#337 Bobby Morgan - Philadelphia Phillies

Robert Morris Morgan
Philadelphia Phillies
Second Base

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'9"  Weight:  175
Born:  June 29, 1926, Oklahoma City, OK
Signed:  Signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent before 1944 season
Major League Teams:  Brooklyn Dodgers 1950, 1952-53; Philadelphia Phillies 1954-56; St. Louis Cardinals 1956; Philadelphia Phillies 1957; Chicago Cubs 1957-58

Died:  June 1, 2023, Oklahoma City, OK (age 96)

Bobby Morgan was a successful back-up infielder, spending the bulk of his eight-year big league career with the Dodgers and Phillies.  Morgan earned International League MVP honors in 1949 when he batted .337 with 38 doubles, 19 home runs and 112 RBIs for the Montreal Royals.  Promoted to the Dodgers in early 1950, Morgan would spend the next several seasons as a back-up to Pee Wee Reese (#260), Jackie Robinson (#30), and Jim Gilliam (#280).  The Dodgers dealt Morgan to the Phillies before the start of the 1954 season, with Morgan taking over the regular shortstop job from Granny Hamner (#197).  He'd have his best seasons in the majors in 1954 and 1955 with the Phillies, but he'd slump in 1956, finding himself on the move over the next few seasons.  Morgan's last action in the majors came as one last pinch-hitting appearance with the Cubs in 1958.  He'd sign back with the Phillies' organization, playing five more seasons with their top farm teams and retiring as a player in 1963.

Morgan appeared in 671 major league games, batting .233 with 53 home runs and 217 RBIs.  He'd manage for three seasons in the Phillies' minor league system between 1964 and 1966, and would later serve as a scout for the Orioles, Royals and Twins.

Building the Set
January 10, 1999 in Raleigh, NC - Card #177
I indicate clearly in my notes this card (along with two others) was purchased at the Raleigh Sports Card & NASCAR Collectibles Show, not to be confused with the more benign Raleigh Sports Card & Memorabilia Show.  In any event, the Morgan card set me back only $6, which is an absolute bargain considering the card is in pristine shape.  I also added the Joe Collins (#21) and Johnny Kucks (#88) cards, also for $6 each.  Some of the cards in our set look as if they could have just come out of a brand new pack, and this is one of those.

I don't miss my time living in Raleigh, but I do miss these semi-regular baseball card shows held at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds.  As I'm primarily a Phillies collector, those dealers were always more than happy to unload their unwanted Phillies inventory on me and some of them would express genuine shock that I was trying to track down cards in the late 1990s and early 2000s of some very forgettable Phillies players.

The Card / Phillies Team Set
This blog is coming to a conclusion, and I've flipped to the last page in the set in my coveted 1956 Topps set binder.  That's Morgan in the action shot, and if this was a force play, I'm assuming the umpire is about to call the runner out.  The runner could be the Braves' Dave Jolly, the Giants' Hank Thompson (#199), the Cubs' Howie Pollet (#262) or the Pirates' Tom Saffell, as each of those players wore #16 in 1955, and I think the Reds and Cardinals had red uniform numbers on the backs of their jerseys.

This card marks Morgan's first appearance in a Topps set since 1953.  The cartoon panels on the back of the card highlight his success with the Phillies over the past two seasons, his promotion to the Dodgers in 1950, and his versatility in the infield.

Phillies Career / 1956 Season
The Phillies acquired Morgan on March 28, 1954 for Dick Young and $50,000.  Ted Kazanski was the club's opening day shortstop in 1954, but Morgan would start 123 games at the position, while also making six starts at third base and a pair of starts at second base.  In 135 games overall, he batted .262 with 14 home runs and 50 RBIs - both career highs.  In 1955, manager Mayo Smith (#60) moved Morgan to second base with Hamner sliding back to shortstop to start the season.  Morgan again had a solid year, even though Smith moved him back to short in mid-summer.  In 136 games, he batted .232 with 10 home runs and 49 RBIs.  With Kazanski at second and Hamner at shortstop to start the 1956 season, Morgan appeared in only eight games for the Phillies before a trade on May 14th sent him to the Cardinals for Solly Hemus.  Morgan settled back into a reserve role, playing in 61 games for the Cardinals and batting .195.

