#53 Oscar Melillo - St. Louis Browns

Oscar Donald Melillo

St. Louis Browns

Second Base

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'8"  Weight:  150

Born:  August 4, 1899, Chicago, IL

Major League Teams:  St. Louis Browns 1926-1935; Boston Red Sox 1935-1937

As a Manager:  St. Louis Browns 1938

Died:  November 14, 1963, Chicago, IL (64)

Oscar Melillo, better known by his nickname "Ski," was a steady hitting and slick fielding second baseman in the American League for 12 seasons, spending most of his time with the Browns.  In 1926, while suffering from Bright's Disease, his doctor informed him he needed to go on a diet consisting exclusively of spinach if he wanted to stave off a potentially fatal kidney ailment.  Melillo complied and he earned a second nickname, "Spinach," for his troubles.  He was the Browns regular second baseman for seven seasons between 1929 and 1935 before finishing his career with the Red Sox.  Melillo hit a career high .306 in 1931 while driving in 75 runs.  In 1933, he drove in a career high 79 runs.  Melillo was one of the best defensive infielders of his day, leading the league in fielding percentage for all second basemen twice.  His 965 double plays turned at second base currently rank 34th on the all-time list.  Melillo collected 1,316 hits over his big league career, batting .260 with 22 home runs and 547 RBIs.

He spent another 12 seasons as a major league coach with the Browns (1938), Indians (1939-1940, 1942, 1945-1948, 1950), Red Sox (1952-1953) and Athletics (1955-1956).  Melillo served as an interim manager for the Browns at the end of their 1938 season, replacing the departed Gabby Street, and guiding the team to a 2-7-1 record over their final 10 games.  He'd win a World Series ring while with the Indians coaching staff in 1948.

Building the Set

August 31, 2021 from Niwot, CO - Card #27

To close out the summer, and after adding a trio of cards from Clean Sweep Auctions, I decided to add another trio of cards, this time from eBay seller Vintage Card Company from Niwot, Colorado.  I had a few of these cards on my watch list for a good chunk of the summer and while parsing down that watch list recently I opted for the Buy It Now option in lieu of the Remove from Watch List option.  The former option is always more fun.  The trio of cards arrived the day of my Mom's back surgery so they were a welcome sight in my mailbox after a day of anxiety and waiting.  (She's doing great now, slowly but surely recovering.)

Variations Available

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

The Card / Browns Team Set

That's a fanatic city sky line in the background behind Melillo.  National Chicle could have easily gone with a plain red sky behind the batter, but opted for a yellow and green sky line instead.  A fielding tip would have been a natural choice for the back of Melillo's card, but we get a base running tip instead.

1935 Season

Melillo was the Browns' opening day second baseman and appeared in 19 games for the club before a trade on May 27th sent him to the Red Sox for outfielder Moose Solters (#85) and cash.  At the time, the Browns desperately needed more offense and the Red Sox needed to improve their infield defense.  Melillo appeared in 106 games for the Red Sox, forming a strong double play combination with shortstop Joe Cronin (#123).  Melillo batted .260 with 39 RBIs.  His SABR biography notes his locker was stationed next to pitcher Lefty Grove (#1), who didn't speak to Melillo for several weeks after the second baseman had joined the club.  Back in 1931, Melillo had doubled off Grove to ruin his streak of 16 consecutive wins.  Ultimately, Grove relented and started talking to his new teammate.

1933 DeLong Gum #3

1933 George C. Miller (R300)

1934 Goudey #45

1934-36 Batter-Up (R318) #151

1961 Fleer Baseball Greats #127

Other Notable Baseball Cards

First Mainstream Card:  1929-30 Exhibits Four-in-One (W463-1) #30

Topps Flagship Set Appearances (0):  N/A

Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1993 Conlon Collection TSN #890

Melillo doesn't have any solo Topps flagship set appearances, but he appears as a coach on the Athletics' team card found in the 1956 Topps set.

43 - Melillo non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 9/13/21.

