R319 (1933 Goudey Gum)

Though ballplayers weren't necessarily noted for their looks, you'd be hard-pressed to find any nicer looking than those depicted on the cards issued by the Goudey Gum Company of Boston, starting in 1933. Cards were numbered on the back, and the company claimed there were a total of 240 different cards in the 1933 set. But, try as you might, the set was impossible to complete that year. That's because card #106, Napoleon Lajoie, wasn't issued until the following year, and even then only on a limited written request basis.

#2 Dazzy Vance, St Louis Cardinals

#111 Monte Weaver, Washington Senators

#114 Luke Sewell, Washington Senators

#203 Lon Warneke, Chicago Cubs

#210 Virgil Davis, Philadelphia Phillies

#238 Hugh Critz, New York Giants

R312 (1936 Goudey Premium Pastels)

Sometimes you had to send away for your heroes. This particular group is from a 50-card Goudey Premium set offered in 1936. They're about postcard sized (4x5), hand-tinted from black and white photos, fondly known as Premium Pastels, and designated R312 in the American Card Catalogue.

Red Ruffing, Hall of Fame Yankee hurler, pitched in seven World Series, and won 273 games lifetime, including four consecutive 20-win seasons 1936-1939.

Johnny Allen won 20 games only once, with the Cleveland Indians in 1936. In 1937, he was 15-0 until he lost the last game of the season. 6', 190 lbs, and a real scrapper, he once took exception to a balk call and traded punches with an umpire. Joe Louis' crown was not imperiled.

Mel Harder pitched twenty seasons for Cleveland from 1928-1947, winning 20 games twice, in 1934 and 1935, and picking up two great, albeit contradictory nicknames along the way: "Chief" and "Wimpy". Go figure.

According to the Baseball Encyclopedia, Ralph Winegarner pitched in a total of seventy Big League games, playing five seasons for the Cleveland Indians and St. Louis Browns over the course of seventeen years between 1932 and 1949. It is not clear what he was doing the rest of the time, but he is credited with a total of eight wins and six losses over that span. Nice card though.

Dolf Camilli played first base for twelve seasons for the Cubs, Phillies, Dodgers, and Red Sox. With Brooklyn in 1941, he led the National League in homers (34) and RBIs (120), helping carry the Bums to their first pennant in twenty-one years.

Pepper Martin came from Oklahoma. But he played baseball for the Gashouse Gang in St. Louis. For thirteen seasons, 1928-1944, he sprinted around National League outfields and basepaths with jack-rabbit speed. Appearing in three World Series for the Cardinals ('28, '31, and '34), he collected 23 hits in 55 at bats, achieving the highest World Series batting average of all time at .418. He led the league in stolen bases three times, earning the colorful nickname "The Wild Hoss of the Osage". Gashouse Gang fans may want to read Red Smith's write-up of the 1931 World Series in The Ultimate Baseball Book.