After the season, Morgan returned to the Phillies when the Cardinals traded him and Rip Repulski (#201) to Philadelphia in exchange for popular outfielder Del Ennis (#220).  Morgan's reunion with the Phillies was short-lived, and he played in just two games for the club in early 1957 before being sold to the Cubs on May 13th.  In 281 games with the Phillies, more than the 203 game he played for the Dodgers, Morgan batted .245 with 24 home runs and 100 RBIs.  He managed the club's Miami farm team in 1964 (64-75) and 1965 (67-75) before taking over the Tidewater Tides (58-81) in 1966.  His minor league managerial record with the Phillies was 189-231.

1950 Bowman #222

1952 Topps #355

1953 Bowman Color #135

1953 Topps #85

1958 Topps #144

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1950 Bowman #222
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (4):  1952-53, 1956, 1958
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2011 Topps Lineage Autographs #RA-BM

22 - Morgan non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 6/7/25.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database

The Phillies Room

The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

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Set Order: #336 Ellis Kinder - St. Louis Cardinals / #338 Jim Delsing - Detroit Tigers

Order Collected: #88 Johnny Kucks - New York Yankees / #8 Walter Alston MG - Brooklyn Dodgers

An early post from The Phillies Room, with a cherished comment from my Dad

Blog Update

I'm five cards away from wrapping up this blog - three more player cards and then two checklists.  With summer plans in full swing, I'll be stepping away for a little bit, but then coming back to wrap up the final five posts.  I also want to go back and freshen up some of the older posts, and add pages with 4th Series and complete set reviews.  I envision the checklist posts serving as a way for me to pay one last tribute to these cards, a baseball card set with which I've spent nearly 40 years of my life with at this point.

#334 Bob Miller - Philadelphia Phillies

Robert John Miller
Philadelphia Phillies
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'3"  Weight:  190
Born:  June 16, 1926, Detroit, MI
Signed:  Signed by the Philadelphia Phillies as an amateur free agent before 1948 season
Major League Teams:  Philadelphia Phillies 1949-58

Died:  November 27, 2020, Waterford, MI (age 94)

Bob Miller spent his entire career with the Phillies and was a key member of the 1950 National League Champion Whiz Kids.  Miller was a September call-up in 1949, and made the club's opening day roster in 1950.  As a swingman for the eventual pennant-winners, Miller was 11-6 with a 3.47 ERA in 35 games overall, including 21 starts.  He threw seven complete games, a pair of shutouts and saved a game for good measure.  Robin Roberts (#180) and Curt Simmons (#290) earned most of the accolades for the Phillies' solid pitching that season, but Miller was third on the team in wins and innings pitched with 174.  He'd slump over the next few seasons, spending parts of 1951 and 1952 back in the minor leagues.  In 1955, now a full-time reliever, Miller enjoyed perhaps his best season, going 8-4 with a 2.41 ERA in 89 2/3 innings pitched.  He'd retire as a player after trying to make a comeback in the Dodgers' organization in 1959.

In 261 career games, all with the Phillies, Miller was 42-42 with a 3.96 ERA in 822 innings pitched.  Miller went on to serve as the head baseball coach at his alma mater, the University of Detroit Mercy, for 36 years between 1965 and 2000.  His lengthy and successful stint as the Titans' head coach led him to be inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.

December 26, 2003 - Dad opening presents

Building the Set
December 25, 2003 from San Diego, CA (Kit Young Cards) - Card #252
My Dad/Santa brought me nine cards for our set for Christmas in 2003, with all but one of the cards coming from his dealer of choice, Kit Young Cards in San Diego.  The Brooklyn Dodgers team card (#166) was the lone non-Kit Young Cards addition, as that card came from TemDee in Turnersville, New Jersey.  It was a strange mix of commons from Kit Young Cards, with no semi-star or star card to balance out the lot.  We were admittedly in a lull collecting the set, with only 18 cards added during all of 2003 and only six cards added, as Christmas presents, in 2004.

