1934-1936 Diamond Stars: #111 Phil Cavarretta

Sunday, November 21, 2021

#111 Phil Cavarretta - Chicago Cubs

Philip Joseph Cavarretta

Chicago Cubs

First Base

Bats: Left Throws: Left Height: 5'11" Weight: 175

Born: July 19, 1916, Chicago, IL

Major League Teams: Chicago Cubs 1934-1953; Chicago White Sox 1954-1955

World Series Appearances: Chicago Cubs 1935, 1938, 1945

As a Manager: Chicago Cubs 1951-1953

Died: December 18, 2010, Liburn, GA (94)

Phil Cavarretta made his debut with the Cubs a few months after his 18th birthday, and he spent the next 22 years compiling an impressive playing career in Chicago. He was a regular with the Cubs from the mid-1930s until the late-1940s, playing first base and all three outfield positions. Cavarretta enjoyed a career resurgence in the mid-1940s after missing significant time between 1938 and 1940 with a hip injury and a broken ankle. He made his first of three All-Star teams in 1944, and also led the league that season with 197 hits. In 1945, Cavarretta won the league's batting title with a .355 mark and was named the National League MVP. He batted .423 in the 1945 World Series, although the Cubs lost in seven games to the Tigers. Towards the end of his time with the Cubs, Cavarretta served as the team's player-manager between 1951 and 1953, guiding the team to a 169-213 record and finishing as high as fifth place in 1952. He spent a final two seasons playing for the White Sox before retiring. Cavarretta appeared in 2,030 games, collecting 1,977 hits while batting .293. His 1,927 hits while with the Cubs are currently 10th on the franchise's all-time leader's list, and he was the all-time Cubs leader in games played with 1,953 before Ernie Banks surpassed the mark in 1966.

Cavarretta managed in the minor leagues between 1956 and 1958, and again between 1965 and 1972. He'd later serve as a major league coach for the Tigers (1961-1963) and Mets (1975-1978). Cavarretta is a member of the Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame.

Building the Set

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

The Card / Cubs Team Set

This card, along with most of the contemporary cards issued for Cavarretta in the 1930s and 1940s, misspell his name with only one "R." The text on the back of the card refers to how young Cavarretta was (20 years old as of July 19, 1936) and that he had only spent the 1934 season playing in the minor leagues.

1937 Season

The Cubs finished in second place in the National League, three games behind the pennant-winning New York Giants. Cavarretta saw action in 106 games, making 84 total starts - 40 at first base, 38 in center field and six in left field. The Cubs players with more starts at each of those positions than Cavarretta were Ripper Collins at first, Joe Marty in center field and Augie Galan in left field, none of whom appeared in the original Diamond Stars set. Cavarretta batted .286 with five home runs and 56 RBIs.