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Home , 1929 World Series, 1932 World Series, 1933 World Series, Adam Comorosky, Alvin Crowder, Al Cuccinello

Cael McClanahan | August 6, 2020 | History Through Cards

“He wasn't a player. He was a worldwide celebrity, an international star, the likes of which baseball has never seen since.” - on

The 1933 set is one of the most popular and widely collected card issues to come of the Great Depression. Its name alone congers up the likes of , Babe Ruth, and “Dizzy” Dean – It’s the set that turned many kids of the Great Depression into lifelong collectors and is recognized as one of the top 3 sets that defined the 20th Century. One such young collector, Elwood Scharf, would one day go on to become a pioneer in the in the 1960’s and 70’s Hobby and had vivid recollections of the set when he wrote about it in 1970 – “Pennies were a bit scarce in those days and we couldn’t afford to waste them on cards we already had. A card and a slab of gum sold for a penny. They were packed in a semi-transparent wrapper, and by holding this wrapper tight, we could make out the name of the player on the face of the card. Of course, many stores didn’t go for this nonsense, but we would hang around peering through the glass candy counter, pennies in hand, until the storekeeper would relent and place the box of cards on the countertop. Eager hands would then go through the packs of cards selecting only those that were needed. This would be accompanied by cries of “who needs a Jimmy Foxx” or who “needs a ” as choice cards were discovered. This lack of duplicates didn’t eliminate trading, but it did make each trade serious business”.1 Scharf’s insights into this set may have been lost on most collectors by the time I first saw my first one in my early 20’s, but he fills in some pretty interesting gaps as one of the leading researchers of the set at that time. If you look closely, some of the backs of Many collectors consider the 1933 Goudey set on par with the 1909-11 these cards will look like they’ve blead through. This was caused when the sheets and 1952 sets as far as historical significance is concerned. I were stacked on top of each other before couldn’t agree more and as you read on; you’ll find that this is really an completely drying. This doesn't affect the amazing set that has a little bit of something to offer for every collector. grade or value of the card. Many collectors even believe that seeing it gives the card a Most of the 240 2-3/8 x 2-7/8 cardboard gems are affordable for the legitimacy of authentication for high end average collector and boast an impressive list of 33 Hall of Famers and A- cards such as Ruth and Gehrig. List stars with several players appearing on multiple cards –most notably

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Babe Ruth (4), (3), Henie Manush (3), (3), (2), (2), (2), Jimmie Foxx (2), and Lou Gehrig (2). There are also 15 players representing the , American Association, and where they’re found on two sheets numbering 85 to #90 and #174 to #177. The Goudey Gum Company (situated at 113 Broad St., from 1904-1924, then at 52 Everett St, Allston, MA) was founded in December of 1904 and incorporated by a representative of Beeman’s Pepsin Gum; Enos Gordon Goudey (1863-1946) on September 18, 1918 with a capitol of $60,000. The following month, his company put in for a for “Oh-Boy Gum”, their leading chewing gum brand throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s. The other two chewing gum brands associated with this set, “Indian Gum” and “Big League Gum” were patented in April and May of 1933 and issued specifically with these cards as collectors hadn’t seen anything on this scale since the in 1909. I’m getting a head of myself a bit here because to understand how this set became a legend we need to first understand how it came to be... “Oh Boy Gum” was heavily promoted in the As a card collector, I have a keen interest in the papers starting around 1925. Prior to this, the history surrounding the cards and players I collect; company pushed “Super Lemolyme” and and this set really takes you back to The Great “chocolate” and by the time this set was Depression. My grandmother grew up in and issued, they promoted “Indian” and “Big was particularly hard by it, never saying more than League” gum. “oh it was just terrible” or “ your pennies”, but I can recall one instance where she witnessed Rabbit Drives saying they were just awful. My grandfather vividly recalled dust storms and clouds of locusts blocking out the sun. On the other hand, she loved Baseball, though could never understand my passion for collecting vintage cards – she would often recall going to Sportsman Park in St. Louis and seeing the 1934 and rattled off the names of her favorite players like it was yesterday –The Dean Boys, , Wild Bill Hallinan and Bill DeLancey who was her favorite; Ducky Medwick, she said, no one called him that to his face and could be at times be very temperamental. An interesting thing occurs when looking at the cards of the era – they’re bright, full color lithographs in a bleak and uncertain time made famous in John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath. They’re almost meant to take you to another place, to day dream, just for a moment in which they allow the collector an escape from the realities of the ‘Dirty Thirties” - as I’m sure all cards can do - but they leave the collector of today imagining what that moment in time was like when the player’s photograph was taken. Now compare that to the rich and vibrant decade of the Roaring 20’s, where the vibrancy of tobacco card collector F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gadsby (1925) may have been

Page | 2 probably truer to life, but certainly not reflected in the black and white Baseball Cards of the era. This story goes back much further… Dr. Edward E. Beeman (1839-1906), a Cleveland Physician, perhaps wasn't the greatest of bedside doctors as he was more interested in research then seeing his patients. What he was looking for was a cure for digestive issues when his secretary suggested he add pepsin with chicle. Pepsin is an extract made from the stomachs of pigs (oh, gross!) to help aid in digestion. In 1883 he founded the Beeman Chemical Co. which incorporated in 1890 so his gum could be produced in greater quantities and widely distributed. Over the next decade Beeman’s sales were averaging $400,000 annually and the directors decided to sell the company to the American Chicle Company of . Beeman’s gum was the gum of choice of pilots, known as “the lucky gum” for the very same qualities that made it famous with people who like to keep their feet on the ground (I have a hard time with that one), and it has appeared in several movies including Disney’s 1991 cult classic The Rocketeer and The Right Stuff (1983). The production of Beeman’s Pepsin Gum ceased continuous operation in 1978, though it is still produced every few years by Cadbury Adams along with other classic brands such as Black Jack and Clove Gum and other popular brands like Beech Nut Gum haven’t been seen since the days of the Tasmanian Tiger. Enter Enos Gordon Goudey. He came from a family of fisherman who originally hailed from Marblehead, Massachusetts and whose direct descendant was William Bradford, an original member of the Mayflower and first Governor of Plymouth Colony. So, when he emigrated from Nova Scotia in 1881 to America, choice for him would have been to settle in New England. From there, he quickly got a job working for Jordan Marsh in Boston. He got his sales chops from the Carleton Laboratory selling chewing gum and he soon became Beeman’s first New England sales rep. Beeman’s was merged into the Chicle Trust in 1899 (as in The American Chicle Co. of Adam’s Gum fame) where their namesake chewing gum was made famous by Chuck Yeager during his historic 1947 Bell X-1 supersonic flight. Enos Gordon Goudey, the founder Goudey continued with that company in some capacity well of the company retired in 1928 and into 1919 as a Board member when not too long after he soon the Board of Directors appointed Walter Leary as Treasurer, replacing set up a commission based business selling candy and gum Harold C. Delong the following year. (1904), and while it wasn't stated in his Irish Sports Page, this Leary is listed as President when is most likely the very beginning of The Goudey Gum these cards were issued. Company. It’s been a long-held claim that both Goudey and

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Harold C. DeLong, the company’s longtime treasurer were responsible for creating this set. I’m actually hesitant to say this was 100% accurate but there is a kernel of truth to every story based on their 1934 set. You just have to find it. Gordon Goudey and Harold C. DeLong (1881-1960) were no longer with the company when these cards were issued, implementing Treasurer Walter E. Leary as President of the gum company in 1932. DeLong resigned in May of ’29 to form his own company (Delong incorporated in 1932) and Goudey left for The Universal Blue Sandpaper Company. An exact date for Goudey’s departure isn’t exactly clear, but 1931 appears to be the last year he’s listed in the directory. We do know for certain that these cards were being planned at least a full year prior to their issuance if not earlier and Goudey remained on board of directors as a consultant for the remainder of his life.

“The Congress shall have power to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” -Article 1, Clause 8 of the Patent and Clause of the Constitution.

You may have noticed by now that the Hobby is replete with fantastic and amazing stories shared down from generation to generation, and while these stories were great, I always had trouble trying to find actual information about the company and Gordon Goudey himself –even a photo seemed like an improbability. I can’t tell you the nightmares I had as a teenager flailing around a library in my attempts at trying to explain to a librarian that my research had to do with Baseball cards (and their relief that there was somebody perhaps even nerdier than they were), flipping through a microfiche reader or Melville Dewey’s infernal system somehow designed to confuse everyone on the planet. I’d often leave the library looking like the Dark Overlord in Howard the Duck in frustration… So where do you start trying to differentiate fact from fiction when it comes to researching Baseball or the early days of our Hobby or card companies pre-internet? Well, there was as a time within the early Hobby when our pioneers didn’t know very much about this company even when many of them were

Page | 4 actively collecting these cards during their issuance. Pioneers like , Wirt Gammon and Charles Bray were in their late 20’s or 30’s when the R319 was issued but by the early 1960’s – November 1962, to be exact – Goudey was out of business and research and stories soon turned to myth. By the time Buck Barker started to revamp the 1960 American Card Catalog, this company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Burdick himself wasn’t too interested in R “or “Recent” candy or gum issues concerning Baseball and left it mostly in the capable hands of Lionel Carter or Buck Barker – guys who were just starting to collect in 1933. One story had it that the last President of Goudey, George C. Thompson had burned all of the company files to heat the building, which would have explained why so little credible information was available for study. It wouldn’t be until seven years later that this was proven false when a Walt Disney memorabilia collector by the name of John Fawcett sold uncut sheets from this set. That wasn’t the only thing to come out of the Fawcett Collection. I’m told it was also several boxes worth of the company’s documentation, advertisements, letters etc. Registration cards and patent cards were also among this mess…but what were they? What’s rather unique among the card sets within the hobby is that this company’s rookie and sophomore sets; you’ll find a “patient card” and Copyright Registration Card. Each are completely different except each card and registration will have the same correlating – initially sent to the Patent attorney who then files the card with the Patent Office. Two cards were then sent in with the paperwork and in this case, a $2.00 filing fee for each card (To put that $2.00 in perspective, it was the equivalent of $41.00 for each card filed today. These cards were cut from sheets by the company so they should all say “authentic” on the grading slip). One card would be kept with the Patent Office and one would be returned to the company for their files. What we have today are the company’s cards. When these “cards” finally hit the auction for apparently the first time in 2006, it was noticed that the collection held something like 75% of a complete set (or 159 3 x5’s and 184 patent cards of both 1933 and 1934 Goudey as part of a 2009 Robert Edward Auction.

I am fairly certain this was a routine process among all card issuing companies, but seems only if the company wished to distribute outside of the issuing state. Both 1933 and 1934 Goudey sets, their Sport Kings and Boy Scouts sets and perhaps the 1938 Heads up set also went through this process. If DeLong had copyright Registration cards or patent cards, we certainly haven’t found them. What I mean is that we don’t see for similarly issued sets in Massachusetts of the era like George C. Miller, Gum Products (1941 Play) or U.S. Caramel – and those sets don’t appear to have ever been distributed outside the Commonwealth. Admittedly, you probably won’t find anything drier outside of a desert than copyrights, but in my research, they provide us with unique insights into the production of these cards and historical intrigue which I just couldn’t ignore.

Patent cards like this will have matching dates and entry numbers of the 3x5 patent registration card Page | 5

The Copyright Office :

I don’t know what bothers me more - that I watched Plan 9 From Outer Space in a foreign language I don’t understand, or that I read defunct copyright legislation from 1909? I’ve since come to find out that neither are good first date topics. Seldom if ever do we as collectors realize the importance that the copyright or right of publicity have played in the production and in many cases, the rarity of our cards. You can look no further than the of 1909 which played a significant role in the 1909 T206. production or the Right of Publicity suits of the 1940’s and 50’s by , , Buddy Rosar, and or the Contract Wars between Bowman and Topps. In each case, the Copyright Office has been an important piece to the story of how many of our cards came to be. The first Copyright law originated in Great Britain’s House of Parliament in 1710 called The Statute of Anne, which granted sole publication rights to authors for a designated period of time, generally in 15- year increments. It also left it up to the court system rather than private companies or individuals for the first time. However, since this law didn’t apply to the Colonies in the States, James Madison and Charles C. Pinckney drafted a near identical version within the Constitution and the as a form of protectionism to the newly minted country. Unfortunately, this Act did not mention paintings, drawings (or Baseball cards), which were not covered until its replacement - the Copyright Act of 1870. From that same year until 1896, the Librarian of Congress administered copyright registrations directly. In 1897 The Copyright Office and the position of were created by Congress and are a separate department from the Library of Congress. Today, the Copyright Office is responsible for administering a complex but vital set of laws, which include registration, the recordation of title and licenses, statutory licensing provisions, and other aspects of the 1976 Copyright Act and the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Currently, the copyright term is the life of the author plus 70 years or 95 years for corporate works, significantly exceeding the international term of life plus 50 years.

Wm. Brown, Acting Register of Copyrights :

The Register of Copyrights is responsible for establishing the rules, procedures and standards of the Copyright Office. The first Register of Copyrights in 1897 was (1852-1949) who along with New Hampshire Rep Frank D. Currier (1853-1921) were instrumental in the passage of the 1909 Copyright Act. After 33 years, Solberg retired and a new director was needed. William Lincoln Brown was born in Brewster, Massachusetts in 1862 and was a direct descendent of Josiah Bartlett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Brown came to Washington, D.C. in 1907 when he was appointed chief of the Bookkeeping Division of the Copyright Office. Very shortly thereafter, he was appointed

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Chief Clerk. In 1917, he resigned from the Library of Congress to supervise distribution of funds of the American Library Association's War Service Committee to libraries of the American expeditionary forces in France. In 1920, on the termination of this service, he returned to the Copyright Office. Brown was appointed Assistant Register of Copyrights in 1926 and Acting Register in 1930 upon the retirement of Solberg. His position became official on June 4, 1934. During his time as Acting Register and Register, he attempted proposing copyright legislation to get the Copyright Office to conform to the – which is an international agreement formed in 1886 governing copyright. America refused to sign this Treaty until 1989 (this treaty states that if copyright exists in one of 177 consigning countries, then the copyright is valid in all member countries). However, major changes to the 1909 Act would have been needed at the time Brown was in office so it was never implemented. When this Treaty was signed, one concession was preserved that maintained all works have a copy at the Library of Congress. This may not sound all that important but it’s a vital clue to the 1934 Goudey set. Brown was a member of the American Library Association, the Sons of the American Revolution and a prominent member of the Boy Scouts. He retired in 1936 and was highly regarded for his even temperament and competence in the performance of his profession. He passed on in February 1940.

