#436 Granny Hamner

Granville 'Granny' Hamner was the captain of the 1950 'Whiz Kids' that won the NL pennant. He was in his third full season with the Phils at that point. As a 17 year old signee in 1944 he played in 21 big league games and held his own hitting almost .250. He struggled the following year and was in the minors for most of it and then spent most of 1947 in the military.

He took over as the teams' starting shortstop in 1948 and held down a middle infield spot for a decade usually hitting between .260 and .280 and showing some power. He held the Phils' record for homers by a shortstop (17 in 1952) until Jimmy Rollins broke it in 2006. He had over 100 career dingers. In that 1950 Series against the Yankees Hamner hit .429 on 6 for 14 with three extra base hits.

Hamner, who's brother Garvin was his teammate and sometimes DP partner in '45, was the first player to be elected as an All Star starter at two positions. He was there as a shortstop in 1952 and was selected as a second baseman the next two seasons. 1954 was arguably his best season as he hit .299 with 11 triples, 13 homers and 89 RBI.

In 1956 Hamner hurt his shoulder which limited his ability to swing a bat but he possessed a pretty good knuckleball and the Phils used him out of the bullpen a few times. That injury and a 1958 blown knee all but ended his career. He was traded to the Indians in May of 1959 but struggled at the plate and retired as an active player (or so he thought).

After moving into coaching and managing in the minors he was pressed into service as a pitcher a few times in the A's system and when injuries crippled the major league staff Hamner was activated by the big club and he got into three games in 1962. His last association with the game in an on-the-field capacity was as a minor league manager in 1988. He spent many years in the Phils' organization as an instructor and minor league supervisor.

He died in 1993. Some fun stuff (including Hamner memories from Richie Ashburn) can be found in this Google book excerpt.

In addition to having a brother who played major league ball Hamner's grandson, Chris Ambrosius was a standout college player at Penn.

I'm puzzled by the text blurb on the back on the card. It implies that Hamner began his pro career as a pitcher before giving it up to play the field. I can't find any evidence that was the case. Hamner made it clear in this interview that his pitching came about as the result of his injured shoulder and he certainly had no aspirations to change to a full time hurler. His minor league career in the 40s as a Phils' farmhand was strictly as an infielder.

Red railings = Seals Stadium in San Francisco. As pointed out in a comment by Bob O. on the Billy Harrell card posted the other day, these 5th Series light blue cards have white type for player names and position, yellow lettering for team designation. Besides the Harrell and Hamner the Elston Howard card falls into this category. Other light blue cards in the set use black letters for name and team, white for position.  I scanned the two recent light blue cards at the same time and something about them struck me as odd. But my copy of the Harrell card is so pale and washed out I chalked up my thoughts to that and only later looked into it further. Yesterday's comment got me to look back at all the cards in that series and I saw the Howard card.

Back in 2012 I did a few posts on the color distribution of the '59 set. I've revised one of those posts to reflect the two different coloring conventions for the light blue cards.

#105 Lee Walls

Lee Walls was a high school phenom as a pitcher in California and he caught the eye of Pittsburgh GM Branch Rickey. Walls was also an outfielder with hitting skills and that is what interested Rickey. After signing with the Pirates in 1951 as an 18 year old Lee Walls spent a productive year in the lower minors and opened the 1952 season as a major league outfielder. But a slow start sent Walls back for more seasoning and it wasn't until 1956 that he returned to the bigs.

And when he did come back it was with a nice season hitting .274 with 11 homers and 54 RBI. About a month into the '57 season he was dealt to the Cubs. His '57 numbers were below the previous season but he peaked in 1958 and represented the Cubs on the NL All Star squad and got into the games as a pinch hitter and played left field. His season of 18 doubles, 24 homers, 72 RBI, and .304 average were all career highs.

Walls never again approached his 1958 totals but he did remain a regular for a year or so and than as a part time outfielder and pinch hitter for the Reds, Phils and Dodgers. He was gone from the majors after 1964 but he played a season in Japan before returning stateside to manager in the minor leagues.

One note of interest is that Walls was the 22nd and final player selected by the Mets in the expansion draft of 1961 but he was traded to the Dodgers (along with $100,000) for Charlie Neal two month later.

Topps had a handful of capless Walls pictures and used them for several years.

