Wednesday 27 May 2015

1991 Conlon Collection

Three unusual /oddball sets to follow. 
 Firstly 1991 Conlon Collection featuring classic photographs from American photographer Charles Conlon. His collection of black and white portraits of thousands of players was turned into cards sets from 1991 to 1995 by Megacards in conjunction with The Sporting News. 
The set consists of 330 cards released in 3 printings. 
The first two printings, whilst missing the MLB logo also differ slightly in design. The picture remains the same but the top right banner reads Hall of Fame in the first printing, and HOF plus induction year in the second printing. Almost identical to the 2nd printing, the 3rd printing displays the MLB logo. The 3rd printing is the most commonly found. There are also subsets in the 1991 collection which includes Hall Of Fame (1-67), 1927 Yankees (100-125), 75 Years Ago World Champs (135-150), 75 Years Ago League Leader (151-164), Great Stories (165-176), Unassisted Triple Play (200-208), Trivia (225-229), All Time Leader (250-277), Most Valuable Player (300-317), and a Charles Martin Conlon Special Card (327). 
The pack contains 18 cards. This pack is the most common 3rd printing. 

The Pack: 
Moe Berg WW2 Spy
#11 Frankie Firsch HOF-1947 
#31 Earl Averill Indians HOF-1975 
#48 Ray Schalk White Sox HOF-1955 
#65 John McGraw Giants HOF- 1937 
#99 Fritz Ostermueller Red Sox 
#116 Charley O’Leary Yankees 
#133 Bill Dietrich White Sox 
#150 Carl Mays Red Sox 
#167 Paul Waner Pirates 
#184 Moe Berg Red Sox 
#201 George H. Burns Red Sox 
#218 Riggs Stephenson Cubs 
#235 Ivey Wingo Reds 
#252 Rube Marquard Giants 
#269 Spud Davis Cardinals 
#292 George Grantham Reds 
#294 Shanty Hogan Braves 
#320 Roy Spencer Indians

An interesting fact about Moe Berg, according to the back of his Conlon card- Moe was a language and mathematical expert. He also became a top WW2 spy, who gathered atomic information from German scientists. Add to this 12 seasons in baseball, what a wide and varied life he had. 

2 comments:

  1. Great Berg card. The Catcher Was A Spy is one interesting book about Berg. He was different.

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  2. I still need 8 cards to finish this set off... I have mostly 3rd printing, but a lot of 2nd as well. no matter to me, they all look great.

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