1955 topps sampler

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, and 1954 topps samplers. i am maintaining my topps flagship through the years mini-collection, so the 1955 topps joe amalfitano card remains there and not in this updated sampler. 

in 1955, there were 16 teams represented, and for the first time, it's an all-landscape oriented set. the card design features solid color backgrounds (by my count, there are red, orange, yellow, green, and blue backgrounds to include in the sampler) with a variety of colors for the name/position/team box at the bottom of the card, resulting in what i counted to be seventeen different color combinations:

• red/black, red/blue, red/green, red/yellow
• orange/black, orange/blue, orange/green, orange/yellow
• yellow/black, yellow/blue, yellow/green, yellow/red
• green/black, green/red, green/yellow
• blue/red, blue/yellow

as with 1954, there are two images of each card subject and the facsimile autographs remain on the front. the background color gradients also vary from left to right and right to left throughout the set, but i didn't bother to make sure i had all of those represented. 

as for the backs, there were different types of card stock used, and so just as with the 1952 set, some cards have what is considered a "white back" and others a "gray back". the comics on the back are single panel, and not specific to the player featured on the front of the card. instead, they are a question and answer format with different categories, such as "daffy-nitions", "you're the ump", "record busters", "puzzlers", and "true or false". 

there weren't any subsets in the way that we think of them today, but there were some other things to showcase. such as, the philadelphia athletics moved to kansas city during the offseason, so we get to see the first cards with a "kc" hat logo. the club kept the pre-existing elephant logo, but put it on a ball. in other team related news, the senators are now referred to as their proper team name, the "nationals". 

i mentioned in the 1952 sampler post that i chose a couple of players to include in these sampler sets so that i could claim to have their entire topps flagship runs, and the first of those players debuts in 1955.

enough now. let's see what the 1955 sampler set looks like, starting with an ai generated needlepoint sampler for the set. 

the machines initially spit out a sampler using the 1953 card design so i had to load a scan of my 1955 topps sandy koufax card. stupid machines. although if they are reading this, i for one welcome our new overlords.

i will start with the teams and then subsets, followed by cards to fill out the last binder page. note that even with the a's now in kansas city, i still have them after the yankees, since when i started this endeavor, i slotted them in as the oakland franchise, which is alphabetically after new york. here's the sampler:

baltimore orioles - chuck diering

card #105

here's the blue background with the red text box on the front, and a gray back on the, well, back. diering was the orioles' primary center fielder in 1955 in terms of innings played, although he only started 71 games at the position. he made many late inning appearances, however, including on june 17, when he hit a walk-off double to beat the tigers in the 11th inning. let's bring back the term "flychaser".

boston red sox - tom brewer

card #83

here's the yellow background with the green text box (that's two of the 17 combos), as well as a "white back" example. brewer was 0-6 with a 4.99 era after his first seven starts in 1955, but he then rolled out 19.1 consecutive scoreless innings against the senators in his next two starts, getting no decision in the first game after going 10.1 innings and then earning his first win of the season in the second, courtesy of a six hit shutout. he finished the season 11-10.

chicago white sox - jack harshman

card #104

red with blue (three of 17). harshman was on the mound when harmon killebrew made his big league debut in 1954. in 1955, he was 11-7 on the mound, with nine complete games to his credit. one of those complete games came on july 2 against the indians when he homered against herb score to break a 1-1 tie en route to a 2-1 victory. i guess he hadn't completely forgotten how to hit!

cleveland indians - don mossi

card #85

mossi's card uses the yellow background and green text box that we've already seen, but he is still in the sampler as he is one of the players i chose to chase all the way through his topps run. mossi is a favorite of collectors thanks to his unique visage, and this is his rookie card although he appeared in 40 games during the 1954 season. in 1955, he pitched almost exclusively out of the bullpen (he made one start that lasted just an inning, with 56 other appearances), with perhaps his best appearance coming in relief of bob feller on may 31. mossi threw six scoreless innings and was the winning pitcher as the indians walked off the orioles in the bottom of the 13th inning. jim wilson went the distance for the o's and lost 2-1.

detroit tigers - ferris fain

card #11

the red background and yellow text box (four of 17) goes well with the tiger logo on fain's card. fain did bounce back in 1955, appearing in 114 games, although his season was split between the tigers and the indians after being released by detroit following an ankle injury. always a high-contact, on-base guy, fain's obp when the tigers released him was .459!  

new york yankees - bob grim

card #80

here we have the yellow background and red text box (five of 17). what's missing from the back of grim's card is the fact that he was the 1954 american league rookie of the year. his sophomore season didn't match his rookie campaign, as he was just 7-5, but the yankees did win the pennant. grim pitched in three games of the 1955 world series, picking up a "save" in game 1 and starting (and losing ) game 6.

kansas city a's - jim finigan

card #14

this card features the green background and red text box (six of 17). finigan was the starting third baseman (and hitting in the three-spot) for the athletics' first game in kansas city. he was also the starting third baseman for the american league in the 1955 all-star game, becoming the first all-star for the kansas city version of the franchise.

washington senators - camilo pascual

card #84

here's an example of the red background and black text box (seven of 17). in 1955, topps decided to go ahead and refer to the washington franchise by their actual name - the nationals - rather than the more popular senators moniker. i've left them as senators anyway. as for pascual, this is his rookie card which carries a bit of a premium here in the twin cities as he moved with the franchise to minnesota in 1961. as for the 1955 season, pascual was 2-12 over 43 appearances (16 starts).

milwaukee braves - mel roach

card #117

here's an example of orange on green (eight of 17). roach was, in fact, a top-notch prospect, but he joined the navy and missed both the 1955 and 1956 seasons.

chicago cubs - frank baumholtz

card #172

this card shows the orange and black combo (nine of 17). 1955 was baumholtz's last full season in the majors, and his last with the cubs, period. he hit .289 and hit only one home run, but made it count as a pinch-hit, three-run dinger with two outs in the top of the ninth against the giants on june 5 to stave off defeat as the cubs went on to win the game 3-1.

cincinnati reds - "corky" valentine

card #44

yellow on black is the tenth color combo we've seen so far. 1955 turned out to be "corky"'s last year in the majors. the last batter he struck out as a big league pitcher was stan musial, but musial got him back later in the season by hitting a three-run homer off of him in what turned out to be valentine's last game in the majors. seeing valentine's nickname on the front of his card (he's one of a few in the set that have that distinction) makes me realize that topps putting rock raines and doc gooden on cards in 1989 wasn't that unusual even though i was confused at the time.

brooklyn dodgers - jim hughes

card #51

hughes card shows the yellow on blue combo (11 of 17). while other teams had some variety in the background colors of their individual player cards, the dodger cards were all yellow with varying text box colors. curious. anyway, hughes followed up his stellar 1954 season by pitching in just 24 games before (presumably) an injury ended his 1955 season in july. as a result, he missed out on the team's championship run.

philadelphia phillies - danny schell

card #79

schell's card reverses the color combo from hughes' card, giving us blue background with yellow text box (that's 12 of the 17 combos we've seen so far). here we have another use of "flychaser" on the back of a card as well. schell only made two appearances in 1955 - both as a pinch-hitter, and both in april - before his contract was purchased by the cardinals organization. he was sent to triple-a omaha where he hit .326 but didn't get a call-up then, or ever again.

pittsburgh pirates - dale long

card #127

long did indeed return to the majors in 1955, hitting 16 homers but also leading the national league with 13 triples. he twice hit two home runs in a game (both times against the reds), and also had a walk-off blast against the cubs. long is the guy who hit a home run in eight straight games in 1956, since tied by don mattingly and ken griffey jr. 

st. louis cardinals - gordon jones

card #78

the green on black (13 of 17) is the last of the different color combos in the "teams' portion of the sampler. despite jones' strong showing in 1954 as a starter, he was moved to the bullpen in the latter part of the 1955 season after being ineffective as part of the rotation. he wound up the season 1-4, while the cardinals were a paltry 2-13 in the games in which he pitched. 

new york giants - bobby hofman

card #17

hofman picked up where he had left off in 1954, hitting three more pinch-hit home runs in 1955. those three dingers tied him with some old-timer named cy williams for the most pinch-hit home runs in a career (nine), although the record has since been obliterated by matt stairs, among others.

that's the end of the teams portion of the sampler. with the full color backgrounds, there is no opportunity for me to have a card showing the yankee stadium facade. and, as i mentioned up top, there weren't really any subsets in the 1955 topps set. however, there were some cards that fit what i would consider to be future subsets. so, i decided to be sure to include them in the sampler.

manager - mike higgins

card #150

higgins' card is an example of the green and yellow color combo (14 of 17). i guess topps didn't know that higgins is better known as "pinky" (that's how you find him at baseball reference, anyway). 1955 was higgins' first year as a big league manager, and he guided the red sox to a record of 84-70, good for fourth place in the american league. there are some conflicting reports regarding his stance on integration, but i noted that pumpsie green was brought up to the big leagues about three weeks after higgins was relieved of the club's managerial duties in 1959.

coach - johnny riddle

card #98

from what i can gather, riddle was the first base coach under eddie stanky (and his 1955 in season successor harry walker) for the cardinals. he was a former big league catcher for a few teams, including the boston braves. in 1956, he moved back to the braves' franchise in milwaukee and coached there through their 1957 championship run. this particular card is oddly cut, and i appreciate the fact that the card (and comic) slightly predates don larsen's perfect game in the 1956 world series. oh, and for you harry potter fans, his name rearranges to "i, lord hun jeddly".

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 1955, i am sorry to say that i could not find a card that fit the bill, thanks to the illustrated nature of the set.

we still have a couple more color combos to see, and here they are

bill wilson

card #86

this is the red and green color combo (15 of 17). wilson got the first hit, first extra base hit, and scored the first run in kansas city athletics history, courtesy of his second inning double and joe demaestri's subsequent single on opening day, 1955. later in that same game, wilson hit the first home run for the kc a's as well.

carlos paula

card #97

paula's card is an example of the orange and yellow color combination (16 of 17). he hit .299 with six homers for washington in 1955. he holds the distinction of having been the first black player in the history of the washington franchise after debuting in the majors late in the 1954 season. as for the comic, i think a key piece of information was left out, so i went and looked. gehrig walked three times in a row in a 1928 game against the white sox, and later in the season walked in three consecutive plate appearances across two games against those same southsiders. was that really a record?

sherm lollar

card #201

lollar's card gives us the last of the color combinations with an orange background and blue text box (17 of 17!). his may be the only card in the set with this particular combination, as this is a high number and i am not sure i would have pursued it if there were another option. 1955 was a good season for lollar, as he hit 16 homers and was again named to the american league all-star squad. unfortunately for him, once again yogi berra played the entire game and lollar was not able to make an appearance.

adding those cards to the team-based cards leaves three spaces on the third sheet for some random cards. i've filled those spaces with these cards:

chuck harmon

card #82

i would love to know how topps decided which nicknames got quotes on the front of the card and which didn't. here, chuck is just chuck on the front, but "chuck" on the back. it's ponderous. harmon was the first african-american player for the reds when he debuted in 1954. in 1955 he set career highs in games played, homers, and stolen bases - although he was caught stealing the same number of times as he was successful (9). he broke up a no-hitter in the 9th inning against the giants on july 23 with a pinch-hit single.

bob skinner

card #88

skinner began the 1955 season in the minors and suffered a wrist injury before he could return to the majors. when he did finally get back to the big leagues in 1956, dale long (the other pirate in this post) was entrenched at first base, so skinner was moved to the outfield. he later went on to coach and manage in the majors (he and son joel were the first father and son to be big league managers), winning a ring with the pirates in 1979 as their hitting coach.

dick schofield

card #143

the last card of the sampler is future dodger dick schofield. he only appeared in 12 games for the cardinals in 1955, going 0 for 4 at the plate. the card back mentions him receiving "early baseball training from his dad" but doesn't have the space to mention that his dad, "ducky", was a long-time minor league shortstop. of course, this schofield would have a son (dick schofield) and a grandson (jayson werth) who would play in the major leagues.

so, that's my 1955 topps sampler set, all 24 cards of it. 1956 is next - stay tuned!

1954 topps sampler

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 this post featuring my 1952 topps and 1953 topps samplers. i am maintaining my topps flagship through the years mini-collection, so the 1954 topps mel parnell card (that replaced another card from the original sampler) remains there and not in this updated sampler. 

in 1954, there were 16 teams represented, and like 1953, it's an all-portrait oriented set. the card design features solid color backgrounds (by my count, there are red, white, blue, yellow, green, and orange backgrounds to include in the sampler) with two images of each card subject. the facsimile autographs are back on the front after moving to the back in 1953. the comic sequence on the back, which is tailored to the player on the card, is new for 1954. 

there weren't any subsets in the way that we think of them today, but there were some other things to showcase. such as, the st. louis browns moved to baltimore during the offseason, so we get to see the first oriole cards. and, in a sign of the times, the cincinnati reds are now referred to as the cincinnati redlegs, thanks to senator joe mccarthy and others who led and fed the red scare of the 1950's.

enough now. let's see what the 1954 sampler set looks like, starting with an ai generated needlepoint sampler for the set. 

not really close to the actual card design, and the braves were no longer in boston. hopefully the 1955 needlepoint turns out a bit better.

i will start with the teams and then subsets, followed by cards to fill out the last binder page. with the browns now known as the baltimore orioles, it should make sense as to why the browns led off the first two samplers - when i started this endeavor, i slotted them in as the baltimore franchise, which is alphabetically first. among teams that existed in 1954, anyway. here's the sampler:

baltimore orioles - bob turley

card #85

turley's comic is actually pretty funny as he signed with his "hometown" team to be close to home but wound up far away once the browns made their move. 1954 was his second year in the majors, and he put up a 14-15 record while leading the american league in strikeouts (and walks). along the way, he became the first all-star in orioles' team history, but did not appear in the 1954 midsummer classic. his card is the first example of the blue background.

boston red sox - milt bolling

card #82

frank, milt's brother, did indeed try out for the tigers and made the squad, appearing in 117 games for them in 1954. as for milt, he was the red sox' primary shortstop again in '54, and he hit .249 with six homers, including two in one game against the a's that was part of a 6 for 9 day for bolling across both games of a doubleheader. obviously, bolling is the first card in the sampler to represent the white background.

chicago white sox - sherm lollar

card #39

here's the first card with the red background in the sampler. lollar only appeared in 107 games for the white sox in 1954, but he was named to the all-star team for the second time in his career. yogi berra caught the entire game, however, so lollar didn't make an appearance. it was the same story for lollar in 1955, but in 1956, he was able to replace berra in the midsummer classic and went 1 for 2 in the game.

cleveland indians - wally westlake

card #92

westlake's text and cartoon on the back focus on his movement in the majors, with the cartoon being awkwardly captioned. the move to get him to cleveland turned out well for him as he had a strong 1953 campaign and then, in 1954, played in the only world series of his career. his card is the first green background card to be featured.

detroit tigers - bob miller

card #241

this bob miller is not that bob miller. nor the bob miller that announced la kings games for decades. this bob miller debuted in 1953 at the ripe age of 17. in 1954, he pitched in 32 games, posting an era of 2.45 across 69.2 innings - all career bests. the cartoon refers to former tiger manager george moriarty simply as "moriarty" which had me thinking of sherlock holmes.

new york yankees - frank leja

card #175

finding cheap yankee cards from the 1950s was tough even 20 years ago, and i remember settling on this card even though there is all that writing on the back. now, it's kind of interesting to me, as a former owner of the card entered some stats of their own - they certainly aren't leja's, as he played in only 26 major league games in his career. as for the original features of the card, to be dubbed the next lou gehrig has to be pretty daunting, and the fact that leja's name is not well known tells us that he did not live up to that comparison. he debuted on may 1, 1954 as a late inning replacement and made only eleven more appearances that season, each of which was as a pinch runner, pinch hitter, or late inning replacement. he got his first and only big league hit on september 19 against the a's.

philadelphia athletics - marion fricano

card #124

this is the first orange background card featured, but the real thing to pay attention to here is the comic on the back. fricano seems to have violated what is (to some) an unwritten rule in baseball by bunting to break up a no-hitter. today, that would result in a clearing of the benches for sure. fricano pitched four complete games in 1954, but gave up at least five hits in each of them.

