Cholly Jolly

Cholly Jolly is one of the great yesteryear nicknames that I have run across collecting older baseball cards.  It belonged to long-time Pirate and Cub first baseman Charlie Grimm.  I have posted a card of his before, a quick refresher....

He was a St. Louis native, but he also played on the Durham Bulls for one season early in his career.  Grimm had a solid 20 year career as a player, known as a great fielding first baseman.  Bill James has long considered him to be the greatest defensive player at the position.  He also had a pretty good run as a manager after he retired. 

Grimm was the manager of the Cubs for much of the 1930s and 1940s, and prior to 2016, had coached the last three Cubs teams to reach the World Series.  He ended his managerial career by working a few years for the Milwaukee Braves.  He helped turn over the roster as the team moved from Boston to Milwaukee, he leaned heavily on a few young players who he thought were superior to the veterans on the roster.  He swapped out guys like Earl Torgeson and Bob Elliot for Eddie Matthews and Joe Adcock, and sat Andy Pafko for Hank Aaron.  The Braves fired him before 1957, they did not give him a ring obviously, but he set up the team to win the World Series. 

Here the first Cholly Jolly card I added to my collection way back at the beginning of this year. 

I believe that this 1934 Goudey card is considered Grimm's official rookie card, but he had other cards long before this was printed during his playing days.  My second card of the longtime Cub is from the early 1920s.  Here is the card.....

This is a 1922 American Caramel card.  The card has some discolorations in different places, and the corners look only slightly rounded.  If only I could compare this to another card from this set, I'd be curious how the size of the borders are on this copy compare to others.  I am not saying that the card is altered, but I kind of suspect this has been trimmed a bit.  I traded for this card, and the person who traded it felt that the person they bought it from had some reputation with that sort of thing. 

I am not chasing anyone down, nor pointing any fingers.  Happy to take an old card with a bit of a discount due to it's "condition", which I will admit looks a little too good to be true. 

Back of the card. 

You can see more discoloration on the back of the card.  The front and back of the card has a similar orientation as the Cracker Jack cards.  I wish there was something more to the back, but this is from the 1920s, so no love lost because the American Caramel Company slapped some advertising on their baseball cards. 

Overall, I am really happy to add a second card of Grimm to my collection.  The former Durham Bull had a good playing career, and had some solid contributions as a manager.  I need to find a few of his manager cards, which will be a project for next year.