1955 Bowman #41 - