1920s Rogers Hornsby News Service Photograph Used For His 1933 Goudey Card

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Here’s the original mid-’20s news service photograph used for the 1933 Goudey #119 Rogers Hornsby card.

Hornsby’s St. Louis Cardinals uniform style pinpoints this photograph to the 1924-26 period.

The photograph is 7-3/4” x 5-5/8” and was described as having a purple Underwood & Underwood stamp on the back with an adhered slip of paper with a typewritten caption that read, “Rogers Hornsby, St. Lous Cardinals,” and a handwritten note of, “c 1925-26 uniform.”

REA sold this PSA-graded version of what they titled a “Circa 1925 Rogers Hornsby Original Charles Conlon Photograph PSA/DNA Type I – Image Used For 1933 Goudey Card!”

The REA copy sold for $11400 and included this description, “Original photo of Hall of Fame second baseman Rogers Hornsby taken by noted baseball photographer Charles Conlon and used in the production of Hornsby’s 1933 R319 Goudey card #119. Encapsulated and certified as an original Type I Charles Conlon photograph by PSA/DNA. The familiar image captures Hornsby bending low in a fielding position as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. Conlon’s credit stamp appears on the reverse, along with his handwritten notations that read “Rogers Hornsby St. Louis Nat.” A “Sporting News” credit stamp also appears on the reverse, as does the typewritten notation “Rogers Hornsby, slick fielder, slicker hitter.” Photos used in the production of trading cards have become increasingly popular in recent years. This is one of only a small number of vintage photos we have seen featuring a player image used in the R319 Goudey set. The photo (8.5 x 6.5 inches) has a few tiny pieces of clear tape along the border areas, a tiny edge tear, a few light surface wrinkles, and minor emulsion spots near the right border. In Very Good condition overall.”

Original Artwork For The Unproduced 1958 Topps Don Drysdale and Early Wynn Card

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I ran across this incredible original artwork of Don Drysdale and Early Wynn in an April 2000 Ron Oser Enterprises auction catalog. They advertised it as an unissued original that didn’t make the cut for the 1958 Topps series.

The striking piece was described as being 4 1/2” x 6”

1958 Topps wasn’t the first set to feature multiple players on a card. 1953 Bowman Color had a Rizzuto/Martin card and a Berra/Bauer/Mantle. 1954 Topps had the O’Brien Brothers’ card. 1957 Topps had the Yankee’s Power Hitters and, my favorite, the Dodgers’ Sluggers.

Topps then included Slugger’s Supreme, World Series Batting Foes, and Rival Fence Busters in the 1958 set before expanding to 17 baseball combination cards in their gigantic 1959 release.

If you know anything else about the history of the Drysdale/Wynn card, please let me know. Oh, what could have been!

Update 1: Keith Olbermann wrote, “It’s possible. But Wynn didn’t go to the White Sox until 1958 and Drysdale didn’t make an all-star team until 1959. It’s much likelier this is from the ’59 ASG or World Series, and was rejected from the 1960 set.”

1982 Jackie Robinson First Day Cover

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The USPS initiated a Black Heritage Stamp Series in 1978. On August 2, 1982, they issued one for Jackie Robinson. This advertisement, from the October 1982 Trader Speaks, is for a pair of 1st Day Covers with a B. Scott Forst stadium exclusive drawing on the left side.

There seem to be a few different 1st Day Covers for the stamp; the one advertised in Trader Speaks appears to be a little more challenging to track down but not any more expensive than the others.

Now, for the stamp specifically, it was painted by Howard Koslow, and 164,235,000 stamps were issued at a postage value of 20¢ each.

1901 Philadelphia Athletics Inaugural Season Tickets

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With the Athletics moving again, I thought it was a great time to share this strip of four regular-season game tickets from the Philadelphia Athletics’ inaugural season in 1901.

This strip was offered for sale in April 2000 by Ron Oser Enterprises.

Now, 1901 wasn’t just the first season for the Athletics; it was the first for the entire American League, too!

1950’s Wonder Bread Advertising Sign With Mickey Mantle and Stan Musial

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Here’s an early to mid-1950s Wonder Bread Cardboard advertising sign that features black and white portraits of Mickey Mantle and Stan Musial.

Mastro offered it in their July 1998 catalog and described the multicolored, blank-backed counter sign as 10-1/2” x 14-3/4” in Ex to Mt condition but with minor restorations. They also implied the Stan Musial fountain pen signature was authentic. The minimum bid was $1k.

The Mantle looks a little like the 1957 Jay Publishing New York Yankees Picture Portfolio “card,” but a touch wider.

The Musial looks a lot like one of Musial’s 1958 Jay Publishing “cards” (All-Stars Set A, All-Stars Set B, St. Louis Cardinals Set A, and St. Louis Cardinals Set B).

Brooks Robinson Card Show Appearances In Early 1982

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A few weeks ago, I shared an advertisement for the January 1982 Baltimore Sports Collectibles Show. I highlighted it because Brooks Robinson was signing on Saturday, January 16th, of the show. I noted that Robinson was a guest at a lot of shows back then.

Well, in the March 1982 issue of Trader Speaks, two more shows highlighted Brooks Robinson as a guest. First, the Central Jersey 8 had him on Sunday, February 28th, 1982.

Then, the Philadelphia Sports Spectacular 1 highlighted Robinson’s attendance on both days of their March 6-7 show, along with Stan Musial on Sunday and Chris Short on both days.

He was really making the rounds in early ’82!