Mason, Fenwick & Lawrence :

Goudey went through a well-known law firm specializing in , copyrights and - Mason, Fenwick & Lawrence - one of the oldest firms specializing in this field. Based in 15th & H Streets at the time of these cards issuance, the company was originally at 618 F St. near the Patent Office. It was founded in 1861 by Robert W. Fenwick and later Judge Charles Mason and Judge Dewitt C. Lawrence. Mason (1804-1882) was a classmate of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at West Point but didn’t stay in the Army for long, resigning some Charles (left) and Edward G. Fenwick (right) three years later to become a lawyer. He was appointed were Goudey’s Patent Lawyers at Mason, by President Martin Van Buren to become the first Fenwick & Lawrence in 1933-34 Supreme Court Justice of the Iowa Territory by the end of the 1830’s. In April 1853 President Franklin Pierce appointed him as the U.S. Commissioner of Patents in Washington, D.C. but resigned in 1862 to join R.W. Fenwick’s new company. Dewitt Lawrence (1819-1892) was a Union College graduate and became a Supreme Court Justice not long after passing the Bar in Washington D.C. He became a successful Patent Attorney by the time he joined Mason, Fenwick & Lawrence. He was a native of Pen Yan, but is known as a Supreme Court Justice, having resided in Grand Rapids for much of his life. At one time, he considered running for congress on the “Free Soil Ticket” in that state, whose motto was "Free

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Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, Free Men" but bowed out to William Sprague, a member of Whigs (this party was made up of two factions, the Cotton Whigs of the South and the anti-slavery Conscience Whigs in the Northern states. Fractionalization led to their dissolvement). Sprague won and made Lawrence Clerk of the Senate Committee on Patents, which is why we see him associated with this particular firm. With a proverbial conga line of patent lawyers in the family, at age 16 Robert W. Fenwick (1832-1896) became an apprentice to William Parker Elliot, a friend of Fenwick’s father. He is probably the most important to this discussion. After several years he took a job in New York under Orson Desaix Munn as of Munn & Co, a prominent patent company specializing in scientific invention (and publisher of Scientific American). This was probably one of the most influential companies of its kind at the time usually advising members of congress and various Presidents on all aspects of the field. Fenwick, obviously learning his chops from Munn in this case, took his knowledge and contacts with him when he started his business in 1861. While in Washington, he was well known and widely respected representative and was the last of the original partners to go on to that patent office in the sky. As said, he had died of what was described in the press as an “apoplectic stroke” on a cable car at the corner of 11th St. in D.C in December, 1896. The company was then operated by Fenwick’s son Edward T. who received full control in 1902. By the time these cards landed on the patent company’s desk, it was operated by Edward Fenwick’s sons Edward G. (1897-1956) and Charles (1900-1969). Edward G. Fenwick, was the oldest of the two sons to take over the reins when these cards were issued. Born and raised in the District of Columbia after graduating in 1916, Edward entered the University of Virginia, but dropped out a month after America declared war on Germany. After enlisting in the Ambulance Corps in May, he found himself in France three months later where it was said in the papers – “Private Fenwick Is convalescing from wounds received under fire on June 7, the day that his valorous conduct earned for him the coveted service cross. While wounded and without thought of himself he walked some distance and procured assistance for three wounded soldiers he had removed from his car- after it had been struck by a high explosive shell. His Injuries consisted of a bullet wound through the mouth and fractures of the bones of the right hand. He is at a base hospital in southern France”. 2 For his actions, General Black Jack Pershing awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross – the military’s second highest award given below the Medal of Honor. Edward quietly went back to civilian life but his brother Charles was the true rock star of the company. Goudey, having a sports theme set of cards probably would’ve been to the particular interest of Charles R. Fenwick, a former Football player and Boxer at the University of Virginia in the 1920’s before entering the legal profession. Fenwick was the senior member of the firm at the time he entered politics in 1939. However, on December 7th 1941, the Empire of Japan thought somewhat differently about any political plans he may have had and he entered the Army Air Corps JAG Office. He promptly returned to politics and did so as a state senator on the Democrat ticket. We find many businessmen, especially those of the 19th and early 20th Century, enter politics, but Charles entrance was, and is one of those that left an indelible impression that you can’t even wipe away with a pressure washer. He is linked to Massive Resistance, The Gray Commission and The Byrd Organization by way of his best friend, Virginia Senator Harry Byrd, Sr. specifically to draft legislation for the Stanley Plan in 1956. This plan was a series of 13 individual statutes designed specifically to defy the

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Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling that school segregation was unconstitutional. Now, Baseball and race were tied to the hip through the Gentleman’s Agreement until decided to break it by signing to a minor, then major league contract. The Gentleman’s Agreement may have been an informal if not unwritten rule segregating the races in the game, but there was nothing gentlemanly about drafting and passing legislation defying a previous legal ruling. Today, we throw around the word Racist and Bigot almost as much as we in the Hobby throw around the terms Rare and legend. What ends up happening is that we water down what true racism and bigotry are by overselling these words without thought to giving a wider historical context of the era or placing our morals of today on people of other eras. This is a mistake that ends up hurting those affected by true racism and bigotry. The key is to recognizing it when it when occurs, but it can be very difficult. Often times it is so soft and subtle that you can easily miss the “soft bigotry of low expectations” that was so prominent in the Northern states and in Baseball. The South was just more open and overt about it. Our patent cards and Fenwick however, weren’t as far removed from the days when Woodrow Wilson segregated Washington, D.C. and wrote that blacks were inferior within his books A History of the American People (1902). We clearly understand even today what The Stanley Plan’s intent was to prevent the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from challenging Virginia's segregation laws. In 1964, in opposition to the Civil Rights Act, the Democrat Party held a 75 day filibuster in order to delay or kill the bill. It passed 73 to 27 and was signed into law by Lyndon Johnson. The first thing you may be thinking as I did, was the Klu Klux Klan having a supreme hand at play here, and while they were making a comeback, starting round 1946, I couldn’t find anything definitively proving either Harry Byrd, Sr. or Charles R. Fenwick ever being involved with the Klan, unlike other Democrat southerners like Supreme Court Associate Justice Hugo Black, West Virginia Senator Robert C. Byrd (1917- 2010), a recruiter for the Klan and Chief Justice Edward D. White (1845-1921) who presided over the breakup of the American Tobacco Company and Standard Oil in 1911. Fenwick went on to say publicly that he was not in favor of integration but with both men - it appears that Fenwick and Byrd were politically motivated to oppose segregation on the grounds of being reelected rather than hatred toward one’s skin color – the latter, Harry Byrd, Sr, publicly having no use for the Klan, and Fenwick fought school- closing bills by the General Assembly as part of the Commonwealth’s Massive Resistance program. These men sound like walking contradictions but were also products of their time in history and geography in trying to keep the status quo alive and well. It should be said that while these men were overt in their actions, other businessmen were either hiding in plain sight or were outright against the Klan – including Baseball owners, who made it clear early on that any ballplayer who was directly associated with the Klan would be unceremoniously booted from the organization or became a bench jockey. In 1924, at the height of the Klan’s second formation in 1915, and some 44 years after government dissolution, the organization was promptly turned down by Gerry Hermann to hold a “Klan Day” at Redland Field. Though they held what was probably one of many games against Negro League barnstorming teams at the same time (one such famous game – the Wichita Monrovians (later absorbed by the Negro League Kansas City Monarchs) played against the “Number 6 team” made up of individuals of the white hood variety in 1925. This too seems like a contradiction but the order’s number was up in the courts across the country and anti-Klan legislation in congress went through in light of the D.C. Stephenson case which led to their demise until

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1946. You may be curious to know why I have Goudey’s cards of Rogers Hornsby and pinned up as I’m discussing the likes of the Klu Klux Klan and racism? Both men have been for decades associated with nitwits dressed in bedsheets, but how much of it is actually true? The earliest suggestion that Hornsby was a Klan member came from Boston Braves owner to Boston councilman William G. Lynch during a meeting at a hotel in November 1928. There’s a greater context with this accusation that usually gets lost whenever this particular subject with Hornsby comes up, but here it is according to the New York Daily News - “Dan Carroll truckman, restaurant owner and manager of boxers, went before the Boston Finance Commission today [January, 2nd, 1929] and told his version of what happened on the night of November 23 in the hotel room of Emil Fuchs, president of the Boston Braves. Carroll's testimony was a complete denial of Fuchs' charges that William G. Lynch, a Boston city councilman, had asked Fuchs that night for $5,000 each for thirteen councilors before the Sunday sports bill would be passed. Fuchs related a number of incidents which caused him worry, Carroll told the commission. Among these were a row between , former manager of the Braves, and Roger Hornsby, who succeeded him; the rumor that Hornsby was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, which, Fuchs was quoted as saying, kept many people away from ; the fact that concrete bleachers, which Fuchs erected at a cost of $60,000, enabled players to hit home runs "like pancakes" and which he later had to move back several feet; and the fact that the Boston college football team transferred its home games from Braves field to . When the commission asked him whether mention of a bribe was made during the conversation, Carroll was emphatic in replying in the negative. He said that neither Fuchs nor Lynch had mentioned the subject of a bribe”.3a Other papers picked this up around the country and ran with it - except in Boston and in one case, the AP gave a more detailed and clearer picture of the odd proceedings swirling around Lynch, Fuchs and Lynch’s Counsel, Thomas P. Walsh – who, over cross-examination, clashed in heated debate several times with the Braves owner. At one point Walsh asked him if he had complained to Jim Carroll and Lynch of rumors that Rogers Hornsby was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and that Bruce Whitmore, a key member of the Braves Board of Directors, was a member of the Klan as well. When the Judge repudiated this claim, Walsh turned and asked "Didn't you tell them that you had had worries because of the story that there were no Catholics on the Braves and that the team was being boycotted?" 3b I would’ve loved to be a fly on the wall for this one! It wasn’t made clear in the press or in testimony that Hornsby was a card-carrying member despite Fuchs telling the press in the trade for the Giants star – "The personal friendship between Hornsby and myself has been one of warm friendship for years, and I promise the Boston public that he will give us everything he has to bring the Braves toward the top. While I regret the parting with Hogan and Welsh, whom I was very fond of. From the standpoint of Boston I am elated with the trade”.4

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However, Hornsby was completely blindsided by a trade to Boston by his new team, the New York Giants – having signed a two year deal but only playing one, and during the 1928 season continued his superbly terrible disposition towards teammates and Judge Fuchs. So you can say these two men didn’t see eye- to-eye. Despite Hornsby winning a seventh Title and a league leading .387 BA the Braves traded him to the Cubs on November, 7th. In reality, there is more verifiable proof that Hornsby was a complete degenerate gambler and when it comes to Emil Fuchs, you may find him to be one of Baseball’s more “larger than life characters”. Fuchs was reality television before there was reality television and will later go on to become a central figure surrounding another of the Game’s premiere players and the villainous influence behind a author’s debut novel. There may be slightly more truth to Tris Speaker being a member of the Klan at one time than Hornsby – especially as a young ball player hailing from Hubbard, – the very home of Hiram Wesley Evans, Imperial Wizard of the Klan from 1922-1939. However, as racist or antisemitic as he is purported to have been, he was instrumental in teaching the Indians 3rd Baseman , known as the "The Hebrew Hammer" and , who called The Grey Eagle highly influential in his career. One can see why Speaker might fit these views – he hated Catholics and had a terrible disposition towards teammates of that faith while a member of the Red Sox. He was one of the top players in the League consistently, but it didn’t stop Joseph Lannon (1866-1928) from trading him to the at an extraordinarily reduced rate to a region of the country known for heavy Klan activity. Did Lannon know something the press did not? We may never know. The only mention of this may have come from sports writer Fred Lieb (1888-1980) though there has never been any physical proof that Speaker was a card- carrying member either. Speaker’s inclusion in this set is an oddity as is , the latter being the Red Sox Vice-President and Business Manager at the time. On this, Collins and Joe Cronin’s relations towards black ball players is well documented. Speaker “retired” from the game by 1928 along with Smokey Joe Wood and – another player who was rumored to be a member of this organization (I’ll take Buck O’Neil’s account that Cobb just hated everyone equally). All three players were implicated in a game-fixing scheme involving the Tigers to ensure a 3rd place finish shortly before the end of the 1919 season for $2,000. This is odd to say the least because Chicago had already clinched the Pennant. Detroit’s goal was to finish ahead of the Yankees, which did happen. This incident only came to light after Dutch Leonard (1892-1952) contacted Judge Landis in an attempt to oust Cobb. The two men had a history of bad blood between them since 1914. Cobb placed Leonard on waivers and made sure no other Major League team picked up the and Leonard blamed Cobb for ending his career. On September 24, 1919 Leonard conspired with Cobb, Speaker and converted outfielder “Smokey Joe” Wood to place bets on his team. Normally this story sounds fishy considering the team’s standings but Wood held out the 1916 season and a part of the 1917 season with salary disputes. Wood’s career ended abruptly in 1922. Leonard, for his part received a reported $130 and to back up his story, he furnished two letters for Landis - one from

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Cobb and one from Wood, except neither letter was definitive in evidence and somewhat vague. Both Cobb and Speaker confessed to the letters when Landis conducted his own investigation and forced the two to resign their managerial positions following the 1926 season. I’m sure this is the reason why we see Cobb finish out his career on the Athletics and Speaker with Washington (Speaker later joined Cobb on the A’s). It’s been said that both Cobb and Speaker furnished a list of at least 50 players that they knew were fixing games and while this has never been confirmed, the speculation was that Landis didn’t want to face the possibility of yet another scandal far worse than the 1919 Fix which almost destroyed the game if it hadn’t been for Babe Ruth. I always say Baseball is a soap opera played out on a field… Interestingly, not all patent cards are known to exist and based on the evidence provided on forms from Mason, Fenwick & Lawrence, two patent cards were sent in and one was returned to Goudey. The cards which were supposed to be kept with the Patent Office have apparently been lost with the passage of time. The law firm’s files kept at the Library of Congress do confirm several key details about Goudey at the time. First, the amount paid to Mason, Fenwick & Lawrence in fees associated with this set –at $2.00 each card. Secondly, the owner of the company at this time was Alvin Livingston, a key figure connected to other card issues in Boston, namely, The National Chicle Co’s Diamond Stars, and Batter-Up sets –where he was President of that company at one point too. These documents also clearly state that these cards were printed by the Printing & Lithograph Company out of , though I’m throwing a curve ball to say they were printed by that company, but possibly much to home…which is to say, you’ll find out why this may be the case in my examination of the 1934 Goudey set.

I go into the specific printing of these cards in my assessment of the 1934 Goudey set, but this set has its own unique properties associated with it. These cards have held up very well over time and were printed on a heavy stringboard stock which were then stacked on top of each other before going to the cutting machine. As a result, the majority have bled through which you will notice around the corners of the backs. Red and blue are more prevalent to bleeding. This is actually not a bad thing since it lends credence to being an original card. Bleeding occurs when a sheet hasn’t fully dried which is known as a “wet-sheet transfer”. Stock is the term used for cardstock - or the paper used for our sports and non-sports cards. It is used to describe the weight or density of paper from 50 lbs. to 140 lbs. Lighter stock (74 to 59 lbs.) is used in text and prints easier. The general rule of thumb is the more translucent, the lighter the stock. I believe this type of stock was used for the 1900 Sporting Life, 1933 Tattoo Orbit, 1941 St. Louis Team sets and the 1949-50 Alerta Premiums. 59lbs. stock can also be layered for extra weight (Tattoo Orbit). Medium stock (65 to 80 lbs.), called cover weight or cover stock, is typically what we see in postcards such as 1908 Rose Co. Post Cards and 1910-16 Max Stein Post Cards. This may actually be the standard for most cards. Heavy stock (80 to 110 lbs. and anything after that is too heavy for cards) may also be used in the card process

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in a combination of light - usually found on top of the card as it’s easier to print - followed by a medium to heavy stock for sturdiness and support. Stock is also measured in points (This measurement has more to do with the horizontal and vertical length of your card and can be measured with a digital caliper. Every point is the equivalent to .001 inch. For Example: 10 pt. card = .010 inches and grams. 1933 and 1934 Goudey measure 2-3/8" by 2-7/8", though according to PSA, they will allow a .032 of an inch discrepancy in their standards. This is perhaps the most common Post-WWI issue to be found trimmed or altered however the issue provides plenty of tell-tail signs that you can not only find by sight, but under the microscope. Now, it has been said that the first and second series – or first and second sheets, were printed on a lower quality stock and there is a .001g differential between the low series (cards 1-5, 25-35 & 45-52 and cards 6-24 & 36-40) and the rest of the set. I was unable to detect any noticeable flaws in the quality of the stock in either, so if there is a flaw, it might lie in the ink but that too is difficult to determine. As you’ll notice the details of the set are unmistakable in the way it was printed. The backs remind me of the T206 Polar Bear where the entire card except the lettering was printed).

