Lots of Oddballs and Reprints

I was browsing Ebay the other day and came across a seller with a lot of reprint and oddball cards for sale.  Several players are new to my collection and several more have fewer than 10 cards.  That is a lot of fun for me.  The best part was that the seller included a bunch of extra stuff as well, though only two cards were new to my collection.  I don't mind getting reprints.  Sure, I would love to have the originals, but if I can't get those, the reprints will do.

1.  Nomar Garciaparra.  This was one of the extras.  I was surprised I did not have this one, though I do have the Pedro Martinez card like this.  Nomar's rookie season was one of the best in history as he led the league in hits and triples and had a slash line of .306/.342/.534 with 30 home runs, 98 RBIs, and 22 stolen bases.

2.  Ed Cicotte.  Better known as one of the members of the 1919 Black Sox, Cicotte was portrayed by Steve Eastin in Field of Dreams.  Cicotte was a decent pitcher with Boston for a few years before joining the White Sox.  In 1909 he was 14-5 with a 1.94 ERA.

3.  Harry Lord.  Lord was primarily a third-baseman for the Red Sox from 1907-1910.  He had a couple of pretty good seasons too, especially 1909 when he hit .315/.349/.363 with seven triples and 36 stolen bases.

4.  Bill Carrigan.  I have covered Carrigan a couple of times recently.  He was a very good defensive catcher who could hit a little bit and whose name is in the Red Sox record books as the only manager in team history to lead the team to consecutive World Series titles (1915 and 1916).

5.  Marty McManus.  The 1933 Delong Gum original is probably one that I would like to get.  This is just a cool design and McManus is the only Red Sox player in the set.  McManus had been a pretty good player in the 1920's for the Browns and Tigers before joining the Red Sox in 1931.  McManus took over as the team's player/manager in the dreadful season of 1932 and continued through 1933.  He was still a decent enough player in 1933 as he hit .284/.369/.413.

6.  Vean Gregg.  Gregg had been a three-time 20 game winner with the Cleveland Indians early in his career, but was used sparingly in his time with Boston, never reaching 80 innings pitched.  The Red Sox pitching was stacked in those years with Babe Ruth, Ernie Shore, Dutch Leonard, Rube Foster, Carl Mays, and more.  His best year in Boston was 1916 when he was 2-5 with a 3.01 ERA in 77.2 innings.

7.  John Lazor.  Lazor spent only four years in the Majors, three of which came during the WWII years 1943-1945, when Major League jobs were pretty easy to find.  He had a very good season in 1945, hitting .310/.346/.424 with five home runs.  He only struck out 17 times in 355 plate appearances.  He remained with the team in 1946 when players returned from service, but he did not play nearly as much.

8.  Roy Partee.  Partee was the Red Sox's primary catcher during the wartime years of 1943-1944 and hit pretty well in 1943.  He hit .281/.368/.341 while playing 96 games.  He missed the 1945 season due to military service but returned as a backup catcher in 1946.  He hit .315 that season in just 40 games and was the catcher when Enos Slaughter score on his "mad dash" in the 1946 World Series.

9.  Tony Lupien.  Lupien was the Red Sox primary first-baseman in 1942-1943 as Jimmie Foxx declined.  Lupien was not too bad in 1942, but never had much power.  He hit .281/.351/.384 with just three home runs and 70 RBIs.  He stole 10 bases and struck out just 20 times.  The next season he declined and he was claimed on waivers by the Phillies.

10.  Joe Vosmik.  Vosmik had been a very good hitter for the Indians for several seasons before joining the Red Sox from 1938-1939.  Vosmik's best season in Boston was 1938 when he hit .324/.384/.446 and led the league in hits with 201.  Vosmik was a left-fielder and when he was sold to the Dodgers, Ted Williams took his place in the field.

11.  Rick Ferrell.  The Hall of Fame catcher was a very good contact hitter who got on base at a very good rate for a catcher.  For his career, he never struck out more than 26 times in a season and his career on-base percentage was .378.  Ferrell was an All Star every season in Boston.  His best year was 1936 when he hit .312/.406/.461 with eight home runs.  He was also a terrific defensive receiver.

