1950 Bowman #84 Richie Ashburn image swiped by Ballpark Gum

Last week we featured Richie Ashburn's 1950 Bowman Card. Today we are taking a look at a bubble gum tin.

Ballpark Gum

Ballpark Gum is a novelty gum featuring ballgame related flavors Hot Dogs, Peanuts, and Beer.  That sounds a bit odd to me, if it's your thing check in at Perpetual Kid. I am not a gum guy and have never had Ballpark Gum and the taste of the stuff is not really why we are here today. 

I am concerned about the artwork. At first I thought it was lifted from 1959 Topps packaging.  
 

1959 Topps Wrapper (image swiped from Cardboard Connection)

It's close but I will let you decide that, as I examined the picture a bit more I realized why it looked familiar:

Ballpark Gum artwork (reversed) with 1950 Bowman #48 Richie Ashburn
 
I took the image on the tin and reversed it, Eureka! - The Ballpark Gum Tin artwork doesn't look very original at all. Look at the uniform number on the back the position of Ashburn's hands, The shadows on his face. The tin may be elongated a tad, but unless Ballpark Gum paid Bowman/Topps, I am thinking that image is plagiarized.


Sources 
Cardboard Connection
 

1950 Bowman #84 Richie Ashburn

I hope to feature more Vintage Hall of Fame cards this year, and who better to start with then Phillies Icon Richie Ashburn.

1950 Bowman #84 Richie Ashburn

This card represents Ashburn just two seasons into his Hall of Fame career. As the youngest member of the the Phillies 1950 Whiz Kids squad Richie Ashburn batted .303 and led the league in triples(14). Unfortunately this regular season success did not career over into the World Series. Ashburn struggled at the plate batting only .176 and Phillies got swept in four games.

For The Collector 
This is Ashburn's 2nd Bowman/Mainstream card and the earliest one in the Phungo Collection. It is in off condition with creasing and slight tearing on the front. I picked the card up via auction in March 2009 $16.49. This appears to be about where the card lives today. For the same price you could probably get the card in slightly better condition. A scan of recent ebay sales revealed the following pricing:

1950 Bowman
Always found the 1950B card backs annoying. They run counter-clock 90-degrees vs the A-side.

1950 Bowman #84 Richie Ashburn (b-side)


This is common now. Topps runs all their b-sides Landscape, while the front is typically Portrait (with a few landscapers mixed in). The trouble with 1950 Bowman is the card is so close to square (2 1/16 x 2 1/2 in) that it just feels like you should be able to flip them over and read them.  

Sources 
Ebay
baseball-Ref
Old Cardboard
PSA