1934-1936 Diamond Stars: #81 Bill Delancey

Sunday, June 5, 2022

#81 Bill Delancey - St. Louis Cardinals

William Pinkney DeLancey

St. Louis Cardinals

Catcher

Bats: Left Throws: Right Height: 5'11" Weight: 185

Born: November 28, 1911, Greensboro, NC

Major League Teams: St. Louis Cardinals 1932, 1934-1935, 1940

World Series Appearances: St. Louis Cardinals 1934

Died: November 28, 1946, Phoenix, AZ (35)

Bill DeLancey was a key member of the Gashouse Gang Cardinals team that won the World Series in 1934. Platooning behind the plate with veteran Spud Davis, DeLancey made 65 starts to Davis' 89. DeLancey batted .316 overall in 93 games, with 18 doubles, 13 home runs and 40 RBIs. His home run total was third on the club behind Ripper Collins (#116) with 35 and Joe Medwick (#66) with 18. The Cardinals faced off against the Tigers in the 1934 World Series, with the Tigers featuring an all right-handed starting pitching rotation. As such, DeLancey caught every inning of the seven game series and contributed a home run with four RBIs. He received the bulk of the playing time at catcher in 1935, appearing in a career-high 103 games and starting 77 times to Davis' 76 starts.

He slumped throughout the 1935 season and was diagnosed with tuberculosis following the campaign. DeLancey voluntarily retired as a player in 1936 and a year later took a job managing the Cardinals' Class D farm team in Albuquerque. He managed the team for three seasons and returned to the Cardinals briefly in 1940 as their third-string catcher. DeLancey returned to the minor leagues to manage in 1942. Inactive during the war years, he tragically passed away from tuberculosis on his 35th birthday.

Building the Set

May 3, 2022 from Wenonah, NJ (Gar Miller Cards) - Card #54

Growing up in South Jersey, I'd look forward to the Ocean City Baseball Card show every summer, saving my precious birthday or gas mowing money so that I could spend it all during one glorious afternoon inside the Ocean City Music Pier among dozens of tables of vintage baseball cards. When my wife Jenna texted me that there was a baseball card show coming up in Ocean City on April 30th, I admittedly got giddy. We needed 11 cards to complete our 1965 Topps set, I had plans to begin collecting a 1969 Topps set, and I figured I'd add a Diamond Stars card or two to that growing set. We loaded the family in the car, trekked down to Ocean City, and I stepped inside the Music Pier for the first time in over 20 years.

The memories came flooding back, but none of the former baseball card dealers from my youth did. There were maybe 15 tables scattered on the lower portion of the Music Pier floor and I immediately scanned mostly shiny slabbed cards, bobble heads, signed jerseys, and nary a vintage baseball card in sight. It was a little depressing. Determined to come away with something, anything for my collection, I scoured a "3 for $20" box and came away with a few cards for Doug's collection, namely Alec Bohm relic cards, and six cards from sets I'm not even collecting yet.

All of this is meant as a prelude to how this DeLancey card ended up in my collection. My budgeted show money burning a hole in my pocket, I navigated over to Gar Miller Cards' online store when we got home and held my own virtual baseball card show. I added four cards to our Diamond Cards set, crossed off three more cards for our 1965 Topps set and threw in a few cool cards to add to the 1969 Topps pile I've started.

Variations Available

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

2 - 1935 / blue back / 1934 statistics / 1935 copyright

3 - 1936 / blue back / 1935 statistics / 1935 copyright ✅

Cards 73 through 84 were issued in 1935 with either green or blue ink on the back and statistics from 1934. These same 12 cards were issued again in 1936 with blue ink on the back and statistics from 1935. The DeLancey card for my set is the third of the three variations available, issued in 1936.

The Card / Cardinals Team Set

This is DeLancey's first mainstream baseball card, and one of the very few cards issued of the catcher during his brief playing career. That could be player-manager Frankie Frisch (#17) making a cameo in the background as one of two players apparently having a pre-game conversation. The tip on the back of the card concerns keeping your ungloved hand curled into a fist when catching, to avoid any unwanted broken fingers.

1936 Season

With his condition worsening, and having moved to Arizona as the hope was the state's dry air would aid in his recovery, DeLancey voluntarily retired from baseball on February 12, 1936. With the help of the Cardinals and their General Manager, Branch Rickey, DeLancey did recover enough to return to baseball in 1937 as the manager of the Class-D Albuquerque Cardinals.