#91 Ebba St. Claire

#91 Ebba St. Claire

68 of 274

24.8% complete

"His Walk About" - Ebba appeared in 164 games over 4 seasons in the bigs.  A .249 career hitter, he knocked out 7 homers and 112 hits.  His best season was his rookie year in '51 when he hit .282 and drove in 25 runs while collecting 62 hits in 72 games with the Boston Braves.  In three subsequent seasons he would drive in 4, 5, and 6 runs respectively.

"That's Not a Knife" - It's a baseball family.  Ebba's son Randy St. Claire would play for 9 major league seasons as a pitcher, mostly with the Montreal Expos.

"More of a love bite really..." - There's some off-centering and the right edge of this card as a sort of a frayed cut, something I've read was due to dull blades at the shop.  I've also read that the hyper sensitive "codition nerds" don't view this as a defect. It's things like that, that keep me firmly in the great/okay/not great school of card grading.

"Down Under" - Ebba is card #393 in the '52 set and not one that I own.  The cards appear to be very similar, but I'll give the slight edge to the '52 due to it's dark green backdrop.  That cuts the '53 set's lead to 25-22-7.

"At the Oscars"

3rd NL Range Factor/9inn as a C '51

4th NL Stolen Bases Allowed as a Catcher '51

#3 George Crowe

 #3 George Crowe

4 of 274

1.4% complete

"His Walk About" - Crowe's MLB walk about lasted 9 season's, and saw him collect 457 hits while batting .270 with 81 home runs.  His best year was 1957 when he hit 31 homers and drove in 92 runs for the Cincinnati Reds.  Named an All-Star in 1958, Crowe never played in a World Series.

"That's Not a Knife" - Born a Hoosier in Whiteland, Indiana, Crowe was the inaugural winner of Indiana's "Mr. Basketball Award" in 1943.  During his time in the Negro League, Crowe also played Professional Basketball for the Los Angles Red Devils, where one of his teammates was Jackie Robinson.   

"More of a love bite really..." - This card's only real scar is the paper-loss on the back.  It's not a huge bit of damage, but it obscures the number enough that I had to "research" to figure out if it was card number 3 or 8.

"Down Under" - Crowe is card number #360 in the 1952 Topps set.  That's a dreaded hi-number, and I don't have it.  As tempted as I am to go with this '53 on the strength of the Yankee Stadium facade in the background, I'm going to give the edge to the '52 original to this '53 sequel.  The 52's hold a 3-1 lead four cards in.

"At the Oscars"

NL All-Star '58

6th NL Home Runs '57 (31)

8th NL RBI's '57 (92)  

8th NL Hit By Pitch '52 (5)