Your Information Resource for Vintage Baseball Cards
  eNews Issue #141 (January 2016)       www.oldcardboard.com


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Welcome to Old Cardboard, the most complete reference resource for information about collecting vintage baseball cards and related memorabilia.  More information about this eNewsletter and its companion website and magazine are found at the bottom of this page.

Contents:
1. Updated Auction and Show Calendar
2. Living Major League Veterans of WWII
3. Latest Additions to the OldCardboard.com Website
4. News Briefs (A Digest of Recent Hobby Happenings)



1. Updated Auction and Show Calendar

The following is a summary of vintage card events coming up in the next 30-45 days. For the most current listings on additional vintage card shows and auctions, see the Key Events Calendar on the Old Cardboard website.

Have an event that needs to be on the OC Calendar?
Email editor@oldcardboard.com.


OC eNewsletter Sponsor

January 2016

21Phone/Internet Mile High Auction (see website for details).
21Internet Sirius Sportscards (see website for details).
23Phone/Internet Small Traditions Auctions (see website for details).
23Willoughby, OH Fusco Auctions (see website for details).
30Internet Love of the Game Auction (see website for details).
30Phone/Internet Goldin Auctions (see website for details).

February 2016

3Phone/Internet Clean Sweep Auctions (see website for details).
4Phone/Internet Sterling Sports Auctions (see website for details).
4-6Long Beach, CA Long Beach Expo (see website for details).
6Phone/Internet Small Traditions Auctions (see website for details).
11Phone/Internet Huggins & Scott Auctions (see website for details).
12-14Houston Houston Collectors Show (Tristar) (see website for details).
20-21New York, NY Heritage Platinum Night Sports Auction (see website for details).
26-28King of Prussia, PA Philly Show (see website for details).


2. Living Major League Veterans of WWII

Editor's Note: For well over a decade, British-based baseball historian Gary Bedingfield has researched and documented the careers (both on and off the field) of baseball players who served in World War II. In his most recent newsletter, he profiles with pictures each of the 73 Major League players still living. From Dick Adams to George Yankowski and all in between, their ages now average well over ninty years.

While the list includes some WWII-era players very familiar to vintage card collectors, many are not. There are three Hall of Famers (Bobby Doerr, Monte Irvin and Red Schoendienst) along with several who played in only a few games in the Majors. All are American heroes for their service in World War II.

The following is extracted from the introduction to the player-soldier profiles in Gary's January 2016 Newsletter, along with three example profiles.

As we begin a New Year, it seems a good time to look back and say, thank you, to the 73 former big league players, managers and coaches who served during World War II and are still with us. In total, about 1,300 players with major league experience (either before, during or after the war) were in the military between 1941 and 1945. Some were in the prime of their career. Others were starting their journey through the bush leagues, while still others would not begin that journey until the war ended.

At the beginning of the 1940s, baseball was truly America’s pastime. Major league teams drew capacity crowds on a daily basis and nearly 5,000 minor league players were fine-tuning their skills with 287 teams competing in 43 leagues spread across the country. But as Japan began to fulfil its territorial ambitions in the Pacific and German troops swarmed through Europe at an alarming rate, those halcyon days would soon be gone as the United States began preparing to defend itself in the face of inevitable war. More than 400 players in the major leagues, together with 4,000 minor leaguers, gave up their jobs, swapped flannels for military uniforms and went to war.

Of the 73 former big league players, managers and coaches who are still living, the youngest is Don Hasenmayer, who turned 88 last April, and the oldest is Mike Sandlock, who turned 100 last October. What I find hard to believe, however, is how little information there is available on these heroes of our game. I have a few of their biographies on my website, but the majority appear to have never really had their stories told. As a result, I have decided to produce this edition of the newsletter, featuring brief biographies on them all. So, here are the 73 former major league players, managers and coaches who served in the military during World War II and are, thankfully, still with us. There are three Hall of Famers, four African- Americans, one who made it to the big leagues as a manager and two who got there as coaches. Some served for a few months, while others were gone for as long as four years.

They were in the Navy, Army, Army Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine. They served in the United States, Europe, Pacific and the Far East on land, at sea and in the air. As citizen soldiers, they made sacrifices that are, to our generation, completely unimaginable. Gentlemen, I salute you!

Note: Examples for three of the 73 Living Big League WWII Veterans
profiled by Bedingfield are printed below, illustrated with selected 1950s baseball cards.


1950 Bowman Bobby Brown


Bobby Brown
Age: 91
New York Yankees (1946-1952, 1954)
Navy

Bobby Brown was at Stanford University when he enlisted in July 1943. He was assigned to a naval unit at UCLA for a year and then to San Diego Naval Hospital. In December 1944, he was assigned to Tulane Medical School as a midshipman and was discharged from service in January 1946. Brown made his major league debut with the Yankees in September 1946 and enjoyed eight seasons with the team, including four World Series. After baseball, Brown became a cardiologist and later served as the American League president.