Pictures from the Christmas of 2003 show us opening gifts at my Mom's house on December 26th, which has since become a tradition for us.  So while the official set records indicate these nine cards were added on December 25th, it was most likely a day later I opened the cards while in Millville.

The Card / Phillies Team Set
This is the second Bob Miller card in the set, not to be confused with the card for Tigers' pitcher Bob Miller (#263).  Topps repeats the photo used for Miller's 1955 card here.  The cartoons on the back highlight his effective sinker ball, his role on the 1950 Whiz Kids team and his career-best 2.41 ERA in 1955.

1956 Season

Miller appeared in 49 games for the Phillies, going 3-6 with a 3.24 ERA and five saves.  The most used reliever by manager Mayo Smith (#60) throughout the season, he also made six starts, throwing complete games in half of those starts.  On August 25th, he threw a two-hit shutout against the Braves.

Phillies Career
Miller's hot start to his rookie season in 1950 helped bolster a starting pitching rotation already strong at the top with Roberts and Simmons. Through the first three months of the season, Miller was 6-0 with a 1.63 ERA in 16 games pitched.  He'd start Game 4 of the 1950 World Series, but wouldn't make it out of the first inning after giving up a pair of runs on an RBI-single by Yogi Berra (#110) and an RBI-double by Joe DiMaggio.  Miller wore #19 for all but his first three games with the Phillies.

1950 Bowman #227

1952 Topps #187

1955 Topps #157

1957 Topps #46

1959 Topps #379

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1950 Bowman #227
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (6):  1952, 1955-59
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2011 Topps Lineage Autographs #RA-BMI

21 - Miller non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 5/23/25.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database

The Phillies Room

The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

Previous Card / Next Card

Set Order: #333 Rube Walker - Brooklyn Dodgers / #335 Don Hoak - Chicago Cubs

Order Collected: #333 Rube Walker - Brooklyn Dodgers / #12 Andy Carey - New York Yankees

#330 Jim Busby - Cleveland Indians

James Franklin Busby
Cleveland Indians
Outfield

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'1"  Weight:  175
Born:  January 8, 1927, Kenedy, TX
Signed:  Signed by the Chicago White Sox as an amateur free agent, June 7, 1948
Major League Teams:  Chicago White Sox 1950-52; Washington Nationals 1952-55; Chicago White Sox 1955; Cleveland Indians 1956-57; Baltimore Orioles 1957-58; Boston Red Sox 1959-60; Baltimore Orioles 1960-61; Houston Colt .45s 1962

Died:  July 8, 1996, Augusta, GA (age 69)

Jim Busby spent nearly three full decades in the major leagues as both a smooth-fielding center fielder and as a coach.  He spent 13 seasons as a player, and his earlier seasons were his best.  Busby was an All-Star with the White Sox in his rookie season of 1951, and he'd play a half inning in left field in the All-Star Game, replacing Ted Williams (#5).  Busby swiped a career-high 26 bases in 1951.  He'd have his best seasons as a member of the Nationals, batting .312 with career highs in doubles (28) and RBIs (82) in 1953.  Speed in the outfield helped him finish in the top 10 for putouts, fielding percentage and assists in most of the seasons throughout the 1950s.  Busby's production declined following his departure from Washington, and he spent the final eight seasons of his career playing for six different clubs, including a repeat stint with the White Sox and two different stints with the Orioles.

Busby is one of the more underrated players from the 1950s in my opinion.  In 1,352 games, he collected 1,113 hits, 162 doubles, 35 triples, 48 home runs and had 438 RBIs, while stealing 97 bases.  He was a player-coach with the Orioles in 1961 and with the inaugural Colt .45s team in 1962.  Busby's complete coaching career spanned 18 years with the Orioles (1961), Colt .45s/Astros (1962-67), Braves (1968-75), White Sox (1976) and Mariners (1977-78).