1961 Topps, Walls in Pirates gear(?) on a Reds card. Hard to say if the piping is Cubs' red and blue or Pirates gold and black.

Above and below are his two issued 1962 Topps cards. The photo above seems to have been taken at Connie Mack Stadium and the pinstripes on Walls' jersey colored gray to hide the Phillies' red ones.

This second '62 uses the same picture as the '61 and I'm leaning towards Cubs' colors on his color.

Third time is a charm for this shot as it appears on his '63 cards. Now I'm pretty certain the picture is one that was taken during his days in Chicago.

#10 Mickey Mantle (Blog Post #500)

I figured a good way to celebrate the 500th post on this blog was to feature the (arguably) most popular and (definitely) most expensive card in the set, that of Mickey Mantle. I consider myself lucky to have grown up watching Mantle. Although I wasn't a Yankee fan it was easy to find yourself in awe of him and his persona. My father and I were regular Sunday visitors to Yankee Stadium and if the Yanks were playing a doubleheader (they did that a lot) then Mantle usually started one of the games. If it was a single game there was a chance he would be sitting it out. That always disappointed me (and probably everyone else in the place).

There isn't any point to summarizing his career or life here. You can Google infinite pages of Mantle info including both 'official' and 'unofficial' dedicated sites. But, as with the other mega-stars shown in this set, I'll paste in the list of achievements as listed on Mickey's Baseball Reference Bullpen page.

16-time AL All-Star (1952-1965, 1967 & 1968)

3-time AL MVP (1956, 1957 & 1962)

AL Triple Crown (1956)

AL Gold Glove Winner (1962)

AL Batting Average Leader (1956)

3-time AL On-Base Percentage Leader (1955, 1962 & 1964)

4-time AL Slugging Percentage Leader (1955, 1956, 1961 & 1962)

6-time AL OPS Leader (1952, 1955, 1956, 1960, 1962 & 1964)

5-time AL Runs Scored Leader (1954, 1956-1958 & 1960)

3-time AL Total Bases Leader (1956, 1958 & 1960)

AL Triples Leader (1955)

4-time AL Home Runs Leader (1955, 1956, 1958 & 1960)

AL RBI Leader (1956)

5-time AL Bases on Balls Leader (1955, 1957, 1958, 1961 & 1962)

20-Home Run Seasons: 14 (1952-1962, 1964, 1966 & 1967)

30-Home Run Seasons: 9 (1955-1962 & 1964)

40-Home Run Seasons: 4 (1956, 1958, 1960 & 1961)

50-Home Run Seasons: 2 (1956 & 1961)

100 RBI Seasons: 4 (1954, 1956, 1961 & 1964)

100 Runs Scored Seasons: 9 (1953-1961)

Won seven World Series with the New York Yankees (1951, 1952, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1961 & 1962)

Baseball Hall of Fame: Class of 1974 (Mantle's Hall of Fame page)

As for the card, well it's a classic and one of my favorite Mantle Topps cards. I can't say I remember pulling it from a pack as I wasn't buying packs in 1959 but in the early to mid 60s it was a big thrill to pull a Mantle from a pack no matter how you felt about the Yanks. I picked this one up for what I thought was a reasonable $100 after many losing bids on lower conditioned examples. It's more appealing in person than it appears in my scan which seems to have washed out some of the color. Mantle poses near the batting cage in Yankee Stadium with some teammates and the third base seats in the background.

I met Mantle once some years after he had retired. In the late 70s and early 80s I would spend a day every spring at the Houston Open Wednesday Pro-Am. Back then there would be actual sports and entertainment celebrity players out on the course. I'd get there very early and hang out around the clubhouse parking lot area seeing who I could see. I never approached any of the celebs with one exception. I'll never forget turning around to see Mickey Mantle alone on the passenger side of a golf cart parked in a row of other carts near the clubhouse steps. Oddly no one else was around so I went over and said hello and mumbled something about the fact that my Dad's two favorite players were him and Joe DiMaggio. I don't remember what he said but he did shake my hand and smiled. I never thought to ask for an autograph. I probably didn't have anything for him to sign anyway.

When my Dad died I stuck a Mickey Mantle pin onto his lapel just before they closed his casket. I'd bought the pin on a whim a few years earlier at a game in the old Yankee Stadium. Probably the last game I attended in the park I'd enjoyed so many Sunday afternoons at with my father. Even though it looked different due to the refurbishings it had gone though it was still Yankee Stadium and it held some great memories for me.
Here is my favorite picture of Mickey Mantle....

