Prewar cards of 20th century Non-HOF players with career batting average of .300+

[brianp-beme]

You are being offered a perhaps once in a lifetime opportunity to show off Prewar cards you have of Non-HOF players that had a career batting average of .300 or better. I created this list utilizing the baseball-reference.com listing of players that had both (I believe) a minimum of 3000 Plate Appearances and 500 games played, but it might just be one or the other. I eliminated all the Hall of Famers from the list, because they get enough publicity as it is, the Negro League players because of the lack of prewar card availabilty for most of those players, and the 19th century players whose careers did not bleed into the 20th century, well, because this is the list I wanted to create. There are plenty of well known players on the list with prewar cards (Joe Jackson tops the wantlist of many a collector as well as this list), but I also decided that the relatively low 3000 Plate Appearances/500 game minimum corralled in a fair amount of players that rarely get talked about, and some of them have very few traditional prewar cards.

So show us a card or two or what you have of as many of the 60 players on the list that you want, and feel free to show cards or players that have already been shown by others. Some players only have a prewar card or two (Chick Stahl and Emmet Heidrick are a couple of several examples), so things might get a little sticky to show a card of each of these 60 players. Let me know if I overlooked someone that should be on this list (that qualify under my 'strict as a broom closet' guidelines listed above), and after serious investigation of the matter, I will add them to the list, if indeed warranted.

I will place an asterisk by each player that has been shown. And no talk about WAR...this is strictly an old school 'Make BA, not WAR" thread.

Brian


Joe Jackson .356 *

Lefty O'Doul .349 *

Riggs Stephenson .336 *

Mike Donlin .333 *

Bob Fothergill .326

Babe Herman .325 *

Joe Harris .317 *

Lew Fonseca .316 *

Bibb Falk .315 *

Cecil Travis .314 *

Jacques Fournier .313 *

Eddie Morgan .313 *

Barney McCosky .312 *

Johnny Hodapp .311 *

Bing Miller .311 *

Bill Jacobson .311 *

Taffy Wright .311 *

Rip Radcliff .311 *

Ginger Beaumont .311 *

Benny Kauff .311 *

Emil Meusel .310 *

Elmer Smith .310 *

Bobby Veach .310 *

John Stone .310 *

Bob Meusel .309 *

Jack Tobin .309 *

Virgil Davis .308 *

Harvey Hendrick .308 *

Johnny Frederick .308 *

Stuffy McInnis .308 *

Joe Vosmik .307 *

Freddy Leach .307 *

Johnny Moore .307 *

George H. Burns .307 *

Pat Duncan .307 *

Zeke Bonura .307 *

Dixie Walker .306 *

Chick Stahl .305

Charlie Hollocher .305 *

Curtis Walker .304 *

Charlie Jamieson .303 *

Cy Seymour .303 *

Jake Daubert .303 *

George Harper .303 *

Buddy Myer .303 *

Eddie Brown .303 *

Hal Trosky .302 *

Ben Chapman .302 *

Carl Reynolds .302 *

Sammy Hale .302 *

Homer Summa .302 *

Rube Bressler .302 *

Stan Hack .301 *

George Stone .301 *

Patsy Donovan .301

Johnny Mostil .301 *

Wally Berger .300 *

Emmet Heidrick .300

Earl Sheely .300 *

Ethan Allen .300 *


...and to start off with, here are cards of some players who have been pre-asterisked for your protection.


Buddy Myer - Diamond Stars from 3 different years
distarsmyertrio 001 (1024x416).jpg


George Stone - E92 Nadja misprint
e92nadjastone 001.jpg


Charlie Hollocher - Haffner Tay-to Loaf and E220 National Caramel with 3 different backs
haffnerhollacher 001.jpgE220hollachertrio 001 (800x450).jpg


Rube Bressler - W514
w514bressler 001 (364x640).jpg


Cy Seymour - M116 Sporting Life with missing/faded color
m116colorless 001.jpg

[packs]

I've got this one of Lefty:

[Cubanball]

One of my favorites. When you add his majors and minors career numbers you get a total 3,421 hits with a .318 batting average.

[Cubanball]

1923 W572 George H. Burns with Boston Red Sox

[GeoPoto]

W. Benjamin "Ben" Chapman. Outfielder for the New York Yankees in 1930-1936. 1,958 hits and 287 stolen bases in 15 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .383. 4-time All-Star. 1932 World Series champion. 4-time AL stolen base leader. He managed the Philadelphia Phillies in 1945-1948. His playing reputation was eclipsed by the role he played as manager of the Phillies, opposing Jackie Robinson's presence in MLB, including shouting racial epithets. His best season as a player was 1931 for the Yankees as he posted a .396 OBP with 61 stolen bases, 120 runs scored, and 122 RBIs in 686 plate appearances.

[Casey2296]

-
Stuffy.
-

[sbfinley]

Here's Bing Miller from my working (slowly) 33 Goudey Set.