Building the Set
July 20, 1989 in Williamstown, NJ - Card #79
In the summer of 1989, I was between my freshman and sophomore years of high school, and I have nothing but pleasant memories of that time growing up in South Jersey.  There were maybe five or six baseball card stores in our area, although only a few of them were known to carry older baseball cards.  One of those stores was located in Williamstown, New Jersey, which ironically enough is where my wife and I would settle and start to raise our family some 14 years later.  I had to dig into my notes from our other set quests to find the store's name - Collector's Corner.  We had finished off our 1974 Topps set in February 1988 at Collector's Corner.   

1977 Topps #597

July 20th was a Thursday, and I guess my Dad would have been off work with a hankering for a new card for our relatively new 1956 Topps set quest.  We were also collecting the 1973 Topps set, and with our 1956 and 1973 checklists in hand, we made the half hour drive from Millville to Williamstown.  I don't know if we purchased any 1973 Topps cards that day, but we found this Busby card for $5 - not a bad deal.  As a current Williamstown resident, I'm not even sure where this store would have been located back in the day, as a lot of the ubiquitous strip malls all look pretty much the same to me.  But it was in a strip mall, I remember that much.

I'm not exactly sure why Busby was one of my Dad's favorite players, and I wish I had thought to ask him at some point.  I suspect it has something to do with the fact they both shared the same first name, and there weren't a lot of major leaguers with the first name of Jim during my Dad's years as a young baseball fan.  Busby holds a special place for me in my collecting journey, as my Dad brought home a 1959 Topps Busby card one day back in the early 1980s.  It was one of a trio of completely disconnected (and ancient) cards added to my collection after I had first discovered baseball cards, and these were the oldest cards in my collection for a few years until the Magic Shoebox entered my life, jumpstarting the journey of collecting the 1956 Topps set.

The Card / Indians Team Set
This is Busby's first Topps card since 1952, as he had been exclusive to Bowman.  It looks as if Busby is wearing a White Sox uniform in the action photo and Topps also decided to remove any infielders in the background who may have been in the vicinity of second base.  He could be wearing a White Sox or Nationals jersey in the head shot, and a Topps artist did a decent job adding the Indians logo to Busby's hat.  The back of the card highlights his speed and "great fielding ability."

On October 25, 1955, Busby was traded by the White Sox with Chico Carresquel (#230) to the Indians for Larry Toby (#250).  Topps updated the cap logos on Busby's and Carresquel's cards, but surprisingly decided to leave Doby's cap logo as is. 

1956 Season

Busby was the opening day center fielder for the Indians, and he'd start 122 games overall at the position.  In 135 total games, he batted .235 with 17 doubles, 12 home runs and 50 RBIs.  He was not able to replace Doby's output for the Indians, as had been hoped, but he did hit grand slams in back-to-back games on July 5th and 6th.

1951 Bowman #302

1952 Topps #309

1953 Bowman Color #15

1957 Topps #309

1974 Topps #634

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1951 Bowman #302
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (9):  1952, 1956-60, 1973-74, 1977
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1983 Topps 1952 Reprint Series #309

55 - Busby non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 4/8/22.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database

SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

Previous Card / Next Card

Set Order: #329 Lou Berberet - Washington Nationals / #331 Dick Hall - Pittsburgh Pirates

Order Collected: #72 Philadelphia Phillies Team Card / #42 Sandy Amoros - Brooklyn Dodgers

#329 Lou Berberet - Washington Nationals

Louis Joseph Berberet
Washington Nationals
Catcher

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'11"  Weight:  200
Born:  November 20, 1929, Long Beach, CA
Signed:  Signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent before 1950 season
Major League Teams:  New York Yankees 1954-55; Washington Nationals 1956; Washington Senators 1957-58; Boston Red Sox 1958; Detroit Tigers 1959-60

Died:  April 6, 2004, Las Vegas, NV (age 74)

A steady defensive catcher with a strong arm for throwing out would-be base stealers, Lou Berberet played in parts of seven big league seasons, with most of his success coming in Washington.  Berberet earned September call-ups in 1954 and 1955 with the Yankees, appearing in a combined seven games over the two seasons.  A seven-player deal with the Nationals before the 1956 season gave Berberet a good home and more regular playing time.  He was the opening day catcher for Washington in 1956, ultimately making 54 starts behind the plate in a three-way platoon with fellow catchers Clint Courtney (#159) and Ed FitzGerald (#198).  He'd have another successful campaign in 1957, playing in 99 games while batting .261 and connecting for seven home runs and 36 RBIs.  Berberet led all catchers with a 1.000 fielding percentage in 1957.  He was dealt to the Red Sox on May 1, 1958 for infielder Ken Aspromonte, and after a season in Boston he was dealt to Detroit that December.