1. 2.

1) 1933 Goudey were printed from a screen process on stringboard medium stock throughout the set. You can see what this looks like on the backs of these cards with “the”. 2) The fronts appear to be printed with Halftone Lithography but you can also easily notice the threads.

3. 4. 5.

3) The corners should show at least some signs of the threads in the stringboard. 4 )You can see the bleed through from the ink when the sheets were laid on top of each other. This appears most commonly with dark blue and red background cards. 5) This section of the card is the “Big League Gum” banner, which appears to have been printed separately because many of them are slightly off center from the player’s image.

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These cards were lithographed using a “CMYK” Color code (that being in order - cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black which is – K - the key, and I wanted to show you at least part of the process where the cards featuring the “Big League Gum” banner were printed.

Goudey’s printer was pretty good at ferreting out printing anomality’s and we rarely see printer’s proofs like this in the Hobby. Technically, the color code should be in order as mentioned above. Here, we see the primary colors, but the primary colors of the RYB Color Model (Red, Yellow & Blue) which create pigment colors. You can see the secondary color purple in ’ card, and orange with , but his card has a normal Russet-magenta background; and Watty ’s background, a quaternary color like sage is missing including the key (black), telling me that this sheet stopped at the 4th printing. Studying a color wheel, or color theory, might be beneficial in detecting errors in color or printing defects. Some colors missing a color can be difficult to spot at first glance.

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It appears that Elwood Scharf was the first to study and write about the distribution of these cards not too long after the discovery of full sheets in November, 1970, saying – “They were released in series of 24 cards and the first two series, through number 48, appeared in quick order. After that, Goudey began to get a little tricky and started to skip numbers. The third series included numbers 49-52, 48-67 and 75 to 79 and 92 to 96, and the There are roughly 35 Goudey sheets known to exist and come from 2 sources. fourth series jumped all Collector William Gardiner was able to secure them as a youngster since he lived the way up to include near the company’s offices. As legend has it, Gardiner appeared at the 1974 District number 141. Until we Center 65 Show in New York and walked in with these sheets. Apparently, it was the caught on to their first time that sheets were known to exist for this set and they were sold to future scheme this sent us REA Auction founder Rob Lifson later on. This particular sheet from the William scurrying from store to Gardiner Collection was purchased directly from Goudey’s last president in 1968 and sold for 131,450 (2004), 117,500 (2010) and 168,000 (2015). store looking for the missing numbers. The missing numbers were eventually filled in, of course, with the glaring exception of number 106, which never did appear. We didn’t realize this at the time, although we suspected something was amiss when no one could come up with this number. Rumors persisted that “that a kid on the other side of town has one”, but this kid, and the card has never appeared. It wasn’t until Fawcett had his recent sale of Goudey remainders that I learned that a second number 144, Babe Ruth, was substituted for card number 106 in the sixth series, According to this, actually appears in the set five times”.5 In 1982 Lew Lipset continued where Scharf let off, using his research to expand our knowledge of this set further in the Sport Americana Price Guide #4. Scharf had touched upon the timeline of when the series was released; giving rough estimations running from the company issuing a statement of a set in the fall of 1932, to the release of the first seven series by early July and the eighth series (the first without the “Big League Chewing Gum at the bottom). The eighth series being released by the mid- August 1933, and the ninth sheet issued shortly afterwards and the tenth sheet being released at end of October of that year.

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Now, recollections as a kid can be different and change as an adult through the passage of time and Scharf, as good as he was, may not have been a bit off in his assertions of specific issuance dates. As it was, Benjamin C.G. Lee writing in Old Cardboard Magazine in 2012, expanded on the timeline of Series distribution and was expertly able to narrow down the dates for every sheet starting as he believes on April 15, 1933: Sheet 1 (cards 1-5, 25-35 & 45-52) April 15, 1933 Sheet 2 (cards 6-24 & 36-40) April 15,1933 Sheet 3 (cards 41-44, 58-67, 75-79 & 92-96) May 19,1933 Sheet 4 (cards 100-105, 115-120 & 130-141) May 19,1933 Sheet 5 (53-57, 68-74 & 80-91) July 14, 1933 Sheet 6 (cards 143-165. Ruth’s 144 is printed twice) August 19, 1933

At this point Goudey throws us several distribution curve balls that lend credence to both Scharf and Lee’s research thus far. For example, you might notice a few team names that aren’t quite as recognizable like the Columbus Red Birds, Kansas City Blues and the Albany Senators and that’s because 15 of the players are members of the Pacific Coast League, American Association, International League and Southern Association. Those players are: 57 Earl Clark (Albany Senators), 68 Horace Lisenbee (Buffalo Bisons), 70 Floyd “Pete” Scott (Oakland Oaks), 85 Heinie Sand ( Orioles), 86 Phil Todt (St. Paul Saints), 87 Frank O'Rourke (Milwaukee Brewers), 88 Russell Rollings ( Crackers), 89 Tris Speaker (Kansas City Blues), 90 Jess Petty (), 174 Warren “Curly” Ogden (),175 “Howlin’ Dan” Howley (Toronto Maple Leafs), 176 John Ogden (), 177 (Knoxville Smokies), 180 (New Orleans Pelicans), and 182 (Columbus Red Birds). Of these players, Andy High is notable in the sheet layout for what his bio states on the back –“Andy High was one of the handiest all around players in the . He played with the Dodgers, Braves, Cardinals and Senators, and on being released this summer, signed with the Columbus Club in the American Association”. Clearly this card was printed during the season and on July 11, 1933 he was released by the and indeed, his patent card states that the publication for the card was on September 1st of that year. He isn’t the only player to have a card establishing a print run well into the 1933 season as Carl Hubbell’s No. 230 (pitching) states on the back “Established a league record for consecutive The best thing to do before scoreless this year at 46 innings from July 13 to August 1”. His other making a large financial card, No. 234 states that he “Gained 10 shut outs during the season” which purchase like Ruth, Gehrig or also tells us that this card was printed after the season ended as does Dale Dean, is to study the card closely Alexander’s card which says “Has been out of the game part of 1933 season, and carefully for the smallest detail. It can often be the one owning to injuries” In fact Alexander injured his leg sliding into second base that tells you if the card is real or on Memorial Day (May 30th) during a game at . a forgery –altered or trimmed. When it failed to heal, the Red Sox picked up 39 year old after he was released by the Dodgers.

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Sheet 7 (cards 166-189) "Big League Chewing Gum" Advertisement September 1, 1933 Sheet 8 (cards 190-213) September 5, 1933 Sheet 9 (cards 97-99, 128-129, 142 & 214-231) September 24, 1933 Sheet 10 (cards 107-114, 121-127 & 232-240) December 23, 1934

“If 's Giants play in the world series as they have played all season, and there's no reason why they shouldn’t, I think they’ll win the championship, regardless of Washington’s supposed greater hitting strength”.

That was Cardinals 2nd Baseman Frank Frisch’s assessment of the he gave on October 2nd, a full day before Game 1 in which Carl Hubbell was to square off against who went a league leading 24-15 W/L during the season. Both players appear twice in this set, and both appear in Series 10. The 1933 World Series was played from October 3–7 in which the Washington Senators faced The New York Giants. The Senators were something of a surprise this year, going 99-53 and after 30 years at the helm of the Giants, John McGraw retired handing the reigns of the club to Bill Terry the year prior. Joe Cronin too was something of a rookie manager after retired the same year. There was some uncertainty if Crowder would get into the The 1933 World Series was played from game. It was a secret Joe Cronin apparently held close to his October 3–7 in which the Washington vest as who the starter was going to be. When pressed, Senators faced The New York Giants. told reporters – “As to Crowder, of course I don’t know about that, as Joe Cronin hasn’t told any of us who was going to pitch or catch the . But I do know this about the Giants selection. It seems to be symbolic of their confidence in Hubbell to “take” our team and “take it” good and proper in not only the first game, but the second and probably third assignment he’ll get. In other words, I believe they’ll set up Hubbell as their wheel and left it to be granted that he’ll ride’em into the championship regardless of whether we have a pitcher or that will be able to stop any onslaught, if such is started. Hubbell may be the best pitcher the National League has seen in many a day, but as I see it, he's not the greatest left-hander in the world. I've seen many a pitcher in my career I've liked better; for instance , of the A’s, while I’ll even go as far as to say our two southpaws, Earl

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Whitehill and Walter Stewart are as good, if not better, because they’ve had to pitch to far superior hitters in the than Hubbell has in the National”. 6a Lefty Stewart got the nod in Game 1 which is amazing considering that at one time, it wasn’t at all certain that he would be in the Majors after his rookie year. See, back in 1921, Walter Stewart came up as a 21 year old with Detroit facing the Cleveland Indians for 2 innings for a loss. After 5 games, he was sent down to the minors. Through hard work and determination he made it back, and some 6 years later appeared in his first game on April 19, 1927 against the White Sox. That July the Green Bay Gazette wrote - “Lefty” Stewart, with six victories in his first 11 starts, has been the most effective twirler on the St. Louis Browns, even though this is his first year as a regular, and on a second division club”. Most players never get a chance like that after such a long time away, whether it be though war or injury or being sent down to the minor leagues, let alone getting into a World Series and as a starter. He was incredibly fortunate. , the Giants catcher had a different take on what was going to happen in the Series than Sewell did naturally, saying – “I think you'll agree with me that we're a good bet to win. The first point is one of the most people overlook in dropping our chances and that is, we’ve been a late club all year. By that I mean we’ve won most of our games by coming from behind in the seventh, eighth and nineth innings. I don’t want to boast but I do think you’ll admit that’s the sign of a game ball club. I’ve been looking the Senators over while they’ve been playing the Yankees and I can’t see all this power they talk about. They’re good, of course, but no tougher than some clubs in our own league. For instance, there is no Ruth or Gehrig among them to worry about. Gus like that are liable to break up a ball game on you any time. I think Ott and Terry have more power than any two Senators you can name. The Senators didn’t look so hot as curve ball hitters. Theirs is a fast ball league. We throw more curves in ours. Ask Fred Marburry, who pitch for Detroit several times against us in the Spring and he’ll tell you any time he threw us a curve, it was a base it. Curves are our meat.” 6b So who was right? On paper the Senators looked like the Yankees-South, with the re-arrival of from the Browns, and Harry Heilman’s understudy Henie Manush, who was one of the most feared sluggers this side of Lou Gehrig. Unfortunately, the much heralded Goose was a disappointment throughout much of the year and batted a measly .250 in 5 games in the World Series. Despite having a league leading 221 hits during the regular season, Manush was even worse with a .111 batting average. , the slick-fielding 1st Baseman, at 3rd, Cronin at and his partner Buddy Meyer were all stacked during the year. Most observers thought Crowder should have started. After 3 innings at the , Stewart was pulled when he got lit up on a Mel Ott 2-run and a single in the 3rd with two on base. After that, Cronin went with who did a good job but the Senators lost 4-2. It didn’t get any better in Game 2 when in the 6th inning the Giants Lefty O'Doul hit a pinch-hit single that scored two runs. RBI singles by Travis “Stonewall” Jackson, Gus Mancuso, Hal Schumacher and Jo-Jo Moore sealed their fate. Hal Schumacher pitched a five-hitter against Alvin Crowder to win the game. In Game 3, faced “Fat Freddie” Fitzsimmons. Whitehill was as a consistent a pitcher as you’d want on the hill, placing in the top 10 in Wins 6 times and 8 times in the American League. The drawback, he also had the highest ERA (4.36) of any pitcher with 200

Page | 18 wins or more, and of course, The Earl was a fan favorite of Babe Ruth’s bat too, dinging him for 11 home runs. Whitehill was also temperamental, and knocked out Lou Gehrig during his streak, which technically should have ended it, but he came back to finish out the game. In one notable game, the pitcher got into a fight earlier in the year (April 27, 1933 to be exact - the same day as the Hendler Ice Cream kidnapping) with when the Yankee Outfielder said something to Jewish star that caused the beating of Chapman and by detectives. In the melee, some 300 fans charged the field, and some of them picked up bats in an on-field brawl! A few reporters at the time believed this was a holdover of a fight between and were Dickey sucker punched his opponent in his attempt to slide. A new arrival to Washington, Whitehill’s Game 3 win was the only one for the Senators overseen by FDR; blanked Fat Freddie’s Giants 4-0 but had no chance of a comeback between the dominance of Mel Ott’s bat and Carl Hubbell’s . Hal Schumacher isn’t talked about much these days though he should be as one of the key cogs in all three Pennant-winning Giants squads of the decade. Schumacher was the original Prince Hal before there was a and was good enough to Babe Ruth in his only appearance against him and was named to the 1933 All-Star Game. After going 19-12 in 1933, 32-10 the following year and 19-9, he never had over 13 wins a season. By 1939 the scribes were saying he was “a well-known workhorse who fades out in the stretch -when he’s working. He hits the sick list about twice a month”. He must have been something special because he’s the last card in this set -though somewhat unusual, his pitching card is more popular and valuable of the two - probably because its eye candy to collectors. Prince Hal faired pretty well during the Series handling 14 2/3rds innings in three games and batting .286. The Giants ended up winning the Series in Game 5 off Mel Ott’s 10th inning home run and the next time any team from Washington to get into another World Series was in 2019 when the National League Nationals won against the Astros. We tend to see card sets today being issued before or during the very beginning of the season. This set was issued early in the Baseball season as well (April 15) but unlike most sets, Goudey issued their inaugural set throughout the 1933 season. That could’ve been a risky move had it been a larger set and we’ve seen evidence where collectors have gotten fatigued collecting or assembling their set with the 1952 Topps. In that case, there were so many cards issued, that the company couldn’t sell enough of their last series cards and later dumped them into the Hudson. This practice may have been started by Goudey but seems to have been picked up by Gum, Inc. (later Bowman), Topps and Upper Deck. Issuing a set by series ensured that the company would profit throughout the year off their set, and the company stepped it up a notch by issuing the cards in sections. Both Stewart and Hubbell appear twice in this set, as does Hugh Critz, Jack Russell and Hal Schumacher. Hennie Manush has 3 cards as does Joe Cronin and Mel Ott, who hit .368 in the series. Lefty O first appears as a Brooklynite, then later on in the set, as a Giant when he was traded with Watty Clark for on June 16th where his card - No. 232 -states “Appeared in only 1 game of the 1933 World Series, pitch hitting of the 6th inning of the second game, but his hit drove in the first two Giant runs, to give his team a 2 to 1 lead”…one game, one , but the .340 lifetime hitter and Baseball pioneer made the best of it batting 1.000. Most of the Giants and Senators appear in Series 10 meaning that this series was issued specifically to coincide with the World Series.

