1934-1936 Diamond Stars: #103 Bill Dickey

Sunday, February 23, 2025

#103 Bill Dickey - New York Yankees

William Malcolm Dickey

New York Yankees

Catcher

Bats: Left Throws: Right Height: 6'1" Weight: 185

Born: June 6, 1907, Bastrop, LA

Major League Teams: New York Yankees 1928-1943, 1946

World Series Appearances: New York Yankees 1928, 1932, 1936-1939, 1941-1943

As a Manager: New York Yankees 1946

Died: November 12, 1993, Little Rock, AR (86)

Hall of Fame Induction: 1954

Bill Dickey was an 11-time All-Star catcher for the Yankees, behind the plate for nine American League pennants, which included eight World Series titles between 1928 and 1943. He replaced Benny Bengough as the Yankees' starting catcher in 1929, a role he'd settle into for the next 15 seasons. Dickey could hit for power, batted over .300 in 11 seasons and was excellent defensively behind the plate, leading the league four times in fielding percentage. He hit over 20 home runs with at least 100 RBIs for four straight years between 1936 and 1939, and his .362 average in 1936 stood as the high-water mark for catchers until Joe Mauer batted .365 in 2009. Dickey's best season statistically came in 1937 when he batted .332 with 29 home runs and 133 RBIs - both career bests. In 1,789 games with the Yankees, Dickey batted .313 with 202 home runs and 1,209 RBIs.

After two years serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Dickey returned to the Yankees as player-manager for the 1946 season. He'd serve as a coach with the Yankees from 1949 to 1957, and again in 1960. During his tenure as Yankees' coach, Dickey helped mentor two of his successors behind the plate - Yogi Berra and Elston Howard. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1954, and the Yankees retired #8 in 1972 to honor both Dickey and Berra.

Building the Set

February 22, 2025 from Clifton, NJ (Probstein123) - Card #114

I had no intention of this card actually entering my collection, putting what I thought was an incredibly low bid on a recent eBay auction from seller probstein123. The card is slabbed and graded 1.5 (fair) according to SGC, but the front of the card looks just fine to me. Given what comparable cards have sold for over the past few years, I'm happy with the price I paid for this. The addition of this card drops me to needing five more Diamond Stars cards for my version of a master set - Mel Ott (#50), both the error and corrected versions of the Hank Greenberg (#54) card, Pie Traynor (#99) and Stan Hack (#107). As I get closer to the end of collecting this set, I'm coming to terms with not really needing two versions of the pricey Greenberg card.

And speaking of the master set . . . I recently spent time over at TCDB updating this set's checklist to include all 170 cards found in a Diamond Stars master set. It had bugged me for years the TCDB checklist didn't contain any of the many back variations found throughout the set, so I decided to fix that.

Variations Available

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

This is the second Dickey card in the set, with the Hall of Fame catcher first appearing on card #11. The final 12 cards in the Diamond Stars set, released as part of series three in 1936, contain the exact same photos and players as earlier cards from the set. This card has the same text on the back as his earlier card, save for his 1935 statistics at the bottom replacing his 1934 statistics. Also, the ink on the back of card #103 is blue, similar to all cards from the third series.

The Card / Yankees Team Set

When I posted card #11, I wrote it was the "cheaper" of two Dickey cards in the set, with this second card likely one of the hardest to find out of all Diamond Stars cards. Given my luck on eBay, I didn't pay much more for this harder to find high-number version than its lower-number counterpart. The tip on the back explains the catcher's role whenever a batter drops a bunt.

1936 Season

Dickey enjoyed one of his best seasons in 1936, batting a record-setting (for catchers) .362 in 112 games, with 22 home runs and 107 RBIs. As mentioned above, it was to be the first of four years in a row he'd eclipse the 20-home run and 100-RBI marks. His batting average was good enough for third in the league, behind Luke Appling (#95), who batted. 388. Dickey was an All-Star for the third of what would ultimately be 11 appearances. He didn't fare well in the World Series, batting .120 over six games, but his Yankees defeated the Giants in the first of four straight World Championship titles.