Extra: I've completed another team set

 

I wrapped up the Dodgers team set for 1961 Nu-Card Baseball Scoops with the arrival last week of the Johnny Podres card.

 

There are 11 Dodgers-themed cards in the set, which is a lot for an 80-card set but not as much as the Yankees, who are featured 16 times. I acquired most of the cards from card shows, oddly enough -- they just don't seem appealing enough for collectors to have them on hand like some other sets from around the same time.

 

But I love them, for obvious reasons, and I made a renewed effort to finish off the set over the last month or so. Fortunately, the cards aren't particularly expensive. I guess you'll pay a bit for the big-time stars, but I was lucky enough to get the Jackie Robinson early (and if I had to guess I'm thinking someone sent it to me -- sorry no time to look through every blog post). The most I can recall paying recently is $12 for the Roy Campanella at the latest card show.

 

The '61 Baseball Scoops set is the second one from Nu-Card as it created a larger-in-size set in 1960 called "Baseball Hi-Lites". It looked the same otherwise with a newspaper page format, large photo and card number at top left. But the write-up was on the front under the photo, like a story on the front page of a paper, instead of on the back as they are with the Baseball Scoops set.

 

The appeal of the Baseball Scoops set for me, other than the moment-in-time nature of the set that is glorious, is the newspaper layout. Newspaper layout has been my career for so long and I grew up with newspapers. So this look appealed to me even before I made it my profession. I even once made over my blog to look like a newspaper page. There's no evidence of that now, but this post about another one of my favorite newspaper-themed card sets refers to it in that dorky way night owl had of writing back then.

 

I'll now run through these cards, in order by card number. Please note the date mentioned on each card, which is spectacular:

 

428 - Jackie Robinson. This is about Robinson's extra-inning exploits during the final game of the regular season against the Phillies in 1951. The back mentions a diving play he made in the 12th inning with the bases loaded with Phillies that saved the game. It also says he knocked himself out on the play. But this account says Robinson knocked the wind out of himself. In the 14th inning, Robinson drove in the game-winning run.

 

 

429 - Roy Campanella. The card celebrates Campanella's second MVP award and his record-setting 1953 season in which he broke the record for home runs and runs batted in by a catcher. The card back is the only one among the team set that has stats on it.

 

 

431 - Larry Sherry. The card in the team set with the "most-recent" date -- Oct. 9, 1959, the date the Dodgers won the World Series from the White Sox. It's the only Dodger card in the set that shows a player with the Los Angeles Dodgers, though there's another card coming up next that refers to an L.A. Dodgers moment. This is also the only card in the team set that has a name line under the photo, not sure why.

 

 

432 - Carl Furillo. Here is the other card that references a Los Angeles Dodgers moment, Game 3 in the 1959 World Series. Furillo's hat logo is nowhere to be found. The back recounts Furillo's game-winning hit in the ninth inning of a scoreless game. ... Nu-Card doesn't hold fast to newspaper headline rules in this set and here we have a modifier (3rd) ending the top line in the headline, which is a no-no (though newspaper are much more lax in these areas today).

 

 

437 - Pee Wee Reese. The first action card in the team set. It commemorates a tribute to Reese at Ebbets Field in mid-season in 1955. It was on his 36th birthday and paid honor to his service with the Dodgers. I don't know why they held a tribute to him at that time. His career wasn't ending. He'd play for the Dodgers for three more years.

 

 

441 - Gil Hodges. "Hodges Hits 4 Home

                                  Runs in Nite Game"

 

Splitting "Home Runs" hurts my head, as does "Nite," though I love the retro abbreviating from that time. This is the first card in this set that I landed. I have two versions of this card but neither is in my night card binder because it's a daytime photo! I may have to make an exception. ... Also I have to mention that the Dodgers beat the Braves 19-3 in this game.

 

 

464 - Ump's Wrong Call/Dodgers Beat Yankees. This is the only card in the team set that focuses on a play rather than the player. It cites an incident that I hadn't heard of before getting this card. Apparently pitcher Johnny Sain, who is the runner in this photo, was called out at first base when he was actually safe.

 

 

469 - Carl Erskine. The card recognizes Erskine's 14 strikeouts in Game 3 of the World Series, a record at the time. Bob Gibson surpassed Erskine in 1968. He's now held the record for so long, I wonder if it'll ever be broken. Sure, batters strike out more than ever, but nobody keeps their starters in a game longer than seven innings (even if it means the bullpen sabotages the win over and over -- hint, hint).

 

 

470 - Sal Maglie. A nice-looking card. I remember being floored when I found out that "The Barber" also pitched for the Dodgers -- and did well. I was so used to reading about his agitating days with the Giants. The no-hitter came against the Phillies and late in the season.

 

 

474 - Johnny Podres. The final card I obtained shows off the Brooklyn Dodgers' greatest moment -- Game 7 of the 1955 World Series. Johnny Podres, who was 23 years old at the time, tossed a complete game shutout. He allowed a single in the seventh inning and two hits in the eight, yet stayed in the game throughout. It's mind-boggling how different the game is today.

 

 

475 - Mickey Owen. There are not a lot of cards of a young Mickey Owen and even fewer candid shots of him like this one. It's charming, even if the card recalls one of the most unfortunate plays in Dodgers World Series history.

 

There is at least one other card I could include in this team set -- it even has "Dodgers" in the headline. But it's Bobby Thomson's home run in 1951 and the photo is 100 percent Giants, so I'm calling this team set complete as is.

 

 

 

The Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards edition that I have says that this set has been known to be counterfeited and tell-tale signs are fuzzy or blurry photos. I didn't notice any of that with the cards I own, though we're talking about murky images from the '50s in some cases so not sure how you can tell.

 

Anyway, I'm pretty happy this set is finished. And I don't mind that some of the cards are yellowed from wear. They remind me of an old newspaper!