Posts Tagged ‘1933 Goudey’
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 by Nerdicus Finch
A few months ago, I posted on this site that I had started collecting a set of 1933 Goudey baseball cards and that I would be posting new cards on Nerd Baseball weekly, providing background information on the players featured on the cards. Unfortunately (or, perhaps, fortunately, depending on how much you liked those posts), I have been very inconsistent in posting new cards. So…I have decided to start a new blog dedicated to the 1933 Goudey set and my progress in completing it (SPOILER ALERT: I’m only 10 percent of the way there). This will also keep me from further muddying the waters here at Nerd Baseball by posting about non-nerdy players (Danny MacFayden notwithstanding).
The new blog is called 240 Baseball Stars and you can find it here.
Tags: 1933, 1933 Goudey, 240 Baseball Stars, Another pointless blog, Danny MacFayden
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Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 by Nerdicus Finch
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We may be witnessing Nerd Baseball history here. Could Danny MacFayden, pictured here on his 1933 Goudey baseball card, be the very first nerdy baseball player? There’s no way to know for sure, but the biographical information on the back of the card gives us a little insight: “First pitcher in the American League to wear spectacles.” MacFayden’s glasses definitely mark him as a Nerd Baseball trailblazer, as does his professor-like appearance. His nickname was “Deacon Danny.”
A question remains: The description of MacFayden as the first American League pitcher to wear glasses implies that a National League pitcher or non-pitcher from either league wore glasses before MacFayden did. If so, who was it and was he as nerdy as MacFayden?
MacFayden had a long and decent career, pitching for 17 seasons (1926-43) with a career 101 ERA+ and a 132-159 record. Among other teams, he pitched for both the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees and was a member of the Yankees’ 1932 World Series championship team, although he didn’t pitch in the postseason. His best season came in 1936 with the Boston Bees, when he went 17-13 with a 2.87 ERA (134 ERA+) and finished 9th in the MVP voting.
According to the back of the card, MacFayden was a pitcher for Somerville High School in Somerville, Massachusetts, where he went undefeated. In a high school game that went 12 innings, MacFayden struck out 33 batters and allowed only 4 hits.
Tags: 1933, 1933 Goudey, Boston Bees, Boston Red Sox, Danny MacFayden, ERA+, glasses, Massachusetts, nerd, New York Yankees, Possibly the first nerd baseball player ever, Somerville, Somerville High School, spectacles
Posted in 1933 Goudey, Nerd Cards | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 by Nerdicus Finch
From the back of the card: “He used to be the ball maker for his baseball team as a boy, but used to lose most of the balls by hitting home runs.”
Known as “The Kentucky Colonel,” Earle Combs (Goudey incorrectly spells his first name “Earl” – such errors were common in old-timey baseball cards and are not considered error cards) is the first Hall of Famer card that I have acquired from the 1933 Goudey set. He really shouldn’t be in the HOF, though. But that’s not a knock on Combs, who was an excellent player over 12 seasons with the New York Yankees.
As the Yankees center fielder from 1924-1935, Combs compiled a career line of .325/.397/.462, which equates to a career OPS+ of 126. These are great numbers, but not really HOF-worthy, in my opinion, especially when compiled over less than 150o career games. He was elected to the HOF in 1970 by the Veteran’s Committee, which is notorious for having elected many very good, but not great, players from the pre-war era.
Over his career, Combs played in four World Series, of which the Yankees won three; Combs hit .350/.444/.450 in 16 career World Series games.
At age 28, Combs batted leadoff and played center field for the famous “Murderer’s Row” 1927 Yankees team that went 110-44 and swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series. That season, he batted .356, led the league with 231 hits and scored 137 runs. That tends to happen when Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig are batting behind you.
He retired at age 36 after suffering a near-death injury crashing into the outfield wall in 1934, in which he fractured his skull. His 1935 attempted comeback season was cut short by another injury and he retired, paving the way for Joe DiMaggio, who would take over center field duties in 1936. He remained a coach in the major leagues for the next 18 years.
Tags: 1933, 1933 Goudey, Awesome Nicknames, babe ruth, Earle Combs, Hall of Fame, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Murderer's Row, New York Yankees, OPS, Pittsburgh Pirates, Veteran's Committee, World Series
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Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 by Nerdicus Finch
From the back of the card: “Eddie is a registered dentist, besides being a high grade major league baseball player.”
I’ll give Goudey a pass on the “high grade” player thing because it is pretty impressive that Doc Farrell was a dentist. One of the fascinating things about reading about old-timey players is how many of them had professions other than baseball. I’ve read about two that were lawyers (including Moe Berg, who was a lawyer and spy for the U.S. during World War II).
Farrell probably should have stuck with dentistry, though. Over nine seasons in the major leagues, he got into just under 600 games and posted a career OPS+ of 66 as an infielder for the New York Giants, Boston Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, and Boston Red Sox. In 1927, he placed 18th in the MVP voting by hitting .316 and driving in 92 runs, though he only slugged .389 that season.
Following the 1934 season, Farrell was traded by the Yankees, along with 4 other players, to San Francisco of the Pacific Coast League for Joe DiMaggio and players to be named later. Farrell refused to report to his new team and was eventually traded back to the Yankees as one of the players to be named later.
