Kind of a cool action shot with the long time outfielder leaning backwards over a fence to catch a ball. Sievers is actually from St. Louis and spent the first few years of his career on the Browns. Welcome addition to the card collection. The other throw in card just seemed like a random St. Louis Browns card. Here is the front.....
At first glance I thought this was just going to be a nice 1951 Bowman common. Definitely generous for a throw in when you put it together with the Sievers card. Then I flipped the card over to the back and a few things stood out....
First, Arft's nickname is Bow Wow. That's a pretty incredible nickname. He should probably get some royalties from the "Like Mike" movies or some of the albums that the other Bow Wow has put out.....
since Arft appears to be the original namesake. Curious as to how Arft gained that nickname, here is a quick explaination from his biography on the SABR site....
"On July 27 at Sportsman’s Park, the seventh-place Browns took the field with a record of 32-53, 19½ games behind the first-place Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Athletics. Arft made his major-league debut, playing first and batting seventh. He recalled, “We were playing the Yankees and the first time up I flied out to Joe DiMaggio. The next time up I struck out, but my third time at bat I hit a triple to drive in two runs off Tommy Byrne. My last time up I hit a home run off Frank Hiller! We shut out New York 4-0. That was a great feeling.” The next day “cheers of ‘Arft, Arft’ were bestowed upon Hank the nickname he will embrace forever – that of ‘Bow Wow.’
Beyond the nickname, Arft is also from Manchester, Missouri. He is the only Major League player to list that town as his place of birth, which is also the town where I lived while I was growing up outside of St. Louis. Since there is not a hospital in that town anymore, just a shopping mall with a giant dove in the parking lot.....
he will likely remain the only player with that distinction for the foreseeable future. In fact, I was trying to find players who have Manchester listed on a baseball card as a hometown. There are several who are from bordering towns like Ryan Howard, Max Scherzer, and David Freese.
I thought it was a pretty cool find, so I actually ended up picking up another Hank Arft card for under $5. It's a 1952 Topps card with an out of focus picture......
and the centering is really off, but I might have to pick up the few other cards that Arft had during the late 1940s and early 1950s.
That Dove is all about my childhood-this was the upscale mall growing up in the 70s. Now there is a giant hospital next to it-from what I recall. I will double check over the holidays when we return to the STL.
ReplyDeleteThere is a hospital about two miles down on Ballas Road. This is a current picture. When I was growing up West County was more or less a hallway with a Penny's and Famous Barr as the anchors. I don't remember all the stores in between, but there weren't many. There was a Champs Sporting Good Store and a GAP towards Penny's. The food court was an A&W Hot Dogs, a McDonald's, and a Houlihans in the Famous Barr parking lot.
DeleteNice hometown addition to your collection.
ReplyDelete