1934 Goudey fans may find this interesting...

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Posted By: James Feagin

Here is what Mr. Lonnie Frey looks like in his 1934 Goudey card.




A couple of months ago, I did some research on the lives of the players who appeared in this set, although I have very few of the cards. I was fascinated to find that two of the players were still living. Bill Werber in North Carolina, and Lonnie Frey in Idaho. Mr. Frey is 95 years old, and was a 3X All-Star. I sent him a note of appreciation and hopefully a card to sign. I received this in the mail today. From Maryland to Idaho back to Maryland took 6 days. Made by day!

Jim

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Posted By: JimB

Very cool. I bet it made his day too to know that somebody still remembered him and cared.
JimB

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Posted By: Chris Counts

Lonny Frey was the second baseman and Billy Werber the third baseman of the 1939-40 Reds, a colorful team which won two pennants and a World Series in '40. I just picked a wonderful lot of original negatives from the late 30s and early 40s off eBay and included are three nice shots of Frey, so I've been curious about him and it's nice to hear he's doing so well ...

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Posted By: Brian Weisner

Hi James,
Where does Bill live in NC??? LMK Brian

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Posted By: nbrazil

real nice. getting something like this in return is a whole lot better than picking up a signed baseball from some current star player off ebay. are you going to send a note to werber too?

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Posted By: Zach Smith

That is VERY nice. Something like that personalized to you... I'd love to sit down with some of those older guys and listen to them talk about "the way it was back when..."

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Posted By: James Feagin

Brian,

Bill Werber lives in Charlotte, NC. If you would like his latest mailing address, please e-mail me. Mr. Werber still autographs card, but won't answer questions due to a bit of carpel-tunnel.

James

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Posted By: whycough

I have an audio tape of the 1941 All Star Game in Detroit with Ty Tyson doing the play-by-play. This is one of the gems from the Miley collection with Teddy Ballgame blasting one off the top tier of Tiger Stadium to win the game. Linus Frey was on the National League squad. A story like this will cross my mind whenever I listen to the game.

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Posted By: James Feagin

I just sent a card to another 1941 All-Star, Sid Hudson. He was a second year player in 1941 for the Washington Senators. Apparently, Mr. Hudson is alive and doing quite well in Waco, Texas. The oldest MLB player, Howdy Groskloss also still signs through the mail as well, although I'm not sure if he ever had a card.

James

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Posted By: Joe Jones

That is a great looking signature

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Hey Jim,

Would you email me his address. I've written Werber, a nice man. I've overlooked Mr. Frey.

Thanks.

Frank.

fwakefield1@comcast.net

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Posted By: Frank Evanov

Wow....always thought all the guys from the 30's were gone!!

Frank

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Posted By: DJ

That is truly great! Like above, I simply assumed they were all deceased as well. Will drop him a line this weekend and I'm sure he'll wonder why his mail box is all of a sudden full! It's because of the VBC Forum!

DJ

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Posted By: Genaro

I think that is awesome. I think that both of them would enjoy that people still think of them and I bet this will bring a grand smile to both their faces.

Is Bobby Doer and Bob Feller The oldest living HOF'ers

I met Bobby Doerr a while back I loved listening to him talk about Jimmy Foxx, Ted Williams and Rogers Hornsby. Let’s just say I just sat there with my mouth open letting him tell it the way it was. I would have loved to been with the ESPN film crew when they filmed "Teammates" Imagine the stories Johnny, Bobby and Dom were telling on there trip to see Ted.

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Posted By: Anthony

I believe, since the death of Al Lopez late last year, the oldest living HOF is Phil Rizzuto, at 86.

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

James

That's a nice looking signature from Lonny Frey, who is 95 yrs old.

Bill Werber is 97....and I think he is the oldest living ballplayer
from the Goudeys and Diamond Stars sets of the 1930's.

Eldon Auker is the oldest living ballplayer from the PlayBall sets,
he, also, is 95.

And, long live the "Scooter" Rizzuto....my neighbor in Hillside, NJ.
He is 87 years old, and as Anthony noted, is the oldest living member
of the BaseBall Hall of Fame. Phil's first baseball card is the 1941
Double Play (he shares this card with Lefty Gomez).

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Posted By: James Feagin

We need to get together and send this guy a birthday card. Did he have any cards?


http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/groskho01.shtml

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Posted By: Jim Novotny

James
Being a 34 Goudey collector I think this is really interesting. I started collecting the cards and am now down to just the high numbers and the expensive ones. But as a side, I started to collect autographed 3x5s from players in this set. Im making good progress and it is interesting to see them pop up on E-bay. But knowing that there are still players alive from this set and that they will still send you an autograph is pretty neat.

You said you have done some research on the players. Is this in a form that you could share with us? It might be nice to put together a publication like Scot Reader did with T206 but more biographical of these players.
Jim

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Posted By: James Feagin

Jim,

I thought about that as well. I used baseball-reference.com for every single player in the set. Perhaps we could use a "who's still alive in the major pre-war card sets?" Additionally, send me your address. One of the Frey signed index cards is yours.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I'll bet when you're a 90s year old former common player, through the mail autograph requests with a nice note or letter brightens your day. My brother in law used to mail autograph requests to actors and actresses, and it was obvious that many of the elderly obscure folk were thrilled that someone remembered them.

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Posted By: jamie

if you guys have a list of players, id be happy to provide you with current addresses for them along with their known signing habits

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I would like the adresses of former players who sign while riding lawn mowers, doing the Charleston or, preferably, both simultaniously.

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Posted By: jamie

david,
any preference to mower type? a john deere normally provides a much smoother sig

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I'm not particular, just as long as it isn't a push lawn mower being pushed. And certainly not one of those motorless kinds.

Looking at signatures, I think Greg Maddux and Willie Mays sign this way.

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Posted By: jamie

http://tinypic.com/5zjjvq

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Pushing a lawnmower one handed while wearing sandals. I heard even Houdini wouldn't attempt that.

Anyone see the episode when Red Green made a cup of coffee using nothing but coffee beans and a push lawn mower? (First you mow the beans into the clippings bag,...). Other classic inventions of his included the used toaster computer disc drive, electric sandbelt skates, washing machine breadmaker and bbq grill gas tank jet pack.

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Posted By: john

Eldon Auker! I'd liker to recommend his book, Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms, which tells the story (among other things) of how Ted Williams started his feud with the Boston press (1939). I heard Eldon on the radio about two years ago talking about his book and he sounded like he was about 60 years old. He's quite a guy!