as a reminder, i have reinstated my sampler sets for the vintage topps flagship sets that i have not completed. more details were provided in these posts featuring my 1952, 1953, 1954, and 1955 topps samplers. i am maintaining my topps flagship through the years mini-collection, so the 1956 topps wally moon card remains there and not in this updated sampler.
in 1956, there were 16 teams represented, and it's an (almost) all-landscape oriented set. as with 1954 and 1955, there are two images of each card subject and the facsimile autographs remain on the front. the main card design features a close up image in the foreground, with an action image in the background. for the first time, team logos were left off of the cards. also gone are the solid color backgrounds we saw in the two previous years, but there are a variety of colors for the separate name and position/team boxes at the top corner of the card, resulting in what i counted to be 16 different color combinations.
- red/orange, red/yellow, red/green, red/blue
- orange/red, orange/yellow, orange/blue
- green/red, green/orange, green/yellow
- blue/red, blue/orange, blue/yellow, blue/green
- black/orange, black/yellow
there were different types of card stock used, resulting in some cards having what is considered a "white back" and others a "gray back". the comics on the back are back to being three panels, and are once again specific to the player featured on the front of the card.
the 1956 topps set includes what i consider to be the first real subsets - league presidents (the lone portrait oriented cards in the set) and team cards. in other team related news, the reds are still identified as redlegs, and the senators are once again referred to as their proper team name, the "nationals", or the "nats" in a couple of cases.
enough now. let's see what the 1956 sampler set looks like, starting with an ai generated needlepoint sampler for the set.
baltimore orioles - gus triandos
card #80
starting with the orange/red combo, triandos' card is also a "white back". he repeated as the orioles' leader in homers and rbi in 1956, splitting his time between first base and catcher. in future seasons, he would play almost exclusively behind the plate.
boston red sox - tom brewer
card #34
brewer's card features the red/blue color combo, and this version is a "gray back". he's representing the red sox in my sampler for the second straight year, and the portrait image is the same one topps used in 1955. number 2 on the red sox in 1955 was milt bolling, so that's probably him in the background of brewer's card. in 1956, brewer won 19 games and made the all-star team. in the midsummer classic, he pitched two innings, allowing three runs including a solo home run to stan musial. number 12 on the red sox in 1955 was milt bolling, so that's probably him in the background of brewer's card.
chicago white sox - jim rivera
rivera is featured on one of the "extra" cards in my 1954 sampler, and i could have referenced the back of this card when writing about his nickname. his card features the blue/yellow color combo and features the first spectator scene to appear on a topps card. the third panel of the comic on the back matches up with the action on the front! in 1956, rivera stole 20 bases, but the only category he led the league in was times caught stealing (9).
cleveland indians - don mossi
card #39
mossi's card uses the red/green color combo. he is also a repeat player from my 1955 sampler, but that is by design as he is one of the players i chose to chase all the way through. his card does also feature a few fans in the stands, but they are just milling about as opposed to the people engaged in the play featured on rivera's card. in 1956, he was 6-5 in 48 appearances including two starts.
detroit tigers - babe birrer
card #84
here we have the red/orange color combo, along with the first player whose nickname warrants quotation marks. at least on the front. baseball reference holds that birrer's middle name is joseph, but perhaps that was not known to topps in 1956. if i were to go by his facsimile signature, i would guess that is name was "derner". in 1956, birrer actually pitched for the orioles, appearing in just four games. i know birrer as a future dodger, even though he is featured as a tiger on his lone dodger card
new york yankees - tommy carroll
card #139
carroll's card displays the green/red color combo and also features a double play turn. i have another one of these cards in that mini-collection, and it has puzzled me since the first time i saw the card why carroll's jersey clearly displays the yankees' "new york" away lettering, but the middle infielder is without any hat or jersey logo or text. carroll pinch ran against the indians a couple of times in 1955, and was erased on a game ending 4-6-3 double play in one of those games, but the shortstop was george strickland. i am left to guess that the artist took some liberties with the image that was used. only 19 years old, carroll hit .353 in 1956 in limited big league action. he was not on the yankees' postseason roster a year after playing in the fall classic just after turning 19.
kansas city a's - bill renna
card #82
this card features the red/yellow color combo. it also refers to the franchise as the "a's" rather than the "athletics" which was the case on about half of the cards in the set featuring the kansas city club. renna appeared in only 33 games for the a's in 1956, playing as a backup outfielder. he hit two homers, including a pinch-hit job off of the white sox' billy pierce.
washington senators - roy sievers
card #75
here's an example of the orange/blue color combo, along with the full team name. as i mentioned in the 1953 sampler post, sievers came into his own with the senators, excuse me - the nationals in the mid-50's. in 1956, he hit 29 homers with 95 rbi and made the all-star team for the first time in his career. in the game, he pinch hit for early wynn and popped out against the giants' johnny antonelli.
milwaukee braves - chuck tanner
card #69
the blue/yellow color combo is our first repeat so far, but i wanted tanner in the sampler because he was in the 1978 topps set that got me into collecting as a primary hobby. in 1956, he played for the braves primarily as a pinch-hitter, appearing in 60 games and hitting .238.
chicago cubs - bob speake
card #66
here's the orange/yellow color combo on speake's card. i had to look up the "kom" league - it stands for "kansas-oklahoma-missouri". speake did have a great start to his big league career, but he spent all of 1956 in the minors with the los angeles angels. he led them to the pcl pennant with 25 homers, 111 rbi, and a .300 batting average.