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The first and second series are said to have been printed on a lower quality stock more susceptible to damage and demand a small premium. With this, the more difficult cards have been that of Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher , , Cubs Charlie Gimm and Giants 2nd Baseman Hugh Critz, who by all accounts is the toughest card in the set to be found in a high grade. Making his Major League debut on May 21, 1924, 2nd Baseman Hugh Critz collected two hits off Grover Cleveland Alexander in 4 plate appearances during a 3-6 loss against the Cubs. He finished his rookie year with a .322 BA on 133 hits. It would be the only time in a 12-year career that he posted a batting average above .300. Critz finished second in the National League Most Valuable Player voting (won by Bob O’Farrell, who was one of the finest defensive of his era and the first to win the award) in 1926 after his career year hitting .270 with 3 home runs, 164 hits and 79 RBI. The Reds traded him to the New York Giants on May 21, 1930 for . Hugh also led the National League in fielding % in 1926 (.981), 1929 (.974), 1930 (.974), 1933 (.982) and 1934 (.978) where the rest of the league had a .966 fielding %. He was a solid defensively on a highly competitive team where he led the NL 4 times in double plays turned, 4 times in lead in Assists twice. This card doesn't stand out pricewise in low grades, but starts skyrocketing after vg/ex where we see it go form $130 in ex, $225 in ex/mt, $600 in nmt and 7,500 in nmt/mt. In 2016 Heritage Auction a PSA graded 7 sold for $776.00, and in the same auction another tough common, a Heine Schuble sold for $10,157.50 as a PSA 8 (nmt/mt). Before there was , there was Andy Cohen - another low number card which is highly prized among collectors and historians because he’s one of only a handful of Jewish players of the era who was expected to become a star in the Big Leagues. He later said of his religion - “McGraw made a big fuss, but don’t forget that he was interested in getting any kind of a good ballplayer. He didn’t care what he was. The fact that I was a Jew made the icing even sweeter”. There isn’t any record of Cohen enduring the antisemitism that Greenberg went through but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a target either. Between 1900 and 1909 only five Jews played in the major leagues and that number increased to 13 between 1910 and 1920, and up until this printing, there has only been roughly 165 Jewish ballplayers in the Majors Some of them very familiar names: Al Rosen, Bo Belinsky, , Mo Berg, Ralph Branca and to name a few. Cohen made his debut on May 16th 1926 –a game in which he came as a for Frank Frisch and got

Page | 20 one hit in his only against the Phillies. After 32 games, he asked John McGraw to send him to the Minor Leagues so that he could be a regular. He won the International League Championship for the Buffalo Bisons in 1927, batting .353 and a .508 . A year later Andy’s fortunes changed again according to James R. Harrison – “Dubiously greeted as the successor of the great Rajah, Andy had his chance yesterday, and he didn’t make a ‘boot.’ Here was a big New York crowd. Over there on the visiting bench was Hornsby. How would the youngster stack up against the grand old veteran? Would he falter and break, or was his hand firm and his nerve steady? Those were the questions that the crowd asked itself, and Andy Cohen supplied the answers. For the moment at least he is the baseball hero of New York. He will pull them in at the gate like a Babe Ruth– partly because he is, for the present anyway, the long-sought Jewish star on a New York team; partly because he is a youngster in a tough spot, and partly because he is a pretty fine ball player in his own right. Nothing else seemed to matter very much in this ball game but the young Jewish lad, who came in one long stride from minor league obscurity to a job which had last been held by Rogers Hornsby. The fact that the Giants beat the Braves, 5 to 2; that they pulled up the flag and the band played the “Star- Spangled Banner,” that Mayor Jimmy Walker was there to throw out the first ball-the fact even that another baseball season was being unfolded was unimportant compared with the triumph of Andy Cohen. Between the covers of a book they may hoist the great hero to their shoulders and march off with him, but it isn’t done in . Wasn’t done, that is, till yesterday, when the enthusiasm and joy of New York’s base baseball patrons bubbled and boiled over and they carried Andy Cohen around the Polo Grounds.” 7 In New York, he achieved legendary status as a Jewish baseball star and even made the cover of Time Magazine. He started his major league career on a torrid hitting pace and demonstrated above-average fielding, but cooled off by the end of the first season and was sent to the minors in 1930, where he injured his arm and would never return to the Majors. He appears as a Giant on this card but was with the Minneapolis Millers when they won the ’32 Pennant. After fighting in both North Africa and Italy as part of the 21st Engineers during World War II, Cohen managed in the minor leagues for several years and finally reached the majors again as a for the 1960 Phillies. He managed the team for one day after the skipper unexpectedly resigned, and the Phillies won, allowing Cohen to boast about being the only manager in Phillies’ history never to lose a game. Andy Cohen died four days after his brother Syd, a Pitcher for the Washington Senators in the 30’s. The first card in the set is of Benny Bengough who is not exactly a household name today but in his day, was a very popular player with fans and the press. While with the Buffalo Bisons, Bengough garnered enough attention that Yankee super scout Paul Krichell (1882-1957) had him signed to a $10,000 contract and came up with the Yankees in May of 1923 as a backup catcher to the great Wally Shang. The young catcher wound up being the roommate of another young player the team had

Page | 21 gotten that year named Lou Gehrig and become the drinking buddy of Babe Ruth who called Bengough “Barney” or “Googles” after the famous comic strip, but more likely because he couldn't remember his name. Defensively, he was superb, moreover, he was one of those Chatty-Cathy dolls behind the plate with the ability to distract players enough to strikeout. However an arm injury (Indians pitcher broke his throwing arm with a fast ball in 1926) and a young catcher named Bill Dickey in 1928 would send him to the St. Louis Browns on July 16, 1931 to back up another future hall of famer, when the future Hall of Famer fractured his hand –all of which would relegate him to less than 60 games a year. It appears that the Yankees tried everything they could for their backup catcher, everything from sending him to Baseball’s premiere injury specialist John “Bonesetter” Reese (1855-1931) to having the underutilized bad arm of become the primary catcher. It’s been argued that the success of the 1927 Yankees depended on their catchers to handle the pitching staff. However, with Bengough’s injuries, the team became a revolving door in that position. Johnny Grabowski, Pat Collins, Bengough and Bill Dickey were all used until the decade was out. This is not our Yankee catcher’s , or only card, though it is one of the most recognizable of this famous set. By the time this card was sent to the patent office, he had gone unsigned during and was out of on April 15. Shortly thereafter he signed with the Minor League Washington Generals as their player-manager. This card in particular has a series of major issues associated with it. The first and most serious is that the red background can vary greatly with many looking washed out-almost with an orange hue. Secondly, aside with being the first card, the stock used was so bad that the printer had to discontinue its use –therefore cards 1-40 and 45 to 52 will command premiums above book price in a collectable grade. Bengough’s card is not only on many want lists and aesthetically pleasing, but it can also run upwards of $87,500.00 in nmt-mt. $1,500 in ex just in case you’re worried the misses might use the broom for something other than sweeping. There are other intriguing cards within this set that deserve mentioning besides the big names like Gehrig, Ruth, Dean and Ott. Quite frankly, most hobby publications heavily favor and really only focus on the A-list players. Baseball is made up of an amazing array of ball players of all walks of life and backgrounds and to ignore them I think would be a disservice and is inconsistent as someone who has learned from and has taught others through the cards and the players on them. In researching this set, I found that several players were two-sport stars and included perhaps the biggest names in Professional Football during the 1920’s. One of those names is Charley Berry. After graduating from Phillipsburg High School in New Jersey, Berry entered Lafayette College (Easton, ) which happened to have a Guard several years prior named Austen Lake -the very same man whose write-ups appear on the backs on many Boston Based card issuers including Goudey. As a freshman he was the starting Left End and Defensive End on a Jock Sutherland football team that from 1920 to the middle of 1922 won 17 consecutive games.

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The school’s 1921 team went undefeated, outscoring their opponents 495-47. After winning the National Championship against Lehigh University, the Leopards were accused of stacking the talent deck in playing post championship games but were cleared in any wrongdoing by the Athletic Association. The following season Berry joined the College’s baseball team as a catcher and by this senior year was named of both the football and baseball teams. In January 1925 Walter Camp, known as “The Father of named Berry to his 1924-25 All-American football squad as first-string Left End. Widely considered by many to be the greatest all-around athletes on that team, he was one of the major factors to the sellout crowds at Minersville Park. During the year he won a trial with ’s Philadelphia A’s and made his debut on June 15, 1925 against the Cleveland Indians as a catcher in the 6th inning of a 12-2 loss however his contributions were positive. His time with the A’s lasted only 10 games and after the season since the team had , and Jimmie Foxx in the catching fold and shipped him to Portland. He found himself on the in the off season, a team which had just been granted admission into the National Football League. The Maroons 1925 squad was made up of some of the game’s early greats such as Jack Ernst, Barney Wentz, Walter French and Eddie Doyle, the latter would be the first of 23 Pro Football players killed in WWII. Berry was named Team Captain despite being the youngest player on the team and having no prior experience. He led the NFL in scoring and took Pottsville to the 1925 league championship winning the title against the Chicago Cardinals 21-7. Unfortunately for the newly christened champs, the NFL stripped the team’s title for playing an unauthorized game Charley Berry has four known cards to his credit and this 1934 against Notre Dame and the Four Horsemen. The following year was JBR48 from the fabled Tour of Berry’s last season in the NFL and he was picked up by the Boston Japan is among the rarest. He Red Sox prior to the 1928 season. never made the trip, having gone In one famous incident on April, 22, 1931 involving a collision with down with Appendicitis on his Babe Ruth at Fenway Park, Barry would later recall – way there. “They still have the picture of that collision up in Fenway Park. The Babe went flying into the air. According to the picture it looks as though he was standing on his head. I held the ball, but was much too busy to tag him. He came crashing down at the plate, so dazed that he could not have known what he was doing but there was so much baseball instinct in him that he landed with his hand six inches from the plate. He reached over and touched it. In spite of all I'd done to him, he'd scored the run.” 8 Several years later in October 1934, Berry was selected to take an All-American Tour of Japan. What an amazing once in a life time trip, but while traveling to Vancouver to board the Empress of Japan, he developed appendicitis on board a train at Valley City and was rushed to the hospital for surgery.

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In his place, the Philadelphia Athletics sent rookie Frankie “Blimp” Hayes to catch a rushed flight. Hayes was figured to be the only catcher on the trip until an unscheduled last-minute arrival of (also featured in this set) who may have been sent under the direction of the War Department to spy on Japan. Berry retired from the game in 1938 and although he’s best known for his time with the A’s and Red Sox, he became an American League . In this role he officiated over five All-Star Games and five World Series, but he was also the NFL’s head-linesman for 24 years calling the 1958 “Sudden-Death Championship Game” between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants. Berry isn’t the only Pro Football player to be found in this set, though he may be the best-known player. Walter “Fritz” French was a West Point Halfback between 1920 and 1922 and one of Walter Camp’s All- Americans when he got a call from Connie Mack to a tryout with the team the following year in 1923. In fact he played in 16 games, mostly as a Pinch Hitter but known as a slick fielder and fast on the base paths. This was certainly true when he turned to a career in the NFL that year; first with the Rochester Jeffersons in 1922-23, then with the Frankfort Yellow Jackets the following year and the Pottsville Maroons where he teamed up with Charley Berry, Tony Latone and Barney Wentz to down the Chicago Cardinals in the 1925 Championship. Some six days afterward, the Maroons played an exhibition game against the Notre Dame All-Stars and won 9-7. Shortly thereafter, the team was stripped of the 1925 Walter French (left) and Charlie championship because they played that game without the NFL's Berry (right) were both authorization. teammates on the NFL Pottsville Maroons and the MLB In 1963 and again in 1967, the NFL studied the Pottsville case and, on Philadelphia Athletics in 1925 both occasions, the NFL upheld its decision to award the 1925 championship to the Cardinals. The NFL refused to reopen the case in 2003 when then Governor Ed Rendell asked to restore the Title on behalf of the citizens on Pottsville. After being stripped of the Title, French quit the NFL and continued to resume a career in the Athletics . , longtime Umpire and sportswriter told his readers – “Connie Mack, in summing up his plans for the coming season, has made the definite announcement that French is his choice for rightfield. With French in rightfield and in center, the Athletics will present the unusual spectacle of two players using baseball stances that are entirely unorthodox. Simmons pulls badly from the plate, yet is one of the greatest batsman in the American League. Some critics refer to him as “Foot-in-the-Water Bucket” Simmons. American League pitchers say a lot worse about him. French hit the ball with his feet wide spread. He doesn’t step into the ball but rather hits from a flat-footed position. Opposing pitchers reticule his style but Walter does more than that to their offerings”. Although being known mainly a pinch-hitter during his career, he was surprisingly a very

Page | 24 good hitter, batting .370 in 67 games in 1925 and lead the American Association in hits from 1931 to 1933. Billy Evans went on to say specifically about this certain aspect, “French is probably the fastest man in the American League. When the 1925 season opened his role was that of pinch-runner and hitter. He was remarkably successful at both. In the difficult job of pitch hitter, French had a batting streak from June 30 to July 25 that was decidedly out of the ordinary. In that period he was used, nine times - He responded with six hits, laid down a sacrifice and struck out twice”. 9 It was his batting style and ability to hit which made him a regular and popular player throughout his career, even making an appearance in the . In that off-season, he was sent down to Portland and ended up on the Knoxville Smokies on this card. Although he never graduated from West Point, Walter French quit as a professional and returned to that school as their Baseball coach in 1936, being one of only 3 alums from West Point (Hazen Cuyler and Chris Rowley). He went on active duty in WWII as a member of the Army Air Corps and survived a plane crash in South America on his way to Italy as was stated in the press – he took a leap into the unknown ... a miraculous landing . . . a hair raising escape from death in the South American jungles! French said of the ordeal that after bailing out, he encountered natives with machetes but noticed that they spoke French, something he too was fluent in, possibly saving his life. He retired from the Air Force in 1959 as a Lieutenant Colonel. I must have passed by Evar Swanson’s card a million times without ever realizing that he too was a two-sport star. Today Swanee’s name is all but forgotten even among many scholars, but in his day he was quite possibly the fastest man to ever tread foot in the Major Leagues! Swanson in fact was a standout sports star at Lombard College, lettering a record 16 times before graduating No. 2 in his class in 1924. While at Lombard he excelled at Track, being beaten only once by Thomas Correll of Bradley University and only one loss in a Football game against the Fighting Irish’s Four Horseman. In fact Knute Rockne once claimed that Swanson’s team was the best he ever played against. He went pro after graduation and played for the Rock Island Independents, Milwaukee Badgers, and Chicago Cardinals in their championship game against Charley Berry and Walter French’s Pottsville Maroons. It’s been said a leg injury forced his early retirement from the NFL in 1927 though I don’t think that’s entirely true, it might have happened, but one thing to consider is that the early NFL was not well financed or well paying, and it was nowhere near the popularity of College Football. At the same time Swanson was playing in the minors when a scout for the Cincinnati Reds saw him play the following year with the Mission Reds, and they signed him to a contract. Not blessed with power as a hitter, he was nonetheless tapped as their leadoff man when he entered on April 18, 1929 in a game against the Cardinals. During a break of a with the Boston Braves on September 15, 1929 The club offered $100 if anyone could circle the bases from a standing start in less than 13.8 seconds to beat 's 19- year-old major league record. These kinds of activities aren’t really done anymore at the Major League