Sources:

Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

Previous Card:  #52 George Stainback - Chicago Cubs

Next Card: #54 "Hank" Greenberg - Detroit Tigers

#90 Ray Hayworth - Detroit Tigers

Raymond Hall Hayworth

Detroit Tigers

Catcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  180

Born:  January 29, 1904, High Point, NC

Major League Teams:  Detroit Tigers 1926, 1929-1938; Brooklyn Dodgers 1938-1939; New York Giants 1939; St. Louis Browns 1942; Brooklyn Dodgers 1944-1945

World Series Appearances:  Detroit Tigers 1934

Died:  September 25, 2002, Salisbury, NC (98)

Known as a strong defender behind the plate, Ray Hayworth spent almost 50 years in professional baseball as a player, manager and scout.  Beginning in 1934, after a few seasons of seeing regular playing time with the Tigers, Hayworth settled in as the back-up for future Hall of Famer and player/manager Mickey Cochrane (#9).  He was a member of the 1934 and 1935 Tigers teams that won the American League pennant, although he didn't appear in the 1935 World Series when the Tigers defeated the Cubs in six games.  Hayworth briefly returned to regular starting duties in 1936, but then spent the remaining years of his playing career as a back-up with the Tigers, Dodgers, Giants and Browns.  He appeared in nine games with the Dodgers in 1944 and 1945, as one of the oldest players in the league as World War II had severely depleted major league rosters.  Hayworth retired with 546 career hits and a .265 batting average.

He began his managerial career in 1946 when Dodgers president Branch Rickey hired him to manage the Fort Worth Cats, the Dodgers' Texas League affiliate.  He moved to the Cubs organization in 1947, and served as their chief of scouting operations in 1959.  Hayworth scouted Ernie Banks, signing the young star to a $22,000 contract in 1953.  Hayworth later scouted for the Braves (1960-1970) and Expos (1971-1973), before finally retiring from baseball.

Building the Set

August 26, 2021 from Port Washington, NY (Clean Sweep Auctions) - Card #26

I returned to Clean Sweep Auctions for a trio of cards for my Diamond Stars set to celebrate recent positive work-related news.  Again, while some people would prefer expensive trinkets or a fancy night on the town after a professional achievement, I prefer to celebrate by buying a few old baseball cards.  I'm getting more familiar with a lot of the usual players involved in eBay auctions for these older pre-war cards, and I've found Clean Sweep regularly has the most reasonable prices for their cards.  I've learned to steer clear of certain sellers who typically mark up their prices at what are occasionally twice as much as the same cards from Clean Sweep.  Another challenge while trying to build this set is trying to stay away from graded/slabbed cards.  I'd like to house the entire set in nine-pocket pages, in order, and so far I've been able to save myself the trouble of buying a slabbed card and having to jailbreak it from the hard plastic casing.  I realize I may decide to break this rule for some of the pricier cards in the set when I get to the point of adding those.

This is the second card I've added from the set's third and final series, issued in 1936.  All the cards issued in 1936 by National Chicle contain blue ink on the card backs, instead of the green ink used for the cards issued in 1934 and 1935.

Variations Available

1 - 1936 / blue back / 1935 statistics / 1936 copyright

The Card / Tigers Team Set

I'm assuming National Chicle intended that to be outfielder Goose Goslin (#112) making a cameo appearance on Hayworth's card, having a conversation with an umpire.  Goslin, a future Hall of Famer, played with the Tigers between 1934 and 1937 and wore #4 while with Detroit.  While Goslin didn't appear in the originally issued Diamond Stars cards released between 1934 and 1936, he did have a potential fourth series card that presumably could have been released in 1937.  Goslin would have to wait until the 1981 issuance of the extended set collector's series to finally receive his own Diamond Stars card.  Then again . . . maybe that's not even a Tigers player.  Hayworth is shown wearing a white Tigers hat while the mysterious #4 is shown wearing a dark hat.  The Tigers wore the white hat worn by Hayworth on the road for just the 1935 season.

The back of the card discusses Hayworth's role as Cochrane's back-up, and notes the Tigers are favored to repeat as American League champions in 1936.

1936 Season

But the Tigers did not repeat, dropping to second place and losing manager Cochrane to a nervous breakdown in early June.  Hayworth again assumed every day catching duties, ultimately appearing in 81 games and batting .240.  Coach Del Baker would take over for Cochrane during his absence.

