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James Anthony Collins
St. Louis Cardinals
First Base
Born: March 30, 1904, Altoona, PA
Major League Teams: St. Louis Cardinals 1931-1936; Chicago Cubs 1937-1938; Pittsburgh Pirates 1941
World Series Appearances: St. Louis Cardinals 1931, 1934; Chicago Cubs 1938
Died: April 15, 1970, New Haven, NY (66)
Ripper Collins, the first baseman, not to be confused with Rip Collins, the pitcher (see below), was a three-time All-Star and as a member of the Gashouse Gang, the World Champions in 1931 and 1934. His best season came in 1934 when he tied for the the National League lead in home runs (35) with Mel Ott (#50) and led the league in slugging percentage (.615). He had earned his promotion to the Cardinals in 1931 after setting an International League record with 180 RBIs in 1930. Collins starred in the 1934 World Series, batting .367 (11 for 30) as the Cardinals defeated the Tigers in seven games. He was traded to the Cubs on October 8, 1936 with Ray Parmelee for Lon Warneke (#120). With the Cubs, he played in the 1938 World Series but struggled at the plate (2 for 15 - .133) as the Yankees easily handled Chicago in four games. Following that 1938 season, Collins was sold to the Pacific Coast League Los Angeles Angels, where he enjoyed two more productive seasons in 1939 and 1940. In nine big league seasons, Collins appeared in 1,084 games and batted .296 with 135 home runs and 659 RBIs.
Collins last appeared in the majors with the Pirates in 1941, but he continued as a player/manager between 1942 and 1946 with the Albany Senators in the Eastern League. He batted .396 in 1944 and was named The Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year at the age of 40. Collins was elected into the International League Hall of Fame in 1951, and briefly served as a coach for the Cubs in 1961 during their College of Coaches experiment.
December 11, 2020 from San Diego, CA (Kit Young Cards)
On the night I impulsively decided to collect the original Diamond Stars set, and I subsequently purchased the Harvey Hendrick (#41) card from Kit Young Cards, I also added the complete, and first, extended set to my cart for the very reasonable price of $7.50. The 12 cards in this first extended set were originally issued in 1981.
In the early 1980s, a family member of a former National Chicle employee discovered an uncut sheet of 12 unused cards presumably meant as a 1937 continuation of the Diamond Stars set. As originally advertised, and as mentioned on the back of every card issued, the company had intended for the set to contain 240 subjects. They only produced 108 cards before production was halted, and the theory is this newly found sheet represented a "lost" continuation of the set. Fortunately, the images of the cards made their way into the collecting world and a 12-card "what if" set was created. (More on the uncut sheet can be found here from SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee and from this Ryan Cracknell article for Beckett.)
The Beckett online database lists the set as "1981 Diamond Stars Continuation Den's" and the set's description notes "This set was created and produced by Denny Eckes. Hobbyist Mike Galella was involved in bringing this sheet to the the public. These cards were originally available from the producer for $3." The back of the cards have a 1981 copyright attributed to Den's Collectors Den, the company belonging to the aforementioned Eckes. I found the ad shown here within the pages of the The Sport Americana Baseball Card Price Guide, published in 1982.
The 12 cards include more ambitious geometric designs than the original Diamond Stars cards, although the overall color template remains the same as their 1934 to 1936 counterparts.
Variations Available
1 - 1981 / blue back / 1936 statistics / 1981 copyright
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| Rip, not Ripper |
Collins, the subject of this card, shouldn't be confused with the other Rip Collins, who was a pitcher for the Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers and Browns between 1920 and 1931. I think the person featured on this card is the pitcher and not the first baseman, and I've presented a photo here of the pitcher as my support. The photo used for the Diamond Stars card looks a lot more like Rip than it does of Ripper, and I'm willing to forgive National Chicle for the nickname mistake. However, as shown below, the company did have a usable picture of Ripper Collins in its archives as they produced a 1936 card for the first baseman. Maybe part of the reason the original 12-card update set was shelved was that someone realized they had the wrong person on the Collins card and they decided to give a rip. (I'm here all week, tip your waiters.)
Had this card actually been issued in 1937, Collins would have been a member of the Cubs given his trade to the team the previous October.
1937 Season
As the regular first baseman for the Cubs, Collins was once again an All-Star, getting a hit in the Midsummer Classic off Tigers' pitcher Tommy Bridges (#5). On June 29th, he played the entire game at first base without recording a putout, making him the only player in baseball history to perform that feat twice. He had done it previously in 1935. His season took a turn for the worse though when the Cubs team visited the Cook County jail in Chicago on August 9th and Collins jokingly sat in the electric chair. His teammates were not amused, viewing it as a bad luck omen. In his next game, Collins broke his ankle at a play at the plate and the Cubs fell out of first place shortly thereafter. For the season, Collins appeared in 115 games, batting .274 with 16 home runs and 71 RBIs.
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Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card: 1934 Goudey #51
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (0): N/A
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1994 Conlon Collection TSN #1237
31 - Collins non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 2/15/21.
Sources:
Previous Card: #115 Gene Moore - Boston Bees
Next Card: #117 Linus Frey - Brooklyn Dodgers
I am a fan of your blog and the Diamond Stars set in general. You mention here that this Rip Collins should not be confused with the other (pitcher) Rip Collins. Nonetheless, I believe National Chicle did this very thing. If you do some searches on the pitcher, I think you'll see a much stronger resemblance to the Diamond Stars card. This is probably the closest match: https://mlblogspinstripebirthdays.wordpress.com/2014/02/26/february-26-happy-birthday-rip-collins/
ReplyDeleteOh yes, they definitely mixed up the players here and I speculated later in the post that could have contributed to National Chicle scrapping the planned 12-card update set. Easy mistake to make, and what are the chances of two players with the last name of Collins having the nicknames Rip and Ripper?
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