Card of the Week: 1955 Bowman #178 Tom Brewer
Posted by Andy on August 11, 2010
The 1955 Bowman set remains for many the iconic modern baseball card set. Released at a time when Bowman had dominated the card market (but was quickly losing ground to new upstart Topps) and color TV was still a new wonder to most American households, the design was unusual but very successful (at least in the long run--Bowman itself was bought out by Topps following this set.) This set came out when selling bubble gum was still the main focus and the cards themselves were enticements to get kids to choose the Bowman brand of gum. (The B. G. part of "B. G. H. L. I." seen on the back stands for Bowman Gum.)
There's just one thing I don't like about this design: real estate allocation. About 60% (believe it or not) of the card is taken up by the TV illustration, which is the same from card to card and therefore adds very little to the set as a whole. I would have preferred larger-format illustrations.
I chose Tom Brewer as my subject because he came up second on my list of worst ERAs against the Yankees since 1955. Brewer also pitched in 1954 and his overall record against the Yankees isn't pretty.
Here are his career splits against the 8 teams he faced in his career:
| I | Split | W | L | G | CG | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles Angels | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.76 | 2 | 0 | 15.1 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 1.174 | 2.9 | 0.83 | |
| Baltimore Orioles | 9 | 6 | .600 | 3.42 | 25 | 7 | 163.1 | 148 | 74 | 62 | 4 | 77 | 73 | 1.378 | 4.0 | 0.95 | |
| Chicago White Sox | 9 | 16 | .360 | 3.92 | 39 | 11 | 229.2 | 224 | 114 | 100 | 14 | 108 | 98 | 1.446 | 3.8 | 0.91 | |
| Cleveland Indians | 14 | 15 | .483 | 3.70 | 37 | 12 | 241.0 | 234 | 114 | 99 | 26 | 101 | 119 | 1.390 | 4.4 | 1.18 | |
| Detroit Tigers | 16 | 12 | .571 | 4.47 | 36 | 8 | 225.2 | 249 | 130 | 112 | 27 | 111 | 110 | 1.595 | 4.4 | 0.99 | |
| Minnesota Twins | 14 | 7 | .667 | 3.11 | 30 | 15 | 202.1 | 167 | 80 | 70 | 9 | 89 | 103 | 1.265 | 4.6 | 1.16 | |
| New York Yankees | 6 | 18 | .250 | 6.49 | 34 | 4 | 172.0 | 210 | 132 | 124 | 21 | 87 | 107 | 1.727 | 5.6 | 1.23 | |
| Kansas City Athletics | 21 | 8 | .724 | 3.46 | 38 | 18 | 260.0 | 235 | 115 | 100 | 24 | 90 | 119 | 1.250 | 4.1 | 1.32 |
Well that really says something about the strength of the Yankees at that time. (Over Brewer's 7-year career, the Yankees played in the World Series 6 times.)
Against the rest of the league, Brewer was quite good, and overall he still ended up with a winning record and an ERA+ (just) over 100. A pretty darn good career, if you ask me.
Other random thoughts:
- Can anyone identify the stadium shown in the card? Brewer's got a road jersey on so presumably it's not Fenway Park (although since it's an illustration and not a photo, anything is possible.)
- It's a shame that Brewer didn't play for the Brewers, although he was out of baseball 9 years before that team took that name. Dave Philley played for the Phillies. Red Schoendienst played for the Redbirds but not the Reds. Lenny Metz was much too early for the Mets. Cub Stricker didn't play for the Cubs. Conrad Cardinal played for the Colt .45's but Jose Cardenal played for the Cardinals for one season. No Rocky has ever played for the Rockies. Indian Bob never played for the Indians. I couldn't find a Ray who played for the Rays although there is probably one. Who did I miss?
- The back of the card does not identify the year for the stats, instead just calling it "PAST YR." I believe this was done so with the idea that the cards would become less dated to kids and still be of interest in subsequent years (even though the text on the card makes it clear that the stats refer to the 1954 season.)
Further reading on 1955 Bowman:
Wrigley Wax 1955 Bowman Ernie Banks
The Pursuit of 80's(ness) has some 1955 Bowman Yankees
August 11th, 2010 at 8:18 am
This is a great set, Andy. It's a cheap plug, but I featured my favorite card from this set on my blog - Johnny Pesky in an Orioles uniform.
