1953 Bowman Color AL CORWIN

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Posted By: Shawn Chambers

Hey guys,

Did a brief glance around the net and searched through some back archives on Net54, but no real luck...

Trying to determine why exactly Al Corwin is featured twice in the 1953 Bowman set. A friend of mine noticed this and was wondering why a minor player would merit two cards.

Was one of the numbers possibly reserved for another player and the "deal" fell through?

Just wondering if anyone has any insights.

Shawn

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

The #126 card of Al Corwin (in the tough series) has his birth month misspelled...."Recember".

His 2nd card (#149) has it corrected...."December". This trivial difference certainly doesn't warrant
a redo by Bowman.

So, it's a real mystery why there are two different pictures of Corwin in this set ?

Any one else have any thoughts on this ? ?



TED Z

[Archive]

Posted By: Bob Lemke

I've wondered about this for a long time, as well.

I can envision two scenarios . . .

Player on card #126 was not Corwin, so they corrected it on #149.
or
They thought player on card #149 was somebody other than Corwin, realized it WAS Corwin at the last minute and used the corrected back.

I am not a good photo-matcher, so I never tried to ascertain whether Corwin was on #126, #149 or both.

[Archive]

Posted By: Shawn Chambers

I don't own either card of Corwin's, but just looking at them in the Slocum Baseball book I believe both pics are of Corwin.

For some reason, I thought this would be a quick and easy answer on the web, but really hasn't worked out that way!

Thanks for the suggestions,

Shawn

[Archive]

Posted By: Anthony N.

There were 4 cards that were produced and then not issued, the poses changing on 3 of them, but 1 was a Dodgers In Action card (a play at home plate, IIRC)
They were offered in SCP's auction around 2001-2002. I wonder if this card was switched out for one of the Corwins, with Bowman not realizing in their haste he was already in there.
I'll try and dig up the catalog tonite and see what the numbers were for those 4 cards- I know one was Slaughter.

[Archive]

Posted By: Anthony N.

Found the 4 '53 proofs in question. They were offered in the November '01 SCP auction, lots 258-261.
All 4 were blank backed proofs, and graded authentic by PSA. The 4 consisted of
Slaughter- exact same pose as his card number 81
Fain- no Fain in the color series, so this could've been in place of one of the Corwins, as could
Dodgers in Action- this consists of a player sliding into home, the catcher diving over him, and the umpire calling him safe. From the small scan it looks like the player sliding is a Dodger, possibly Reese or Furillo.
Spahn- different image than the card that would end up being issued for him, this one pictures him in mid windup from the thighs up.
I seem to recall these went for about $1200-1400 each at the time.

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

All the info on the backs of these two cards is identical with the exception on their #s. Card on
left is #126 and his Birth month is misspelled "Recember".

The card on right (#149) has this error corrected on it...."December".






TED Z

[Archive]

Posted By: JDRUM

Mr. Corwin certainly thought they were both him: