bbcard1.com/double

Some guys are just winners.

The master of the knuckle curve and the owner of a most unflattering nickname “Fat Freddie” Fitzsimmons notched an impressive 217 wins in a career that spanned form 1925 through 1943.

Unkindly nicknamed “Creepy,” Frank Crespi was a slick fielding second baseman who said he thought he got the nickname because of the way crept up on the baseball. He spent

After starting his career as a platoon player, Don Heffner was an everyday player from 1938 to 1941, playing in more than 100 games each season after moving from the Yankees to the Browns. He reverted to a part-time role for the rest of his 11-year career which ended in 1944.

Debs Garms had a solid career, much of which was spent with have-nots the Browns, Braves and the Pirates. He topped the senior circuit in batting in 1940, hitting .355 for the Pittsburgh Pirates despite having played in only 103 games and garnering 358 at bats. He broke up Johnny VanderMeer’s streak of scoreless innings.

I have half a mind to collect that set. Why have people always cut the 1941 Double Plays? Well, the design really seems invite it…it’s a virtual recipe for disaster!

Conventional wisdom is that a clipped card is virtually worthless, but actually it makes a reasonably nice collectible that is in the general range of the size of a T206. The value is greatly deflated if you cut them…but they can still be fun to own.

The Double Plays were hardly the only cards to feature two players on the same piece of cardboard.

Last year, I enjoyed the ride of completing the T205 set (in generally horrid condition…check it out at www.bbcard1.com/205). It taught me a few things I should have learned in my 40 or so years of collecting. Like if you start something and focus on it, you can finish it. And that people will help you out if you have a defined goal.

Admittedly, the Double Plays are not the most aesthetically pleasing cards. The side-by-side format lends them to destruction by scissor-happy lads who want to separate them. But there are a lot of things I find appealing about them.

I have done several sites on WordPress, but for my 1941 Double Play set, I decided to try a more traditional route to allow myself the freedom to just blog about cards I have purchased and the process.