Memorial Day Flashback: Wartime baseball cards

Today, we remember American veterans of the world's many conflicts, a day that also has close ties to multiple generations of baseballers. Back in August 2008, the #5 blog profiled a 1975 TCMA set of major league players stationed or traveling in Guam. It featured a lot of vintage names, several unique photos, and an essay (on card backs) that talked about the tour in detail.

Card front

Find details on the set, more on players in the photo above, and a full set of front and back scans at 1975 TCMA Guam #5!

Contest winnings from Rain of Error!

Not long ago, fellow card blogger Mad Guru asked for custom cards based on Robert Coover's novel The Universal Baseball Association. I adapted a 1976 Topps Father & Son card, since the book focuses on just such a relationship.

The recently arrived winnings for this contest!

1. Season of the Owl, by Miles Wolff, Jr. (A mystery set in the home town of a Southern minor league champion.)

2. Lots of #5 cards! A few will get individual entries, so here's a scan of the others.

Clockwise from upper left, they are:

1. 1990 ProCards Las Vegas Stars
2. 2008 Upper Deck Baseball
3. 1990 Score Highlights
4. 1989 Donruss Baseball
5. 1990 Topps Hockey
6. 1988 Topps Hockey Stickers
7. 1982 K-Mart MVPs
8. 1987 Topps Hockey
9. 1987 Topps Hockey Stickers - Gretzky!

Thanks again to Guru for running the contest. Check out his blog Rain of Error for more on books and baseball!

1969 Oakland A's (Black & White) #5, Joe DiMaggio

Best known for enduring achievements like a 56-game hitting streak and 9 championships in only 13 seasons as a Yankee, Joe DiMaggio later spent 2 years as a VP and coach for the relocated Athletics. Tired facial expression aside, seeing the Clipper in green-and-gold (okay, B&W) just looks...wrong.

Card front (blank back)

This simple 21-card set came out a year after the A's move to Oakland. I assume it's numbered by uniform, with #5 visible on Joe's jersey. (The Yankees also retired it in his honor.)

DiMaggio spent 3 bittersweet years in the US Army during WWII, achieving a rank of staff sergeant but never coming close to actual combat. I can't say enough good things about Gary Bedingfield's site Baseball in Wartime and his profile of Joe includes a ton of great photos and info.

• Baseball in Wartime: Joe DiMaggio

Value: This is a pretty obscure issue, but individual cards aren't particularly expensive. This DiMaggio cost around $20 on eBay, by far his cheapest card from an in-uniform year. (Reggie Jackson also has a rookie card in this set, which almost certainly costs more.)

Fakes / reprints: This is an easy set to reproduce, being black-and-white and on common card stock. It's unfortunately not an easy issue to authenticate--other than by its innate obscurity--so buy only from reputable dealers. (My eBay purchase included some provenance-checking.)

Type Site: The Great Orioles Autograph Project

Recent #5 site follower Ryan (aka Orioles Magic) runs another excellent "goal" site, The Great Orioles Autograph Project. He's looking for signed cards of every different Baltimore player and currently has over 700, obtained by mail, trade, or in-person. With 133 posts under his belt in 2010 alone, there's something new to read almost every calendar day.

This post reminded me of all those mid-80s Mariners games I went to as a teenager, cards and ballpoint pen in hand. Fans could get a lot closer to players in those days and you could get at least 10 new signatures every Sunday afternoon. (My record day was around 25.)

May 24, 2010: "Some Recent Autographs from O's Games"

Speaking of former Mariners...

You don't have to be an O's fan to enjoy the blog. Read more at The Great Orioles Autograph Project.

1953 Bowman Black & White Baseball #5, Dee Fondy

Veteran of WWII and the 1944 landing on Normandy's Utah Beach--historical details thus--Dee Virgil Fondy played 8 major league seasons, mostly for the Chicago Cubs. He could hit and run, but didn't take enough walks to be a real on-base threat. Thanks to Answers.com, we know Dee was the 438th-best fielding first baseman of all time, which is probably damning with faint praise.

Card front

Bowman printed two cards sets in 1953, one with color photo fronts (160 cards) and this back-and-white follow-up (64 cards). Popular wisdom holds that full-color proved so expensive to print, they couldn't afford to run all 224 players.

Card back

1953 Bowmans have a unique "This Year" stats column, which some young collectors filled in after the season. Adding a stat grid was one of 1952 Topps' biggest contributions and their competitors noticed it enough to immediately adopt the practice.

Value: Low-to-mid grade 1953 Bowman B&W cards like Dee run a few dollars. The series proved less desirable than the color set, but still includes HOFers like Johnny Mize, Casey Stengel, and Hoyt Wilhelm.

Fakes / reprints: Not many B&W reprints out there, since demand is higher for the color series.

UPDATE: Just for Chris, here's a 1953 Bowman with a filled-in stat line!

1922 Neilson's Chocolate Baseball #5, Lu Blue

This photo's a nice fielding shot of Luzerne Atwell Blue. An excellent ballplayer with both glove and stick, Lu served briefly in the Army during WWI and his body rests in Arlington National Cemetery. (Might this start a run of veterans to Memorial Day, 2010?)

Card front

Check those uniform details: even high socks can't save you from long sleeves and thick, woolen fabric. Imagine donning that for 9 innings on a summer's day! No doubt about it, today's players vastly prefer playing night games in the dog days of August, synthetic fibers or no synthetic fibers.

The ornate borders surrounding each player include a lot of baseball elements, with bat, ball, and gloves. Several candy makers shared this basic design for 1922, in both Canadian (Neilson's) and American (E120, W573) sets.

