Friday's Favorite - Slim Pickings in '58, but Grip, Stance Carries the Day

The year's second Friday's Favorite edition moves to 1958, Topps' second year of producing the standard-size cards still in use today. It was slim pickings from the Topps output for that year, particularly in comparison to the fine choices I had in last week's Friday's Favorite, with the abundance of terrific 1957 Red Sox cards.

In the '58 set, of which I currently possess none in my collection, most of the cards from a distance could be mistaken for the same, with simply a portrait shot and the blue or yellow background; very few poses throughout this year's lineup. And even those few poses are a bit sketchy: Frank Malzone looking as though he's in the middle of a standing spread-eagle leg stretch all the while in an about-to-turn-a-double-play pose, looking very much like he would hurt himself if he did follow through on the attempt; I much prefer a second card of his from that year, one of the all-star features, with a much more flattering head and shoulders shot, with part of the sparkling Red Sox white jersey shown and the colorful red dotted with with stars in the background; another questionable pose makes power old Dave Sisler looked drugged, facing out at the viewer slunched over and his eyes looking as they're about to cross.

I did, nonetheless, find a few of the cards with poses to be worthy of consideration for Friday's Favorite, and left me with two to choose from: Dick Gernert and Haywood Sullivan. The winner: Dick Gernert. The Sox' first baseman that season presented a fine batting stance pose, with an interesting slight parting of his hands on the bat, slightly choking up; difficult imagining him belting 20 home runs for the Sox with such a grip and stance, but that he did in '58, his second to last of the eight seasons he played in Boston.

Honorable mention goes to Hayward Sullivan, a near winner as he squats in the catching position, though how he balances so highly on his toes, much more like a ballerina than a burly backstop, is beyond me. Sullivan of course was a name familiar to Sox' fans beyond his playing days as he moved into the Front Office and eventually became a team owner.

So while the 1958 Topps Red Sox are not the stuff of glitz and glamor, a few noteworthy things can at least be said about those cards or that season: The backs of those cards, like most sets from the 1950s, are terrific; the old-fashioned Sox logo on the front brightens things a bit; it was the Sox' last winning season before their by-far worst stretch (and I believe only multi-season losing stretch) post WWII that stretched eight seasons, until the 1967 season reversed that trend big-time; it also was, finally, the last season in which they would go with a roster that continued to be diminished by a reluctance to integrate it.