Berberet was the most frequently used catcher for Jimmy Dykes' Tigers team in 1959, appearing in 100 games overall, and reaching career highs in home runs (13) and RBIs (44).  His last action in the majors came in 1960 and he was the most frequently used catcher for the Tigers in his final season.  Berberet led the American League in caught stealing percentage in both 1956 and 1959.  In 448 games, he collected 281 hits, batted .230 and swatted 31 home runs with 153 RBIs.

November 22, 2007 - Thanksgiving Day

Building the Set
October 31, 2007 from Dad's eBay purchases - Card #313
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 detested the 40 minute ride north to our house.  Among all the very positive memories I have of my Dad, one of my few negative memories is the fact that 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 begun failing 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, 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 Berberet 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 handed me this Berberet card on Thanksgiving Day, as he was visiting with the rest of our family to enjoy Doug's first Thanksgiving.

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.  Not to ruin the ending for this blog, but this is how we finished the 1956 Topps set.  Not with one last glorious purchase at a baseball card show, but with my Dad systematically and methodically checking off cards from our checklist through eBay purchases.

Together with my Mom, he'd deliver the last 29 cards we needed to complete the set as a Christmas present to me that year.

The Card / Nationals Team Set
This is Berberet's rookie card, and like the Bob Wiesler (#327) card right before this one, the catcher is likely wearing all Yankees gear in both photos.  The cartoon panels on the back celebrate his arrival in Washington, his minor league success and his strong defensive skills.

This is the last Nationals' card in the set, and not including the team card, there are 18 players featured in the Nationals team set.  Of interest to probably only a few of us, Topps spelled out Nationals on 10 cards, and abbreviated the team name to Nate on eight cards, including Berberet's.

1956 Season

On February 8th, the Yankees dealt Berberet, Herb Plews, Dick Tettelbach, Wiesler and player to be named later Whitey Herzog to the Nationals for Bobby Kline and Mickey McDermott (#340).  As noted above, Berberet and two other catchers shared catching duties for the club throughout the season, with Courtney's offensive numbers a little better than Berberet's.

1957 Topps #329

1958 Topps #383

1959 Topps #96

1960 Topps #6

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1956 Topps #329
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (5):  1956-60
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1961 Post #43

16 - Berberet non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 4/8/25.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database

SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

Previous Card / Next Card

Set Order: #328 Preston Ward - Pittsburgh Pirates / #330 Jim Busby - Cleveland Indians

Order Collected: #242 Hershell Freeman - Cincinnati Redlegs / #33 Roberto Clemente - Pittsburgh Pirates

#324 "Rocky" Bridges - Cincinnati Redlegs

Everett Lamar Bridges
Cincinnati Redlegs
Infield

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'8"  Weight:  170
Born:  August 7, 1927, Refugio, TX
Signed:  Signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent before 1947 season
Major League Teams:  Brooklyn Dodgers 1951-52; Cincinnati Redlegs 1953-57; Washington Senators 1957-58; Detroit Tigers 1959-60; Cleveland Indians 1960; St. Louis Cardinals 1960; Los Angeles Angels 1961

Died:  January 28, 2015, Coeur d'Alene, ID (age 87)

The popular and at times comedic Rocky Bridges played in parts of 11 major league seasons with seven different teams.  Drafted by the Dodgers, there was no hope of Bridges cracking the middle infield for the club as it was already covered by Pee Wee Reese (#260) and Jackie Robinson (#30).  He was dealt to the Redlegs as part of big, four-team trade in February 1953.  Bridges was Cincinnati's everyday second baseman in 1953, but he'd go back to a bench role with the club for the next three seasons.  Claimed off waivers by the Senators in May 1957, Bridges would have the best span of his career between 1957 and 1959.  He was an All-Star in 1958, finishing the season with a .263 average and a career-best five home runs.  Bridges was on the move frequently in the final two years of his career, playing for four different teams.  In 919 games, he collected 562 hits and batted .247 with 16 home runs and 187 RBIs.

