1941s in a walk. They had it all. And nineteen-forty one - what a year! 56, .406 and WW2. Following is what I wrote on my '41 Play Balls ImageEvent album and explains why I love the set:
IE link:
https://tinyurl.com/y639j38h
This 72 card set was issued by Gum, Inc. (later Bowman) in 1941. It was the year that Williams hit .406, DiMaggio streaked across the summer, and Lou Gehrig died. The Yanks won their Subway Series against Brooklyn in five games, and two months later our fathers went to war. So did the ballplayers. Even the cardboard would be put to better use in the war effort. Play Balls were the last pre-war baseball cards.
This grand little set has a lot of star power led by the iconic Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio cards - there are 15 Hall of Famers - but one wonders at some of the absentees such as Feller and Musial. There's not even a single player from the roster of the Chicago Cubs which included Dizzy Dean, Charley Root, and the venerable Stan Hack. (Seems Goudey Gum was sticking it to Wrigley Gum). Even so, it is hard not to love the colorful artwork nor to smile at some of the amusing nicknames like "Soupy" Campbell and "Gunboat" Gumbert and "Stormy" Weatherly. Plus ya gotta love that there are three DiMaggio brothers represented. Although this set's production precedes my birth by a decade many of these players were still active when I was a young ball fan. Saw Williams play many times when the Red Sox visited New York. Henrich and Dickey were Yankee coaches and Pee Wee Reese was a fixture on The Game of the Week along with Ol' Diz. I collected the cards one by one off eBay a few years ago. None are blazers but the set is a sentimental favorite.