Page | 25 level, but were really popular during the War Years. Among the participants were Swanson and outfield mate Ethan Allen who himself was a former Track star. Swanson was able to circumnavigate the bases in full uniform in 13.4 seconds and to this day, the only person to break that record was Swanson himself, who circled the bases in 13.2 seconds on September 21, 1930 while he was playing for the Columbus Red Birds of the American Association. To this day that record stands, although there is an unverified claim that broke the 13-second barrier during his career. He spent all of 1931 and most of 1932 with the Columbus Red Birds before getting traded and called up to the , appearing in his first game against the Senators on September 18, 1932. He got 2 hits, 1 Run and an RBI in a 4-1 win. Again he was tabbed for the leadoff spot. He scored 102 runs in 1933 (both seasons that he played over 140 games he topped the century mark in runs scored). He rejoined the Chicago in 1934, but problems with his throwing arm ended his career though continued to play in the minors. Decades later he was interviewed shortly before his passing in 1973 where he had a few comments on the state of the Game at the time, saying “The fellows are foolish for striking [referring to the April 1-13, 1972 Player’s Pension Strike], they get quite a bit of money and have a fine pension plan without making any contribution. I wish I was young again to get the kind of salary that the professional athlete gets now”. During his 5 year career, he never made more than $6,000. Asked if he still followed Baseball, he said his wife followed the White Sox but “I like the underdog and usually root for the team that’s on the bottom”. 10 When it came to completing his set in 1933, Woody Scharf had this to say “Unfortunately, number 106 wasn’t the only card to give me trouble that year. Number 195, Evar Swanson, was a real toughie for most kids and it and 197 [Rick Ferrell] completely Evar Swanson receives a giant trophy for eluded me. It wasn’t until over 20 years later, when I setting Baseball’s speed record. Presented by resumed collecting that Howard Lehup filled those comedian and Actor Joe E. Brown. Brown was two in for me and completed my collection. Goudey well known in Baseball circles and his son later Big League Baseball will always be my became an executive with the Pirates. favorite.”…mine too Woody, mine too.

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About the same time Evar Swanson came up to the Majors, a 21 year old player by the name of made his debut with the Yankees on May 11, 1929 as a centerfield replacement and pitch hitter against the at Navin Field. There wasn’t much remarkable about it, but few realized at the time that fans and players were seeing perhaps one of the greatest Golfers in Baseball. Yes, you heard that right, Sammy Byrd was a Golfer and taught Babe Ruth how to swing. During his 8 year career, Byrd, or “Babe Ruth’s Legs as he was come to be known, had a respectable .272 lifetime Batting Average, but he studied Ruth’s swing very carefully and employed it into a career as a golfer. To be honest, most sports reporters and even his own teammates like Waite Hoyte considered his Baseball career to be a spectacular waste of time compared to his talent with a club. The major drawback to his Baseball career was actually being on the Yankees, overshadowed by most on a team overflowing with talent and almost always used as a defensive replacement or pitch-something- or-rather for Babe Ruth. Where he truly shines was out on the golf course. Babe Ruth and Bob Muesel both taught Byrd how to hit and field like a pro, but when it came to Golf, he was the one teaching them the game and nearly every chance they got, these Yankees could be seen on the links. Bird’s approach to Golf, based on Ruth’s swing, goes something like this:

From Baseball to Golf: Sammy Byrd became the first Baseball player to transition to professional Golf. The photo on the right shows Ben Hogan and Sam Byrd after the 1945 Masters. Byrd lost by a narrow margin.

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According to Babe Ruth, to be a great hitter, the batter should tuck a towel under his lead armpit and then hold it there throughout the swing. By doing this, it will connect the lead arm to the shoulder resulting in the body and shoulders, and not just the hands and arms, having to swing the bat. This is how Byrd was able to teach other Golfers like Ben Hogan and Jimmy Ballard, who went on to teach others. Ballard met Sam in 1960 and was named by Golf Magazine as “Teacher of the Decade” in the 1980’s. In 1935 Sam Byrd was traded to the Cincinnati Reds which released him from his bondage to the Yankee bench. On a May 24, 1936 in game against the Pirates Cy Banton, he was sent in for Pitcher Don Brennan, scribes caught this – “Sammy Byrd, accomplishing what every baseball player dreams of doing, yesterday pinch-hitting in the ninth inning, smacked a home run with the bases loaded to give the Cincinnati team a 4-to-3 win over the . His performance is probably the outstanding event of the current baseball season”.11 After the season the Reds traded him to the Cardinals, but rather than report to St. Louis, he retired and continued to swing a Golf club. Between 1942 and 1945, Byrd won six PGA tournaments and got in 5 Masters where he tied for 14th in 1940, third in 1941 and fourth in 1942. He lost the final round of the 1945 PGA Championship to Byron Nelson in match play. He remains the only professional Baseball player to have ever appeared in a World Series – making a cameo in the 9th inning of Game 4 of the 1932 Series, and a Masters. He retired for Golf in 1949 winning 23 championships. Perhaps one of the most fascinating players in this set is Moe Berg. Perhaps the most intellectually intelligent player the Major Leagues ever had. This isn’t Berg’s rookie (found in the 1929 Kashin Publications set), but it is one of his most popular cards and consistently in demand by collectors and historians alike. Berg doesn’t appear in many cards during his career, which spanned from June 27, 1923 to September 1st, 1939, which just happened to coincide with the beginning of WWII. After only 10 games with Cleveland in 1931, Berg signed as a free agent with the Senators on April 8, 1932 and he stayed with them through the 1934 season before being released on July 28, 1934 and getting picked up by Cleveland again. He then went to the Red Sox for the remainder of this career. After 1930 until his retirement, he never played more than 75 games and as little as ten, so why keep a 3rd – string Catcher around in the first place? First, Berg was good for Baseball, a very popular player with fans and the media. We know a lot more about Moe Berg today than we ever did while he was alive yet he’s still not an open book by any measure. He was a well-known Renaissance man who was a notoriously bad hitter. Though for all his off-field activities as a lawyer and linguist, he worked for the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) after his career, though one has to wonder if he had ever worked for Uncle Sam prior to WWII? I ask the question based on the account of his sudden appearance on the 1934 Tour to Japan, despite the fact that they already had a replacement catcher for

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Charley Berry in Frank Hayes. There has never been a sufficient answer, so all we’re really left with is speculation that he may have been planted by the War Department to spy on Japanese activities. It would have been the perfect cover with his background. His files with that agency have been declassified as well as my grandmother’s, along with some 13,000 others, but an interesting article in a 1939 Los Angeles Times spread may support this claim – “Morris ("Moe") Berg, linguist, lawyer, scholar, gourmet and big-league catcher, can say lots of things in lots of languages, but the truth is, Moe's too much of a gentleman and a scholar to misuse his talented tonsils; it must be reported here that he has never cast any aspersions on an umpire's ancestry or integrity, even in good plain homespun American. Several times the umpires have been suspicious of him, but his ability to talk fast and in five different languages (he has a working knowledge of a dozen more) has preserved his record of never having been thrown out of a ball game. This ability stood Berg in good stead in Moscow during one of his several around-the- world jaunts between baseball seasons. A camera enthusiast of the first water, Moe was arrested by two OGPU agents [secret police] for taking pictures in "Red Square." He had used up half of the roll of film when the agents politely but firmly suggested that he come to headquarters for a bit of a chat. And the bit of a chat, if you please, was conducted in Russian at Berg's own request. The agents, it seemed, wanted his film. Berg argued Moe Berg as a member of the angrily against giving it up. They were persistent, though, and later met up with his old Manager, Joe Cronin in Moe did not relish the idea of being waived into the Siberian Boston in 1935. League, so he surrendered. But not without a flourish. "All right, all right," he barked in Russian, snatching the camera from the agent. "If you feel that way about it you can have the film. But I'm going to see the American consul and I'm going to ... " And as he talked the ingenious Moe deftly ripped out the unused film and handed it to the satisfied agents. Then he stormed out of OGPU headquarters with the pictures he had snapped. He will show them to you if you drop over to his Newark home during the off-season”.12 The fact is, that in October, 1932 Moe Berg had no earthly business on a squad of All-Stars headed to Japan with a career .243 lifetime batting average - and yet there he was with the likes of Jimmie Foxx, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and . It must have left a lot of ball players scratching their heads? Ted Lyons, his roommate at the Hotel Ginza, probably had no idea though I’ve heard that at one point believed that the Catcher had intentions other than playing Baseball, but if so, The Mechanical Man certainly kept it to himself. It was true however, Berg had other motivations and brought with him a movie camera. A year earlier Japan invaded Manchuria, China in an effort to gain control of their natural resources in order to prop up the Japanese economy. This is where future Gum, Inc. owner Warren Bowman and his Ad Man, George Moll devised the idea of a card set, The Horrors of War. One day while

Page | 29 in Tokyo, Berg dressed in a Kimono Robe and went to visit the wife of the U.S. ambassador who was in St. Luke’s International Hospital, which happened to overlook a bay vital to the Japanese fleet. He never did see the Ambassador’s wife, presumably, Mrs. Joseph Grew, but did manage to sneak up to the roof on a back stairway to film footage from there. What he caught was eventually used by General Jimmy Doolittle in planning his attack on the city in 1942. Most now believe that Berg had a passing knowledge of the language but his trip may have been the idea of an Ohio Senator named Chester C. Bolton, who at one time, was an aide to the Assistant Secretary of War during WWI. Was he a plant? Berg had a letter from Secretary of State Cordell Hull (1871-1955) that refers to Bolton which was meant for the American diplomats stationed there, essentially telling them that he may require assistance. But Why? Years later, Gehringer was asked about this and the letter provided to Berg. The 2nd Baseman was taken aback, saying to his knowledge no other player had a letter like it. We know that Berg made at least 2 trips to Japan and went on from there to China and Russia. We still don’t know what his exact observations or reports were to the government, but at the time of Japan’s Manchurian campaign and rising tensions, gathering pertinent information on Japan was not easy to come by. Baseball was first introduced to Japan in 1872, by expat Professor Horace Wilson but it was Lefty O’Doul who was the person most responsible for implementing the game in Japan, aided by Babe Ruth of course.

“Sometimes when I reflect on all the beer I drink, I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. I think, ‘It is better to drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver.”

No. 53 No. 144 No. 149 No. 181

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Although attributed to the Sultan of Swat, that quote more likely was said after The Sultan of Swat parted this Earth for the in August 1948. Some say it was said by Humorist Jack Handey…yes, Jack Handy is a real person and much has been attributed to Babe Ruth’s legend over the years including Ruth himself. Babe Ruth was one of the most recognized people in America at the time that these cards were issued. In fact, during the 1920’s, he was one of the 5 greatest players of the decade (Jack Dempsey, Bill Tilden, Red Grange and Bobby Jones round out that list). Ruth was famous for many things including having a better year than Herbert Hoover when negotiating for a $70,000 contract in 1931 (the 31st President made $75,000). Hoover may have ran the country as President, making $75,000 a year, but he couldn’t put the fans in the seats the way Babe Ruth could. Ruth’s cards in this set are often in high demand and sell remarkably well. It’s difficult to tell which of his cards are the more valuable based on rarity, but his full pose is a double print and the most likely to be counterfeit. First, there should be a gap between his hat and the top boarder and a gap in the “G” in “George” and the boarder. Secondly, you should notice that the red line that reads "Big League Chewing Gum" will not directly line up to the photo of the card –and it should be a solid red under magnification as should the green ink text on the reverse. Each card has their own particular set of pros, cons and imperfections which you should be aware of when making a purchase. Another good indicator is looking at the thickness of the card and you can compare it with a card no one would ever dream of forging a Heinie Sand or another common, the point being that original cards are multilayered because they were printed using pressed stringboard. The other three cards are not often targets. Now for the value. Generally double and printed cards such as the 1958 All-Star and cards don’t command stratospheric prices but then again they weren't Babe Ruth either. Card No. 144 is a double printed card where prices are not reflective of the price, though I can tell you that most dealers are pretty good on making reasonable offers with these cards at conventions especially prior to packing up or if sales have been lousy.

Remember that guide prices don’t necessarily equal to convention floor prices either. You need the right person with the right financial number at the right time. Ruth’s card No 149 is the corner card at the top of the sheet - it is most likely to be found off center as are the other corner cards of Lou Gehrig, and Eddie Farrell. Ruth’s No. 144 is on the second row, situated between Zach Taylor and while the other No. 144 is the very last in that row. It’s thought that one of these cards was filler to replace the vacated Durocher card 106, which was later replaced in the 1934 set by Napoleon Lajoie. Ruth’s No. 53 is the in the first row on the sheet and 4th one in, so watch the T/B centering. Since Babe Ruth’s cards are the most expensive in the set, there’s a greater chance they’ll be doctored or counterfeited.

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My own personal opinion when considering any one of Ruth’s cards from this set, is that you should not purchase one without getting a second opinion or, best yet, graded. This is particularly true with

Ruth’s No. 144 being perhaps one of the most counterfeited cards in the Hobby. Here are some quick tips on what to look for. For most collectors, a Babe Ruth card represents perhaps the biggest purchase they’ll ever make, so it’s vitally important to do as much research as possible. Listed below are a few tips on what to look for before deciding to purchase a 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth: 1. As I said in the beginning of this article, the backs of these cards will show you a “bleed through” of ink, which is normal for this issue and actually caused by the sheets being stacked up on top of each other before drying. You’ll find this mostly in the bottom and along the borders. The colors that are most susceptible are red, purple and dark blue, but you can also find a ghost image of the same player on the back and this card doesn’t show this. Joe Cronin (with Bat) and are two cards most often seen with a ghost image. The backs should also be a light tan color, not gray or off-white. Examine the grain on the card (found in No 3 of the “Printing and Layout” section of this article) to make sure it’s uniformed and in the same direction and the bevel.

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2. The image on the on the front of this card should not be dark and blurry as you see here. If the black line surrounding the player appears to be somewhat blotchy and not crisp, it is a sign that this card is either an older reprint or counterfeit.

3. Many counterfeits will show damage as a way to age the card and a lot of it is overtly excessive. One thing you might see is extensive creasing, but it won’t go through the card where it shows on the back of the card. A lot of this kind of damage is seen on higher-end cards such as the T206 , 1916 M101 cards of Honus Wagner, Larry Lajoie, and Babe Ruth, but it’s also seen with the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, 1953 Topps and with the 1933 Goudey Ruth Cards.

4. Counterfeiting appears to be ”the other pastime” these days as printing techniques become more advanced. It becomes much more difficult to tell the real thing if you can’t view the card in-person. Contrary to popular belief, Babe Ruth did sign a lot of items, and his signature is not as difficult to come across as Lou Gehrig. All 4 cards have been seen with reproduction autographs on them - and I believe they come from one initial source. Autographed vintage cards in general are fairly rare to come across and the ink is going to look fuzzy as will the black outline around the player.

