National Pastime Combo Breakers
Strange cards
National Pastime Combo Breakers
We’ve talked quite a bit about the general card templates that Clifford Van Beek apparently used for right handed and left handed hitters.
However, there are two players whose cards defy those templates.
The first of these is outfielder Ted Gullic of the St. Louis Browns:
Gullic was a rookie in 1930. He managed to hit .250 in 347 plate appearances. He wound up in the minor leagues until he received another half season in 1933, after which he never played in the majors again.
Gullic’s claim to fame here is the fact that he received a left handed hitter card. This is the right handed batter template:
If you compare this with Gullic’s card, you’ll notice that almost none of the out numbers line up.
However, he lines up quite well with the left handed hitter template:
Baseball Reference indicates that Gullic was a right handed batter in real life, so I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here.
Our second — and last — combo breaker is Harry McCurdy, a catcher with the Philadelphia Phillies:
McCurdy had a longer and more successful career than Gullic, though he still isn’t exactly a household name. But the interesting thing about McCurdy is that he was a left handed hitter in real life.
Did Clifford Van Beek make a mistake with McCurdy’s card? Did he deliberately mix things up to confuse those of us who wanted to study his game?
What do you think?