washington senators - pete runnels

card #6

pete gets the "pete" treatment on the back of the card, but not the front. "little pete" was a nickname he was given in reference to his father, pete, and it stuck. i wonder why he wasn't just named after his dad in the first place. anyway, runnels hit three times as many home runs as he had hit in 1952 (referencing the comic here) and set a career high in triples with 15 in 1954 while hitting .268. he was still a few years away from joining the red sox and being tutored by ted williams in the art of hitting.

milwaukee braves - ray crone

card #206

after reading the comic, i was surprised to read the bio text. a lack of control and winning records with sub-4.00 era don't usually go hand-in-hand. however, crone did indeed average almost five walks per nine innings in his first year of minor league ball, but also had a winning record and a 2.93 era that year! 1954 saw his first big league action, and he was 1-0 with a 2.02 era in 19 appearances. his yellow background completes the run of colors in the set.

chicago cubs - paul minner

card #28

i'm not sure if, back when i was first putting these sampler sets together, whether or not i purposely targeted former dodgers or if it just seems that way. as the card back says, minner pitched for the dodgers before joining the cubs. in fact, the last pitch that minner threw as a dodger came in game 5 of the 1949 world series. he pitched a scoreless top of the ninth against the yankees, but the dodgers did not rally in the bottom of the inning, and the series ended with the yankees winning four games to one. minner's turn on the mound made him the first pitcher in major league history to pitch in the world series with the lights on. i couldn't find any info on the incident that led to a dodger charging the mound in 1952 that is referenced in the comic panel, unfortnately. in 1954, minner was 11-11 with a 3.96 era for the cubs.

cincinnati reds - bobby adams

card #123

i know that ballplayers used to have offseason jobs to help make ends meet, but i think this is the first time i've seen a player sell tickets for his team as his side gig. in 1954, adams hit .269 in what would be his last full season with the reds (or redlegs, if you prefer). on may 13, he hit a lead off home run against future hall of famer robin roberts.

brooklyn dodgers - junior gilliam

card #35

gilliam holds a special place in my fandom, so i am happy to have this card in the sampler. the card back does a nice job of providing his highlight reel so to speak. he followed up his fantastic 1953 campaign by hitting .282 and again scoring more than 100 runs. he hit a career high 13 homers (two in one game), with two of them being lead-off shots. 1954 is the only year that topps referred to him as "junior" on the card front. i am still hoping to add his 1953 topps rookie card to my collection someday.

philadelphia phillies - ted kazanski

card #78

i know for sure that i picked up kazanski's card back in the early 2000's because his name was similar to that of the unabomber's so it stuck out to me in the bargain bin. kazanski was a defense-first shortstop who didn't hit too much at the big league level. his 1954 season saw him muster a .139 average in limited action. he stayed with the phillies through 1958, moving to second base and improving at the plate.

pittsburgh pirates - vic janowicz

card #16

a product of the ohio state university, janowicz was quite the athlete as he won the heisman trophy for his exploits on the gridiron. unfortunately, he was likely rushed to the majors thanks to his bonus baby status, and 1954 was his last year in the major leagues. he hit just .151 for the pirates in 41 games before returning to football.

st. louis cardinals - solly hemus

card #117

though hemus lost his status as the cardinals' primary shortstop to alex grammas in 1954, he still played in 124 games and hit .304. to the point of the cartoon, hemus' obp in '54 was a whopping .453 as he maintained the same hbp/plate appearance ratio that he had in 1953 and also walked 20% of the time he came to the plate.

new york giants - don liddle

card #225

liddle is clearly still wearing a braves' uniform in both photos, as the giants did not have that piping on their jerseys. oddly enough, the comic states that liddle threw a 2-hit shutout for the braves in 1953, but baseball reference shows that game to have been a 4-1 victory for milwaukee. with the giants in 1954, liddle finally did throw a shutout - he actually recorded three of them - en route to a 9-4 record for new york.

that's the end of the team oriented portion of the sampler. with the full color backgrounds, there is no opportunity for me to have a card showing the yankee stadium facade. and, as i mentioned up top, there weren't really any subsets in the 1954 topps set. however, there were some cards that fit what i would consider to be future subsets. so, i decided to be sure to include them in the sampler.

