1949 Leaf BB cards....show us your Leaf's

[mechanicalman]

That's sweet. Looks less like a baseball card and more like an album cover from a 1980's Europop band.

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by mechanicalman

That's sweet. Looks less like a baseball card and more like an album cover from a 1980's Europop band.

Hey Sam

Better yet, how's about some psychedelic poster from the late 1960's


TED Z
.

[tedzan]

All three of these variations are in the 1st series.

In early press runs Kent Peterson is depicted with a black cap. Later issues of 1st series cards, Kent Peterson is depicted with a Red cap.
My guess is LEAF changed the color of his cap to be consistent with the 3 other Cincinnati players in the 1st series. The Red cap version
is somewhat rare.





The Gene Hermanski card is rarely found misspelled "Gene Hermansk". This variation appears to be just a spelling error that was caught
early in the printing process.



The long-sleeve card of Aberson appeared in the early issues of the LEAF cards. The short-sleeve version appeared later in the game.
I tend to think that the short-sleeve Aberson cards are simply the result a printing flaw.





TED Z
.

[steve_a]

My guess on Hermansk is a printing plate issue. If you line up a Hermansk and a Hermanski you will see they are perfectly aligned but the Hermanski is better centered within the text block. This partial "I" demonstrates the point.

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by steve_a

My guess on Hermansk is a printing plate issue. If you line up a Hermansk and a Hermanski you will see they are perfectly aligned but the Hermanski is better centered within the text block. This partial "I" demonstrates the point.

Hi Steve

In the Old Cardboard magazine, in my article on this set, I present another take on the Hermanski variation.

The Hermanski card was located on the bottom right-hand corner of the 49-card LEAF sheet. In the printing process of this sheet, there were times when the letter "I"
did not print (or as your card shows, partially printed) due to the printing plate not making firm contact with the cardboard on that very lowermost corner of the sheet.


TED Z
.

[steve_a]

Originally Posted by tedzan

... there were times when the letter "I" did not print (or as your card shows, partially printed) due to the printing plate not making firm contact with the cardboard on that very lowermost corner of the sheet.

TED Z
.

I think that is the right idea, but maybe backwards? Don't forget that it is the text boxes that are printed, not the names. The names are just voids within the text box. A missing "I" would be from over-contact or too much ink.

[tedzan]

For many years we've known that these cards were skip-numbered, and that there are 98 different BB subjects.
But, in the Spring of '49....us kids had no idea how many cards we needed to complete this set. A premium adv.
on the back of some cards mentioned a 168-card album was available for mailing in a number of wrappers.
We kept spending our pennies buying LEAF cards by the 100's. It was a "nasty" marketing trick that LEAF Gum
played on us kids back then. My original collection had all 49 (1st series) cards and approx. 80 duplicates.


Here is an old photo of an uncut sheet of 1st series cards. Along with a diagram of the card #'s on their backs.









TED Z
.

[tedzan]

I've listed the 98 subjects (plus the 3 variations) as a function of their teams for those on his forum who are team collectors.

The 2nd series (short-print) cards are identified by an *


BOSTON BRAVES
----------------------
WARREN SPAHN
ALVIN DARK *
BOB ELLIOTT
TOMMY HOLMES *
HAROLD REISER *

BOSTON RED SOX
-----------------------
TED WILLIAMS
BOBBY DOERR
MATHEW BATTS *
DOM DiMAGGIO *
BILLY GOODMAN *
MICKEY HARRIS
JOHNNY PESKY *
VERN STEPHENS *

BROOKLYN DODGERS
---------------------------
JACKIE ROBINSON
GENE HERMANSKI
GENE HERMANSK (missing "I" variation)

CHICAGO CUBS
--------------------
CLIFF ABERSON
CLIFF ABERSON (short sleeve variation)
PHIL CAVRETTA *
FRANK GUSTINE *
EMIL LEONARD *
HARRY LOWREY *
BOB McCALL
ANDY PAFKO
BOB SCHEFFING *
JOHNNY SCHMITZ *
ROY SMALLEY
HARRY WALKER *

CHICAGO WHITE SOX
---------------------------
LUCIUS APPLING
FLOYD BAKER *
ORVAL GROVE *
CASIMER MICHAELS *
DAVE PHILLEY *
PAT SEEREY
RALPH WEIGEL

CINCINNATI REDS
-----------------------
BOBBY ADAMS *
EWELL BLACKWELL
TED KLUSZEWSKI
KENT PETERSON
KENT PETERSON (red cap variation)
HANK SAUER *
JOHNNY VANDERMEER
JOHN WYROSTEK *

CLEVELAND INDIANS
---------------------------
BOB FELLER *
LEROY PAIGE *
LOU BOUDREAU
LARRY DOBY *
HANK EDWARDS
JOE GORDON
JIM HEGAN
KEN KELTNER *
DALE MITCHELL *

DETROIT TIGERS
----------------------
GEORGE KELL *
HAL NEWHOUSER *
WALTER EVERS *
FRED HUTCHINSON *
FRANK OVERMIRE
PAUL TROUT
VIRGIL TRUCKS *
GEORGE VICO
DICK WAKEFIELD

NEW YORK GIANTS
------------------------
JOHNNY MIZE
LARRY JENSEN
SID GORDON *

NEW YORK YANKEES
---------------------------
BABE RUTH
JOE DiMAGGIO
PHIL RIZZUTO
TOMMY HENRICH *
BILLY JOHNSON
JOHNNY LINDELL
GEORGE STIRNWEISS

PHILADELPHIA ATHLETICS
----------------------------------
LOU BRISSIE
SAM CHAPMAN
EDDIE JOOST *
HENRY MAJESKI *
BARNEY McCOSKY *
WARREN ROSAR
ELMER VALO

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES
--------------------------------
DEL ENNIS
ED MILLER *
DICK SISLER *

PITTSBURGH PIRATES
----------------------------
JOHN WAGNER
RALPH KINER
KIRBY HIGBE *
JOHNNY HOPP
DANNY MURTAUGH *
EDDIE STEVENS *

ST LOUIS BROWNS
------------------------
BOB DILLINGER *
CLIFFORD FANNIN *
MIZELL PLATT
GERALD PRIDDY
AL ZARILLA *

ST LOUIS CARDINALS
---------------------------
STAN MUSIAL
ENOS SLAUGHTER *
HARRY BRECHEEN *
GEORGE KUROWSKI *
MARTIN MARION

WASHINGTON SENATORS
--------------------------------
JAKE EARLY
AL EVANS
SID HUDSON
EDDIE STEWART *



TED Z
.

[mrmopar]

Leaf did me a favor by not including that many Dodgers, although I have wanted a SP Reiser forever even though he is not a Dodger in the set.