At the end of his career, Bridges was quoted as saying, "I've had more numbers on my back than a bingo board."  He'd coach with the Angels (1962-63, 1968-71) and Giants (1985), and when he wasn't coaching at the major league level, he was a minor league manager in the Angels, Giants, Padres and Pirates organizations through the 1989 season.

Building the Set
December 28, 2007 from Dad's eBay purchases - Card #339
The way my Dad and I finished the 1956 Topps set was somewhat anti-climatic but nevertheless a joyful memory.  Leading up to the Christmas of 2007, my Dad (with the help of my Mom) scoured eBay and other online baseball card stores for the remaining 29 cards we needed to complete the set.  Throughout the weeks and months leading up to the holidays, he knew we had completed the set but he kept it quiet, wanting to surprise me on Christmas morning.  I have no idea, and I'll never know, what the true last card was that he acquired to finish off the set.  And I have no record, nor was he able to tell me, how much they had paid for any of these final 29 cards.

December 24, 2007 - Doug and Dad

Our son Doug had just turned one, and on Christmas morning 2007, we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of our families to our house to celebrate the day.  I've had a few rough Christmases, but this was one of the worst as my Dad ended up in the hospital that day and it was the beginning of his health struggles that would continue until he passed away in late 2011.  He was discharged from the hospital three days later, and it was only then we celebrated Christmas together, on December 28th, and I opened the package containing the last of the cards needed for our 1956 Topps set.

Dad was understandably distraught that Christmas, but not solely because of his own health issues.  Because of his unselfish nature, he was worried that he had ruined Christmas for everyone since we had spent the holidays in a hospital.  He was also upset that his surprise package containing those last 29 baseball cards sat in the back seat of his car for three days until he recovered enough to come home.  I was just happy to have him out of the hospital, but I do remember feeling confused and somewhat hopeless as we weren't quite sure yet what was wrong with him.

I don't have any pictures from December 28th, which is unusual for me.  I'm assuming I was just happy that Dad was out of the hospital and taking pictures never crossed my mind.  Among the "big" cards in that final haul were the cards of Roberto Clemente (#33), Monte Irvin (#194), Whitey Ford (#240), Pee Wee Reese (#260) and the Checklist covering Series 1 and 3.

The Card / Redlegs Team Set
The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book said Bridges "looked like a ballplayer. In fact, he may have looked more like a ballplayer than any other ballplayer who ever lived."  

That's quite an action shot on the card of Bridges mid-air, about to dive into second base.  This card marks Bridges' return to Topps after being exclusive to Bowman between 1953 and 1955.  He's wearing a Dodgers' road jersey here, colored red, as the Redlegs' uniforms did not have any piping around the color and the Dodgers' did.

1956 Season

In 71 games with the Redlegs, Bridges batted .211 (4 for 19) with nary an extra-base hit and not a single RBI.  Manager Birdie Tebbetts didn't pencil Bridges' name into the starting line-up once all season.  His contribution to the team was as a defensive replacement at each infield position, but most frequently filling in for third baseman Ray Jablonski (#86).  Bridges only pinch-hit twice all year, and was used as a pinch-runner 21 times.  It's amazing Topps included him in this set, as those numbers would definitely see him omitted from the 2025 Topps set. 

1952 Topps #239

1957 Topps #294

1958 Topps #274

1959 Topps #318

1961 Topps #508

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1952 Topps #239
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (7):  1952, 1956-61
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2010 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-RB

63 - Bridges non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 3/7/25.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database

SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

Previous Card / Next Card

Set Order: #323 Willard Schmidt - St. Louis Cardinals / #325 Don Liddle - New York Giants

Order Collected: #311  Hal Naragon - Cleveland Indians / #326 Connie Johnson - Chicago White Sox