1934-1936 Diamond Stars: #2 Al Simmons - Detroit Tigers (Variation)

Sunday, September 24, 2023

#2 Al Simmons - Detroit Tigers (Variation)

Aloysius Harry Simmons

Detroit Tigers

Outfield

Bats: Right Throws: Right Height: 5'11" Weight: 190

Born: May 22, 1902, Milwaukee, WI

Major League Teams: Philadelphia Athletics 1924-1932; Chicago White Sox 1933-1935; Detroit Tigers 1936; Washington Senators 1937-1938; Boston Bees 1939; Cincinnati Reds 1939; Philadelphia Athletics 1940-1941; Boston Red Sox 1943; Philadelphia Athletics 1944

World Series Appearances: Philadelphia Athletics 1929-1931; Cincinnati Reds 1939

Died: May 26, 1956, Milwaukee, WI (54)

Hall of Fame Induction: 1953

Outfielder Al Simmons played in 20 big league seasons, batting .334 for his career and winning two World Championships with Connie Mack's (#142) Athletics teams in 1929 and 1930. Those two Championship seasons coincided with Simmons' best years in the majors. He collected 253 hits in 1925, a career-high, league-leading and record-setting single season record by a right-handed batter, as the Athletics slowly became an American League powerhouse. In 1929, Simmons batted .365 with 34 home runs and a league-best 157 RBIs as his team defeated the Cubs in five games in the World Series. The following season, Simmons won his first batting title with a .381 mark while hitting 36 home runs and collecting 165 RBIs. The Athletics, with Simmons batting .364 in the World Series, took down the Cardinals in six games. Another batting title would follow in 1931 with Simmons batting .390. Another pennant resulted, but the Athletics lost the World Series to the Cardinals, and a slow and steady decline for the franchise began.

Mack sold Simmons to the White Sox in September 1932, and Simmons was the starting center fielder for the American League in the first ever All-Star Game played in 1933. He'd make the All-Star team again in 1934 and 1935. Over the final eight seasons of his playing career, Simmons played for six different teams, making two more stops with the Athletics along the way. He retired having batted over .380 in four different seasons and over .330 in nine seasons. Simmons' .334 career batting average is currently 27th all-time and his 2,927 hits are 41st all-time. He had 539 doubles, 307 home runs and 1,828 RBIs. Simmons was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1953 and he joined the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame in 1981, inducted as the Athletics' representative alongside Phillies' great Grover Cleveland Alexander.

Building the Set

September 8, 2023 from Champaign, IL (Monster Cards) - Card #90

This is the card that put me over the three-quarters mark for a complete set, and as of this writing I need 29 more cards out of 119 for my version of the master set. I've been searching for the White Sox version of this card for some time now. During a recent search I came across this Tigers version of the card with a surprisingly low price as I believe this is the rarest, and usually the most expensive, of the three variations of this card. There's some scuffing on the front and the corners aren't sharp, but otherwise it's a great looking card. The card was purchased during the unofficial end of summer and arrived during the unofficial beginning of autumn. Monster Cards included a 1988 Donruss Paul Molitor card in the box, along with a humorous quote about arrows and bananas.

Variations Available

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

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

3 - 1936 / blue back / 1935 statistics / 1934 copyright / no SOX on front of jersey ✅

The Card / Tigers Team Set

Following his move from Chicago to Detroit (see below), National Chicle removed the SOX logo from the front of Simmons' jersey and referred to his new Tigers team on the back of the card. The tip on the back of the card discusses the importance of a "long, free follow through" with a batter's power swing.

1936 Season

The White Sox sold Simmons to the Tigers on December 10, 1935 for $75,000 and he'd spend just one season playing for Detroit. The opening day center fielder for the Tigers, Simmons would play in 143 games, batting .327 with 13 home runs and 112 RBIs. He was one of four Tigers' sluggers with over 100 RBIs, joining Goose Goslin (#112) who had 125, Charlie Gehringer (#77) with 116 and Marv Owen (#67) with 105. The Tigers finished in a distant second place to the Yankees, 19 1/2 games behind the top spot. Before the start of the 1937 season, Simmons was on the move again, sold to the Senators for $15,000, a $60,000 drop in price from the year before.