Tuesday, February 8, 2022

The most beautiful set you've never heard of

 I think all of us love 1953 Bowman Color. Its simple design, paired with its early use of color photography, makes it one of the most popular sets of all time. 




And it certainly is beautiful. 

But there's another set that was released in 1948, was probably the first set to ever have color photography, and is arguably even nicer looking. It's the 1948 Signal Oil set, and you've probably never heard of it before.

It's a 24 card set of the Oakland Oaks. They were given away in gas stations. (Why don't they give away cards at gas stations anymore?) And they're so beautiful.

I mean, look at these:

Ray Hamrick. No power, and made 54 errors at shortstop in 147 games in 1947.

Despite being a minor league set, it has plenty of star power. From left to right, bottom to top, we have Cookie Lavagetto, Ernie Lombardi, Casey Stengel, and Billy Martin. They went 114-74, finished first, and beat the Los Angeles Angels and Seattle Rainers in the playoffs to win the championship. 

The lesser-known Nick Etten was the real star, though. He was a star for the Yankees during World War II, leading the AL in home runs in 1944 with 22 and in RBIs in 1945 with 111. He hit just .232 in 1946, though, and was in the minors in 1948. He had an incredible season, hitting .313 with 43 home runs and 155 RBIs in 164 games. He had a .587 SLG, and .408 OBP. Had a good season with Milwaukee in 1949, but not spectacular, and 1950 was his last pro season.


Will Hafey, who hit .282 with 34 RBIs in 131 at-bats in 1948.


Charlie Gassaway, from Gassaway, Tennessee. 


Billy Raimondi, one of the great minor league catchers. Didn't have much power, but hit .276 and caught well over 2,000 games in a 22-year career.

Even the announcer gets a card. 

They remind me a lot of the 1970s Calbee cards. To be honest, I don't have a Signal Oil card or a Calbee card, but I'll get some someday. Maybe I'll even complete the 1948 Signal Oil set.

1978 Calbee Koichi Tabuchi. Picture courtesy of Sean at Getting Back into Baseball Cards... in Japan







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7 comments:

  1. DamienFebruary 8, 2022 at 4:57 PM

    They really should hand out free baseball cards at gas stations considering the outrageous prices they charge for gas alone.

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  2. NickFebruary 8, 2022 at 5:08 PM

    Those are definitely cool! Don't see a whole lot of full-color sets from that era.

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  3. JonFebruary 8, 2022 at 6:42 PM

    It is a nice set, but I'm pretty sure that a lot of folks do know about it. I own five cards from the set, a couple of which even made it onto the blog a few years ago. Bud Foster is my favorite card in the set, and I'm very grateful to have gotten it before the prices started going up. If they ever do go back down again, I have no doubt that I'll start looking to add to what I already have.

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    Replies
    1. GTTFebruary 8, 2022 at 6:54 PM

      Well, a fair amount of people have heard of it, but I think most have not. As it's a small minor league set, you have to be hard-core in that area to have heard of it.

      Delete
  4. Jeff B - Wax Pack Wonders February 8, 2022 at 7:58 PM

    Wow these are fantastic. Never saw them before.

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  5. FujiFebruary 8, 2022 at 9:10 PM

    Billy Martin has an Oakland Oaks card? I'm off to add that to my eBay search list.

    ReplyDelete
  6. BoFebruary 9, 2022 at 8:15 AM

    I think I've seen them but did not know much about them. Very cool. Really the end of the era when the PCL was a quasi-major league.

    ReplyDelete

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