1934-1936 Diamond Stars: #49 "Buck" Jordan

Sunday, February 13, 2022

#49 "Buck" Jordan - Boston Braves

Baxter Byerly Jordan

Boston Braves

First Base

Bats: Left Throws: Right Height: 6'0" Weight: 170

Born: January 16, 1907, Cooleemee, NC

Major League Teams: New York Giants 1927, 1929; Washington Senators 1931; Boston Braves 1932-1935; Boston Bees 1936-1937; Cincinnati Reds 1937-1938; Philadelphia Phillies 1938

Died: March 18, 1993, Salisbury, NC (86)

Buck Jordan played in parts of ten seasons in the majors, finding steady work between 1933 and 1936 as the Braves'/Bees' regular first baseman. With little power, Jordan focused on singles and doubles, hitting at least .300 in five different seasons, including a career-high .323 in 1936. That was Jordan's best season, as he led the sixth place Bees in batting average and with 179 hits. He was a solid defender, leading the National League in putouts in 1933 and in double plays turned as a first baseman (with 137) in 1936. In 811 major league games, Jordan collected 890 hits, including 153 doubles, while batting .299. His career fielding percentage at first base was an impressive .990 as he made just 68 errors in 6,678 chances.

Building the Set

January 21, 2022 from Key West, FL (Quality Baseball Cards) - Card #42

Mid-January is never a fun time for me, and needing a break during a long work day I found myself on eBay looking for the remaining Dick Bartell (#15 and #101) variations I needed. I had recently added his most commonly found card from the set, noting his team as the Giants on the back, but I wanted to try to find his other two cards from the set as well.

In my travels, I found what I considered to be extremely unusual for this pandemic-induced collecting age - a large group of auctions from seller quality*cards from the Diamond Stars set with no bids, including the elusive Bartell card from the set's third series. I set my opening bids, and waited a few days for the auctions to close. Again, much to my surprise, there was little to no action on the auctions until their closing minutes. I lost a few auctions as the seconds ticked away, but I came away with six new cards overall, including this Jordan card for less than $25.

Variations Available

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

The Card / Braves Team Set

The first thing I noticed about this card was the text on the back. National Chicle usually shrinks the text spacing down in order to squeeze as much narrative as possible on the backs of these cards. With Jordan's card, they've spread out the text as the tip, encouraging a batter to hustle to first base, is much shorter than usual. Jordan appeared on very few mainstream baseball cards during his playing days, with this card and his 1934 Goudey card being the most readily available for him.

1935 Season

The Braves were a bad team in 1935, losing 115 games and finishing in last place, 61 1/2 games behind the pennant-winning Cubs. Jordan was the Braves opening day first baseman, and he'd ultimately start 95 games at the position, losing playing time to either Randy Moore or Elbie Fletcher as the season wore on. His appearances over the final months of the season were limited to pinch-hitting or serving as a late inning defensive replacement. Overall, Jordan batted a respectable .279 for the Braves with five home runs (a career-high) and 35 RBIs.

Phillies Career

On June 10, 1938, the Phillies acquired the 31-year-old Jordan from the Reds for infielder Justin Stein. In his last action in the majors, Jordan would play in 87 games for the Phillies, batting an even .300 (93 for 310) with 18 RBIs. With Phil Weintraub as the Phillies' regular first baseman, starts were scarce at that position, but Jordan shifted over to third, making 55 starts there in place of Pinky Whitney.

On June 26th, just a few weeks after being acquired from the Reds, Jordan banged out eight hits against his former team in a double header at the Baker Bowl. On March 29, 1939, the Phillies sold Jordan's contract to the Syracuse Chiefs in the then Double-A International League. Jordan would continue to play in the minor leagues in 1939, 1940 and part of 1942 before retiring.