Ol’ Stubblebeard was player/manager of the 1935 Bloomington Bloomers. That year Grimes went 10-5 on the mound and led the team to a Three-I League championship. He won 272 games during his Hall of Fame career.

The ‘33 Goudey set is an all-timer and I love the image of Grimes in his Cubs uniform against that blue background.

Bob “Fats” “Fatty” “the People’s Choice” Fothergill was a Bloomer back in 1920. He went on to have a great 12-year career that ended with a .326 (.3255) average - ranking him in the top 50 all-time. In 1927 he batted .359 and drove in 114 runs for the Tigers. I was excited to pick up this type-1 photo of him from that 1927 season.

Landed a new piece for the Bloomington collection. A neat little snapshot of Clark Griffith and baseball’s first commissioner, Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, at the 1924 World Series. I’m certain they’re at Griffith Stadium. The Senators won the series that year (former Bloomer, Paul Zahniser, was on the ‘24 Senators, but didn’t pitch in the WS).

Pulled a neat card yesterday. It’s a missing location variation purple refractor of Trout’s 2023 Heritage.

I was very excited to find this 1910 Fred Beck at a card show this weekend! This is actually my 2nd Beck card - I shared his T205 a while back. Fred was a Bloomer for parts of 4 seasons (1905-1908) and played 5 seasons in the big leagues. I was happy there were a handful of vintage dealers at the show, including a decent amount of pre-War. (The streak across his face is a reflection.)

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=beck--002fre