1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #468 Duke Snider

We return to our 1959 Topps Baseball Thrills series in the hopes of finishing the set prior to the start of the 2015 season. Today we look at Dodgers Hall of Fame Center Fielder Duke Snider.

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #468 Duke Snider

Duke Snider never won an MVP award but he led the NL in Offensive WAR three times, Position Player WAR twice, and Overall WAR once. He was a member of Dodgers clubs that won World Series in both Brooklyn (1955) and LA (1959). The eight time all-star was an early member of the 400 HR club, but had to wait until his 10th ballot to get into the Hall of Fame (1980).

Snider's career WAR numbers are consistent with Hall of Fame Center Fielders. The Hall has inducted 18 players at the position and Snider is top 10 in WAR, WAR7 and JAWS - of course Kenny Lofton is top 12 in those 3 categories and he has been scratched from the ballot.

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #468 Duke Snider (b-side)

The 1959T Baseball Thrills card that features Snider is one of 3 fielding cards in the set and the reverse of the card documents Snider's defensive prowess. Unfortunately the numbers don't share that opinion. dWAR is even at best for Snider, and was a negative for his career. The conventional stats like putouts showed Snider hovered around 5th place in an 8 team league.


Sources and Links
1959 Topps Baseball Thrills Index
Baseball-ref

Philly Show 2014 09 28 - Vintage

Just gonna do some quick Show and Tell from the Philly Show this past weekend. I spent about 3 hours at the show. I was there on Sunday which is a football day in Philadelphia, consequently the floor didn't feel too busy. The autograph guests on Sunday were the weaker of the two days as well - In addition 1960s era Phillies infielder had to postpone his appearance.

I attended the event without a real plan but felt pretty good about the day. The bulk of my time was spent at two tables. If things go well this should be the first of four installments on the show: 1) Vintage, 2) Non-Sports Tobacco Cards 3) Recent AutoGamers 4) Dime Box

Vintage
Today we will start our series by looking at Team Phungo's favorite collecting areas, Vintage Cards.

1952 Topps #223 Del Ennis

The above Del Ennis card at $4 was my favorite buy of the show. Yeah it has some A-side writing, but I can live with that. Rest of card is a bit soft and creased, but good enough for the Phungo Checker.

I picked the 52T Ennis up from Uncle Dicks Cards - One of my favorite vendors at the Philly show. Dick has thousands of vintage cards in my favorite condition - Loved. He also has cards in more pristine condition, but for me his off-condition cards are just fine for my Phils Checker and set collecting needs. He also has an fun crew at his side and there is often humorous banter at his stand. In addition Dick has several collector friendly touches, there are plenty of chairs, he has paint sticks laid out to help as markers for perusing stacks. Everything in his booth is tagged bright green which makes his stand easy to spot.


I also picked up 4 other 1952 Mid-Number cards for $7-$8 each including #270 Lou Brissie.

1960 Topps Hi Number Phillies 

#541 - Tony Curry     
#549 - John Buzhardt
#511 - Ken Walters
#264 - Robin Roberts

Each of the 1960 Topps Cards above went for $2.

1954 Topps #2 Gus Zernial


I checked off five 1954 Topps commons which went for a combined $3.

1958 Topps #314 Dodgers; Boss & Power Duke Snider - Walter Alston

Picked up this manager/player card for my HoF collection. This card came in at $8 which was probably an overpay judging my recent ebay auctions.

More September 2014 VF Show 
The Phillies Room (including Darren Daulton Autograph Session)
Brad's Blog (Lots o 1962-65 Topps Phillies Cards)
Allen Ginter's Originals
Phillies
Dime Boxes
Auto/Gamers


Sources  & Links
ebay