1934-1936 Diamond Stars: March 2023

Sunday, March 19, 2023

#13 George Blaeholder - St. Louis Browns

George Franklin Blaeholder

St. Louis Browns

Pitcher

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

Born: January 26, 1904, Orange, CA

Major League Teams: St. Louis Browns 1925, 1927-1935; Philadelphia Athletics 1935; Cleveland Indians 1936

Died: December 29, 1947, Garden Grove, CA (43)

Pitching 11 years in the major leagues, George Blaeholder is credited with popularizing the now ubiquitous slider pitch, then known as the nickel curve or the slide ball. Blaeholder pitched primarily with the Browns, first regularly joining their starting rotation in 1928. He'd win at least 10 games each season between 1928 and 1934, but given the losing nature of the Browns during those years, he'd not post any winning seasons. He was 14-15 in 1929 with a 4.18 ERA and a league leading four shutouts, during one of his better years. Blaeholders' highest bWAR of 4.9 came in 1934 when he was 14-18 with a 4.22 ERA in 39 games and 234 1/3 innings pitched. His final two big league seasons came in 1935 with the Athletics and in 1936 with the Indians, when he posted an 8-4 record and the only winning record of his career.

Blaeholder spent six seasons between 1937 and 1942 pitching for the Milwaukee Brewers, then a farm team of the Indians, but he'd never make it back to the majors. For the Browns, Athletics and Indians, he was 104-125 in 338 games pitched, with a 4.54 ERA and 572 strikeouts over 1,1914 1/3 innings. For the Brewers, he was 52-54 in 206 games with a 4.13 ERA.

Building the Set

March 10, 2023 from Passaic, NJ - Card #76

I took a chance purchasing this card from eBay seller kugo_556, given the low Buy It Now price and the limited feedback the seller had received. As a rule, I tend to stay away from sellers with low feedback tallies and any negative feedback in the prior six months. But I couldn't beat the price, and I clicked Buy It Now on this card on the same night I added the cards of George Selkirk (#88) and Van Mungo (#102). A few weeks later, the card hadn't yet arrived and I feared my money and this card were long gone. Fortunately though, the seller quickly responded to my message and told me he had forgotten to send the card and it was on its way. To the seller's credit, the card did in fact arrive a few days later, albeit two weeks after I had purchased the card. It was contained in a crumpled up penny sleeve, but the card otherwise looked like a nearly 90-year-old card should look.

Variations Available

1 - 1934 / green back / 1933 statistics / 1934 copyright

2 - 1935 / green back / 1934 statistics / 1934 copyright ✅

The Card / Browns Team Set

This is the sixth and final card needed to complete the Browns team set, and that's the second team set completed, following the Dodgers set completed a few days earlier. My version of the card has quite a bit of grime towards the upper left corner, which seems appropriate given the location of the smokestack in the distance behind Blaeholder. The tip on the back of the card stresses control, which is an interesting choice of a tip for Blaeholder. He walked quite a few batters, and in some seasons he tallied more walks than strikeouts. For his career, Blaeholder had 535 walks to his 572 career strikeouts.

1935 Season

Blaeholder appeared in six games for the Browns before being traded to the Athletics on May 21st for Sugar Cain and Ed Coleman. (I'm not making up Cain's name, and I had never heard of the pitcher before researching for this post.) With Connie Mack's (#142) Athletics team, Blaeholder made 22 starts and was 6-10 with a 3.99 ERA over 149 innings pitched. Only Johnny Marcum, with 27 starts, had the misfortune of starting more games for the lowly Athletics than Blaeholder. Following the season, in January 1936, Blaeholder was selected off waivers by the Indians.

1933 Goudey #16

1933 Tattoo Orbit (R305)

1935 Goudey 4-in-1 (R321)

1936 Goudey Wide Pen Premiums #A6

1993 Conlon Collection TSN #742

Other Notable Baseball Cards

First Mainstream Card: 1933 Goudey #16

Topps Flagship Set Appearances (0): N/A

Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1993 Conlon Collection TSN #742

26 - Blaeholder non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 3/11/23.

