1954 Bowman Cubs Team Set - Part 2

The three primary starting pitchers were featured in the 1954 Bowman set – Bob Rush (13 wins and 15 losses), Paul Minner (11 wins and 11 losses) and Johnny Klippstein (4 wins and 11 losses).
The Closer (Hal Jeffcoat - 5 wins, 6 losses and 7 saves) and relief pitcher (Warren Hacker 6 wins, 13 losses and 2 saves) were also featured in this set. Turk Lown (o wins and 2 losses) was also included in the 1954 Bowman set, but did not figure into many Cubs games during the 1954 season. The final player featured in a Cubs uniform was Roy Smalley. After playing SS for the Cubs from 1948 to 1953, Smalley was traded to the Braves in March of 1954 for pitcher Dave Cole. Cole played in 19 games for the Cubs and was traded to the Phillies for the 1955 season. The 1954 Cubs were managed by Stan Hack and finished 7th in the 8 team National League. Their record was 64 wins and 90 losses. They finished 33 games behind the league and World Series champion Giants.

1954 Bowman Cubs Team Set - Part 1

The 1954 Bowman baseball set numbered 224 cards. Card #66 originally featured Ted Williams. However, Bowman discovered that Williams had an exclusive contract with Topps and pulled that card. The revised #66 featured Jimmy Piersall. The short printed #66 featuring Williams has a value of $3500 + in NRMT condition.

The 1954 Bowman set was produced and distributed very quickly in competition with Topps. As a result there are many errors in this set. Many of the errors were corrected which causes the set to contain several variations. The current PSA Registry set has 265 different cards including variations.

I have completed a 1954 Bowman Cubs Team set for my collection. In time, I plan to send this set into PSA for grading. Of the eight position players that started the most games for the 1954 Cubs, only 4 are featured in the 1954 Bowman set. The 1954 Bowman Cubs team set is missing Ernie Banks, Hank Sauer, Bob Talbot and Gene Baker.

The starters that are featured in the 1954 Bowman set are Joe Garagiola, Dee Fondy, Randy Jackson and Ralph Kiner.

Other position players featured in this set are Eddie Miksis (2nd Base), Bill Serena (Infield) and Frank Baumholtz (OF) .

Part 2 of this posting will include the 1954 Bowman cards of the Cubs pitching staff.

Current Stats on My Cubs Team Sets

I thought it might be interesting to present some statistics on my Cubs Team Set collection. My goal is to collect as many different Cubs team sets as possible. Right now I have a total of 4,584 different cards and 137 different completed sets. The oldest card that I have in my collection is from 1948. I have many completed and partial sets from 1948 through 1969 and from 2004 to 2009 that I need to get sorted, cataloged and counted. To date I have sorted a total of 535 team sets from 1970 through 2003. As I get additional cards sorted and cataloged, I will update this count.

There is another blog (Wrigley Wax http://wrigleywax.blogspot.com) that I have found that also focuses on Cubs cards. Check it out if you have a chance.

Reinventing My Collection

For about two years I worked diligently on a PSA graded 1964 Topps set. I posted each new card that I added to my collection in this blog. However, in March of this year, I found that I was enjoying my Cubs collection more than the effort and time that it would take to finish the 1964 set. So in March and April of 2009, I auctioned about 350 PSA graded 1964 Topps cards. I am now spending my time and money collecting a variety of Cubs items including team sets and scorecards from 1948 through 2009. Other items include books, back issues of magazine, pocket schedules, buttons and photos. These items along with other baseball related finds are displayed in my “Cubs” room.

This blog is now officially shifting from a chronicle of my quest to build a 1964 graded Topps set to a log of my efforts to determine if it is possible to collect too many Chicago Cubs items. I think I already know the answer to that question but lets see how it goes.