1941 Goudey Lefty Grove

During its short life on earth, the Boston-based Goudey Gum Co., made some of the most beloved and influential baseball-card sets of all time.

The 1941 set is not one of them.

The '41 set, Goudey's dying last gasp of a set, displays none of the hallmarks that made its cards so popular during the 1930s. Blank backs. Black and white photos. (And why are the logos airbrushed out? What is this, the King-B beef jerky set?) A cheesy "Big LEAGUE Gum" logo in the corner. A stark yellow background. Or red. Or blue. Or green. Each of the 33 players came with four different backgrounds. It's as if Goudey didn't have enough players and this was its way of padding out the checklist. Does this mean Goudey invented parallel cards?

Ah, the player selection. It sucks. Mel Ott and Carl Hubbell and the biggest names. This would be like a modern set whose only good players are Felix Hernandez and Giancarlo Stanton, and the rest of the player roster is filled out with the Jeremy Guthries of the world.

The lone Red Sox player in the '41 set is a pitcher named Emerson Dickman, who compiled a 22-15 record despite a 5.33 ERA (good run support, you say?). His main claim to fame is coaching Princeton to its only College World Series appearance, in 1951, which is pretty neat.

Here are my '41 Goudey creations of a Sox pitcher of slightly greater stature: Lefty Grove, who won his 300th and final game that year before retiring. The card is numbered 36. And where are Nos. 34 and 35? They'll pop up on this blog eventually. ...