vintage week- day 2

For today's vintage card we hark back to 71 years ago for a 1939 Play Ball card.

This is Stanley Bordagaray of the Cincinnati Reds. 1939 was the first of three years for Play Ball. This is actually the second card I have from this set. I'm a big fan of the Play Ball cards from any year, but their first year may be my favorite. These cards look like old photos at first glance, until you flip 'em over and see information on the back. This set also features some tremendous rookie cards of the era, such as Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio. Upper Deck would buy the name in the early 2000's to make some cool retro sets. Come on back for tomorrow's vintage card for day 3!

random vintage double-header #2

Today's random vintage comes from two companies who no longer produce cards, and subsequently two companies that were both were owned by Upper deck at some point. The shorter card on the left is Play Ball circa 1939. It is Myril Hoag of the St. Louis Browns. I like cards depicting teams that don't exist anymore. Well, they do technically but you know what I mean. The taller card on the right is from Fleer's 1961 Baseball Greats set. According to the back of the card, Howard "Earl" Averill played for Cleveland, Detroit and Boston. His son, Earl Averill was an active player for the "new" Los Angeles Angels in 1961. The Fleer set was the standard card size we know today, while the Play Ball is the same width, but shorter than the standard. The Play Ball's also look like they might be old photographs at a quick glance. This is the only Play Ball in my collection right now but I do plan on getting some more of the different years they produced which were 1939 through 1941.