1952 Bowman Monte Irvin



Monte Irvin
Age: 96
New York Giants (1949-1955), Chicago Cubs (1956)
Hall of Fame 1973
Army

Monte Irvin followed a standout high school athletic career by attending Lincoln University in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and starting his professional baseball career with the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League in 1938. He quickly became an all-star and jumped to the Mexican League in 1942, entering military service with the Army at the end of the year. Irvin spent three years with the 1313th Battalion, General Service Engineers. The battalion was in France and Belgium, where they built bridges and repaired roads. In late 1944, his unit was deployed in Rheims, France, as a secondary line in case the Germans broke through at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. Sergeant Irvin returned to baseball in late 1945, and remained with the Newark Eagles until he signed with the New York Giants organization in 1949. He made his major league debut with the Giants in July of that year. Irvin led the National League in RBIs in 1951, and was an all-star the following year. His playing days ended after 1956 due to a back injury. Irvin was elected to the Salón de la Fama (Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame) in 1971, the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973, and the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997.




1953 Topps Mike Sandlock

Mike Sandlock
Age: 100 (oldest living MLB player / WWII veteran)
Boston Braves (1942, 1944), Brooklyn Dodgers (1945-1946), Pittsburgh Pirates (1953)
Army

Mike Sandlock learned baseball on the sandlots of Connecticut, and began his minor league career with the Huntington, West Virginia, Bees in 1938. He made his major league debut with the Boston Braves in September 1942, but lost the entire 1943 season to military service. Sandlock played 30 games with the Braves in 1944, and joined the Brooklyn Dodgers the following season. He played Triple-A ball from 1947 to 1952, and returned to the majors with the Pirates in 1953. He retired after a knee injury in 1954, and worked as a carpenter, while finding time to win the men's golf championship at the Innis Arden Golf Club in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, four times. He was also active in the Baseball Assistance Team, an organization that helps older baseball players that do not have health insurance and may need medical assistance.


The full illustrated text for all 73 players can be accessed in PDF format on
Bedingfield's website.



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3. Latest Additions to the OldCardboard.com Website

We are continually expanding the Old Cardboard website with more set profiles, checklists and card galleries. Recent (past 30-40 days) additions include:

Set Checklists have been added for:
1948   R346   "Blue Tints"

Set Galleries have been added for:
1948   R346   "Blue Tints"

Updating the website with checklists and full set galleries for additional vintage sets is an ongoing project, so check back often to check out the latest additions. There are now many thousands of card images on the website and the list continues to grow every month. We welcome and encourage feedback with checklist additions, card images, error corrections and suggestions. Please send all input to editor@oldcardboard.com.

Beyond the above pages recently added to the Old Cardboard website, we continue to expand and refine our eBay Custom Search Links to make finding vintage baseball cards on eBay easier than ever. The results of these searches are continuously changing, so check back often to find the most recent eBay listings. Samples of a few of these custom searches are provided below. Hundreds more are provided on the Set Profile pages throughout the Old Cardboard website.

Foreign
C46 Imperial Tobacco (Canada)
V61 Neilson's Choc. (Canada)
V300 O-Pee-Chee (Canada)
Propagandas Montiel (Cuba)
Stamps/Transfers (Germany)
Menko Cards (Japan)

Miscellaneous
S74 "Silks"
1914 B18 Blankets
1939 Centennial Stamps
1930s Diamond Matchbooks
Baseball Sheet Music
1943 Yankees Stamps

(more custom searches
by major card group)



4. News Briefs (A Digest of Recent Hobby Happenings)

Visit the Met Online Although the collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (home of the massive Jefferson R. Burdick card collection) has been accessible online for some time, it is sometimes overlooked by vintage collectors. The searchable online resource contains over 11,000 baseball cards (along with twice that many non-baseball) once owned by Burdick. They can be accessed directly via these Search Results. A mobile app ("the met") is also available for iPhone and iPad users.


Lyman and Brett Hardeman
Old Cardboard, LLC.

Old Cardboard, LLC. was established in December 2003, to help bring information on vintage baseball card collecting to the hobbyist.  Produced by collectors for collectors, this comprehensive resource consists of three components: (1) Old Cardboard Magazine, (2) a companion website at www.oldcardboard.com and (3) this eNewsletter. The Old Cardboard website contains more than 500 pages of descriptive reference information for baseball card sets produced fifty years ago or longer.  Each of these set summaries has a direct set-specific link to auctions and a similar link to 's powerful search engine for further research.  The website also includes a Show and Auction Calendar, an eBay Top 50 Vintage Sellers List, and much more.  As a result, the Old Cardboard website makes a great "Alt-tab" companion for vintage card shoppers and researchers.  Old Cardboard eNews provides current hobby news, upcoming shows and auctions, and updates to the website and the magazine.  It is published around the middle of each month.  For a FREE subscription to the eNewsletter, or for subscription information on Old Cardboard Magazine, please visit the website at www.oldcardboard.com.  If you find this information resource helpful, please tell your friends.  We need your support and your feedback. Thank you.