1933 George C. Miller (R300)

1934-36 Batter-Up (R318) #165

1939 Play Ball #140

1940 Play Ball #155

Other Notable Baseball Cards

First Mainstream Card:  1934-36 Batter-Up (R318) #165

Topps Flagship Set Appearances (0):  N/A

Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1979 TCMA Diamond Greats #385

22 - Hayworth non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 9/5/21.

Sources:

Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

Previous Card:  #89 Joe Stripp - Brooklyn Dodgers

Next Card: #91 Bucky Harris MG - Washington Senators

#85 Julius Solters - St. Louis Browns

Julius Joseph Solters

St. Louis Browns

Outfield

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  190

Born:  March 22, 1906, Pittsburgh, PA

Major League Teams:  Boston Red Sox 1934-1935; St. Louis Browns 1935-1936; Cleveland Indians 1937-1939; St. Louis Browns 1939; Chicago White Sox 1940-1941, 1943

Died:  September 28, 1975, Pittsburgh, PA (69)

In 1932, while playing for the Albany Senators in the Eastern League, Julius Solters was given the nickname Moose by Albany manager Bill McCorry and the name stuck throughout the rest of his playing career.  Solters was a  power-hitting outfield prospect with the Red Sox and began the 1935 season as Boston's opening day left fielder.  On May 27th that season, while the St. Louis Browns were in Boston, the Red Sox were in need of an infielder and Solters was dealt to the Browns for Ski Melillo (#53).  Apparently, without a new uniform, Solters had to attempt to wear the much smaller Melillo's old Browns uniform for the series, with Browns manager Rogers Hornsby (#44) promising to get Solters a bigger uniform once the team returned to St. Louis.

Solters clubbed a career-high 136 RBIs in 1936 with the Browns, but he was on the move again in January 1937 when he was dealt to Cleveland.  In his first year with the Indians, he batted a career high .323 to go along with a career-high 20 home runs.  He's spend the next several seasons as a bench player before getting a chance for more regular playing time with the White Sox in 1940.  On August 1, 1941, Solters was hit with an errant pre-game throw to the head that knocked him unconscious and would ultimately lead to his complete blindness.  He retired after nine seasons in the majors with 990 hits, and a .289 batting average to go along with 83 home runs and 599 RBIs.

Building the Set

August 26, 2021 from Port Washington, NY (Clean Sweep Auctions) - Card #25

I returned to Clean Sweep Auctions for a trio of cards for my Diamond Stars set to celebrate recent positive work-related news.  Again, while some people would prefer expensive trinkets or a fancy night on the town after a professional achievement, I prefer to celebrate by buying a few old baseball cards.  I'm getting more familiar with a lot of the usual players involved in eBay auctions for these older pre-war cards, and I've found Clean Sweep regularly has the most reasonable prices for their cards.  I've learned to steer clear of certain sellers who typically mark up their prices at what are occasionally twice as much as the same cards from Clean Sweep.  Another challenge while trying to build this set is trying to stay away from graded/slabbed cards.  I'd like to house the entire set in nine-pocket pages, in order, and so far I've been able to save myself the trouble of buying a slabbed card and having to jailbreak it from the hard plastic casing.  I realize I may decide to break this rule for some of the pricier cards in the set when I get to the point of adding those.

This is the first card I've added from the set's third and final series, issued in 1936, and the first card overall from that third series.  All the cards issued in 1936 by National Chicle contain blue ink on the card backs, instead of the green ink used for the cards issued in 1934 and 1935.

Variations Available

1 - 1936 / blue back / 1935 statistics / 1936 copyright

The Card / Browns Team Set

Solters is shown attempting a diving catch in the outfield, and I imagine the artist had to swap out his Red Sox uniform for a Browns uniform.  It looks as if someone may have taken a pencil to this card over the years and underlined Solters' new team, the Browns, on the back of the card.

1936 Season

Solters began the season with the Browns and he was the club's steady left fielder.  He appeared in 152 games, batting .291 with 17 home runs and 134 RBIs.  While his RBI total led the team, his home run total was second on the club behind third baseman Harlond Clift (#122).  Amazingly, his high RBI total was fifth in the league behind Zeke Bonura (#65), Jimmie Foxx (#64), Lou Gehrig (#130) and Hal Trosky (#70) who led the league with 162 RBIs.  Solters most frequently shared the Browns outfield with Beau Bell in right and Sam West in center.