Sources:

Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

Previous Card: #12 "Dixie" Walker - New York Yankees

Next Card: #14 Bill Terry - New York Giants

Sunday, March 12, 2023

#102 Van Mungo - Brooklyn Dodgers

Van Lingle Mungo

Brooklyn Dodgers

Pitcher

Bats: Right Throws: Right Height: 6'2" Weight: 185

Born: June 8, 1911, Pageland, SC

Major League Teams: Brooklyn Dodgers 1931-1941; New York Giants 1942-1943, 1945

Died: February 12, 1985, Pageland, SC (73)

I had heard of Van Lingle Mungo through the 1969 novelty song by Dave Frishberg, before I knew about his baseball career. By most accounts, Mungo was a character known for his off-field adventures but he was also a five-time All-Star for the Dodgers and he led the National League in strikeouts in 1936 with 238. He averaged 16 wins per season between 1932 and 1936, but his erratic fastball also contributed to him leading the league in walks in 1932, 1934 and 1936. Mungo was combative on the field, often clashing with his own teammates and by his own estimation he led all of baseball in terms of fines for his era, tallying in excess of $15,000 for his behavior. His Dodgers won the pennant in 1941, but Mungo spent most of that season playing for their top farm team in Montreal. After a decade-plus with the Dodgers, Mungo was dealt to the cross-town Giants before the 1942 season. He missed the entire 1944 season while serving in the military during World War II and after 26 starts for the Giants in 1945, his big league career was over.

In 364 games, Mungo had a career record of 120-115 with a 3.47 ERA and 1,242 strikeouts to 868 walks.

Building the Set

February 28, 2023 from Port Washington, NY - Card #75

On Wednesday night, February 22nd, I sat in the parking lot outside my oldest son Doug's baseball practice between 8:30 and 10pm, too tired to read and bored by what I was scrolling through on my Twitter feed. As is usually the case in these circumstances, and with no other options to pass the time, I turned to eBay and did some shopping for our growing Diamond Stars set. We're nearly two-thirds of the way through the set, as I'm focused on my version of a master set - the 108 base cards and 11 notable variations. I know the set-building is going to slow down considerably once I get down to needing 30 cards or so as the last remaining cards will be expensive, hard to find or both.

By the time the night was over, and Doug and his teammates lumbered outside to find their rides home, I had ordered three more cards for our set, including this Mungo card. However, the Mungo card I ordered is not the Mungo card seen here. Knowing the cards in the set's third series are somewhat scarce, I found a Mungo card, #102, for sale at what had to have been a mistaken price. I clicked Buy It Now on the way too low price, the dealer must have figured out his/her error, and the sale was canceled later that night. The reason for the refund was the card was "out of stock or damaged." Bummed out, I set about looking to add this card through other means, and found the card shown here from Clean Sweep Auctions out of Port Washington, New York.

Variations Available

1 - 1936 / blue back / 1935 statistics / 1934 copyright

The Card / Dodgers Team Set

This is the second Mungo card in the set, and this card completes the Dodgers team set, the first team set finished off in the set. The first version is #19, with that version released in 1934 and 1935. I've no clue why the artist for this card decided to give Mungo a yellow/orange warm-up jacket and a red hat. It's one of the more striking cards in the entire set since the photo's colors are so vivid and contrary to what you'd expect to see on a Dodgers card.

The tip on the back of the card, which is the same for cards #19 and #102, explains how to bunt, and cautions against alerting the fielders too soon you're about to bunt. This version of the card ages Bartell a year and displays his 16-10 record from the 1935 season, but it keeps the original 1934 copyright date.

1936 Season

Mungo's career year, he was 18-19 for the Dodgers with a 3.35 ERA, and was clearly the team's MVP. He led the league with 37 games started, 118 walks and 238 strikeouts. Both walk and strikeout totals were career highs for Mungo, accomplished over 311 2/3 innings pitched. He was named to the National League All-Star team, but did not appear in the game. The Dodgers were 67-87-2 in 1936 under manager Casey Stengel (#150), falling to seventh place in the league. Only the lowly Phillies, at 54-100, kept the Dodgers out of the basement.

1934-36 Batter-Up (R318) #26

1938 Goudey #254

1939 Play Ball #111

1940 Play Ball #64

1994 Conlon Collection TSN #1107

Other Notable Baseball Cards

First Mainstream Card: 1934-36 Batter-Up (R318) #26

Topps Flagship Set Appearances (0): N/A

Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1994 Conlon Collection TSN #1107

49 - Mungo non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 3/5/23.