Posted with Blogsy

#309 Sal Maglie

Sal Maglie is one of the most interesting guys I've come cross in blogging the '59 set. Out of Niagra Falls Maglie signed with the New York Giants in 1938. He spent five uneventful seasons in the Giants chain and at one point left the game and worked at a defense plant in New York. (He had been rejected for military service for a sinus condition). He then returned to baseball, pitched in the Giants chain and debuted in 1945. When the '45 season was over Maglie jumped to the Mexican League after having issues with Manager Mel Ott. That earned him a five year ban from the majors.

During his five years away.... well there is no way I can capture the color of Maglie's career in a blog post. And there is no point in re-inventing the wheel. I refer you to the exceptional SABR bio which is found here and is highly recommended.

The short version is that Maglie became a highly successful pitcher for the Giants and Dodgers and garnered more major league time with the Indians, Yankees and Cards. He's one of about a dozen players to have been with all three original New York franchises. He had been released in April of 1959 and therefore was out of the game by the time this card was issued by Topps.

He finished with 119 wins, a 3.15 ERA, an ERA title, a wins title and World Series title and one of the coolest nicknames in baseball history, 'The Barber'.

There is a You Tube video of a 1956 appearance Maglie made on the old "What's My Line?" TV show. It was broadcast live on the evening of October 7, 1956. That was the same day as the fourth game of the World Series.  The NEXT DAY Maglie pitched and lost in one of the most celebrated World Series games ever played, Don Larsen's perfect game. On the panel is Yankee Phil Rizzuto who was wrapping up his career. The video is here. It runs immediately upon opening the page so I didn't embed it. Here's a still shot.

Other Maglie notes:

Sal Maglie Stadium is home to minor league and collegiate baseball in Niagara Falls, New York. The original Sal Maglie Stadium is profiled here.

He had pitched his own no-hitter just two weeks prior to the Larsen perfecto.

He served two stretches as Red Sox pitching coach and saw his last uniform duty as the pitching coach for the Seattle Pilots.

His post playing career life was a roller coaster of triumph and tragedy and again I refer you to the SABR bio or this book available on Amazon.

edit: Amazon link cleaned and replaced. Dunno what was up with that

#389 Joe Nuxhall

Joe Nuxhall made his major league debut with the Reds on June 10th of 1944. At the age of 15! He became the youngest player in modern baseball history to appear in a game. He's been signed the year before by scouts who were looking at his father as a wartime player. Joe's Dad turned down an contract offer but the then 14 year old was signed instead.

In that debut game Nuxhall entered with his club behind 13-0 to the Cardinals in the ninth and was cuffed around pretty good before being taken out. But despite that it was a pretty remarkable event. Consider this quote from Nuxhall BR.com Bullpen page:

"Probably two weeks prior to that, I was pitching against seventh, eighth and ninth graders, kids 13 and 14 years old. All of a sudden, I look up and there's Stan Musial . . ." - Joe Nuxhall, about his first game as a 15-year-old major leaguer

Following that debut Nuxhall did what 15 year old major leaguers have always done... he went to high school. Nuxhall then spent about eight years in the minors and returned to the Reds in 1952. By 1954 he had established himself as a fixture in the rotation and he went 12-5. Over the six seasons he held a spot as a Reds starter he was 73-58. His best seasons came in '55-'56 when he was chosen for the All Star squads in the NL.

Nuxhall saw his numbers and innings go south in 1960 and he was traded to the A's for the 1961 season. After the A's released him he signed briefly with the Orioles and then the Angels appearing in 5 games for the Halos early in 1962. Released again the Reds took him back and in June of 1962 he began a second tern in Cincy and his career rebounded. He won 15 games in 1963 and 11 in 1965 before he retired after the '66 season. Ironically Nuxhall, who pitched in 15 seasons for the Reds was gone the only year, 1961, that they went to the World Series.

After retirement Nuxhall remained a fixture with the Reds as a broadcaster from 1967 through 2004, He was also their batting practice pitcher for more than 20 years. Nuxhall, a much beloved figure in Ohio (he was a Hamilton native) died in 2007.

Great stuff about Joe Nuxhall can be found all over the net. His NY Times obit is here. One from ESPN is here. But the best resourse is a page dedicated to him on the Reds MLB site. Lots of pics, tributes and info. Check it out.

