In remembrance of HOFer Edd Roush, the best deadball centerfielder this side of Tris Speaker...

“Sure, the 1919 White Sox were good. But the 1919 Cincinnati Reds were better. We had Heinie Groh, Jake Daubert, Greasy Neale, Rube Bressler, Larry Kopf, myself, and the best pitching staff in both leagues. We were a very underrated ball club...

I’ve read where as far as the Cincinnati fans are concerned I’m the most popular player ever wore a Reds’ uniform. I don’t know about that. It’s not for me to say. But - assuming it’s true - I’ll tell you one thing: the feeling is mutual.” - Edd Roush

('The Glory Of Their Times', Ritter, pp. 206, 214)

"I can tell almost exactly what Hornsby is going to do by the position he takes at the plate, but Roush never. Once Rogers takes his position, he doesn't change it. If he crowds the plate I know he is going to try to place a hit in right field; if he stands back from the pan, it's the tip off for a left field swing. Hornsby always hits them for a drive over the infield; he never tries to dump them down.

Roush on the other hand, almost invariably takes the same position at the bat, but has a pitcher guessing all the time. He makes his shifts with the old wagon tongue, pulling the unexpected by choking his bat while the ball is on the way or stepping back or into it for a long swing. He has fooled me lots of times by getting into position for one of his famous drives and then dumping the ball to the infield to advance the runner.

Believe me, both Hornsby and Roush are great hitters, but Roush to my mind is the harder to pitch to." - HOFer Burleigh Grimes, spring 1922

('Burleigh Grimes', Niese, p.87)

When asked if he was thrilled to be elected to the HOF in 1962 (over thirty years after he retired), Roush stated: “Why, no. Why in the hell would I be? I should have been in there 10 years before. Good God almighty, they put guys in there who never even hit .300. What in the hell do writers have to do with it to start with? They don’t know anything about baseball. All they know is whether you win or lose.”

When the world gets me down I turn to baseball cards. Gotta love cards from the 1930s...

The 1938-39 W711-1 Cincinnati Reds team issue sets may be the closest to perfect sets I've ever come across: Great team, beautiful design, relatively rare, relatively inexpensive, and one impossible-to-find white whale. Perfect...

The ‘38-‘39 Reds team issue (W711-1) may be the perfect set: Relatively rare, relatively affordable, beautiful design, challenging checklist, and one ultra-rare white whale. Here we have one of the best eligible pitchers not in the HOF, William 'Bucky' Walters, who in 1935, at age 25, switched from 3B to pitcher - just four years later he won the NL MVP and pitching Triple Crown. His complete game shutout in Game 6 of the 1940 World Series (in which he also hit a home run) got the Reds to Game 7, which they won at home...

“Big, important games never fazed him, and he seemed to get better as the game went on. We could count on him. He had a good fastball, a decent curve and a sinker that bore in on right-handed batters. As a former infielder, he could field his position as well as anyone in the game. Best of all, he had good control and an excellent knowledge of the batters’ weaknesses… Bucky was a quiet fellow, not given to much conversation, but he was a fierce competitor.” - Bill Werber

The ‘38-‘39 W711-1 Reds team issue sets are perfect - pennant winning team, beautiful design, puzzling checklist, relatively rare, relatively inexpensive, and one absolutely impossible chase card…