I picked this up off of ebay a couple weeks ago. It's in really nice shape considering that it is 60 years old!
I've never seen a Cubs cover like this, with the Otis Shepard drawing and an insert of a player. All the covers I have feature the drawing, but none had a photo.
The player featured is Hank Edwards. I was not familiar with him at all. The Cubs of the late 40's and early 50's were a pretty forgettable bunch. But if he earned a spot on the scorecard cover, I figured I should find out something about him.
When I looked him up at baseball-reference.com, I saw why he was forgettable. Edwards was with the Indians from 1941 - 1949 (with two years in the military, 1944-1945). Most of the time was spent as a part-time outfielder. The Cubs claimed him off of waivers on May 7, 1949. Perhaps he is featured because he was a newcomer and the scorecard is from a game in late July.
He hit a decent .290 for the '49 Cubs in a part-time role and had an ever better 1950, hitting .364 in 41 games. The Cubs sold high on him, sending him to Brooklyn in the off season for Dee Fondy and the Rifleman, Chuck Connors. For his career, Edwards had a .280 batting average.
The inside of the card shows a game against Brooklyn, probably July 26, because on the third page, it list the first upcoming game as July 27. The Cubs beat the Dodgers on the 26th, shutting them out 6-0.
The inside left page lists the ticket prices. It was $2.00, tax included, for a box seat. A beer would set you back a quarter. Also listed is a big wedge of pie for 15 cents. Another thing that caught my eye was the listing of umpires. Only 13 were listed. Baseball was using only three umps per game in 1949. It wasn't until 1952 that four-man crews were used.
And here is the back.The backs look like through 1971. Each year they would just update the products.
The 1949 Cubs finished in last place, with a record of 61-93. But they drew over 1.1 million fans, a good number for that era. I'm glad one of those fans took care of this scorecard.
Great Cubs score card!!! I almost bid on that one when it was up for auction but decided not to because I was bidding on several others. The photo insert is very interesting. The 1949 score card pictured on the Cubsbythenumbers site has a Sauer insert. So one would presume that they changed as the year progressed.
ReplyDeleteAlso thanks for the info on Otis Shepard. Now I have a name to go with some of the best art on the Cubs scorecards.