1955 bowman complete through 272!

despite not completing it during my trip to the national, i am into the home stretch with my 1955 bowman set build, and here are the next two pages of cards to share.

sheet 31, cards 257-264

the "wrong" alston, cardboard legend don mossi, a couple of umpires, a brooklyn dodger, plus a headscratcher among others. here are the backs:

by the "wrong" alston, i mean no disrespect to tom alston. it's just that with bowman included a small number of managers in this set, it would have been nice for the dodgers' skipper walter alston to be included. tom alston was certainly worthy of a card, having played in 66 games in 1954.

john stevens is the first umpire on the sheet, and we learn that his ancestry is "slovak". the card also mentions that he worked the 1954 world series (he was the third base ump for willie mays' catch), but it fails to mention that he was also a college basketball referee and that he, as the home plate umpire, made the calls (valid, i assume) that cost bob keegan a perfect game in 1957 due to some bases on balls.

ed hurley is the other umpire here, and he is "german-irish". hurley was one of the umpires who was by many accounts forced into retirement when he reached the age of 55. he felt it was retaliatory for his efforts in trying to organize or seek additional benefits for the umpires which sounds plausible given the times. he was also featured on the television program "what's my line?" in 1953 and was the home plate umpire during eddie gaedel's lone big league at bat.

walt moryn was with the dodgers in 1955, but only as a september call up and wasn't a part of the world series squad. he went on to have greater personal success with the cubs, even making an all-star team.

all of the backs here are biographical, although eddie joost's back has some shenanigans on it. he is listed as "infield" for the cleveland indians but a previous owner of the card has noted "catcher" below that text and the bio text mentions that he was the manager of the philadelphia a's in 1954. add to that the fact that joost played for the red sox in 1955 and you have the headscratcher that i referred to above. turns out that joost was the player/manager for the a's in 1954 and played the infield in the games in which he appeared. he was released by the a's in november of 1954, but baseball reference doesn't show another transaction until the spring of 1955 when he signed with the red sox, for whom he would only play the infield. so, i am not sure where the indians or the "catcher" writing comes from.

sheet 32, cards 265-272

three more umpires, old friend joey amalfitano, brooklyn dodger chico fernandez, and more. here are the backs:

we are again met with all bio text. someone has put an "x" on amalfitano's card back. perhaps it's because he was sent down after the 1955 season, having met the requirements of his bonus baby status. he wouldn't return to the majors until 1960.

the star of the sheet is al barlick, a hall of fame umpire who was highly regarded as the best umpire during his tenure. he was the first base umpire for jackie robinson's debut in 1947 and later worked the first game at the astrodome as well as the first game at riverfront stadium, plus the last game at forbes field. he also was the crew chief for the first nlcs. he umpired in four different decades and was elected to the hall of fame in 1989.

while no ancestry was given for barlick, george (jim) honochick is noted as having "czech" ancestry. he was a minor league player before moving to umpiring, and wound up being behind the plate for three no-hitters as well as game 7 of the 1955 world series (who's a bum?). he is likely best known to a later generation as a participant in miller lite commercials alongside boog powell. 

rounding out the umpires on this sheet is john flaherty. no ethnicity is listed, but going by his last name and the fact that he went to college in boston (and played in the cape cod league), i am going to guess irish. flaherty was also one of the umpires that witnessed the dodgers win the world series for the first time (he was the left field ump), and he also was working the game in which roger maris hit home run number 61. 

chico fernandez is the dodger featured on this sheet, and it's worth noting that he did not make his major league debut until 1956, spending the entire 1955 season with the dodgers' triple-a affiliate in montreal. i am guessing that many a pack ripping kid were confused about him being shown on a card - perhaps more so than the umpires.

just six sheets left to share in the set - stay tuned!