The website for the Joe Nuxhall Miracle League fields is here. It's a complex that provides baseball/softball diamonds specially tailored for use by kids with disabilities.

Once again I'm struck by the greatness of these black framed Reds cards. The color combo just seems right. Looks like Nuxhall has his road uni on in this shot. I'm guessing the Polo Grounds is the site with some of the high rise apartment buildings that surrounded it in the background. But I wouldn't bet my life on it.

#34 Pitchers Beware

Wow, really? Pink frame and a red background? This is one of the '59 set's ugliest cards. Al Kaline and Charlie Maxwell deserve better.

Kaline, of course, is a Hall of Famer. Great hitter and a fine right-fielder with a cannon for an arm. He finished his career 1 homer short of 400 and three points south of .300 as a career average. He signed with the Tigers in 1953 and never spent a day in the minors. But the best thing about Al Kaline? Easy, he's a Baltimore native!

The Charlie Maxwell card in the set has already been featured. He was a popular Tiger outfielder known for his Sunday hitting heroics.

Every time I scan one of these specials I have the same thought... Wouldn't it have been a better card if Topps had used the photo's background instead of filling in the circle with a solid color?

#457 Los Angeles Dodgers

Yup, it's the World Champs! Or to be precise the 1959 World Champs as seen on their 1958 team photo. But let's not get technical, ok?

The '59 Dodgers went 88-68 under Walt Alston, finishing 2 games in front of the defending NL champion Braves and 4 ahead of the rival SF Giants. Alston was in his sixth year of managing the Brooklyn/Los Angeles club and '59 was his second world title and third pennant. He was less than one third the way into his 23 season reign as Dodger manager.

The club's .257 average was below the league average but they scored more runs than the league average and they led the NL in stolen bases even though Maury Wills was a rookie part-time player a year away from displaying his base stealing skills.

On the mound Don Drysdale led the club with 17 wins. Sandy Koufax was still a rather raw 23 year old honing his craft. He went 8-6. The Dodgers' team ERA ranked third in the NL behind both the Braves and Giants. They had the most strike outs as a staff, easily.

The Dodgers were in third place on September 15 when the launched a 7-2 run over the last 9 games to surge past the Giants and tie the Braves. The swept a best of three playoff with Milwaukee to earn the right to face the White Sox in the 1959 World Series. They won the Series in six games and reliever Larry Sherry was named Series MVP.

The '59 Series is among the first ones I have clear memories of paying attention to. I know I rooted for the White Sox. I was an A.L. guy and my father had no use for the Dodgers or Giants back then.

In general I'm not a fan of the team cards in the '59 set. I don't like the color circle being used in place of the natural background as is the case with the base cards. But there is something about this Dodgers team card that just works. Despite the fuzzy photo and it being so mis-cut this is a really cool card.

#305 Curt Raydon

Curt Raydon had one year in the majors, 1958. It was a very promising season that saw him go 8-4 on 20 starts and post a tidy 3.62 ERA in 31 total appearances. But he never made it back to the bigs. Plagued by hand and shoulder injuries he had some good numbers in the Pirates system but never was able to make the club in the spring. Topps thought enough of him to put in on a 1960 card despite him spending '59 in the minors.

He became a police officer after he retired in 1962.

I believe (but I wouldn't swear to it) that this pic was taken in Seals Stadium in San Francisco. Color pics of the place are hard to find but I've seen some and I recall the red railings. Note the politically incorrect cartoon on the back and the note in the write up that mentions a two hit shutout he threw in '58.

#160 Dick Groat

Looked at Gene Conley recently and here comes another two sport star, Dick Groat. He starred on the diamond and on the basketball court and has been quoted as saying that basketball was his better sport.

At Duke University Groat was a two time All American in basketball, named the Helms Foundation Player of the Year in 1952 and UPI Player of the Year in 1952, and earned his way into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. Duke retired his uni number.

Groat played a year of professional hoops for the NBA's Fort Wayne Pistons but after a military service term he never went back to basketball. He did stick with baseball, however, and went on to a fine career with four NL teams, primarily the Pirates and Cardinals. He was NL MVP in 1960 as a part of that Pirate World Series team. And he won a second ring with the 1964 Cardinals and finished second in MVP votes that year.

