Old Cards with Character

Today I wanted to talk about three particular cards. These three cards are recent purchases and worth taking a moment of your time to look at. They are unique cards, all with a little character.

There is no better way to start a post than with Pete Rose. I found a fairly priced and poor coniditioned 1966 Topps Pete Rose #30. This card has a couple creases and some nasty corners, but as discussed before, I love beatup used cards of the day. That's the best part, the back of this card where some kid back in the 60's was tracking Pete's stats. Notice what has been underlined, the kid was tracking Pete's career best stats in each catagory. You can tell it was a young kid because he slipped up on the AB column.

Next up is a 1954 Topss Jim Delsing #111 of the Detroit Tigers. Delsing was a pinch runner for the only dwarf to every play the game. Delsing once said after his career "Maris may have hit 61, but I'm the one who ran for a midget". Delsing was later replaced in center field by Al Kaline. This 54 Topps is in great excellent condition and the color is amazing.

Last up is this 1957 Topps Smoky Burgess #228. Smoky sett the major league career record for career pinch-hits with 145 which was later broken in the mid 70s. His career .295 batting average puts him in 10th place by position. In addition, of all players who played the game in the 1940's, Smoky was the last to retire. Smoky is also a class of 1975 Cincinnati Reds HOFer. The below card is interesting because Topps misspelled his name on the back as "smokey" rather than "smoky".

Did people really use the word "Clutch" in the 1950's? See below...