National League Baseball Card Classics

by Bert Randolph Sugar

The National Baseball League was baseball for the game’s first quarter-century of professional life. By 1900 the eight clubs that would carry the National League through its next 62 years were established, and though the Giants, Dodgers, and Braves would relocate, they and others (Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, and Philadelphia Phillies) carefully preserved their traditions and memories.
Their greatest memories were of course the players, men whose character and statistics made national heroes out of National Leaguers. Here are the greatest, preserved, as America preserves its heroes, painted not on canvas but 78 different players on 83 authentic classic baseball cards.
The facsimiles, reproduced front and back with the original advertising, span 60 years, 1909-69, from Frederick Merkle and Johnny Evers to Lou Brock. Other National League leaders
John J. McGraw
Heinie Zimmerman
Babe Adams
Larry Doyle
Dizzy Dean
Carl Hubbell
Adolfo Luque
Lloyd Waner
Kiki Cuyler
Ducky Medwick
Robin Roberts
Andy Pafko
and many more.
These cards (none of them duplicated in other Dover baseball card collections) come from many Cracker Jack Ballplayers, Goudey “Big League” Gum, Hassan Cigarettes, American Tobacco Trust, Bowman Gum and Topps among others. Vivid verso commentary notes that Adolfo Luque (New York Giants, 1933) is “the only Cuban now playing in the National League,” while Charles “Chick” Hafey (Cincinnati Reds, 1934) is “one of the best players in the National League, despite the fact that he is forced to wear glasses.
The League has changed; the tobacco and gum aromas have long worn off these cards’ rare originals (worth thousands to collectors) — but these facsimiles, reproduced on baseball card stock, retain the flavor that made card collecting a co-equal national pastime. Remember when the national pastime was the National League? Add these classic cards to old memories or new collections.

Genres: Baseball

16 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1982

About the author

Bert Randolph Sugar was a boxing writer and sports historian.

Reviews

[C. John Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The inside covers have a brief item on the beginnings of Baseball's National League. The rest of the book is comprised of several pages of representations of various old baseball cards. The cards are perforated so they can be removed and stuck in a collection as individual cards. For someone who is either a team collector or who collects specific players or organizes their collection by team or player this is probably a plus. The reproduction is quite sharp as well so the cards are a pleasure to look at. It is well-marked on the back that these are reprints so there is no fear of someone trying to pass them off as the real thing. It is interesting to note too that with the older cards there was more emphasis of a write-up on the player than a lot of statistics. Definitely a book for the afficionado of either the sport of Baseball or the collector of baseball cards. Happy reading.