259 – Sam Jones.

'Toothpick' Sam Jones pitched two years with the Cubs, 1955 and 1956. Both years he led the National League in both strikeouts and walks. In 1955. He also led the league in losses with 20. In 1956 he won, 9 games for the Cubs while losing 14. His league-leading strikeout total was 178, and he walked 115. His ERA was 3.91. At the end of the season . He was traded to the Cardinals as part of an eight player deal. Going to the Cardinals with him were Jim Davis (the subject of my previous post), Hobie Landrith and Eddie Miksis in exchange for Wally Lammers (minors), Jackie Collum, Ray Katt and Tom Poholsky. Sam continued pitching until 1964. His best years were with the San Francisco Giants from 1959 to 1961. He was treated for neck cancer during the 1962 season, and he succumbed to the disease in 1971. Last year, Hank Aaron appeared on the David Letterman show and talked about Sam. I found a few other articles about Sam. One talking about his curve ball, one about his days in the Negro Leagues, and three other articles that discussed his career which you can read here, here, and here.

102 – Jim Davis.

1956 was Jim Davis' third and final season with the Cubs. He started 11 of the 46 games that he appeared in and ended the season with a won-loss record of 5-7. On May 27 he tied a National League record by striking out four Cardinals during the sixth inning of the game. At the end of the year he was traded to the Cardinals as part of an eight player deal. He only pitched for the Cardinals for a couple of months, was released and signed by the New York Giants, finished the season with them and did not pitch in the major leagues again.

The Adventure Begins Tomorrow.

I have put this off far too long. Starting tomorrow I will begin posting here. The plan right now is to post a picture of the card and to say something about the player on it. Obviously some posts will be a lot longer than others. Right now I have 20 out of the 340 cards set. Every payday I will be picking up a few more cards. There are also some reprint cards which I will use until I can get the original card. A couple of weeks ago I saw a full set on eBay for about $7000. The odds are I will never totally complete this set, but the fun of it is in trying. I will not be posting every day here. The goal is to have two or three posts every week. There will be no set days for posting. Since I am a diehard Cubs fan I will be beginning with the two Cubs cards that I have. See you tomorrow.

What This Is.

I am starting a second blog to record something that I have been considering doing for a long time. The main focus of this blog will be Topps 1956 baseball cards. I was born in 1956 and I thought it would be fun to put a set of those cards together. At this time I have one card and will be getting a couple of more very soon. When they arrive I will scan them and research the player and write about him. Of course the first posts will be common cards. I probably will never get the entire set because the cost of the star cards will be high, probably more than I want to pay for them. Posts here will be sporadic as I will only be updating when I have something to add.

The secondary focus will be other things from 1956. I also collect comic books so any that I find with that cover date I will add and post here. The same with any magazines that I can find. How far I get will remain to be seen. The first actual post will be soon.