He was a fine fielder as well, consistently ranked among stat leaders.  He made five All Star squads by the time he retired in 1967 as he finished his career with part time work with the Phils and Giants.

He owns a golf resort in Pa. and does color for Pitt Panther basketball. He's an interesting guy worth perusing further. Wikipedia is a good place to start.

 Pretty sweet card. I always like to see shots taken in the Polo Grounds. Check out the apartment towers visible through the stands.

You can see them here.

                        

#203 Ozzie Virgil

Lets get technical for a moment. Just the other day I mentioned the Felipe Alou "is credited with being the first Dominican player in the majors". I suppose that depends on how you define 'Dominican'. That's because Ozzie Virgil, also a Dominican, made his debut on September 23, 1956. Felipe Alou's first appearance in a major league game came on June 8, 1958. 


Ozzie Virgil was born in the Dominican Republic but his family emigrated to the U.S, when Ozzie was a teen. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, N.Y. He also served in the Marine Corp. He was more "American-ized(?). Alou, on the other hand, came to the states specifically to play ball. So, flip a coin. 


It really doesn't matter. Both players blazed trails. Virgil broke the color barrier on the Tigers when he went to Detroit in 1958 following his year or so with the Giants. He was never a regular but could handle his glove well and was able to play part time in the bigs through 1969. The fact that he could (and did) play anywhere except the mound helped him land spots with the Pirates, A's, Orioles and (again) the Giants. 


He played for the Orioles for exactly one game in 1962, pinch hit in the bottom of the ninth for pinch hitter Marv Breeding and drew an intentional walk. He therefore has an OBP of 1.000 for my Birds. Good for Ozzie!


Following his playing days he served as a coach for various teams for nearly two decades. He had been a player/coach for the Phoenix Giants in 1968. He also managed in winter ball and held several front office and scouting jobs. His son, Ozzie Jr. caught in the majors in the 80s, primarily for the Phils and Braves.


ESPN has an article/interview online that deals with Ozzie Sr. on the anniversary of his MLB debut. It's worth a read. 


This is another one of those "posing in Yankee Stadium while standing in front of the visitor's dugout" shots that seem to predominate the 59 set. 




Here's Ozzie circa 1958


                                                                     

Here is my Portuguese grandfather circa 1957.

 What say you?

#477 Barry Latman

Vacation posting: Barry Latman

In a nutshell... California kid, attended USC.....White Sox signee in 1955... pitched parts of three seasons on the South Side of Chicago... started 21 games in 1959 but didn't get into the World Series....his high school teammate, Larry Sherry did get into the Series and was a star reliever for the Dodgers in it..... traded to Indians for 1960.. best season was 1961, he went 13-5 and made his only All Star squad.... finished his career with Angels and Astros, retiring in 1967...... over the years he spent about half his time starting and half relieving...he's 78 and lives in Mexico now... he never freakin' smiled for a card shoot... according to legend, when the Indians traded Latman to the Angels in 1963 for Leon Wagner Latman's father-in-law heard about the trade and said, “It’s impossible; is that all they got for Wagner?” .....career mark of 59-68, 10 shutouts, 16 saves, 3.91 ERA 

Latman Links:

Latman on Wikipedia

Latman on SABR

Latman on jewsinsports-dot-org

Topps did one of their 'paint-over-pic' jobs on this card. Pretty crappy job, too. That hat is the wrong color blue. But the 'flying sock' saves most White Sox cards so I'll give it a pass.

National League by Color.... and random things

This is third installment of my breakdown of the '59 Topps set. This one looks at the National League cards. First up is a summary of the base one player cards. (The AL and a whole set summary were in my previous posts.)

NL Observations: .......No one team had a single color dominate as thoroughly as the Tigers were covered with red to the tune of 84%...... Milwaukee's 19 of 26 in yellow led the way (that's 73% if you are scoring at home)..... The NL got 32 of the 33 total black framed cards in the set..... The NL has just 4 of the 95 red cards. The Phils, Cards and Reds each had seven different colors...... The Braves, Giants and Pirates had five...... Dodgers and Cubs had six different colors...... The Braves coming off two consecutive World Series appearances had the fewest base cards while the fifth place Cubs had the most.

And this chart breaks down the ancillary NL cards. Again 'High Lites' refers to the Baseball Thrills subset.

