Today marks the first of 2010's 52 Friday Favorite entries, picking out the most appealing Topps Red Sox card of the last 52 years, dating back to 1957 when Topps first began issuing its standard-size cards (2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches). This set also returns to a simpler, plainer format than the colorful, pleasantly busy and appealing larger cards of the prior few years. Although a simpler, plainer look in '57, there was no shortage of attractive cards to pick a Friday Favorite from.
The winner is:
The
Mel Parnell card, which narrowly beat out Billy Consolo, Norm Zauchin and Dick Gernert. Honorable mentions also go to Dave Sisler and Haywood Sullivan.
Of particular attraction on the Parnell card - and to all the older cards, for me - are a few features: some kind of interesting pose, shot of the full uniform (those baggy woolen uniforms with the plain blue BOSTON and the red stirrups with black (or is it midnight blue) and white striping at the top - I'm sure those played a big role in my becoming a Sox fan, and interesting background setting, showing either part of a major league stadium and/or other players warming up. This card also gives a real-action feel as though Parnell actually had just thrown a pitch. (I recall Topps only starting to show actual action photos in 1971 - not counting cards depicting World Series or playoff games - with an actual In Action subset in 1972.
Although he had a card in 1957, Parnell did not actually play that season, though that should not diminish his being selected as the Friday Favorite. In fact, he certainly distinguished himself over the 10 years he toiled on the mound for the Sox, winning 123 games (third most for a Sox lefty), including a five-year stretch in which he won 25 games, 21, and 18 twice. His ERA stayed in the 3's during those fine years, with his low coming in 1949 (the year he won 25, with only 7 losses), at 2.77. That same year he also registered 27 complete games (and 21 the following year).
Congratulations Mel Parnell and being named the Friday Favorite. This card certainly goes atop my most pressing wish list, along with the honorable mentions listed above.
Things I liked about the honorable mentions:
- Consolo: Very nearly the winner, with a great pose that looked as though the spunky
second baseman had just ranged far to his right, stayed low and got set to zip a strike to the first baseman, or had just taken a flip from the short stop and made ready to complete the double play. You get a good view of the full uniform and the interesting background, but the left sock is just cut off a little in the picture, rendering his second-place finish.
- Zauchin: Interesting fielding pose with a ball in the glove (rare I think for baseball card poses) as though it did just hop in there. The position looks awkward in terms of a conventional fielding stance (left leg extended forward, right leg way back), unless perhaps reaching forward on a slow roller.
- Gernert: On one knee, with elbow resting on it and right hand on bat, pressing it into the ground, everything in the picture calling out that this very much the menacing slugger who means business and who you want to see coming up in the cleanup spot for your team.
- Sisler: Showing the beginning of his windup, with hand and glove hand coming together over his head as he picks up the target through his eyeglasses, something not seen on many baseball players, and maybe what made this card stand apart.
- H. Sullivan: I normally do not prefer cards with just the head or head and shoulders shot, but something about this card makes it seem more a piece of artwork, helping it to jump out at the viewer, the many of the more bland, uninspiring close-ups of players we see over the years.
Other fine cards exist in this set as well and will be one well worth pursuing ahead of some of the others. My 1957 collection is sparse, with only two there presently: Frank Sullivan and Ike Delock. See "Battery Mates for Sammy" entry at my sister blog (redsox1027bballcards.mlblogs.com) for more about these two players.
Moving into year three of the Friday's Favorite series, like the previous year not an overwhelming choice of attention-getting cards. For the Topps set I will have to go with this one of catcher Ed Sadowski, poised to receive a pitch after signalling for it to be low and away to a right-handed batter - though the hat he's wearing in the picture betrays a sense of realness, almost as someone had come by and plopped it quickly on his head just before the picture was snapped, so precariously does it rest there. Anyhow, delightful card nonetheless and perhaps to be one of the first to a 1959 collection of which currently I have no cards.
That said, my real favorite from this year goes to one of the ones Fleer issued - this was the year it signed Ted Williams to an exclusive contract and did an entire series just on his overall career and outside interests and activities. Three of those cards, in particular, I am targeting to someday acquire: Nos. 71, 72, 73, titled Ted's hitting fundamentals. No. 73 is my favorite of those three, showing a four-clip scenario as he begins to bring his bat through the hitting zone. These strike a cord, having read works by or about him, and never tire about listening to his approach to hitting, so contagious is his enthusiasm for it. Most famous to his approach is, "Get a good ball to hit."
Only seven times in the history of major league baseball has a team scored over 1,000 runs in a season, and since 1950 only two teams have done it: the 1950 Red Sox, in 154 games, and the 1999 Indians, in 162 games. While that production was only good enough for a third-place finish, with a 94-60 record, the Red Sox must have been a sight to behold. The leader of that mighty offensive club was, of course, Ted Williams - for half the season anyway: After driving in nearly 100 runs by the all-star break, he missed the rest of the season after injuring himself in that best-of-both-leagues clash! Would the Sox have eclipsed the all-time mark (1,069, I believe), set by one of those Yankee juggernauts in the 1930s? It is reasonable to think so.
