Allan's Alley

When Ted Williams came packaged with bubble gum…

Now that the season is well underway, and the Phabulous Phillies are slogging along on their annual March to Mediocrity, a not-so-young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of… well, baseball cards. By chance, this year marks the 55th anniversary of my first foray into card collecting, which actually began pretty much by accident.

In the late ‘40s I used to peddle down to a small, local food store that, happily, sold lots of gooey candy. I might buy myself a Hershey bar, or a package of Jujubes, or – on one occasion when I was unaccountably rich – a whole jar of Marshmallow Whip and a little wooden spoon. I became deathly ill well before I finished stuffing my mouth with the sweet and sticky contents of that jar. But what a way to go!

About that time I also discovered the rubbery, pink pleasures of bubble gum, and often bought some of that, too, if my allowance could take the hit. One day the proprietor showed me some small, flat packages wrapped in waxed paper and explained that they contained not only bubble gum, but trading cards with pictures of baseball players on them as well. Intrigued, I bought a few and the rest, as they say, is history.

(Anyone who’s taken a second mortgage to buy baseball cards lately might be interested in the 1950 price structure: one card and one piece of bubble gum cost five cents; six cards and two pieces of gum set you back a whole quarter. Shameful!)

The 1950 Bowman baseball cards were tiny by today’s standards, measuring 2 1/4 & 2 5/8 inches. But what they lacked in quantity, they made up in quality. Bowman artists painted full-color portraits over black-and-white photographs, and the results were – to my mind -- some of the most handsome cards ever produced. The one shown here is that of the great Hall-of-Famer Ted Williams, baseball’s last .400 hitter.

As you see, no printing appeared on the picture side, meaning that if we kids wanted to keep our cards in alphabetical order, we needed to learn to identify players by their mug shots. To this day, I can name most of the guys who played 55 years ago when I see unmarked photos of them.

(This talent, plus $2.00, will get me on the Philadelphia subway anytime I want.)

I continued to collect cards and blow bubbles right up to the summer before I entered college. The cards got bigger and glossier and full of printed names and logos, but none ever appealed to me like those 1950 Bowmans, made right here in the City of Brotherly Love.

It’s nice when we get something right!

--Allan