Ernie Banks makes his third appearance on this blog. We've seen his regular card and his All Star card already. This Baseball Thrill subset entry commemorates his 1958 MVP award. As the card notes he won as a member of a 5th place Cub team. He repeated the same feat with a very similar season in 1959. He was the first NL player to win in back-to-back years.
As I like to do I dug around and found the original photograph that Topps used to produce this card. And again I found it on good ol' Corbis. The shot was taken on September 8, 1957 in a game the Cubs won in 10 over the Braves in Milwaukee. Ernie's run was the go-ahead tally in the 5-3 game. Here it is with the original caption:
Ernie Banks Sliding Safely Into HomeChicago Cubs shortstop Ernie Banks (center) slides into home scoring in the tenth inning off a pinch-hit single by Bob Will in a Chicago-Milwaukee Braves game at County Stadium. Braves centerfielder Hank Aaron fielded the ball and threw to catcher Del Crandall (right). The ball went through Crandall's legs allowing Banks to score. The Cubs defeated the Braves in 10 innings. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, September 8, 1957.
And here is the Corbis original cropped to include only the action that Topps used:
Well done!
ReplyDeleteThanks. At first I was hunting box scores for a steal of home attempt but that got old fast. Then I found the pic without a caption and saw the player backing up the play (that's Ernie Johnson) and I knew it wasn't a steal. Found the Corbis pic on the next google search page.
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