Collecting 1955 Bowman Baseball: As Seen on TV

Just looking at Hoak's major league stats, you might think he came to baseball later than others of the era. Hoak broke in with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1954 at the "ripe old" age of 26. However, he had been toiling away in the Dodgers minor league system since 1947 (after a 2-year stint with the Navy as well). Sidetrack: most of the cards we've seen so far have looked like actual photographs of the players over a background painting. Something about Houk's card has an "uncanny valley" feel to it. As though the uniform was painted on over the top of a different picture. I'll spoil the fact that my next subject is one that's obviously a painting, and not a very good one. In his two seasons with the Dodgers, he split time with Jackie Robinson at third base. That's a tough act to break into, but Houk performed decently well. In fact, he was the third baseman when the Dodgers won Game 7 over the New York Yankees - the only postseason game in Jacki...

 Some behind the scenes before we go into this post. I typically use two sources for most of my information: Baseball Reference and Wikipedia. If I find something interesting in one of those two places, I will usually do some more research to try and tell a more interesting story. This time, I had to do research for the completely opposite reason.  As is the norm with these cards that people wrote on: Marshall wore neither #44 nor #28 By the numbers on Baseball Reference, Marshall had a solid career. He was a 3-time all-star over 11 seasons, and he never played in a post-season series. His Wikipedia page is 10 sentences long, and basically just summarizes his stats. So I had to dig a little bit more just to find interesting facts, but I did find a couple (thanks to SABR for a well-written biography). Marshall was born in Virginia, and went to college at Wake Forest in North Carolina. During his sophomore season, he began playing semi-pro baseball for the Atlanta Crackers. Even...

Let's take a look at the first card in my 1955 collection that deals with the most controversial inclusion: the umpires. Now, 1955 Bowman was not the first set to ever include umpire cards, but it was the only one in what's considered the modern card era. There were 31 umpire cards in the set. I think the fact that they don't put umpire cards in sets anymore tells you just how popular these cards were.  Secory was a major league baseball player before he became an umpire. He spent 1 game with the Detroit Tigers in 1940 and 2 games with the Cincinnati Reds in 1942. He did not register a single hit in his 9 plate appearances during those two stints. In 1943 he joined the Chicago Cubs where he was largely a pinch hitter for the next 3 seasons. In 3 seasons with the Cubs he played in 90 games and had 156 at bats. He was a .237 hitter for his career.  After his playing career, he became an umpire in the West-Texas League from 1948 until 1952 when his contract was bought by the M...

 This one was a really fun card to research. Virgil had some truly incredible moments in his career. His card has one of my favorite baseball jokes on the back, which might not actually be his. Plus, this card is able to tell a story about how kids used to store baseball cards. Let's get into his career first of all. He's seen some things Virgil Trucks (nickname "Fire" which is perfect) came to baseball a little later than most players. He signed in 1938 as an amateur free agent with the Detroit Tigers at the age of 21. It took him three seasons (and probably World War II) for him to make the major leagues. He only pitched 1 game in 1941, but in 1942 he solidified his role as a starting pitcher by going 14-8 with a 2.78 ERA. He had a similar season in 1943 16-10 with a 2.84 ERA. At this point the US Navy called, and Trucks missed the next two seasons. He was discharged from the Navy just 2 weeks before the 1945 World Series began, and Major League Baseball allowed him...

 This card is the reason why I decided to start this blog in the first place. On the surface, it looks pretty much like every other card in the set; a bunch damaged corners with a little bit of ink on the front that doesn't match his uniform number. It's when we turn the card over when the real story begins.  But let's start with the front, shall we? Waitkus' career path was very much like many other baseball players of the era. He got a cup of coffee with the Chicago Cubs in 1941 before spending the next three years in the Army fighting in World War II. Waitkus was awarded four Bronze Stars for bravery during the War. When he returned to baseball, he quickly became one of the better players in the game - finishing 13th in MVP voting in 1946. Waitkus made the All-Star team in 1948. In that off season, he was traded to Philadelphia with Hank Bowory for Monk Dubiel (awesome name) and Dutch Leonard (not too shabby either). That 1949 season was going very well for Waitkus, ...

Sam Mele's career story could be boiled down to one saying: "Don't mess with a good thing." In his youth, he played with various local teams, as his high school dumped baseball after his freshman year. He went to NYU and was a great hitter there. Hitting .405 in 1941 and .369 in 1942. As was the standard of the day: World War II called, and Mele signed up for the Marines. He was sent to the Pacific theater in 1943 as part of the V-12 Navy College Program. This program's goal was to produce officers.  While in the program, he played baseball for the Navy alongside Joe DiMaggio. Mele led the Navy league with a .358 batting average. When he came back, he had a contract with the Boston Red Sox waiting for him. He didn't take long in making it to the major leagues. In 1947 as a rookie, Mele hit an impressive .302 with 12 home runs. Then in 1948, the Red Sox changed managers and Mele's fate changed as well. Joe McCarthy was a great manager, winning 7 World Serie...