5. Back in the early 1980’s (perhaps around 1983) a collector purchased a press from the 1930’s and began printing this set. These cards don’t have a “reprint” at the bottom of the back, but they do have the correct weight. You should be able to tell these cards a part being darker and have fuzzy images, however many card doctors will use a low-grade sandpaper to intentionally scruff the surface of the card, usually in order to hide another flaw.

6. On closer inspection, you should see a honeycomb pattern to the printing of these cards and to a certain extent, I’ve detected a smell associated with them. What I am referring to, is of course is a part of the natural aging process of the card. Here’s what’s going on behind the scenes:

A) With old paper often comes an array of different smells. In actuality, it’s the breakdown of different organic compounds such as Benzaldehyde (giving off an Almond scent), Ethyl Benzene (which gives you a sweet scent), Vanillin (no explanation there) and Ethyl Hexanol (a slightly floral scent) and they’re created from a process known as Acid Hydrolysis. Each one can be more or less different depending on how the card -or in this case, the stock was manufactured as well as the ink used. I’ll go out on a limb and say most dealers might frown on the idea of smelling their cards, but on the other hand, it is an easy way to detect a fake to see if it “passes the smell check”. I don’t come across it with all card issues but it can be very slight to very strong and again depending too on where the card is stored.

B) The stock (or paper, if you prefer) used for the manufacture of cards comes from wood-pulp, and some issues such as the 1940 Play Ball and 1940 Harry Heilman Cincinnati Reds set have a particular disposition to toning. Though not as severe as those two other sets I just

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mentioned, both the 1933 and 1934 Goudey sets also have a higher than normal rate of toning - mostly found on the backs and with the yellow and light blue background cards. So, what’s the cause? Companies didn’t start adding optical brightening agents (which makes things fluoresce under a blacklight) until about 1940, but they did use Hydrogen Peroxide and Sodium Dithionite to decrease the acidity in the paper and bleach out the stock before it goes to the printer. This too adds to the scent of the card. However Hydrogen Peroxide and especially bleach can be used by card-doctors to touch up the borders of the card, so if it’s an expensive card like a 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth, use a blacklight and sniff the card, though Toning is natural for this issue and allow the dealer to take it out of its holder first. is almost always found around the back borders as shown here, C) To get rid of this odor use baking soda as I do not leaving a lighter color towards the recommend sprinkling talcum powder all over your inside. cards. Place the card in a large tin next to a smaller tin or cup inside with the baking soda, cover and let sit for a week or until the smell is gone.

The problem for today’s sports historians when it comes to Ruth is separating fact from fiction when discussing his exploits. A lot of Ruth is now legend brought on by sports reporters or Ruth himself and la lot of this can be attributable to one book-Babe Ruth: The Big Moments of the Big Fellow (1947) by . There has been a great deal of speculation whether or not he was actually calling a home run while being taunted by the Cubs in the , and in truth we may never really know what occurred on a train trip in 1925 that caused “the belly ache heard around the world” but certain facts about the man like stats or financial data are irrefutable, “Rutharian” – a word that could only be made to describe George Herman Ruth – as in dominating whatever he did: hot dogs, beer, women, home runs and money – it was all Rutharian.

He wasn’t the first to sign an advertising contract, that was , but during his playing career his reported earnings were in the $850,000 range, but admittedly pissed much of it away to excess. Add on lucrative contracts and you’re looking at one of the wealthiest athletes next to Ty Cobb. The Georgia Peach had a net worth of $11.78 million (equivalent to $96.5 million in 2019). Behind every contract, every barnstorming tour and every sponsor deal there was Christy Walsh (1891-1955), Babe Ruth’s business manager. Simply, without him, this set may have looked very different. And the thought has occurred to me, would it have been as popular had Babe Ruth not had his stamp of imprimatur? Now there’s nothing

Page | 34 on this card to indicate either man had anything to do with the 1933 Goudey set, but their fingerprints are there if you look closer. One clue is found on each wrapper.

Christy Walsh Meets the Babe:

“I have no job, no money and no alternative. The syndicate bee has been in my bonnet ever since it buzzed at Indianapolis and now is the acceptable time to give it the old college try. But how to start a syndicate without do-re-me, that is the question”. - Christy Walsh, 1921

Walsh has the distinction of being perhaps the first sports agent in the country and it was just by accidental happenstance when he was assigned to cover a story involving . Being a rookie reporter (actually, he started out as a Cartoonist), nervous as all hell; he botched the interview because he forgot to bring a pencil or paper with him and had to have another writer ghost the story on his behalf. On his apparent second attempt, this time with Eddie Rickenbacker, both fresh off the frontlines of France, and Walsh intended to cover our WWI flying ace, turned racecar driver. However, after reading the expose in front of Walsh, Rickenbacker had to correct him page after page on what he got wrong. It was still a successful spread, netting $874, which the two men split, still a year later he found himself out of a job but it gave him an opportunity to start his own business. Walsh went back to Rickenbacker as his first client. Going forward he had a decision to make as to the type of Christy Walsh was the first known business he wanted. He tells the story in his autobiography Adios sports agents in the country and to Ghosts - helped to transform Babe Ruth’s “Our syndicate became the only one dealing exclusively in sport public image and career. page material, but such was not the intention at the outset. My first trip calling on prospective newspaper customers, in 1921, was a short day-coach jaunt because of limited finances but it covered sufficient territory to convince me of one fact, which instantly cast my policy in the mold of sport … to operate as a miscellaneous syndicate offering all descriptions of newspaper features, I wouldn’t have a chance! To go in for sports, plus comic strips, garden hints, editorial matter, financial news, and gossip columns meant direct competition with long-established syndicates, such as owned by Hearst, the , United Features and others with enough cash and influence to put me out of the game, before I started pitching. Even to succeed financially on the department-store basis

Page | 35 meant being just another syndicate, with no promise of position or distinction.The field was overcrowded with that type organization, manned by men of brains and ingenuity, with infinitely more experience than my own. But to specialize in a field where I spoke the language, a field that promised men, women and children as a potential audience, a field that was a natural sequel to the dreams and activities of my own sport days on the sand-lot, there, it seemed, was the logical channel in which to carve a modest but singular niche and hope to become, not the largest, but the pioneer and outstanding outfit in a special field. Thus, in the very prologue of the passing show, I eliminated all other topics, to glorify sports, with the sole exception of Hendrik Van Loon, author, artist and meal-ticket theme through 16 years of happy hustling. Nearly every syndicate handles sport features to some degree, although some regard them, especially the ghost-written type, as necessary evils. Christy Mathewson and , both pitching for John McGraw, against the Athletic in 1911, indulged in a syndicated World’s Series argument, years before my ghosting advent and until Babe Ruth’s by-line started appearing regularly in 1921 twice each week, signed material by baseball players and managers was confined almost entirely to articles during the World’s Series”.13a Walsh had a plan in place to secure the rights to the slugger and one winter day in February 1921, he found himself at the door of Babe Ruth telling his readers – “The Ansonia Hotel was then the dwelling place of the Ruth family and I literally camped on the doorstep with a contract in my pocket. Unfortunately, the old homestead had entrances on three streets and the Babe purposely eluded me because in those magic days, he was pursued by every glib talker in the city of New York and I rated no better than the rest, if he rated me at all. Every ruse had failed to intercept him and only four days remained before he would start for Hot Springs to boil a little fat from his tummy, even at that early date, assuming rotund proportions. A trusting printer accommodated me with 60 days to pay for my announcement poster, of which two weeks had expired, while I was trying to capture the man of the hour. That morning, the New York papers featured pictures of the Babe and his Missus, packing luggage for their southern exit. The printer warns me he can’t let all that metal lie idle any longer; everything is ready, including a large cut of the Babe. But still I have no contract with the new Home Run King. That night, I team up with the beer-man at the corner. Even in those days, beer is the Babe’s favorite beverage, and when he wants his beer, he wants it quickly. I’m showing my proposed contract to the pleasant old delicatessen man, as his telephone rings. The conversation ends abruptly; the old man hangs up, much discouraged. “Baby Root vants a case of beer. Right avay, right avay, and mine boy is gone. Yoi. Yoi. Yoi.” Here is my lucky break, and in less than ten minutes I am in the Ruth kitchenette, actually counting bottles with the Babe. Does he recognize me? His exact words follow: “Sure I know you! Ain’t you been bringin’ our beer for the last two weeks?” The big fellow is not much on the Bertillon system or any other system having to do with accurate identification, but when I explain that this is my first and only experience as a beverage-runner, he gets the idea, enjoys a hearty laugh over the gag and good-naturedly admits he had better sign up to get rid of me.

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In this sequence, mark up one of many boners for Walsh. With my quarry cornered, resistance at an end, terms and details settled and his fountain pen poised for action . . . where, oh, where is the contract? Stupid victim of my own excitement, I face another night of uncertainty because the old gent who runs the beer shop has gone home with my contract in his pocket. Next day, true to his promise, Babe is waiting for me at Pennsylvania station. The train leaves in 15 minutes and there he beams, belted camel-hair coat with cap to match, over-size cigar all aglow, and surrounded by the customary gallery of admirers. Mrs. Ruth stands nearby and gives me my first close-up of a mink coat; a luxurious, bulging wrap which probably set her man back a cool five thousand. While she obligingly diverts the autograph addicts, I spirit Babe through an iron gate, produce a badly wrinkled Goudey wrappers do exist, though to contract in the form of a short, informal letter and without a my knowledge, no unopened packs question, he inscribes “George Herman Ruth” in the correct are known. The wrapper has spot and I go in search of a ghost to do the writing”. 13b instructions on how to receive a First published in newspapers such as the Pittsburgh Sun photograph, and one of those is of Babe Ruth (corner No. 1) Telegraph in 1937, Adios to Ghosts is a fantastic accounting of Walsh’s career and describes how he became the first business agent to most of the day’s greatest sports stars such as Eddie Rickenbacker, Ty Cobb, John McGraw, Red Grange, and Lou Gehrig. Many of them are represented on Goudey’s sets, and if a company wanted to have any one of these stars in sport endorsement, or appear in Hollywood, they had to go through Christy Walsh first. Walsh was in part responsible for Ruth receiving what was a consecutive 13 year run as the highest paid player in Baseball. The Sultan of Swat went from $350.00 in 1914 to $20,000 by the end of the 1910’s but then jumped from $52,000 in 1922 to $80,000 by 1930. In contrast Rogers Hornsby, the second highest paid player, was making $40,000. Newspaper reports at the time tell of Ruth negotiating a two-year contract that eventually paid $80,000 in 1930 and 1931. Ruth’s financial contributions to the Yankees bottom line has not been well documented but Economist Michael Haupert, writing for SABR in 2015 believes that Jacob Rupert would have made roughly $3.4 million just off the slugger alone. In 1932 Rupert secured $75,000 for his services – partly because the Yankees and Cubs were the only clubs to turn a profit, but his statistics also dictated his worth as the premiere player in Baseball as well... From 1918, the first year he started to hit, to 1932 Ruth played in 2,047 games had 1,934 Runs, 2,509 Hits, 643 Home Runs by 1933, 1,794 Walks, a .351 lifetime batting average (evening out eventually to .342 in 1935 )and a .718 Slugging %. Besides this he had 10 World Series under his belt with a .326 lifetime batting

Page | 37 average in World Series play…not to mention coming off hitting one of the most famous Home Runs in Baseball history the year prior. With stats like this you wouldn’t figure a player like Ruth would have taken a $55,000 deal from Jacob Rupert? He did, and he was still the highest paid player in the Majors. Ruth’s overall value to the Yankees could easily be counted in ticket sales, but his value to Baseball after lifting it from the ashes of the scandal was immeasurable, and Baseball knew that one day there wouldn’t be a Babe Ruth to save it from itself. I believe this is why the men who controlled the game, the Yankees – Landis, Rupert, Barrow, Huggins and others allowed him to get away with as much as he did for so long because he made them too much money for the team and for Baseball. However it was starting to become clear that Ruth’s skills were starting to diminish by 1932. In fact as early as 1927 he was threating to retire from the game. Whether or not those threats were a ploy to receive more money is anyone’s guess because he did play another eight years in the Majors.

The Babe, a Judge and the Boston Braves

From Left to Right: Owner Judge Emil Fuchs, Babe Ruth signs a 3 year contract as Player-Assistant Manager –Vice-President on February 27, 1935 (flanked by Fuchs and Yankees owner Jacob Rupert) and minority owner and President of the Boston Braves, Charles F. Adams.

What Ruth really wanted was to become a manager. He probably came the closest with Frank Navin’s Detroit Tigers at the end of the 1933 season. Navin made a serious proposal to Ruppert and Barrow initially unbeknownst to Ruth —if the Yankees would deal Ruth to Detroit? Funny thing was, is that Detroit hadn’t seen a World Series since 1909 and went no higher than 3rd place in the standings since 1923 so Ruppert wasn’t exactly opposed to the idea since the Tigers weren’t going anywhere…Navin was out a player-manager when resigned on September 23, 1933, so he thought Ruth could not only fill in as player-manager, but would also revive the Tigers' slumping attendance figures. Navin asked Ruth to come to Detroit for an interview in the off season. However, Christy Walsh tied up Ruth with a celebrity golf tournament in Hawaii. Ruth and Navin negotiated over the phone during the event, but those talks foundered when Navin refused to give Ruth a portion of the Tigers' lucrative box office

Page | 38 proceeds. Little did Ruth realize, it probably was the only serious consideration he would ever get as most owners, even Jacob Rupert felt that he was a distraction to their ball clubs and a bad influence on younger players moving up within the league. Navin chose Mickey Cochran as manager. 1933 was a low point in Ruth’s career finishing the season with a .301 BA. He probably saw the writing on the wall and it didn’t help with writers like Stony McLinn of the Philadelphia Record saying – “Babe Ruth should consider himself lucky to be able to get $50,000 for one season in these days of depression. The Babe has made more than a million out of baseball when the making was good, and there’s no reason why he shouldn’t string along with the rest of us now. Fifty grand is a lot of money and the Babe will make a mistake if he doesn’t grab it”. The editor of the paper had a harsher critique of The Bambino saying he was a “Bull in a Bear market” and noted “that the day is past when he can dictate his terms and have them met because of his drawing powers at the gate”.14 There was one person who saw things differently… Judge Emil Fuchs (1871-1961) was the clubhouse lawyer for the New York Giants when he, Christy Mathewson and Columbia Bank Vice President James MacDonald saw an opportunity to purchase the Boston Braves from George Washington Grant on February 21, 1923 for $300.000. The plan had been that Mathewson would become principal owner – the face of the team because as he told the press - “I decided for myself that the managing end was too strenuous for me for some yeas yet, if even again. So I decided it was best to try some other means of getting back into the game. I considered the possibility of taking over some minor league club. On the outskirts of my mind there entered the possibility of major league associations. Recently my good friend, Judge Fuchs, conceived the idea of buying the Braves and convinced me that there was a real place and a real future for the club, and here I am”. 15 Unfortunately Big-Six would never recover from his exposure to Mustard Gas – a direct cause of his Tuberculosis during the Great War and died on October 7, 1925, leaving minority owner Emil Fuchs as principal owner of the club. It looked like Fuchs wanted to carry on the ideals and traditions of Mathewson, but Fuchs wasn’t a traditional Baseball man–he was a former Assistant District Attorney from New York with the political affiliations of New York Attorney and former Braves owner James Gaffney (1868-1932), but he was still a Baseball novice and it showed where his Braves posted W/L Records of 5th place (1925), two consecutive 7th place finishes and an amazing 103 losses in 1928 where you might think it couldn’t possibly get worse? But by that time, manager Jack Slattery had quit in early May and Fuchs hired Rogers Hornsby to manage the rest of the ‘28 season in a sensational off-season trade in which and Jimmy Welch went to the Giants. At the end of the season Hornsby, going 39-83 was sold to the in a 5 player deal and $200 grand cash. It was considered one of the largest deals in history–just one of many deals in an attempt to build a pennant winner. For their efforts the 1933 team came in 4th place but while Fuchs was purchasing players, he was going into mind-numbing debt.

