walt Dropo - Chicago White Sox / #250 Larry Doby - Chicago White Sox