combo card:

ed & john o'brien

card #139

this is the first topps card to feature two players as subjects, and it so happens that they are brothers and teammates which makes sense. future combo cards focus on the teammate or other non-familial themes. between the front and back, we get three different ways to address ed/eddie/edward, and the split stat line is a nice touch as opposed to the year/career format on other cards. for the o'brien's, 1954 saw both of them serving in the army. they would return to the pirates in 1955.

manager:

eddie stanky

card #38

just like the o'brien card, we get ed/eddie/edward for stanky. i've only heard him referred to as eddie, but i wasn't around when he was active as a player and manager. while he served in both roles in 1953, 1954 had stanky managing only. the cardinals fell to sixth place that year after two third place finishes in stanky's first two seasons at the helm. he wouldn't finish a fourth. the comic on the back may be the first instance of a team's "kangaroo court" being referenced.

coach:

tom oliver

card #207

i like that topps noted oliver wasn't on an active roster in 1953. he was 50 years old that year, and his last year in the majors as a player was 1933! he was an excellent fielder in his time in the majors, twice leading the american league in fielding percentage as a center fielder. i have read about tris speaker's preference to play a shallow center field, but wasn't aware of oliver doing the same. i'm not 100% sure what oliver's coaching role was with the orioles, but i am guessing not hitting coach - he had the most at bats of any 20th century player without hitting a home run. according to baseball reference, he was the third base coach.

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 1954, this card is a clear example, and it's a doozy at that:

johnny lipon

card #19

lipon's card meets the basic criteria for this sort of card - he is identified as a member of the orioles while wearing a red sox hat in his portrait image. i believe the topps artist attempted to draw that full "bird on ball" logo on to lipon's hat in the full body image. regardless, when you turn the card over, lipon is listed as a member of the chicago white sox!

lipon finished the 1953 season with the browns, so the orioles affiliation makes sense and i assume that topps left the boston "b" on his cap because they didn't have a good orioles' logo to use? anyway, he was then traded to the white sox before the start of spring training, so we can assume that card fronts were finalized before card backs as the back has all of this information. lipon only lasted a short time with the white sox, however, as he was traded to the reds in mid-april. he appeared in just one game for the reds before having his contract sold to havana, ending his major league career as a player.

adding those cards to the team cards leaves four spaces on the third sheet. i've filled those four spaces with these cards:

jim rivera

card #34

not sure where jim comes from when you are named manuel joseph, but it turns out to be part of a larger nickname for him - "jungle jim". according to sabr, however, he was given the name "jim" because he hung out with a guy named jim. topps doubled down on rivera's speed in the text on the back of the card, and for good reason as he went on to lead the american league in steals in 1955. in 1954, he had two two-homer games (one of those four homers was an inside the park job) and three two-stolen base games. the last of those games with two steals came with this next player featured as the catcher.

ray murray

card #49

there's something about the image of murray on the front of the card that intrigues me. it sort of gives me ray bolger as the scarecrow in wizard of oz vibes. anyway, murray was sent to the orioles in april of 1954, but that was too late to register with topps for an early series release. pretty ballsy of murray to hand such a card to an ump - i do believe today he would be fined and suspended for such an action. murray was the catcher in that last game in 1954 during rivera swiped two bases. it turned out to be murray's last game in the majors, and he finished his career with a double off of billy pierce.

harry perkowski

card #125

i am glad topps put "murdered" in quotes there in the comic caption! perkowski may have tamed the dodgers in 1952 (the third panel of the comic reads "he did. and harry became the only lefty to beat the dodgers in a 9 inning game all season!"), but in 1954, he pitched against them seven times and the reds lost all seven games. in perkowski's second start of the season, the "brooks" took him deep five times courtesy of duke snider, jim gilliam (twice), dick williams, and pee wee reese. who "murdered" whom?.

bob ross

card #189

thanks to the cartoon, this is a boxing card and a baseball card! and, with a name like his, it's not a "happy accident" that he's in my sampler set. this ross apparently didn't paint the corners, as he was not brought up to the majors in 1954. nor in 1955. he did see some action (his last) as a big leaguer in 1956 for the phillies. note that this is the version of this card that has a horizontal white line running through the second "s" in "ross". there is another version that does not have that line. you have to salute the minutiae that comes along with collecting.

so, that's my 1954 topps sampler set, all 24 cards of it. 1955 is next - stay tuned!