In any given set of baseball cards some player will be portrayed just as they launch a career year. Cincinnati Reds second baseman Bobby Adams led the National League in hitting singles in 1952, getting one for almost every game played (145 vs. 154). He wasn’t an Ichiro Suzuki prequel, as his batting average was a more mundane but respectable .283 that year (In addition to leading the league in singles he was also at the top of the leaderboard for getting out).
Adams wasn’t just a contact-hitting infielder: He was a persuasive salesman. When not playing ball he would travel around the city selling ticket packages. The comic strip on the back of his 1954 Topps baseball card states he was the team’s top performing salesman the previous winter.
Bobby’s 1952 Topps Card
The corners are rounded, the upper right has a scuff on the front, and this card was once glued to a scrapbook. How much did some kid play with this before deciding it should be glued down?
The text on the back of this card mentions some of his earlier pro-baseball days but doesn’t say a word about him sharing them with his brother, Philadelphia A’s outfielder Dick Adams.