1922 American Caramel E120 (from CenturyOldCards.com)

1922 W573 strip cards (from CenturyOldCards.com)

W573s still show up in 10-card strips, so apparently collectors could buy them from vending machines. Neilson's and E120s, on the other hand, cut their cards individually and probably packaged them with chocolate bars or other candies.

Neilson's printed two series in 1922, one numbered and another unnumbered. (Mr. Blue obviously comes from the former.) Both sets used the same 120-player checklist, but the "numbers" have much thinner card stock, about the feel of 3 sheets of notepaper.

Card back

Unfortunately, no player info or bios in this set. Just absolutely pure chocolate bars. Want more chocolate cards? Check out Poor Old Baseball Cards post of this set's Wally Pipp.

Value: OldCardboard estimates VG "commons" at $22. My Lu Blue cost $26 on eBay, so it's in the same ballpark.

Fakes / reprints: Being a black-and-white issue, it's pretty easy to reprint this set. Look out for faked Hall-of-Famers, especially Babe Ruth. Remember to check the paper stock, with numbered cards being really thin and unnumbered slightly thinner than typical Topps cards.

1969 Topps Baseball #5, AL Home Run Leaders

Today's trio of sluggers managed a rare "Era of the Pitcher" feat, hit 30+ homers in a season. Only 7 such gents did so in 1968, including 4 National Leaguers. (Hank Aaron didn't figure among them, as he hit 29.)

Card front

It bugs me that Harrelson gets no Boston cap love on this card. He's the league's #3 slugger, spent all year with the Red Sox, and Topps couldn't be bothered to get something better that an airbrushed shot from his days with KC or Washington? THE HAWK DISAPPROVES.

Card back

I do like that they highlighted 1968's grand slams. Jim Northrup's 4 is quite an achievement in any year and Joe Foy hit 2 out of only 10 total homers! (Note that Mantle only hit 18 round-trippers in 1968, his final year, but still walked more than 100 times.)

Value: You can probably find this card for $1 in low-to-mid grade. Leader cards with Hall-of-Famers run up to $10.

Fakes / reprints: Haven't seen any reprints of this card specifically, though Topps used this set design for a bunch of vintage-style cards in the modern era.

Type Site: Oh My O-Pee-Chee!

New #5 type collection follower GCRL runs an excellent site of his own called Oh My O-Pee-Chee! It fills a big hole for North American baseball collectors, visually comparing and explaining Topps (American) and O-Pee-Chee (Canadian) card differences. You might not think this is a big deal, but I sure do.

Imagine that you normally collect modern cards, but find this Hall-of-Famer for a bargain price. No problem with the front, just your typical Topps card, right?

But then you turn it over and compare the back to a 1974 Topps checklist. I assure you, the number won't match what's there. (Topps #196 is Jim Fregosi and Catfish Hunter is #7.)

Fear not, hypothetical collector, Oh My O-Pee-Chee has your back! Check out its 1974 Jim Hunter entry for scans of  both Catfish cards. Did all of your concerns evaporate? For even better news, 1974 OPCs are harder to come by than their Topps equivalent and could be more valuable.

There's a complementary overlap between GCRL's coverage of the Hank Aaron specials and my own #5 post for 1974. Read them all and be an informed collector! (Or at least see lots of classic cards.)

• Oh My OPC: 1974 Hank Aaron Special (1958-1959)
• Oh My OPC: 1974 Hank Aaron Special (1964-1965)
• Oh My OPC: 1974 Hank Aaron Special (1970-1973)
• Oh My OPC: 1974 George Theodore
• Oh My OPC: 1974 Mickey Lolich
• Oh My OPC: 1974 Jim Hunter
• #5 Type Collection: 1974 Topps & OPC Hank Aaron Special

1969 Topps Baseball Stamp Album #5, Atlanta Braves

Spiritual cousin (and one-year predecessor) to the 1970 Topps Story booklets, today's set is actually a combination of two 1969 issues, stamp sheets and stamp albums. They include 10 players per team and come in standard card size, 2.5" x 3.5". Number 5 features the Atlanta Braves, home team of Hank Aaron...and some other guys. :-)

Topps issued the stamps in their own wax packs, with a 12-player sheet (folded down to 4-player size) and one team album for 5 cents. Some sheets unfold vertically, similar to the 1960 Bazooka Stamps, and others horizontally. Each one contains a mix of teams; 24 teams at 10 players each equals 240 stamps for the full set.

Only 200 homers to go!

Bonus! Team autographs

Baseball added 4 new cities in 1969 and its accompanying expansion draft moved a lot of guys from team-to-team. MLB wanted to connect fans to their new players ASAP; Topps took the cue and created two such sets, these stamp albums and the (much larger) team posters.

Value: Full stamp sheets run $10 and up, depending on the players pictured. Albums cost a lot less, typically under $5. Set notables include Mickey Mantle (in his final year) and the Miracle Mets.

Fake / reprints: The albums would be easy to fake, but probably not worth doing. (You'd also need glue-back paper for the stamps.) I haven't seen reprints for either in the market.

1970 Topps Baseball Story #5, Vada Pinson

I assume card companies put a ton of design work into each new set. Fronts, backs, stats, and photos all take careful and artful arrangement. In 1970, Topps took "artful" a step further by publishing a 24-booklet set of player comics, each with a 6-page story. Its #5 features all-around great player Vada Pinson.

Click images for more detail

Credit your battery-mate, kids!

The swimsuit's an odd touch...

OK, even I know no stadium has yellow basepaths

That checklist is a full range of all-timers and one-timers, Willie Mays to Wally Bunker. I've never seen anyone build the set--be the first on your block! :-)

Value: Booklets cost very little, relative to regular cards. Hall-of-Famers run up to $5 and most cost $1 or less. So much for the high cost of modern art!

Fake / Reprints: It'd be easy to fake this set, but probably wouldn't be worth it.