Also, I just checked, and sadly Doug Bird never played for the Orioles, Blue Jays, or Cardinals. Jayson Werth was a Blue Jay...or is that pushing it?
August 11th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Brent Brewer is in AA for Milwaukee currently.
August 11th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Jeff King played 3 seasons for the Royals and Tom Prince had 8 ABs for them also.
August 11th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
I never liked the TV card sets (1955 Bowman Baseball, 1966 Topps FB [AFL], 1966-67 Topps/OPC Hockey). As mentioned in the post the TV takes up way too much space. Although, I do like Andy's note about "color TV was still a new wonder to most American households", so because of that I will forgive Bowman for the 1955 design (even the small image size, because I am sure it was comparable to the size of screens of actual TV's of the time). But as for Topps, those 1966 sets are still on my poop list (specifically the Bobby Orr rookie, which is a disgrace).
I do LOVE one thing about the 1955 Bowman set, however, the Umpire Cards. I am assuming people were just begging for a close-up view of Nester Shylack...but then changed their minds after actually getting it, since an umpire has never been on a major card since.
August 11th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Regarding the players with their team names: We came up with some a few years ago. They can be found here: http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/474
It doesn't bode well for Brent Brewer that he has barely advanced since then.
August 11th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Rey Ordonez spent part of a season with the Rays. That's kind of close.
August 11th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
My guess for the stadium in the picture would be Griffith Stadium. About the player/team names, Rey Sanchez also played for the Rays, and I hope Nick Bierbrodt can find his way to the Brewers organization.
August 11th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
I'm thinking that is Shibe Park pictured. 1954 was the Philadelphia A's last season in Phily. Just my best guess though.
August 11th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
To me, it looks like Brewer is pitching in Briggs Stadium/Tiger Stadium.
August 11th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
Harold, I'll agree with you about it being Shibe Park. Doc White pitched for the White Sox at the turn of the 20th century, Jim York finished his career with the Yankees, and Francisco Liriano was a former Giants prospect.
August 11th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Although he was playing in the majors when I first began following baseball, I never heard of Tom Brewer until his name came up in the other post in the past week. Of course, I figured he was probably with the Washington Senators to have done so poorly against the Yankees, but the Red Sox were not a very good team then, either.
The totals for the "Minnesota Twins" in the above table no doubt includes all or mostly games against the first Senators team. Although he pitched a few games in 1961, he never faced the exapnsion Senators but did manage to face the Angels twice. I see in his 1961 Pitching Gamelog that he had a big gap of inactivity from early June through mid-September. I'm guessing that he was injured, which may have also contributed to his departure from the big leagues after that season.
August 11th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
After another glance at his 1961 Gamelog, I see that he did face the Twins once that year. So that was 29 games against the earlier Washington Senators and 1 against the Twins in that figure of 30 games above.
August 11th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
One of the best deals I ever bought was a smoking 1955 Bowman set. I got this pristine set off a collector who painstakingly built it over a 14 year period in the 70's. Many Nm/Mt to Mint cards with the best one being the Rizzuto. The commons don't get the respect they deserve as they sell for $5 or less but it is loaded with stars and key semi stars and the break value is tremendous. Die hard collectors love the umpire cards in the high numbers.
Contact me with any vintage baseball card questions. I am happy to impart any wisdom I may have after 22 years in the biz.
MRP1017 (at) Gmail (dot) com
August 12th, 2010 at 7:59 am
Near as I can tell, Toronto still awaits its first Jay.
August 12th, 2010 at 10:27 am
Marc/ #13 -
"...a 14 year period in the 70s"
How long was that decade?
August 12th, 2010 at 10:38 am
I think the Leisure Suits made the 70's feel longer than it was.
August 12th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Jay Gibbons was liberated from the Jays to the Orioles by the Rule V draft in 2000. So close.
August 12th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
Another Jay who could have been a Toronto Blue Jay was Jay Schroeder, a high school catcher who was their first round pick, and the third overall, in one of the team's first drafts in the 1970s. Schroeder didn't make it very far through the majors and eventually quit to be a college quarterback somewhere in Southern California, which, if I recall, correctly was one of the two big L.A. area schools usually known by initials that start with "U", either a Bruin or a Trojan. After that, he was with the Washington Redskins for a few years. He got a few snaps in the Superbowl played in January 1988, one of two ex-minor leaguers to appear as QB in that game. The other was Denver's John Elway.