Card Show: 1948 Bowman

Earlier in the week I posted about the 1949 Phillies Bowman cards I found at a recent card. I also acquired a 1948 Phillies Bowman card as well. I had posted it on my Facebook page and someone (thanks Paul!) commented that I now had half of the 1948 Bowman Phillies set. Sure enough. I found the other card on eBay. I also had picked up some 1950 Bowman Phillies cards which I'll post on next week.

1948 Bowman #28 Emil Verban

This is the card I bought at the show. You can see it's pretty beat up, but I only paid $4.00. The card back says his nick name was "The Antelope". baseball-reference.com says he was also called "Dutch". He had a seven-year career (1944-1950) playing for the Cardinals, the Phillies (1946-1948), the Cubs and the Braves. He was a second baseman with a career BA of .272.  Here's a quote from Wikipedia about him:

"In 1975, a group of Chicago Cubs fans based in Washington DC formed the Emil Verban Society to honor him. Verban was picked as the epitome of a Cub player, competent but obscure and typifying the work ethics. Verban initially believed he was being ridiculed, but his ill feeling disappeared several years later when he was flown to Washington to meet President Ronald Reagan, also a society member, at the White House."

1948 Bowman #24 Emil (Dutch) Leonard

This card I got on eBay. It's in much better shape. The corners a a bit rounded but it has no creases. Dutch was a knuckleballer who pitched from 1943 to 1953, for the Dodgers, the Senators, the Phillies (1947-1948) and the Cubs. He had a career 191-181 record with a career ERA of 3.25.  He made the All-Star team 6 times.

He has a few interesting claims to fame. In 1947, while with the Phillies, he came in to a game in the ninth, with the Phillis clinging to a 1-run lead over the Dodgers. The bases were loaded with no outs. He succeeded in retiring Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges and Roy Campanella, and got the save.

He apparently had a wicked knuckleball. According to Wikipedia Jackie Robinson was quoted as saying, "I am glad of one thing, and that is I don't have to hit against Dutch Leonard every day. Man, what a knuckleball that fellow has. It comes up, makes a face at you, then runs away."

After the 1948 season, the Phillies traded him to the Cubs for Eddie Waitkus, the player who was the inspiration for the novel (and movie), "The Natural".

It's also interesting to me that the Phillies had two guys named Emil, nicknamed "Dutch" playing for them at the same time. Must have caused some confusion in the clubhouse.