Sources:

Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

Previous Card: #101 Dick Bartell - New York Giants

Next Card: #103 Bill Dickey - New York Yankees

Sunday, March 5, 2023

#88 Geo. Selkirk - New York Yankees

George Alexander Selkirk

New York Yankees

Outfield

Bats: Left Throws: Right Height: 6'1" Weight: 182

Born: January 4, 1908, Huntsville, Canada

Major League Teams: New York Yankees 1934-1942

World Series Appearances: New York Yankees 1936-1939, 1941-1942

Died: January 19, 1987, Fort Lauderdale, FL (79)

In 1935, George Selkirk had the unenviable task of taking over regular right field duties from Babe Ruth (#109) and he also assumed Ruth's uniform number, #3. He more than held his own, batting over .300 in five seasons and making the American League All-Star teams in 1936 and 1939. Selkirk was also a regular for the Yankees team that won four straight pennants and World Series titles between 1936 and 1939. Selkirk's best two seasons coincided with his All-Star seasons. He batted .308 with 18 home and a career-high 107 RBIs in 1936, and followed that up in 1939 by batting .306 with 21 home runs and 101 RBIs. In six different World Series he batted .265 (18 for 68) with a pair of home runs. For his career, Selkirk batted .290 with 810 hits, 108 home runs and 576 RBIs.

His playing career was cut short due to his military service in World War II, and when he returned from the war he began a long minor league managerial career. Selkirk managed in the Yankees and Braves systems until the mid-1950s, winning American Association Manager of the Year honors in 1953. He worked in the front offices of the Athletics and Orioles before becoming the second general manager in the history of the expansion Washington Senators in 1962. He was fired from the team prior to their transition to become the Texas Rangers. Selkirk returned to the Yankees as a scout for his final act in baseball, and he was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983.

Building the Set

February 27, 2023 from New Wilmington, PA - Card #74

By the time the night was over, and Doug and his teammates lumbered outside to find their rides home, I had ordered three more cards for our set, including this Selkirk card from eBay seller Hall of Hobbies, located in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania.

Variations Available

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

Gehrig, DiMaggio, Dickey and Selkirk
The Card / Yankees Team Set

Honestly, this might be the best card we've added to our set in terms of overall condition and if the card didn't measure up perfectly with other cards from the set I'd seriously suspect this card of being trimmed. The corners are sharp, there's zero surface wear on the front or back and the card is incredibly crisp. If I was the kind of collector who was in to having cards graded (I'm not), this would be an excellent candidate.

This is the only card in the set where the player's name is abbreviated on the front, and National Chicle could have easily fit George had they wanted to cover the red support column holding up the grandstand roof. Two Yankees teammates are making tiny cameos on the bottom left of the card. This is also Selkirk's first mainstream baseball card appearance, although his 1939 Play Ball card is cited as his rookie card.

The back of the card contains all you need to know about Selkirk, including his task of attempting to replace Ruth. He fared better than Ben Chapman (#38) and Roy Johnson (not Johnston), both name checked as Selkirk's outfield mates. Chapman was an All-Star between 1933 and 1936, but then fell off sharply beginning in 1936 when he was dealt to the Senators. Johnson played in 75 games for the Yankees between 1936 and 1937, batting .273 with one home run. Selkirk was good, but the trio of Selkirk, Chapman and Johnson wouldn't come close to Murderer's Row. The Yankees greats named at the end of the write-up are Earle Combs, Tony Lazzeri (#74), Lou Gehrig (#130), Ruth and Bob Meusel (not Muesel), all members of the famed 1927 squad.

Random thought as I'm finishing up this post . . . Selkirk's profile here looks a lot like Gehrig, and both were left-handed hitters. I wonder if National Chicle had started down the path of trying to get Gehrig into the set and then pivoted to Selkirk instead?

1936 Season

As mentioned above, this was one of Selkirk's finest seasons, and among Yankee regulars only Gehrig, Bill Dickey (#11) and Joe DiMaggio (#126) had higher bWARs than he did at 9.7, 5.9 and 4.8, respectively. Selkirk's bWAR was 4.2. He made 109 starts in right field and 21 starts in left field. In the World Series, won by the Yankees in six games over the Giants, Selkirk played every inning in right field and batted .333 (9 for 26) with three doubles and three RBIs.