[brianp-beme]

Thanks for the posts so far, nice to see some of these players get their propers.

Brian

[GeoPoto]

Carl N. Reynolds. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1932 and 1936. 1,357 hits and 80 home runs in 13 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Chicago White Sox in 1927. He had a career OBP of .346. His best season was 1930 with the White Sox as he posted an OBP of .388 with 103 runs scored and 104 RBIs in 602 plate appearances. He finished his career with the Chicago Cubs in 1939.

[tiger8mush]

@GeoPoto, love that UJ's sliding image of Chapman, great card!

[scooter729]

Brian already showed one E92 Stone misprint - here's another colorless misprint....

[Exhibitman]

Gotta throw in a Lefty or two

[edhans]

Riggs:

[molenick]

Here are four from one of the sets I collect.

[riggs336]

More Riggs.

[Tom S.]

I can help out with some of the White Sox on the list. Here's my 1941 Goudey color run of Taft Wright:

[Tom S.]

[BobbyStrawberry]

.

[GeoPoto]

Cecil H. Travis. Infielder for the Washington Senators in 1933-1941 and 1945-1947. 1,544 hits and 27 home runs over 12 MLB seasons. 3-time All-Star. One of two to get 5 hits in first game. Led American League in hits in 1941 despite DiMaggio's 56-game hit streak and Ted Williams hitting .406. His best season was 1941 as he posted a .410 OBP with 101 RBIs in 663 plate appearances. In the Army during 1942-45, he wound up a frostbite victim in the Battle of the Bulge and a Bronze Star recipient. His return to MLB after the war surgery was not the same.

[Tom S.]

Some of my Johnny Mostil cards:

[Tom S.]

A few cards of Bibb:

[Tom S.]

Some items of Lew:

[Tom S.]

Here are a few Bonura cards from my collection:

[Tom S.]

And finally, some Earl Sheely items:

[GeoPoto]

John T. "Rocky" Stone. Outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1934-1938. 1,391 hits and 77 home runs in 11 MLB seasons. His career OBP was .376. he debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1928-1933. His most productive season may have been 1932 with Detroit as he posted a .361 OBP with 106 runs scored and 109 RBIs in 643 plate appearances. His best season in Washington was 1936 as he posted a .421 OBP with 95 runs scored and 90 RBIs in 500 plate appearances.

[brianp-beme]

Here is a 1936 R314 Goudey Wide Pens card of Virgil "Spud" Davis.

Brian

[brianp-beme]

Here are a 1927 E126 American Caramel of Ed Brown, and a 1921 Koester Bread card of the same leaping lizard, just different photo.

Brian

[brianp-beme]

Here is the only Barney on the list, alongside his card-mate, another .300 hitter (but disqualified) named Charlie.

Brian

[molenick]

Does this count for Donlin?

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by molenick

Does this count for Donlin?

It does...a fancy stepping Donlin is better than a Donlin prancing in complete darkness.

Brian

[brianp-beme]

A R316 Kashin of Johnny Hodapp, one of the players on the list with only a few card options. And a 1933 PX3 Double Header button of him as well. I only have one other Double Header player, George Earnshaw, and he is firmly wedged together on the back side of Hodapp.

Brian

[brianp-beme]

Ginger Beaumont in a striking red background T206, and same head in black and white and encircled within an E254 Colgan's Chip.

Brian

[ValKehl]

The other Meusel, Emil:

[doug.goodman]

Here are the 22 players on the list with m114 posters

Babe Herman .325
Bibb Falk .315 *
Cecil Travis .314 *
Jacques Fournier .313 *
Barney McCosky .312 *
Bill Jacobson .311
Rip Radcliff .311 *
Benny Kauff .311
Emil Meusel .310
Elmer Smith .310
Bobby Veach .310
Bob Meusel .309 *
Jack Tobin .309
Joe Vosmik .307 *
George H. Burns .307 *
Dixie Walker .306
Charlie Jamieson .303
Buddy Myer .303 *
Hal Trosky .302 *
Ben Chapman .302 *
Stan Hack .301 *
Wally Berger .300

[doug.goodman]

And the 2 with m113 posters...

Stuffy McInnis .308 *
Jake Daubert .303

[brianp-beme]

Nice additions everyone. And most of those M114 and M113 have nice, different photos than what are seen in other issues. It is also fun to see that the M114 Chapman and the Uncle Jack Chapman shown earlier in the thread share the same photo.

As a reminder, feel free to post players that have already been posted, and even your example of a card already posted...why not? Many of these under-sung players need their song sung multiple times to make up some ground on the Top 40 crowd.

Brian

[GeoPoto]

Henry J. "Zeke" Bonura. First baseman for the Washington Senators in 1938 and 1940. 1,099 hits and 119 home runs in 7 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .380. He debuted with the Chicago White Sox in 1934. His best season was probably 1936 for the White Sox as he posted a .426 OBP with 120 runs scored and 138 RBIs in 688 plate appearances.

