This series of 50 cards was printed in late 2008 and into the spring of 2009. It would have all been done in 2008 if Hurricane Ike had not struck and made a giant mess out of our print shops. One of them, located in San Leon, Texas was completely destroyed and washed out to sea in a storm surge that was measured at nine feet, plus the waves on top that reached another 9 feet. This is what the San Leon shop looked like after the storm:
The damage to the business contents were over $40,000 and none of it was insured. Our other print shop also suffered damages, but not nearly as catastrophic.
Here is the checklist for the Tobacco Road Series:
01 Honus Wagner
02 Joe Jackson
03 Old Hoss Radbourn
04 Mickey Mantle
05 Billy Sunday
06 Ty Cobb
07 Ted Williams
08 Stan Musial
09 Hank Aaron
10 Babe Ruth
11 Ted Kluszewski
12 Alabama Pitts
13 Satchel Paige
14 Sadaharu Oh
15 Pete Rose
16 Willie Mays
17 King Kelly
18 Sandy Koufax
19 Biz Mackey
20 Ray Chapman
21 Carl Mays
22 Joe DiMaggio
23 Dom DiMaggio
24 Louis Sockalexis
25 Josh Gibson
26 Moe Berg
27 Roger Maris
28 Walter Johnson
29 Roy Campanella
30 Ernie Banks
31 Cool Papa Bell
32 Yogi Berra
33 Nellie Fox
34 Willie McCovey
35 Whitey Ford
36 Eddie Mathews
37 Mike Schmidt
38 Luis Aparicio
39 Jackie Robinson
40 Orlando Cepeda
41 Roberto Clemente
42 Candy Cummings
43 Enos Slaughter
44 Dizzy Dean
45 Bob Feller
46 Bob Gibson
47 Lou Gehrig
48 JP Cobb
49 Paul Dean
50 Schoolboy Rowe
The picture I posted at the top is #42 Candy Cummings, who invented the curve ball. He pitched back in the 1870s, and started over 50 games a season on several occasions. In his rookie season, he completed 53 of 55 starts, with 33 wins and 20 losses.
He got the nickname “Candy” as an amateur pitcher for the Brooklyn Excelsiors in the late 1860s. In those days, the word “candy” was used to describe something that was the very best, maybe like we use the word “awesome” or “amazing” today. He was the very best in New York City at the time.
Although I enjoyed making the Tobacco Road series, the problem I faced was that there wasn’t enough room on the backs to do a good write-up.
Some of the cards more notable to me are the cards of J. P. Cobb, younger brother of Ty Cobb; Louis Sockalexis, the original Cleveland Indian; and Alabama Pitts, who was a star prison ballplayer at Sing Sing.
After the first 50 cards were done, I added 15 more cards of football players, #51 thru #65. I will make a separate checklist for those when I get a chance.