This was a group of one of the cooler sets of cards I've received in a trade. This trade was courtesy of the proprietor of the blog with the never ending checklist chipaway (seriously, check out the awesomely organized wantlist spreadsheet)
The Adventures of Napkin Doon.
He was jonesin' for some cards from the GQ, premiere edition and he offered up this triplet of tectonic titans of the vintage Phillies variety. Before this, I had only three 1955 Topps cards in my collection, so they were very welcome additions/
Tom Casagrande (or Tom Big House) was graded a 4 VG-EX and never appeared in the majors, spending 7 years in the minors shuttling between the Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington systems. He did play on three AAA teams.
Bob Miller was also graded a 4 VG-EX and by 1955 was a reliever after his glory days of mostly starting for the 1950 team. He was 5th in the league in wins probability added in 1955, meaning he was used in a lot of high leverage situations and succeeded in them.
Mayo Smith was graded a VG 3 and was the manager of the Phillies from 1955-1958 compiling 164-282 record. He's best known for managing the Tigers to the World Series title in 1968, making the unorthodox decision to start his all-season centerfielder (Mickey Stanley) at shortstop during the series over the Ray Oyler and to form a power hitting outfield of Jim Northrup, Willie Horton, and Al Kaline. Kaline had been hurt most of the end of the season and needed to be worked into the lineup somehow without sacrificing too much defense ,so he transferred his centerfielder without an error all season to shortstop for 7 games (because the SS hit .135 for the season).
thanks for the trade!
Side note: 4 spots still available in the
group break of the moment.
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