12.  Herb Pennock.  Another Hall of Famer.  Pennock spent two stints with the Red Sox from 1915-1922 and to close out his career in 1934.  Pennock was just starting to realize his potential in his first stint with Boston.  His best year with the Red Sox was 1919 when he was 16-8 with a 2.71 ERA.  Pennock did not pitch for Boston in the World Series though.  His greatest success came during his time with the Yankees, but he wears a Red Sox cap on his Hall of Fame plaque.

13.   Rico Petrocelli.  Petrocelli spent his entire career with the Red Sox while playing shortstop and then moving to third base when future Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio was acquired.  He was a terrific defensive player, but it was his 1969 season when he hit 40 home runs as a shortstop that really cemented his legacy.

14.  Bruce Hurst.  If Boston had won the World Series in 1986, Bruce Hurst was going to be named the MVP.  He was one of Boston's top left-handers of all time.  He was 18-6 with a 3.66 ERA and 166 strikeouts in 1988, his last season in Boston.  Hurst was an All Star in 1987.

15.  Jody Reed.  Reed had better all-around numbers than Walt Weiss in 1988, other than not playing quite as often.  Reed had three straight seasons of more than 40 doubles for Boston from 1989 through 1991, including tying for the league lead with 45 in 1990.

16.  Wes Ferrell.  The brother of Rick Ferrell was a very good pitcher who won more than 20 games six times.  He was a very good hitting pitcher too and hit 38 home runs in his career.  Ferrell played in Boston at the same time as his brother and turned in a fantastic 25-14 season in 1935 with a 3.52 ERA and 110 strikeouts.

17.  Jack Barry.  Barry had been the second-baseman on the Philadelphia Athletics famed "$100,000 infield".  He played for Boston from 1915 through 1919, missing the 1918 season due to WWI.  Barry was also the manager in 1917.  He was never much of a hitter with Boston, hitting just .224 in 319 games.

18.  Lefty Grove.  Grove was past his prime by the time that he joined Boston, but he still led the league in ERA four times in his eight Boston seasons and won 20 games in 1935.  His electrifying fastball was gone, but Grove became a terrific finesse pitcher.  He is one of two players to win his 300th game with the Red Sox franchise (Cy Young was the other).

19.  Daisuke Matsuzaka.  I need Zippy Zappy to translate this card.  Matsuzaka looked like he would fulfill his promise after his first two seasons in Boston.  He was 15-12 with 201 strikeouts in 2007 and 18-3 with a 2.90 ERA in 2008.  Unfortunately, it was downhill from there.

20.  Rick Ferrell.

21.  Carlton Fisk.  Fisk was a seven-time All Star with Boston and won the Rookie of the Year and Gold Glove Awards in 1972.  He hit .315/.402/.521 with 26 home runs and 102 RBIs while catching an incredible 151 games in 1977.  Somehow he was just eighth in the MVP vote.

22.  Wade Boggs.  Boggs won five batting titles and had seven straight 200 hit seasons with the Red Sox.  In 1987, he hit .363/.461/.588 with 24 home runs and 89 RBIs.  His OPS was an insane 1.049.  He had 200 hits and 40 doubles.  That is a monster season and if Boston was any good that season, he would have been the MVP.

23.  Ted Williams.  This is an action shot I have never seen before, and I love it.  My favorite Ted Williams stat is his career OBP of .482, #1 all time.  For his career, he got on base almost half the time.

24.  Joe Cronin.  At the time that he was bought by Boston, Cronin's $250,000.00 purchase price was the most any team ever paid for a player.  It was twice what the Yankees paid Boston for Babe Ruth.  His best Boston season was 1938 when he hit .325/.428/.536 with 17 home runs and 94 RBIs.  He led the league with 51 doubles.

25.  Hugh Duffy.  Duffy was a terrific hitter who once hit .440 (although that was in 1894 when players hit .400 more often).  He spent most of his career with Boston in the National League, though his career mostly took place before the American League was born.  Duffy was a Red Sox manager in 1921-1922 and was a scout for Boston when this picture was taken.  Here is the full picture:

 
26.  Bill Buckner.  This was another extra card.  This is, of course, a photo of the aftermath of the ball rolling between Buckner's legs in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.  It is a shame that Buckner's career was marred like that because he was a pretty good player.  That season he hit .267/.311/.421 with 18 home runs and 102 RBIs.  He had a 200 hit season the year before.

So that is it.  Lots of interesting history in those cards.