Photo Double
Ted Williams wasn’t in the 1952 Topps checklist, but if you squint really hard and stay far enough back you can see his stunt double filling his spot in the checklist.
1952 Topps
Ecce Charta: Behold the Card
I don’t know who decided to “fix” Floyd Baker’s Bowman baseball card. I’m pretty certain it wasn’t Caravaggio.
Better Lucky Than Good? Throwing and Drinking Hard
Needing just three more names to complete the second series of the 1952 Topps checklist, I clicked the “add to cart” button on the first one I came across on COMC. That’s how a creased Mickey McDermott card entered my collection.
155 lbs. of Ballast
Sometimes general managers want to skip the whole “player to be named later” formality.
Abbreviated Pitching
Professional longevity in the 1950s could be hard to come by when your resume has you moving from a team called the “Commies” to one called the “Reds.”
A Baseball Card-Inspired Experiment
The Bill Werle card in my 1952 Topps set building project has me crawling around in the dirt and conducting a science experiment.
Lou Brissie
Nearly blown up by Nazis, this pitcher practically dragged himself to the forefront of the Philadelphia Athletics’ pitching rotation. He even had a racehorse named after him.
Adding the 1952 Topps Willie Mays
My quest to build a ’52 Topps set meets the first (and best) name on this landmark set’s Mt. Rushmore of baseball cards. It’s a card so good I have owned it twice.
Off to the Races in DC
If you need to sum up outfielder Gil Coan in a single word it would be “speed.” Before the Washington Nationals entertained fans with presidential mascots running footraces, one of the city’s predecessor teams was sending Coan out to run laps against track stars. He even raced a horse (and won!) from right field to home plate. Perhaps the fact that he was missing one of his thumbs made him more aerodynamic.