Saturday, June 1, 2019

Project Durham Bulls Part 53 - Monte Weaver


1928 - 1929 Durham Bulls 


Background- One of the more interesting characters in the history of the Durham Bulls.  The "Prof" played for the team in the late 1920s on his way up to the Washington Senators for 8 seasons, along with one year with the Red Sox. In 1932, he enjoyed his best Major League season with 22 wins.  The rest of his career was fairly average, ending with a total of 71 wins and an ERA of 4.36.  Now, on to the interesting stuff.  

While he was playing in the Minors, he also was attending the University of Virginia as a grad student.  He taught class there, as a grad assistant, and earned the nickname "Prof" by the other players.  Weaver was supposedly in line to become a Rhodes Scholar, but a paperwork snafu prevented him from earning a spot.  

A few other oddities.  The Sporting News did a profile on him in 1933 after his best season where he pointed out that he liked spending time alone on beaches, or hanging out in his hotel room rather than being around other baseball players.  Weaver was also a hypochondriac and a vegetarian.  In another profile, the Sporting News made mention of his addiction to spinach.  The Washington Post noted that he ate too many peas and carrots. Weaver eventually started eating meat, and the D.C. press was apparently thrilled when he gained ten pounds during Spring Training.  

In the end, his baseball career did not last past the late 1930s, and he ended up in the Navy for World War II.  Eventually he would settle down in Florida and bought a bunch of orange groves.  

Card- How could you not want a card out of the 1933 Goudey set?  My copy of this Weaver card is a little rough, but these are pretty pricey cards.  Even the ones with creases and rounded corners.  The background colors are usually a lot brighter than this powder blue.  Yes, this copy has some fading, but it is still not as bright as many of the other cards in this set.  Happy to add this Pre-World War II card, tricky to track down the Durham Bulls players from this era.  Always a plus when you can find one in a great set like this one.  

2 comments:

  1. He does sound like an interesting person, probably not the sort that I'd like to hang out with, but still interesting. And yes, Goudey is always good!

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  2. Interesting indeed. I'm impressed that he ended up joining the Navy during WWII after he had finished his baseball career.

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