[molenick]

I have some repeats I could post, but going through the list, I see no one has posted Ethan Allen yet. Does anyone else remember learning about Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys in school and wondering if there was some connection?

[edhans]

Kauff:

[brianp-beme]

1934 World Wide Gum of Eddie Morgan with English/French text on back in not quite presentable (almost qualifies for reprehensibly lovable) shape.

Brian

[brianp-beme]

W513 Joe Harris to the rescue!

Brian

[brianp-beme]

Another W513 card picturing an under the radar .300 hitter: George Harper.

Brian

[brianp-beme]

W517, this one sepia tone, featuring Sammy Hale of the St. Louis Browns.

Brian

[brianp-beme]

To make it a little easier to view, here are the remaining .300 hitters yet to be shown:


Joe Jackson .356 *

Bob Fothergill .326

Freddy Leach .307 *

Johnny Moore .307 *

Pat Duncan .307 *

Chick Stahl .305

Curtis Walker .304 *

Homer Summa .302 *

Patsy Donovan .301

Emmet Heidrick .300


Brian

[GeoPoto]

Here's a twofer:

[brianp-beme]

Honorary .300+ non-HOF hitter mention goes to Frank Demaree. With 1241 hits in 4144 at bats, his batting average is .2994691. If taken out to the 5th decimal place, the 6 will round up the 4 to a 5, and then that 5 would cause the resulting .2995 to round up to the exalted .300 level for his career. If he only had gotten one more hit (that hit could even have been within 2 more at bats), or instead one less at bat, he would have made it.

Brian (I find that I more readily accept an extra dose of front damage on the 1938 Goudey cards with the cartoons, compared to the ones without, because there is so much going on with them visually, the damage just adds to the wonderful visual cacophony)

[tiger8mush]

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

Pat Duncan .307

Louis "Pat" Baird Duncan:

[brianp-beme]

Honorary .300+ non-HOF hitter mention goes to Frank Demaree. With 1241 hits in 4144 at bats, his batting average is .2994691. If taken out to the 5th decimal place, the 6 will round up the 4 to a 5, and then that 5 would cause the resulting .2995 to round up to the exalted .300 level for his career. If he only had gotten one more hit (that hit could even have been within 2 more at bats), or instead one less at bat, he would have made the .300 club.

Brian (I find that I more readily accept an extra dose of front damage on the 1938 Goudey cards with the cartoons, compared to the ones without, because there is so much going on with them visually, the damage just adds to the wonderful visual cacophony)

[brianp-beme]

I just posted this 1937 Wheaties Series 9 cereal box panel of Zeke Bonura in the "Smile" thread, but I guess it makes sense to post it here as well, as it even mentions his lifetime .300 hitter qualifications.

Brian

[brianp-beme]

I was digging around the petunia patch in the back when I encountered the below scans of cards of four career .300 hitters not yet shown.

Also below is the updated list of remaining 'not shown yet' players. There are relatively few items available for these gentlemen (besides Joe, and he doesn't have an overload of availability either). I have listed the card-like things that I know about for each player (besides Joe) that qualify as both prewar and 20th century. I believe folks who have failed to check out this thread are the ones hoarding all the Joe Jackson cards. Someone out there must have one to share. Don't make me post my excuse of a Joe Jackson prewar card.


Joe Jackson .356

Bob Fothergill .326: 1928 Exhibits, 1928 Star Player Candy, 1933 Wheaties Minneapolis Millers, 1933-34 Worch Cigar American Association

Chick Stahl .305: 1902 Sporting Life Cabinets W600 type 1, 1904 Sporting Life Cabinets W600 type 4, 1903-04 E107 Breisch-Williams, 1905-09 Carl Horner Cabinets

Patsy Donovan .301: 1902 Sporting Life Cabinets W600 type 2, 1904 Sporting Life Cabinets W600 type 3, 1906 Sporting Life Cabinets W600 type 4, 1904 Allegheny Card Company, 1906 WG2 Fan Craze A.L., 1910-11 M116 Sporting Life (M116)

Emmet Heidrick .300: 6/30/1900 Sporting News Supplements, 1903 Sporting Life Cabinets W600 type 3, 1903-04 E107 Breisch-Williams


And now for those petunia patch scans:


Freddy Leach - 1933 Goudey (even says it twice on the back of his card that he belongs on the .300 hitter list)

goudey33leach 001 (330x400).jpggoudey33leachback 001 (328x400).jpg


Curtis Walker - W501

w501walkercurtis 001 (246x400).jpg


Homer Summa - 1931 Zeenut

zeenut31summa 001 (242x400).jpg


Johnny Moore - 1930 Zeenut

zeenut30moorejohnny 001 (255x400).jpg


Brian