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Enter Charles Adams (1876-1947) who was owner of The First National Grocery chain when he was awarded a Hockey franchise –the Boston Bruins - in November of 1924 for $15,000. Adams lead his franchise to 3 championships but little do we realize that he also became a minority owner of the Boston Braves in May 1927. In 1934, the Braves attendance was terrifyingly low at 303,205, which averaged about 1,970 fans per game. Attendance plummeted the following year to 232,754. Emil Fuchs couldn’t afford rent for the field (still belonging to James Gaffney), let alone salaries. He spent $159,000 against a $150,000 profit in 1933 getting new George Preston Marshall, owner of the players, and he still owed $200,000 to minority Washington Redskins (left) sits down with partners Charles Adams, Bruce Wetmore the Charles Adams (right) on August 12, 1935. insurer of the team, and James Roosevelt, son of FDR. He purchased Babe Ruth on the advice of Mayor James Michael Curley to generate revenue and get himself out of debt only because Ruth wasn’t going to be able to unseat Joe McCarthy as Yankee manager. Navin went with Cochran, Bucky Harris went back to Washington and Rogers Hornsby replaced Al Sothoran as manager of the St. Louis Browns. Rumors were persistent in the off season that Ruth was expected to sign a contract with the Braves and on February 27, 1935 signed the slugger to a 3-year deal. Fuchs gave Ruth the promise that he would be a player-manager –vice president and part owner, with an option to be full manager in 1936 stating to the press – "We will make him assistant manager and give him an official position if he comes to the club, and he can play as often as he likes." 16a However Bill McKechnie was not told of his purchase that in many ways conflicted in an unusually long term contract which wouldn’t be renewed until 1938. At the same time the Braves owner was quoted in the press as stating – "I'm committed to McKechnie. He's a most satisfactory manager and can stay with me as long as he's in baseball”. Bill McKechnie was a standup and highly respected manager who had autonomy over the players he managed but couldn’t manage The Sultan of Swat. What he saw was an aged player in Ruth who could barely run the bases or field and Ruth, who was batting .100 wanted to quit but Fuchs convinced him to stay on. The normally mild mannered McKechnie, now hot under the collar, told the press “I must state publicly that in justice to the action of Judge Fuchs with reference to Babe Ruth, on Friday and Saturday of last week, I pointed out to Judge Fuchs that the main trouble with the ball club that it was not able to function with Babe Ruth playing the outfield. I frankly stated the actions of Ruth, while with the ball club, which I would absolutely forbid with any other member of the club, were responsible for the lack of discipline, and that unless Judge Fuchs could convince Ruth to retire, I was unable to get any real discipline or proper spirit as manifested by the club prior to the acquisition from the Yankees this spring”.16b

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During the third game in a series against the Pirates on May 25, 1935, Ruth wrote the final chapter of his long extinguished playing career when he went 4-for-4, including three home runs –one off and the other two off, Ruth's arch enemy . Ruth launched his final home run –a rocket completely out of and over the right field upper deck–an accomplishment not achieved before or after. This should have been his last game, but he had given his word to Fuchs and played against the Reds and Phillies. Ruth promptly retired on June 2 after an argument with Emil Fuchs where the slugger told the press – “I can’t get along with Fuchs. I called Fuchs Saturday night and I told him I was going to New York to attend the ceremonies in honor of the French liner Normandie’s arrival. Fuch’s demanded that I report in uniform to Tuesday’s game. My knee which I injured in Cincinnati will not permit me to play until Thursday, at least. I see no reason why Fuchs would deny me permission to go to New York. I have all the money I need and I will not stand for such treatment” He went on to say “I am going to New York today. From then on my plans are indefinite. I don’t want to give up baseball but I will never play another game for the Braves as long as Fuchs remains as head of the club. He double-crossed me”.17 Fuchs as owner, released Ruth from his contract shortly after the slugger’s remarks to the press, may have been within his rights to terminate The Bambino’s contract since Ruth finished 1935 with a .181 average— his worst as a full-time position player. However that wasn’t exactly the entire story –he had financial reasons to do so. Ruth, as stated in the papers, signed two guaranteed contracts –one as player at $25,000 and another for $5,000 as a club official plus a share in spring training gate receipts - all of which apparently the Judge reneged on. The justification in the press – “It is likely that the resignation of Ruth, hailed as the financial salvation of the financially-harassed Braves, will cause and upheaval in the club’s upstairs office”. It got worse after he left. The Braves finished the season with a dreadful 38–115 W/L record and a .248 , the 4th worst in modern National League history. Adams took control of the team after Fuchs resigned on August 2nd after the notes could not be met to pay the minority owners. Adams reign was all too brief. Unfortunately for our new owner, Commissioner Landis wouldn’t allow him to become principal owner of the Braves and owner of the Suffolk Downs Racetrack since it led to speculation over gambling, though he stated to the press - “I haven’t a dollar in the club now and I won’t have until I get out of racing, if I ever do. The only thing I have done is to give Bob Quinn my financial backing”.18 Quinn, the former owner of the Red Sox, was the Brooklyn Dodgers business manager when he was named owner of the team in January, 1936. Adams remained as the Vice President but was out of Baseball by 1941. Quinn changed the name the following year to the “Bees” along with their uniforms in hopes of reversing their bad luck. Adams went on to have great success with the Bruins winning 3 Stanley Cups (1929, 1939, 1941) and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1960 and as for Ruth, he accepted as position as the Dodgers 1st Base coach in 1938.

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The 1933 Goudey set is highly popular among collectors because of the artwork, player selection and is a perfect starter set for the novice. It remains one of the three defining sets of the 20th Century along with the 1909-11 T206 and 1952 Topps set which says a lot about the set. Historically the set has always been affordable and the numbers bear this out. As for value, in 1939, these cards were actively selling for .2 cents each. A little over 50 years later in 1985 these cards were selling for a little bit more, but still very affordable. Commons were selling for $6 (vg) - $12 (mt), but even star players like Jimmie Foxx and were selling for $30 and $50 in vg -vg/ex respectively, and that was the average Hall of Famer, which was still somewhat affordable (the hourly wage in 1985 was $7.45 for 60% of Elwood “Woody” Scharf Americans). Even Ruth was selling between $50-$180-$375. By 1973 Chicagoland Sports Expo 1998 commons were selling between $24-$40, Foxx between $150-$250-$500, Dean between $200-$335-$675 and Ruth between $1,500 to $2400 upwards of $5,000. Roughly a decade later in 2007 those same cards were selling for $35-60 for commons; Foxx was selling for $350-600 and Dizzy Dean was actively selling for $500-800 and Ruth between $3500-5000. Today, with the convenience of the internet, these cards have remained roughly the same for the past decade, if not lowered in value. The first series remains slightly higher in value based on the perceived poor quality stock of the first and second sheets, though I’ve never read a published study on the ink or stock of the two sheets to determine whether or not this is correct. The good news is that a price guide is just the starting point at what you could expect pay, but in reality it is up to the collector at determining what they are willing to pay. Although he was generally known as one of the premiere researchers and scholars of Exhibits and the Eastern Exhibit Supply Co., Woody Scharf provided a lot of excellent insights into this set. This set may have turned Scharf into a lifelong collector, but from what I gather, he was a very nice man who mentored many collectors and was instrumental in helping others with their research projects along the way. Woody was a WWII Navy veteran and passed on in 2012 at age 92 but his legacy within the Hobby is securely in place by those who knew him best. My hope is that one day his research material will be shared and maintained for future generations for study but for now, his articles have provided countless hours of enjoyment and study. These cards are not rare and just by the numbers alone - 100,993 graded by PSA in 2020 proves that. The set sold extremely well in 1933, averaging roughly $450,000 according to Bob Lemke’s research of a 1965 Federal Trade Commission report which is the equivalent of $9,244,176.92 today. As a result if there was

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a single card per pack going by Woody Scharf’s recollections, at least 450,000 cards were printed and because they’ve held up very well over the decades, you can probably add another 60-80,000 raw cards to the total surviving numbers. I started noticing the above mentioned press reports bore a striking similarity to Bernard Malamud’s (1914-1986) 1952 novel The Natural. This was in fact Malamud’s first novel which he took actual events such as the one chronicled within this article – Ruth vs. Judge Fuchs which is interpreted through the relationship Hobbs had with the Judge in the book and in the movie. Of all of Malamud’s novels and short stories including his Pulitzer winning The Fixer (1966), The Natural still resonates with fans of the book and move 65 years after it originally hit book shelves. One could make the argument that the Pop Fisher character was based on Charles Adams, but the book (something I suggest everyone read at least once), is very much routed Bernard Malamud, 1952 in the mythology of the Fisher King of the Arthurian legend, whereas the character “The Whammer” mirrors Babe Ruth. Over the tears many have come to believe that Walter Whambold, or Babe Ruth, represents pride before the fall…It was a young Roy Hobbs who unseated the old champion…in real life, it was Lou Gehrig. Think about that the next time you see the 1933 and 1934 Goudey sets.

No. Player b.\d. Date Active Years Hall of Fame

1. Benny Bengough (1898-1968) 1923-1932 2. Charles A. “Dazzy” Vance (1891-1961) 1915, 1918, 1922-1934 1955 3. Hugh Critz (1900-1980) 1924-1935 4. Henry “Heinie” Schuble (1906-1990) 1927, 1929, 1932-1936 5. Floyd “Babe” Herman (1903-1987) 1926-1937, 1945 6. (1896-1976) 1918-1939 7. “Sunday Teddy” Lyons (1900-1986) 1923-1942, 1946 1955 8. (1903-1973) 1929-1938 9. David “Sherriff” Harris (1900-1973) 1925-1934 10. (1897-1969) 1920-1936 11. William “Billy” Rogell (1904-2003) 1925, 1927-1940 12. (1899-1986) 1923-1924, 1927-1935 13. Lafayette “Fresco” Thompson (1902-1968) 1925-1934 14. Henry Johnson (1906-1982) 1925-1936, 1939 15. Victor Sorrell (1901-1972) 1928-1937 16. George Blaeholder (1904-1947) 1925-1936 17. Watson “Lefty” Clark (1902-1972) 1924, 1927-1936

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18. Harold “Muddy” Ruel (1896-1963) 1915, 1917-1934 19. William “Bill” Dickey (1907-1993) 1928-1943, 1946 1954 20. “Memphis Bill” Terry THROW (1898-1989) 1923-1936 1954 21. “Fidgety Phil” Collins (1901-1948) 1923, 1929-1935 22. Harold “Pie” Traynor (1899-1972) 1920-1935, 1937 1948 23. Hazen “Kiki” Cuyler (1898-1950) 1921-1938 1968 24. Horace “Hod” Ford (1897-1977) 1919-1933 25. Paul “Big Poison” Waner (1903-1965) 1926-1945 1952 26. Chalmer “Bill” Cissell (1904-1949) 1928-1938 27. George Connally (1898-1978) 1921, 1923-1934 28. Dick ”Rowdy Richard” Bartell (1907-1995) 1927-1943, 1946 29. Jimmie Foxx (1907-1967) 1925-1942, 1944-1945 1951 30. J. Frank “Shanty” Hogan (1906-1967) 1925-1937 31. (1903-1946) 1926-1939 1991 32. John “Bud” Clancy (1900-1968) 1924-1930, 1932, 1934 33. Ralph “Red” Kress (1905-1962) 1927-1940, 1946 34. Robert O'Farrell (1896-1988) 1915-1935 35. “Bucket Foot Al” Simmons (1902-1956) 1924-1941, 1943-1944 1953 36. (1903-1957) 1924-1938 37. James “Ace” Wilson (1900-1947) 1923-1940 38. George (Fred) Brickell (1906-1961) 1926-1931 39. (1904-1993) 1925-1936 40. Taylor Douthit (1901-1986) 1923-1933 41. Gus “Blackie” Mancuso (1905-1984) 1928, 1930-1945 42. Eddie Collins (1887-1951) 1906-1930 1939 43. Lewis Fonseca (1899-1989) 1921-1925, 1927-1933 44. “Sunny Jim” Bottomley (1900-1959) 1924-1938 1974 45. Larry Benton (1897-1953) 1923-1945 46. Ethan Allen (1904-1993) 1926-1938 47. Henry “Heinie” Manush (Batting) (1901-1971) 1923-1939 1964 48. Marty McManus (1900-1966) 1920-1934 49. Frankie “The Fordham Flash” Frisch (1898-1973) 1919-1937 1937 50. Edward Brandt (1905-1944) 1928-1938 51. Charlie “Jolly Cholly” Grimm (1898-1983) 1916, 1918-1936 52. Andy Cohen (1904-1988) 1925-1942 (Minor Leagues) 1926, 1928-29 (Major Leagues) 53. George H. “Babe” Ruth (1895-1948) yellow background 1914-1935 1936 54. Remy “Ray” or “Wiz” Kremer (1893-1965) 1924-1933 55. Perce ”Pat” Malone (1902-1943) 1928-1937 56. Charles “Red” Ruffing (1905-1986) 1924-1942, 1945-1947 1967 57. Bailey (Earl) Clark (1907-1938) 1927-1934 58. Frank “Lefty” O'Doul (yellow) (1896-1969) 1919-1923, 1928-1934 59. Edmund “Bing” Miller (1894-1966) 1921-1936 60. Waite “Schoolboy” Hoyt (1899-1984) 1918-1938 1969 62 Johnny “Pepper” Martin (1904-1965) 1928, 1930-1940, 1944 63. Joe Cronin BAT (1906-1984) 1926-1945 1956 64. (1893-1985) 1916-1935 1964 65. Nathaniel (Milton) Gaston (1896-1996) 1924-1934

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66. (1900-1954) 1922-1934 67. Guy Bush(1901-1985) 1923-1938, 1945 68. Horace “Hod” Lisenbee (1898-1987) 1927-1936, 1945 69. Randy Moore (1906-1992) 1927-1928, 1930-1937 70. Floyd “Pete” Scott (1897-1953) 1920-1933 (Minor Leagues) 1926-1928 (Major Leagues) 71. Robert “Lefty” Burke (1907-1971) 1927-1935, 1937 72. Owen “Ownie” Carroll (1902-1975) 1925, 1927-1934 73. Jesse “Pop” Haines (1893-1978) 1918, 1920-1937 74. Eppa “Jephtha” Rixey (1891-1963) 1912-1917, 1919-1933 1963 75. Willie Kamm (1900-1988) 1923-1935 76. Gordon “Mickey” or “Black Mike” Cochrane (1903-1962) 1925-1937 77. Adam Comorosky (1905-1951) 1926-1935 78. (Joannes Pajkos)(1883-1946) 1909-1933 79. Urban “Red” Faber (1888-1976) 1914-1933 80. Clyde “Pete” Manion (1896-1967) 1920-1934 81. “Sad Sam” Jones (1892-1966) 1914-1935 82. Edwin “Dib” Williams (1910-1992) 1930-1935 83. Pete Jablonowski (1904-1974) 1927-1942, 1945 (legally changed his name to Appleton in 1934) 84. Glenn Spencer(1905-1958) 1928, 1930-1933 85. John “Heinie” Sand (1897-1958) 1918-1934 (Minor Leagues) 1923-1928 (Major Leagues) 86. Phillip “Hook” Todt (1901-1973) 1921-1939 (Minor Leagues) 1924-1931 (Major Leagues) 87. Frank “Blackie” O'Rourke (1894-1986) 1912-1939 (Major Leagues) 1912, ‘17-18, 1924-31 (Major Leagues) 88. W. (Russell) “Red” Rollings (1904-1964) 1924-1941 (Minor Leagues) 1927-28, 1930 (Major Leagues) 89. Tris “The Grey Eagle” Speaker RET (1888-1958) 1907-1928 90. Jess “The Silver Fox” Petty (1894-1971) 1916-1917, 1919-1934 91. Johnathan “Tom” Zachary (1896-1968) 1918-1936 92. Henry “Lou” Gehrig (1903-1941) 1925-1939 1939 93. John Welch (1906-1940) 1926-1936 94. William “Bill” Walker (1903-1966) 1927-1936 95. Alvin “General” Crowder (1899-1972) 1926-1936 96. George (Willis) “Ace” Hudlin (1906-2002) 1926-1940, 1944 97. Joseph “Jo-Jo” Morrissey (1904-1950) 1932-1933, 1936 98. (1905-1988) 1930-1940 99. Tony “Chick” or “Cooch” Cuccinello (1907-1995) 1930-1945 100. George “The Bull” Uhle (1898-1985) 1919-1936 101. Richard Coffman (1906-1972) 1927-1940, 1945 102. Travis “Stonewall” Jackson (1903-1987) 1922-1936 103. (1899-1976) 1924-1935 1970 104. Fred “Firpo” Marberry (1898-1976) 1923-1936 105. Bernie Friberg (Gustav Friberg) (1899-1958) 1919-1933 106A. Napoleon Lajoie(1874-1959) SP 1896-1916 106B. -unissued, proof only 107. Henry “Heinie” Manush (blue portrait) (1901-1971) 1923-1939 1964

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108. Joseph Kuhel (1906-1984) 1930-1947 109. Joe Cronin (yellow) (1906-1984) 1926-1945 1956 110. Leon ”Goose” Goslin (1900-1971) 1921-1938 1968 111. Monte “Professor” Weaver (1906-1994) 1931-1939 112. Fred “Fritz” Schulte (1901-1983) 1927-1937 113. Oswald Bluege (portrait) (1900-1985) 114. James “Luke” Sewell (1901-1987) 1921-1939, 1942 115. Cliff Heathcoate (1898-1939) 1918-1932 116. Edward Morgan (1904-1980) 1938-1934 117. Walter “Rabbit” Maranville (1891-1954) 1912-1933, 1935 1954 118. Valentine Picinich (1896-1942) 1916-1933 119. Rogers “Rajah” Hornsby FIELD (1896-1963) 1915-1937 1942 120. Carl Reynolds (1903-1978) 1927-1939 121. Walter “Lefty” Stewart (1900-1974) 1921, 1927-1935 122. Alvin “General” Crowder (1899-1972) 1926-1936 123. Jack Russell (1905-1990) 1926-1940 124. Earl Whitehill (1899-1954) 1923-1939 125. “Memphis Bill” Terry (1898-1989) 1923-1936 1954 126. Joe “Jo-Jo” or “The Gause Ghost” Moore (1908-2001) 1930-1941 127. Mel Ott (1909-1958) 1926-1947 1951 128. Chuck Klein (1904-1958) 1928-1944 1980 129. “Prince Hal” Schumacher (pitching) (1910-1993) 1931-1942, 1946 130. “Fat Freddie” Fitzsimmons (1901-1979) 1925-1943 131. Fred Frankhouse (1904-1989) 1927-1939 132. James “Jumbo” Elliott (1900-1970) 1923, 1925, 1927-1934 133. Fred Lindstrom (1905-1981) 1924-1936 134. Edgar “Sam” Rice (1890-1974) 1915-1934 1963 135. Elwood “Woody” English (1907-1997) 1927-1938 136. Flint “Shad” Rhem (1901-1969) 1924-1936 137. Fred “Red” Lucas (1902-1986) 1923-1924, 1926-1938 1948 138. (1894-1948) 1912-1917, 1919-1934 139. Benjamin Cantwell (1902-1968) 1927-1937 140. Irving “Bump” Hadley (1904-1963) 1926-1941 141. Raymond Benge (1902-1997) 1928-1936, 1938 142. (1908-1986) 1932-1935, 1943-1946 143. Glenn “Buckshot” Wright (1901-1984) 1924-1933, 1935 144. George H. “Babe” Ruth (at bat) (double printed) 1914-1935 1936 145. George “Rube” Walberg (1896-1978) 1923-1937 146 Walter “Lefty” Stewart ( 1900-1974) (portrait) 1921, 1927-1935 147. “Leo the Lip” Durocher (1905-1991) 1925, 1928-1941, ’43, ‘45 1994 148. Edward “Doc” Farrell (1901-1966) 1925-1933, 1935 149. George H. “Babe” Ruth (red background) 1914-1935 1936 150. Raymond “Jockey” Kolp (1894-1967) 1921-1924, 1927-1934 151. D’Arcy “Jake” Flowers(1902-1962) 1923, 1926-1934 152. James “Zack” Taylor (1898-1974) 1920-1935 153. Buddy Myer (1904-1974) 1925-1941 154. Jimmie “Double X” Foxx (1907-1907) 1925-1945 1951

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155. Joseph Judge (1894-1963) 1915-1934 156. ”Decon Danny” MacFayden (1905-1972) 1926-1941, 1943 157. Sam ”Babe Ruth’s Legs” Byrd (1906-1981) 1929-1936 (Golf-1936-48) 158. Morris Berg (1902-1972) 1923, 1926-1939 159. Oswald Bluege (1900-1932) 1923-1941 160. Henry (Lou) Gehrig (1903-1941) 1923-1939 1939 161. Alfred Spohrer (1902-1972) 1928-1935 162. Leo “Blackie” Mangum (1896-1974) 1924-1925, 1928, 1932-35 163. Luke Sewell (1901-1987) 1929-1939, 1942 164. Lloyd “Little Poison” Waner (1906-1982) 1927-1942, 1944-1945 165. Joe Sewell (1898-1990) 1920-1934 1977 166. (1904-1985) 1927-1942 167. Jack Russell (1905-1990) 1926-1940 168. Goose Goslin (batting) (1900-1971) 1921-1938 1968 169. Alphonse “Tommy” Thomas (1899-1988) 1926-1937 170. Harry McCurdy (1899-1972) 1922-1923, 1926-1934 171. Charlie “Cuckoo” Jamieson (1893-1969) 1915-1932 172. William “Pinky” Hargrave (1896-1942) 1923-1933 173. Roscoe “Wattie” Holm (1901-1950) 1924-1929, 1932 174. Warren “Curly” Ogden (1901-1964) 1926-1934 (Minor League) 1922-1926 (Major Leagues) 175. “Dapper Dan” Howley (manager)(1885-1944) 1927-1932 176. John “Jack” Ogden (1897-1977) 1918-1934 (Minor League) 1918, 1928-29, 1931-32 (Major Leagues) 177. Walter “Piggy” French (1899-1984) 1923-1935 (Minor Leagues) 1923, 1925-1929 (Major Leagues) 178. John “Jackie” Warner (1903-1986) 1925-1933 179. Fred Leach (1897-1981) 1923-1932 180. Graham (Edward) Moore (1899-1976) 1923-1934 (Major Leagues) 1923-30, 1932, 1934 (Major Leagues) 181. George H. “Babe” Ruth (green background) 1914-1935 1936 182. Andrew “Knee” High (1897-1981) 1922-1934 (Released by Reds 7-11- 1933) Signed by Columbus 7-22-1933 183. George “Rube” Walberg (1896-1978) 1923-1937 184. Charley Berry (1902-1972) 1925, 1928-1938 185. Robert Smith (1895-1987) 1923-1937 186. John Schulte (1896-1978) 1923, 1927-1932 187. Henry “Heinie” Manush (red portrait) (1901-1971) 1923-1939 1964 188. Rogers Hornsby (1896-1963) 1915-1937 1942 189. Joe Cronin (1906-1984) 1926-1954 1956 190. Fred “Fritz” Schulte (1901-1983) 1927-1937 191. William (Ben) Chapman (1908-1993) 1930-1941, 1944-1946 192. Walter “Jumbo” Brown (1907-1966) 1925-28, 32-33, 35-41 193. Lynford “Broadway” Lary (1906-1973) 1929-1940 194. (1902-1984) 1929-1941 1975 195. Ernest (Evar) Swanson (1902-1973) 1929-1934 196. LeRoy “Popeye” Mahaffey (1904-1969) 1926-1927, 1930-1936 197. Richard “Rick” Ferrell (1905-1995) 1929-1947 1984 198. Jack “Slug” Burns (1907-1975) 1930-1936 199. Tom Bridges (1906-1968) 1930-1943, 1945-1946

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200. “Wild Bill” Hallahan (1902-1981) 1925-1926, 1929-1938 201. (1902-1968) 1927-1935 202. Charles ”Gabby” Hartnett(1900-1972) 1922-1941 203. (1909-1976) 1930-1943, 1945 204. Jackson (1898-1985) 1921-1934 205, Henry “Heinie” Meine (1896-1968) 1922, 1929-1934 206. August “Gus” Suhr(1906-2004) 1930-1940 207. Mel Ott (1909-1958) (with bat) 1926-1947 1951 208. Robert “Bernie” James (1905-1994) 1929-1930, 1933 209. Adolfo Luque (1890-1957) 1914-1935 210. Virgil ”Spud” Davis (1904-1984) 1928-1941, 1944-1945 211. Lewis “Hack” Wilson (1900-1948) 1923-1934 212. William “Billy” Urbanski (1903-1973) 1931-1937 213. Earl “Sparky” Adams (1894-1989) 1922-1934 214. John F. Kerr (1898-1993) 1923-1924, 1929-1934 215. Russell Van Atta (1906-1986) 1933-1939 216. Vernon “Lefty” Gomez (1908-1989) 1930-1943 1972 217. Frank “The Crow” Crosetti(1910-2002) 1932-1948 218. Wesley Ferrell (1908-1976) 1927-1941 219. George “Mule” Haas (1903-1974) 1925, 1928-1938 220. Robert “Lefty” Grove (1900-1975) 1925-1941 1947 221. Dale “Moose” Alexander (1903-1979) 1929-1933 222. Charlie “The Mechanical Man” Gehringer (1903-1993) 1924-1942 1949 223. Jay or Jerome ”Dizzy” Dean (1910 -1974) 1930, 1932-1941, 1947 1953 224. Joseph (Frank) Demaree (1910-1958) 1932-1944 225. William “Billy” Jurges (1908-1993) 1931-1947 226. Charles “Chinski” Root(1899-1970) 1923, 1926-1941 227. (1909-1992) 1931-1943, 1946-1947 1975 228. (Anthony Pietruszka)(1906-1981) 1931-1938 229. Joseph Floyd “Arky” Vaughan (1912-1952) 1932-1943, 1947-1948 1985 230. Carl Hubbell (pitching) (1903-1988) 1928-1943 1947 231. Joe “The Gauze Ghost” Moore (1908-2001) 1930-1941 232. Frank “Lefty” O'Doul (1896-1969) 1919-1923, 1928-1934 233. Jean “Johnny” Vergez (1906-1991) 1931-1936 234. Carl “The Meal Ticket” Hubbell (1903-1988) 1928-1943 1947 235. “Fat Freddie” Fitzsimmons (1901-1979) 1925-1942 236. Vergil “Spud” Davis (1904-1984) (portrait) 1928-1941, 1944-45 237. Gus Mancuso (1905-1984) (fielding) 1928, 1930-1945 238. Hugh Critz (1900-1980) (yellow background) 1924-1935 239. Leroy “Bud” or “Tarzan” Parmelee (1907-1981) 1929-1937, 1939 240. “Prince Hal” Schumacher (1910-1993) (portrait) 1931-1942, 1946

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1. “Only one for a penny? No doubles please”, Elwood Scharf – The Ballcard Collector, November 1970 2. “Ambulance Driver Wins Decoration” – The Washington Times, August, 29, 1918, pg. 3 3. (a & b) “Fight Manager Says No Baseball Bribe Was Asked” – Daily News (New York), January 10, 1929, pg. 439 4. “Boston Owners Glad To Get Rogers Hornsby” – The Morning Call (Allentown, PA), January 11, 1928, pg. 21 5. Separate excerpt from “Only one for a penny? No doubles please”, Elwood Scharf – The Ballcard Collector, November 1970

6(a) “Hubbell Faces Crowder In World Series Opener, As Rivals Compare Teams”, Luke Sewell Evening News (Wlkes-Barre, PA), September 30, 1933, pg. 8

6(b) From above referenced material written from interview with New York Giants Catcher Gus Mancuso.

7 “Cohen Hits Homer; Giants Crush Phils; Andy, Continuing His Brilliant Playing, Also Gets Two Singles in 8-1 Victory. 35,000 At Polo Grounds”, James R. Harrison - New York Times, April 16, 1928, Section S, pg. 28 8. “Berry Recalls “Different” Ruth”, Arthur Daily (for the New York Times) – The Morning Call (Allentown, PA), February 2, 1965, pg. 8 9. “Stars In Pinch And Gets Regular Job”, Billy Evans – The Tribune (Scranton, PA), January 19, 1926, pg. 16 10. “NEA Remembers Evar Swanson” – The Daily Chronicle (DeKalb, IL), April 8, 1972, pg. 9 11. “Yesterday’s Heroes” – The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, GA), May 24, 1936, pg. 17 12. “Baseball’s One Man Brain Trust”, Richard McCann – The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA), May 29, 1939, pg. 132 13. (a & b) Adios to Ghosts, “Beer Boy Corrals Babe Ruth” Christy Walsh - Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, Oct 19 1937 Pg. 22 (b) The complete book was issued as a series in the newspapers before being turned into a book. 14. “Babe Ruth Under Fire: Bambino’s Ultimatum to Retire from Baseball Unless Salary Boosted More Than $50,000 Rapped by Eastern Sports Critics” News-Pilot (San Pedro, CA) March 9, 1933, pg. 6. 15. “Boston Braves Purchased By New York Men” - Alton Evening Telegraph, pg. 6, February 21, 1923 16. “Babe” Ruth May Become Manager Of The Braves Next August” – Standard Speaker (Hazelton, PA), 17. “Babe Ruth Quits Baseball After Dispute With Fuchs” - Brownsville Herald, (Texas) June 3, 1935 pg. 16 18. Bob Quinn Now Controls Braves” – The Morning News (Wilmington, DE), January, 1, 1936, pg. 13

Cael McClanahan | August 6, 2020 | History Through Cards

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