My vintage card of the week: The 1951 Bowman Dan Bankhead RC. Bankhead was the first Black pitcher in Major League Baseball. Branch Rickey signed him in 1947 after several standout seasons in the Negro Leagues. Bankhead didn’t achieve the MLB success that Jackie Robinson did, but he was a trailblazer, nonetheless. And since pitching is my favorite part of the game, I’m really happy to have recently added this card to my collection.

Some of the most beautiful cards ever do not depict stars - here, Pittsburgh shortstop Stan Rojek takes aim at first base, on a windy day in Spring Training...

A neat experience seeing the small portion of the Jefferson R Burdick Collection currently on display at the Met. From their website: In 1947, Syracuse electrician Jefferson R. Burdick (1900–1963) began to donate his collection of approximately 303,000 advertising inserts, postcards, baseball cards, and posters to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Jefferson R. Burdick Collection constitutes a primary part of the Museum’s collection of ephemera, and helps tell the history of popular printmaking in the United States.

The photos:

1. 1887 Gold Coin (N284)

2. 1909-11 White Borders (T206)* and 1912 Brown Background (T207). *There is a Wagner in the collection, but it is not on display.

3. 1911 Gold Borders (T205)

4. 1933 Goudey (R319)

5. 1938 Goudey Heads-Up (R323)

6. 1951 Bowman (R406-5)

1950 Bowman #174, Hank Thompson.
1951 Bowman #198, Monte Irvin.
On July 8, 1949, Hank Thompson & Monte Irvin broke the color barrier for the NY Giants.
⭐MLB Pioneers⭐
Have a great day! 👊