I was able to pick up an awesome snap shot of Chico Hernandez attempting to make a play at the plate. Hopefully the ump didn’t need to review the photo to see that the ball is loose! What a shot!!! I’m going to dig more into the details of the photo to try to learn the name of the other players and the ump. Chico drove in 85 runs and hit .337 for the 1938 Bloomers. He went on to be a part of the first all Latin battery in MLB history when he caught Hiram Bithorn in a Cubs game in 1942.

https://mchistory.org/assets/resources/articles/pantagraph-hernandez-chico-1732307477.pdf

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.

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

One of the things I learned trying to get a card from each year going back to 1900 is that there were not many, if any, cards produced in 1942 and 1943. Luckily for me, the Cubs produced team picture packs in 1942 and Chico Hernandez was on that Cubs team. Chico was a star catcher for the Bloomers in 1938 - catching all 121 games and being named a Three-I League All-Star. My friend and McLean County Museum of History Librarian, Bill Kemp, wrote a nice piece about Chico and how he made baseball history.

https://mchistory.org/research/articles/cuban-chico-hernandez-star-of-1938-bloomers