Today's set includes 24 players, many of whom were still alive in 1977 and might've been guest signers at the Philly Show. Card #25 features Connie Mack Stadium, a nice bookend to the issue, as #1 is Connie Mack the HOF manager. (Al Simmons died in 1956, so you'd never see his autograph on a #5.)
HRT/RES cropped their Simmons image from this 1936 Goudey Premium, which few collectors would've seen back then. Is it ironic that its picture came from his time away from Philly? (Simmons spent 1933-35 in Chicago and even started for the AL's All-Star team each year.)
Simmons picked up his colorful "Bucketfoot Al" nickname because he opened his stance or "stepped in the bucket" during his swing, which the 1991 Conlon set immortalized on cardboard.
Ted Taylor advertised this Favorites set in hobby publications and sold them from his Pennsylvania post office box.
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| Ad from Sports Collectors News circa mid-1977 |
Value: Despite being HOFers, singles cost just a few dollars. (Here's one place to find most of the set cheaply.)
Fakes / reprints: Haven't seen any in the marketplace.
2 comments:
Very cool set that I'd never heard of...I'll have to try and get my hands on the Athletics half.
Glad they caught your eye! I wish my Mariners had been successful enough to deserve this kind of collectors set. We're still trying to find a left fielder who'll stick around. :-)
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