NL Observations: .......the Braves get a boost in their total card count with the All Star Selection subset but unlike the Yanks their total still ranks behind several other NL clubs.... every team card in the Senior circuit has yellow as one of its elements... the NL has only six 'one team' multi-player specials but they have the Ashburn/Mays special and Robin Roberts appears one the Ace Hurlers card so that narrows the gap... the Pirates, second place finishers in 1958, were given three multi-player specials, all were red and yellow in one combo or another.... the Ashburn/Mays card is green and white which makes it the only NL special without a yellow element.

Final Thoughts.... Topps liked yellow in 1959, they used it on 14 of 17 multi-player specials, 14 of 16 team cards, and more than a quarter of all the base player cards.... I also noticed that the Cubs and Tigers team cards include the designation "Team" following the name i.e. "Detroit Tigers Team" as opposed to just "Detroit Tigers".. can't think of why that would be.... my preferred frame colors are black and dark blue which explains why I have so many favorite cards among the Phils' and Reds' cards.

That's it. I enjoyed doing the research. I know it all adds up to nothing but it does satisfy some of my curiosity about this great set. I would like to find a series breakdown by card number as that would give me another view of the color distribution. I just haven't googled deep enough to find it. And I'd bet someone out there has the set on uncut sheets. How cool would it be to lay them out end to end to see the color patern. Maybe spread out like that we'd see the yellow cards spell out 'TOPPS" or the name of Sy Berger's dog. Who knows.

It's back to regular card posting now. Thanks for reading. Comments always appreciated.

Categories and American League by Color

There are 572 cards in the '59 Topps baseball set. That doesn't take into account the card back variations like the included or not included 'optioned' or 'traded' line and the three different versions of the Spahn card back. Here we are interested only in the colors of the card fronts, especially the base card frames.

First, here is the total set by color of the base cards and the complete set listed by category:

Yellow and red frames dominate the set. And by a wide margin obviously. Yellow is far ahead of second place red. And the 95 red cards are more than double the number of any other color. Between the two they represent about 48% of all the single player base cards.

And here is the American League broken down by color of the base one player cards: 

Interestingly, among the AL cards red is the dominant color and 91 of the 95 red cards in the whole set  are of AL players. Four clubs clearly have red as their dominant color. The Tigers, in fact, have only five of their 31 cards in a color other than red. Yet, of the remaining four clubs, two don't have a single red card and the A's have only one. Of those other four only the Red Sox are not primarily represented by yellow framed cards. The Bosox have no color that they can call their signature color in the '59 set. 

AL observations.... Kansas City has the AL's only black frame and are the only team here that is represented by eight different colors. They lack a dark green card (ironically I think given their later history). They also are noteable in that there are six colors which appear on one or two of their players' cards.... the Yankees have the fewest total base cards (28). I'd have lost a bet on that one..... the White Sox have cards in only three different colors while the Orioles, Tigers and Yankees are seen with four....

This next chart tracks the colors of the team card (the frame is listed first, inner circle color next). It also shows the number of players each team has in the various subsets, All Star Selection, the Rookie Stars, Baseball Thrills (called High Lites in the chart's header), The center column gives the colors of the 'special multi-player cards (if they feature players from one specific team, called one team specials here). The same naming convention as the team card applies.

More AL observations... counting the specials the Yankees now have the most cards in the set of any AL club.... the White Sox total does not include the #156 Billy Pierce/Robin Roberts "Ace Hurlers". Counting that card would also give the ChiSox 38.... while it isn't too surprising that the Yanks had two multi-player special cards the fact that the Red Sox and Senators also have a pair of them probably is. Neither was a threat in the previous season, Boston was third, 13 games out and the Senators finished in last in '58, 31 games behind the Yanks.... every AL team card and all but one of the AL multi-player specials includes either yellow or red...

Next up: The National League

Colors of 1959, an Overview

Among the reasons I have enjoyed putting together the 1959 Topps baseball set is the aesthetic appeal. The combination of posed photos and portraits and the circular frames made it stand out from the other sets I considered. I'm a fan of the '58 set because those cards are the first I actually remember being aware of. The 1960 set was the first I actively collected. But the '59 just kept stood out.

When I jumped into putting the set together I already owned the Orioles and a group of stars and commons, maybe 20 or so. I noticed that the Orioles' team 'set' was mostly of the yellow 'frame' variety with some blue and red cards mixed in.