Tags: 1933, 1933 Goudey, Boston Braves, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, dentist, Eddie "Doc" Farrell, Joe DiMaggio, lawyer, Moe Berg, MVP award, New York Giants, New York Yankees, OPS, Pacific Coast League, player to be named later, spy, St. Louis Cardinals, World War II
Posted in 1933 Goudey | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 by Nerdicus Finch
From the back of the card: “Although he doesn’t hit .300 very often, he gets a lot of hits.”
Actually, Hughie Critz only hit .300 or better once, in his 1924 rookie season with the Cincinnati Reds, when he hit .322 in 102 games. That was also the only season in which he posted an OPS+ over 100. It was all downhill from there. Critz appeared in almost 1500 games in a 12 year career, as a second basemen for the Reds and New York Giants, posting a career OPS+ of 73. Somehow, he placed in the top 5 in MVP voting twice (2nd in 1926 and 4th in 1928).
In 1933, the year in which this card was issued, Critz was a member of the World Series champion Giants, who beat the Washington Senators in 5 games. That 1933 Giants team featured future Hall of Famers Bill Terry, Mel Ott, Travis Jackson, and Carl Hubbell, as well as some guy named Jo-Jo Moore.
Tags: 1933, 1933 Goudey, Bill Terry, Carl Hubbell, Hall of Fame, Hugh Critz, Jo-Jo Moore, Mel Ott, MVP award, New York Giants, OPS, reds, Travis Jackson, Washington Senators, World Series
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Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 by Nerdicus Finch
From the back of the card: “Is elongated young man, towering 6 feet, 1 1/2 inches and weighing 170 pounds.”
Brother of Slick Coffman, who had a short career in the late 1930s as a pitcher, Dick Coffman played for 15 seasons for the Washington Senators (twice), the St. Louis Browns (twice), the New York Giants, the Boston Bees, and the Philadelphia Phillies. He was thoroughly mediocre, posting a career 72-95 record with a 96 ERA+ over 1460 innings. He pitched for the 1936 and 1937 New York Giants teams that lost to the New York Yankees in consecutive World Series. Coffman didn’t help his team much in those efforts, posting a 12.00 ERA in 6 World Series innings.
Incredibly, he was traded twice for the same player – within six months! On June 9, 1932, Coffman was traded by the Browns to the Senators for pitcher Carl Fischer. On December 13, 1932, the Senators traded him back to the Browns for Carl Fischer.
Tags: 1933, 1933 Goudey, Boston Bees, Carl Fischer, ERA+, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Richard Coffman, Slick Coffman, St. Louis Browns, Washington Senators, World Series
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Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 by Nerdicus Finch
From the back of the card: “When they want somebody to come through with a hit in the pinch they call on Dave Harris.”
The back of the card states that most of Harris’s work came as a pinch hitter, but his career stats suggest that he was more of a part-time player/pinch hitter, and a pretty good one at that. Over seven seasons with the Boston Braves, Washington Senators, and Chicago White Sox, Harris posted a career .812 OPS (111 OPS+) with a respectable .368 OBP, primarily as an outfielder. In 1932 (.938 OPS), he placed 19th in the MVP voting, which seems completely insane, considering he only appeared in 81 games, with only 177 plate appearances.
Harris’s nickname was “The Sheriff.” According to the back of the card, Harris was “a sheriff in his home town of Greensboro, N.C.”
Tags: 1933, 1933 Goudey, Back in the day when players had jobs in the offseason, Boston Braves, Dave Harris, MVP award, OPS, pinch hitter, Sheriff, Washington Senators, white sox
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Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 by Nerdicus Finch
From the back of the card: “Fast ball pitcher.”
Last week, I posted that I was beginning a collection of 1933 Goudey baseball cards, with the intention of completing the entire 239 card set within half a decade or so. Here’s the first card.
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Tags: 1933, 1933 Goudey, Al Simmons, babe ruth, Connie Mack, ERA+, Jimmie Foxx, Lee Roy Mahaffey, Lefty Grove, Leroy Mahaffey, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Cochrane, Philadelphia Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Browns, St. Louis Cardinals, Waite Hoyt
Posted in 1933 Goudey | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 by Nerdicus Finch
Thanks to a recent amazing gift from Mrs. Nerdicus Finch, I’ve had my interest in collecting baseball cards rekindled. Specifically, old-timey baseball cards. While the players weren’t very nerdy back then, collecting baseball cards is always nerdy, especially when you are as far away from childhood as I am. So I think this is a sufficiently nerdy topic for this web site.
There are so many awesome old baseball cards out there, so, to focus, I have decided to channel my interest in old-timey cards in a specific direction: I am going to try to assemble an entire set of 1933 Goudey cards. Goudey was an old chewing gum company and was a real innovator in the development of the kind of baseball cards that would later be popularized by Bowman and Topps in the 1950s. The 1933 set, a 240 card set, was Goudey’s first and is generally considered one of the three greatest baseball card sets of all time, along with the 1909-1911 T-206 set (which has the famous Honus Wagner card) and the 1952 Topps set (which has the famous Mickey Mantle card).
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Tags: 1933, 1933 Goudey, babe ruth, Bowman, Burleigh Grimes, Eppa Rixey, Heinie Manush, Honus Wagner, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Nerdicus Finch is really nerdy, Phil Collins, T-206, topps
Posted in 1933 Goudey | 5 Comments »
