1955 type collection

i was lucky (yes, oh so lucky) enough to win the fifth anniversary giveaway contest at number 5 type collection.  if you read that blog, and you should, you know that matthew appreciates the fifth card from a set and vintage.  here's most of what my winnings included

1955 bowman gil hodges

hodges' face is framed by the creases nicely, and i am one card closer to finishing the 1955 bowman dodger team set

staying in 1955, here's a '55 topps bert hamric

wonderfully rounded corners and miscut top to bottom. i will leave it to more curious minds which player hamric is sharing space with.  whenever i see the green bottom on a '55, i think of ted williams, but he had appeared in more than 200 games.

a few interesting things to note here.  first, we have firearms on the back of the card.  second, we have a full name of 'odbert'.  you may have noticed the facsimile auto on the front also showing that bert was short for odbert.  hamric is, to date, the sole big leaguer to have been named odbert.

enough about the name - the text on the back brings us to the conclusion that hamric can hit.  if i had been a brooklyn youngster in 1955, i would have been excited to see this minor league success story with the big club.  well, hamric made it to brooklyn, but was given just one at bat - as a pinch hitter - and he struck out.  his only other appearance that year was as a pinch runner.  three years later, hamric resurfaced in baltimore where he struck out in 5 of his 7 at bats.  he did get a base hit, however, so all was not lost.  add in a pop out, and you have hamric's big league career - 8 at bats, each of which came as a pinch hitter.

oh, i couldn't resist.  it's joe coleman who is creeping on to hamric's card.

unibrow alert!  here's a 1961 post wally moon card

the card is shaped more like a backwards nebraska than a colorado, but i'm not complaining. it's got character!  and again, it's another card crossed off of the want list.

here's a 1977 tcma renata galasso burleigh grimes card

grimes played for the dodgers when they were known as the robins, but he did manage the dodgers for a couple of seasons in the 1930's.  his hall of fame plaque has a 'b' on the cap, but i don't know if the dodgers have any sort of acknowledgement of grimes at the stadium like they do for the other dodger hall of famers.  the most obvious recognition are the retired numbers, but grimes played for the franchise before numbers were worn.  i suppose they could do something like the giants have done for the likes of john mcgraw and just put the 'b' logo in a circle for him.  same goes for zach wheat and others, now that i think about it.  in a similar vein, number 2 is retired for tom lasorda, of course, but i suppose supporters of leo durocher could see that as his number as well.  kind of a yankees/bill dickey/yogi berra number 8 thing.

and, while we are on the topic of numbers, here is the back of a card numbered 4 in its set - a 1981 topps squirt steve garvey card

so close to being a part of the number 5 type collection!  instead, matthew is stuck with a reggie jackson card.  man - look at those stats from 1974 through 1980.  i really thought that we would see number 6 in the rafters at dodger stadium.

thanks for the cards matthew! and here's to many more years of number 5's!