As I picked up more and more cards it was apparent that some teams seemed to have one predominant colored frame. I knew that at some point I'd like to sit down and track the set's colors. I started the project a few times and finally had the time recently to sit down with my binder and catalog them one by one.

I made a simple spreadsheet to tally the colors as I flipped the binder pages. I made a few notes as I went along as well. Before giving the breakdown in the next post there should be some discussion of the colors themselves.The base, one player cards come in nine different color frames. Those colors are red, yellow, black, pink, orange, light blue, dark blue, light green and dark green. Each of the colors has a consistent pattern of frame/player name/team name/position. All except one. When cataloging colors I began with ten colors. I had looked at the orange cards and seen at least two differing shades. But the more I looked the more convinced I became that the variations are simply due to the vagrancy of color printing in the late 50s. Even laying out the red cards side-by-side revealed some variations.

A look at each color in turn:

RED:
Red cards vary slightly in shade but it's seems obvious that the differences are just variations in the printed sheets. Red cards are where we see the difference in complimentary colors. Most have player names in white, team name in yellow and the player's position in white. But some have team names in white as well. Easy to see here:

There doesn't seem to be any correlation between the team lettering and color of the backs (different color combos and different cardboard colors were used), the team involved or the series in which the card was issued. 

EDITED to add: With Topps' history of yellow/white letter variation I thought that I should check closer into this. I've looked at a lot of the red cards online thinking there might be some sort of 'variation' involved with the player name color but every card I see online jives with the one in my binder. And given that I've never seen any mention of a lettering variation involving the '59s I am chalking the red card player name differences to 'just a Topps thing'. 

Dark Blue:
As opposed to the light blue also used. These have player names and positions in white, yellow team names.

January 2014 Update. I recently realized that there are two separate combos of colors involved on the light blue cards. Most of them follow the convention of the Curt Flood card below.

Light Blue type #1 (with black player names):
Black/black/white is the lettering combo.

But there is another combo used with this color frame. A comment on the Billy Harrell card entry mentions it as being exclusive to cards issued in the 5th Series. There are three total cards with this lettering combo, #433 Harrell, #436 Granny Hamner and #395 Elston Howard (shown below).

Light Blue type #2 (with white player names):
White/yellow/white is the lettering combo.

Dark Green:
White/yellow/white is the lettering combo.

Yellow:
Red/red/black is the lettering combo.

Pink:
All lettering is black.

Black:

Yellow/yellow/white is the lettering combo.

Light Green:

And here I see enough variation in the card frames to make note of it. But given the color combo is consistent across all shade variations I believe the differences are due to the printing process. Black/yellow/black  is the lettering combo.

The Gary Geiger card is from the high number Seventh Series and has a distinct 'lime-greenish' tinge to it. There is one other light green card in that series and the color is the same. As with other variations across colors I believe these to be simply printing anomalies. The lettering combos are the same across all the shades.

And finally, Orange:

I went back and forth in deciding whether of not Topps intended to print both 'orange' and 'red-orange' cards. The differences are easy to see:

Because the color of the lettering is consistent, white/black/white, and the fact that there are some cards that fall between the darkest and lightest examples, I think that the cards were intended to be 'orange' and the variations are again, due to the printing process used. And I'm going to list them as being in the same category. I wish I had more insight into all this. There might be more info on the net.

In the next post I'll break the set down into card 'type' and list the American League breakdown by frame color.

#293 Ray Moore

Right-hander Ray Moore, a Maryland native, was signed by the Dodgers in the mid-40s after being spotted playing ball with his army unit in the Philippines. But he had a long hill to climb in the talent-rich Brooklyn chain. He got looks in 1952 and '53 but it wasn't until he was traded to the Orioles for the 1955 season that he established himself in the bigs.

For three years as an Orioles Moore won double digit games, moving from a job as a spot starter and long reliever to a regular rotation spot in 1957. Traded to the White Sox in 1958 Moore transitioned back to a reliever role and appeared in one game of the '59 Series against the Dodgers, pitching one inning.

He was sold to the Senators midway through 1960 and spent the rest of his career with the Nats/Twins franchise as a better than average closer. He retired after the 1963 season and spent time farming and working with his favorite hounds.

Seeing another of the many red bordered White Sox cards reminds me of my task of cataloging the team/color ratios in this set. I started that once before. I'll get back to it soon.