Thursday, October 22, 2009

1933 Goudey Baseball Cards

The 1933 Goudey Baseball Card Set is recognized as the first important gum release.  America was deep in the depression in 1933 and kids did not have many pennies to spend.  For a product to get that penny, there had to be value.  The Goudey Gum Company of Boston launched its revolutionary “Big League Gum” product.

The 1933 Goudey Baseball Cards were printed on thick cardboard stock, with bright colorful pictures and came with a nice big slab of gum.  They were a great improvement over the smaller, thinner cardboard tobacco and candy cards that preceded them.  It is important to remember that 1933 Goudey cards were the first color portraits of these stars that most people ever saw.

The Goudey Gum Company tried hard to give the customers what they wanted.  The greatest stars of the game had multiple cards.  There are 4 different 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth cards and #144 Ruth was double printed.  The 1933 Goudey Baseball card set also has three cards of Joe Cronin and two cards each of Jimmy Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Rogers Hornsby, Carl Hubbell and Mel Ott.

Dean's Cards has a great selection of 1933 Goudey baseball cards.  If you can not afford the original Goudey cards, please check out the 1933 Goudey Baseball Card Reprint set.


Double X - Jimmie Foxx

When I was writing the article for this week’s featured baseball card set 1933 Goudey, I did a little research to see who won the MVP for 1933.  I was guessing Ruth or Gehrig.  I was mistaken.

Jimmie Foxx won the MVP award in 1932 by hitting .364, 58 HR and 169 RBI’s.  In 1933, Foxx’s number slumped to .356, 48 HR and only 163 RBI’s.  This was good enough to win the Triple Crown and another MVP award.

Jimmie Foxx was discovered in High School by Frank "Home Run" Baker.  Baker was manager for the Class D Easton team and he signed Foxx in 1924. As the story goes, Baker owed his old manager, Connie Mack, a favor and told Mack about Foxx.   In 1925, Foxx came to the Athletics as 17 year old Catcher.  The A’s already had a Hall-of-Famer at that position in Mickey Cochrane, so Foxx spent the first 3 years sitting on the bench next to the Old Professor.  Jimmie finally got a real chance to play in 1928 and in 1929. Connie Mack installed Foxx at 1B and the Athletics won the AL Pennant for the next 3 years.

Mr. Mack had to eventually sell off his great players due the depression and Foxx soon was sent the Boston Red Sox.

Dean's Cards currently has quite a few Jimmie Foxx cards in stock.  Some originals and a full supply of reprints.  Either way, they are all fun to look at.