1934 Goudey #30

1938 Goudey Heads-Up #279

1939 Play Ball #78

1940 Play Ball #126

1941 Double Play #71

Other Notable Baseball Cards

First Mainstream Card:  1934 Goudey #30

Topps Flagship Set Appearances (0):  N/A

Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1991 Conlon Collection TSN #285

23 - Solters non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 9/4/21.

Sources:

Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

Previous Card:  #84 Sam Byrd - Cincinnati Reds

Next Card: #86 Frank Crosetti - New York Yankees

#58 Glenn Myatt - Cleveland Indians

Glenn Calvin Myatt

Cleveland Indians

Catcher

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'11"  Weight:  165

Born:  July 9, 1897, Argenta, AR

Major League Teams:  Philadelphia Athletics 1920-1921; Cleveland Indians 1923-1935; New York Giants 1935; Detroit Tigers 1936

Died:  August 9, 1969, Houston, TX (72)

Glenn Myatt spent parts of 16 big league seasons mostly as a back-up catcher and pinch-hitter.  He appeared in over 100 games in a season only twice, playing in 105 and 106 games respectively for the Indians in 1924 and 1925.  Not surprisingly, those were his best two years and he hit his career highs in batting average (.342) and RBIs (73) in 1924 while hitting a career high 11 home runs in 1925.  In 1926, he lost his starting job to Luke Sewell, beginning a decade of consistent playing time as a bat off the bench and a reliable receiver.  Myatt's last season in the majors came in 1936 when he appeared in 27 games for the Tigers as a 38-year-old veteran.  He appeared in 1,004 big league games, collecting 722 hits while batting .270 with 38 home runs and 387 RBIs.

Building the Set

August 26, 2021 from Port Washington, NY (Clean Sweep Auctions) - Card #24

I returned to Clean Sweep Auctions for a trio of cards for my Diamond Stars set to celebrate recent positive work-related news.  Again, while some people would prefer expensive trinkets or a fancy night on the town after a professional achievement, I prefer to celebrate by buying a few old baseball cards.  I'm getting more familiar with a lot of the usual players involved in eBay auctions for these older pre-war cards, and I've found Clean Sweep most regularly has the most reasonable prices for their cards.  I've learned to steer clear of certain sellers who typically mark up their prices at what are occasionally twice as much as the same cards from Clean Sweep.  Another challenge while trying to build this set is trying to stay away from graded/slabbed cards.  I'd like to house the entire set in nine-pocket pages, in order, and so far I've been able to save myself the trouble of buying a slabbed card and having to jailbreak it from the hard plastic casing.  I realize I may decide to break this rule for some of the pricier cards in the set when I get to the point of adding those.

Variations Available

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

The Card / Indians Team Set

You can tell Myatt has used super speed to toss off his mask here as shown by the blurred white lines coming off the top of the mask.  I kid of course, but this is nevertheless a wonderful action shot of the catcher and overall a fantastic baseball card.  The background features a waving American flag and three loitering teammates in the distance.  I giggled a little at the tip on the back.  If you're a catcher, it's important your equipment fits so that you avoid your mask blinding you because you hadn't taken the time to tighten the strap holding it around your head.  That's great stuff.  The tip goes on to remind catchers not to risk tripping over ill-fitting shin guards.

1935 Season

Myatt was the opening day catcher for the Indians, and he'd play in 10 more games for his long-time team before he was released on May 23rd.  He batted .083 (3 for 36) causing Indians' manager Walter Johnson to decide to release him.  A few days later, the Giants took a chance and signed the 37-year-old catcher.  He'd appear in only 13 games for the Giants, making four starts behind the plate and pinch-hitting in nine other games.  In his combined 23 games played in 1935, Myatt batted only .130 with a home run and eight RBIs.

1927 Exhibits (W461)

1933 Goudey #10

1935 Goudey 4-in-1 (R321)

1991 Conlon Collection TSN #187

Other Notable Baseball Cards

First Mainstream Card:  1927 Exhibits W461

Topps Flagship Set Appearances (0):  XX

Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1991 Conlon Collection TNS #187

17 - Myatt non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 8/29/21.

Sources:

Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Previous Card:  #57 "Cy" Blanton - Pittsburgh Pirates

Next Card: #59 Jim Bottomley - Cincinnati Reds