Friday, February 12, 2016

1920 W516 Strip Card #2 Heinie Groh


This was purchased at a recent card show, for which a full series of posts is upcoming. This card is, to use the parlance of our times, frickin sweet. If you're unaware, stores would sell strips of 5 to 10 players to kids, who would cut em up and inevitably lose them since they are small (1.5 x 2.5) and thin. But luckily, some survived, and even luckier, some made it to a Columbus, Ohio sports card show and I bought them. This is technically a variation, as it is a reverse negative of the original version. The entire set was released with both the regular and the reverse, due to what I assume is lack of quality control and not some Topps-esque SP-VAR gimmick. But what do I know?

As for the man himself, Henry 'Heinie' Groh played third for the Reds from 1913 to 1921, was the captain of our 1919 World Series championship team, had led the league in runs, hits, doubles, walks, plate appearances, OBP, OPS, double plays, putouts, and fielding percentage at least once each. He was also the captain of the Giants' 1922 World  Series champions, a team he played 7 years for. He also snuck in 14 games for the Pirates to close out his career. Groh received few Hall of Fame votes after he retired, but did get elected into the Reds Hall of Fame in 1963, which is why I recognized the name, which is why this one was chosen to be taken home.

Go Reds.

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