Tom or Tommy Padden

[Johnny Parker]

Looking for any object related to my late uncle. He was an ordinary player but an HOFer to me. Great guy. Was the Pirates catcher at Forbes Field when the Babe hit his last three home runs - for the Braves. Led all catchers in batting average one year - I have to look it up again, but I think it was .341. Before a big crowd, he tossed a silver dollar across the Merrimac River in his hometown of Manchester, NH. Good publicity, I guess. Lots of good things about his career, although he only played in the Bigs with the Pirates from '32 - '37 played in the minors and tried an abbreviated comeback with both the Giants and the Phillies. Originally drafted by the Yankees out of Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA.

Leads for anything related to Tom will be so much appreciated: newspaper clippings, photos, cards, cutouts, maybe even autographs although I have a few.

Thanks for reading this.

Johnny Parker

[DaveW]

Welcome Johnny. Your uncle appears to be on 3 mainstream cards:
1935 Goudey 4 in 1 (R321)
1936 Goudey Wide pens (R314)
1936 National Chicle Fine pens (R313)

There should be several collectors here that have these. You can see the R314
card at:
http://www.vintagecardprices.com/card-profile/44715/1936-Goudey-Premium-Wide-Pens-Tommy-Padden-145-Baseball-Card-Value-Prices.htm

You can probably find these on EBay also.
Good luck.

[z28jd]

I'm guessing you probably know this, but just in case you don't, he has a field named after him in Manchester, NH. I have a bunch of relatives in that town. It's at Stevens Pond Park

[Bugsy]

Message sent.

[Johnny Parker]

Thanks, man! Would this be the uniform tag from the Giants? People originally thought it said, Radden - until they found there was no major leaguer with that name. Upon further research it was found that the tag actually spells Padden.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Ted just posted a thread with the newspaper story about the Babe's final home runs -- the box score is a little grainy but it actually looks like Earl Grace was the Pirates catcher that day?

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=182265

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/paddeto01.shtml

http://thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp?P=Tom-Padden

Not a bad career. Looks like he made it back up in 1943.