My next card from the Philly Show is #211, Murry Dickson. He only played for Phillies for a few years; however, had a somewhat long and fairly productive career. Beyond this, he also had quite an interesting life, especially in his younger years. For those who may have an interest, I recommend reading this article from SABR on Dickson:
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/1bb26f23
As for the card, it shows a then-40-year-old Murray Dickson looking every bit the grizzled veteran he was at the time; not just in the baseball sense, but also someone who had been in battle. The look on his face is that of a person who has literally seen it all. I don't often think of this, but those who were middle-aged in 1956 had been through a decidedly different life than the generations which followed them. They had witnessed a world at war.
The action shot of Dickson is remarkable in that no team logo appears on his jersey. Murry had been pitching for the Phillies for a few years by then, so action photos of him were likely easy to come by. However, he had been traded (or sold) so many times by this point, it's possible Topps wanted to hedge their bet and just show Dickson in a plain jersey...just in case. Ironically, he
was traded shortly after the set was released.
The backdrop of the action shot is another one of those cards in which everything has a green tint to it. Additionally, Dickson is curiously pictured on neither a pitcher's mound nor an infield warm-up area. Instead, he is standing on an endless expanse of emerald green grass.
Early on in collecting this set, I began to truly see the cards. Now, as I progress a bit further, I have begun to also see the players. They weren't just flat 2 dimensional objects on a piece of cardboard. These players were real people with real lives and (in Murry Dickson's case) real character.
I can honestly say that collecting a set of cards has never been such a tremendously rewarding experience. What a fantastic journey this is turning out to be.