1934-1936 Diamond Stars: #47 Cliff Bolton

Sunday, March 14, 2021

#47 Cliff Bolton - Washington Senators

William Clifton Bolton

Washington Senators

Catcher

Bats: Left Throws: Right Height: 5'9" Weight: 160

Born: April 10, 1907, High Point, NC

Major League Teams: Washington Senators 1931, 1933-1936; Detroit Tigers 1937; Washington Senators 1941

World Series Appearances: Washington Senators 1933

Died: April 21, 1979, Lexington, NC (72)

Catcher Cliff Bolton spent parts of seven seasons in the major leagues with the Senators and Tigers, serving mainly as a back-up or pinch-hitter. Bolton went to the World Series with the Senators in 1933 and went 0 for 2 in two pinch-hitting appearances. He got his chance to play everyday in 1935 as the Senators' regular catcher and had a career year with 55 RBIs while batting .304. In 335 major league games, Bolton batted .291 with 6 home runs and 143 RBIs. Appearing for the final time in the majors in 1941, he amazingly stuck around for another 11 seasons in the minor leagues, often batting well over .300. He was a steady catcher over those years in the minor league systems of the White Sox, Athletics and Braves, finally retiring following the 1952 season at the age of 45.

Building the Set

January 9, 2021 from Tomball, TX (The Battersbox) - Card #9

After a stressful first week of 2021, I decided there was really no better time to take advantage of the sale going on within the eBay store of The Battersbox, and I happily clicked Buy It Now on four reasonably priced Diamond Stars cards for my set. I'm looking for cards in better than average shape, with no paper loss and no extraneous markings and these four cards passed my test. This Bolton card was tied with the John Whitehead (#51) card as the cheapest from the lot as both were $18.29. With the four cards purchased from The Battersbox, I had my first 10 cards in the set, with only 108 to go. (108 cards in the set, plus 10 variations I'm chasing for my version of a 118-card master set.)

Variations Available

1 - 1935 / green back / 1934 statistics / 1935 copyright

The Card / Senators Team Set

It looks as if both Goudey and National Chicle used the same photo for their respective Bolton cards, with National Chicle adding a player emerging from the dugout to the background. The write-up on the back of the card, detailing how a catcher is permitted to stand as a roadblock while guarding home plate, was made obsolete in 2011 with the implementation of the Buster Posey Rule. Rule 7.13 states that "a runner attempting to score may not deviate from the his direct pathway to the plate in order to initiate contact with the catcher." So even if the catcher drops the ball, if the runner intentionally "jam[s] through a score," he's out. One caveat to this rule is that the catcher has to allow a clear path to the plate, and can't block it until he has possession of the ball. Bolton would have been appalled.

1935 Season

As mentioned above, this was Bolton's best season in the majors. He was the opening day catcher for the Senators, and started 101 of their 154 games behind the plate. Sammy Holbrook was the primary back-up catcher for the Senators. Of course it wasn't measured at the time, but Bolton's WAR of 2.5 was third on the team among offensive players behind second baseman Buddy Myer (#4) at 6.4 and third baseman Cecil Travis at 3.6.