cincinnati reds - smoky burgess
card #192
i like that burgess put the quotation marks around "smoky" in his signature as well. he was on his second stint with the reds franchise in 1956, although he was only with them originally during the 1951 offseason. his card features the blue/red color combo. he hit 12 homers in 1956, with one coming off of sandy koufax and another that walked-off the pirates on july 20.
brooklyn dodgers - duke snider
card #150
this is a duplicate card as i have another one in my dodger collection. once i committed to all of the color combos, i had to pick up this card as it is the only example of the black/orange combination in the set. the earl of flatbush had a monster 1955 season, and he helped the world champion dodgers return to the fall classic in 1956 as he led the league with 43 home runs - a mark that stood as a franchise high for over forty years.
philadelphia phillies - frank baumholtz
card #274
baumholtz represented the cubs in my 1955 sampler set, and here he is in 1956 as a phillie. his card also represents the blue/orange color combo. i am happy to have this card in my sampler, as it was sent to me by matt at diamond jesters a while back. baumholtz appeared in 76 games for the phillies in 1956, mainly as a pinch-hitter.
pittsburgh pirates - gene freese
card #46
freese has a lot going on on his card. there's the green/orange color combo as well as the night game imagery. his uniform even looks a bit shiny which reminds me of the dodgers' satin uniforms that were designed to look better at night. freese hit only three homers in 1956, none of which were grand slams, as he split the season between pittsburgh and hollywood of the pcl. apparently, he is no relation to david freese.
st. louis cardinals - walker cooper
card #273
i was happy to learn that cooper was in his early 40's in 1956, so the portrait isn't necessarily an example of how much older people looked back then. i mean, it's no 1976 topps gaylord perry card. his card features the green/yellow color combo. i appreciate the comic on the back recognizing him as a "double dipper" or boomerang player for the cardinals, although topps didn't use either of those phrases. he was mostly a pinch-hitter appearing in 40 games in 1956.
new york giants - gail harris
card #91
harris' card features the blue/green color combo, and i think it is the only one in the set with this particular combination. he played in only 12 games for the giants in 1956, hitting one homer which may or may not prove that he was a "good long ball hitter".
that's the end of the teams portion of the sampler, with 15 of the 16 color combos represented. we will get to the last one in a bit.
now that the full color backgrounds are paused, there is an opportunity for me to once again have a card showing the yankee stadium facade. in 1956, it's tom brewer's card
and, as i mentioned up top, there were a couple of true subsets in the 1956 topps set. the first one was the league presidents.
i suppose topps saw the umpires in 1955 bowman and decided to do something of their own in 1956 (after purchasing the bowman name that year). the first two cards of the set feature the respective league presidents, and i went after the head of the national league.
warren giles
team cards are the other subset
cincinnati red(leg)s
card #90
it's fitting that the first team card i have in a sampler is of the original franchise. it's fun to see batboys be recognized by name on the front and to see crosley field on the back as that field was long gone by the time i became aware of the national pastime.
card #173
there were some other cards that fit what i would consider to be future subsets. so, i decided to be sure to include them in the sampler as well
manager:
mayo smith
card #60
it's quite a pose that smith is striking on his card. i was surprised to see that mayo is smith's actual middle name and not a nickname. he led the phillies to a fifth place finish in the national league in 1956.
coach:
harry breechen
card #229
breechen was obviously the orioles' pitching coach based on the image on the front and the comic on the back. he and bill renna up above shared a birthday, although breechen was twelve years older. during breechen's tenure as the franchise's pitching coach, he helped develop starters such as dave mcnally and hall of famer jim palmer.
another theme i look for are what i call "o-pee-chee" type cards. these are cards that feature a player in a uniform different from the team that is designated on the card. these cards are quite prevalent in the mid-60's when updated photos were scarce but are not necessarily as plentiful or obvious in other sets. in 1956, i am sorry to say that i could not find a card that fit the bill, thanks to the illustrated nature of the set.
there was one more color combo that i needed to pick up, and it's only found on one card in the set
dick brodowski
card #157
yes, this is the only black/yellow combo card in the set. not sure why topps had only two cards with black in either text box, but they did. brodowski's first season in washington was largely forgettable as he was 0-3 in seven appearances.
adding those cards to the team-based cards leaves just three spaces on the third sheet. i've filled those spaces with these cards:
ed fitzgerald
card #198
this card is the most recent 1956 topps card i've purchased, and i targeted it because it contracts the team name to "nats" which seems wholly unnecessary given that topps made "nationals" fit on both sievers' and brodowski's cards up above. the card is also interesting because of the image in the background. if that's fitzgerald at bat, the image is poorly cropped. if fitzgerald is the catcher, it's a poor image choice as he is almost fully obscured by the umpire. finally, had fitzgerald played in the espn era, i am sure chris berman would have referred to him as "the wreck of the" edward fitzgerald.
hank thompson
card #199
i have thompson's card in the sampler for a couple of reasons. first, it looks like he is wearing a mets' cap even though 1956 was his eighth season with the giants, so it's not like topps had to modify a cubs or dodger hat in the image. second, i like the action play in the background of his card. third, the back of the card features a comic panel that references a double play of the 5-4-3 variety. and finally, thompson was the first black player that appeared in the major leagues for the st. louis browns/baltimore orioles franchise, debuting just about three months after jackie robinson broke the color barrier. like robinson, 1956 was his last year in the majors.
johnny podres
including a card of the 1955 world series mvp was a no-brainer for me, even though i had other dodger duplicates to choose from. this is just a fantastic card for dodger fans. podres did not repeat his star turn performance from 1955 in '56 as he missed the entire season due to military service.
so, that's my 1956 topps sampler set, all 24 cards of it. since i've completed the 1957 topps set, 1958 is next - stay tuned!
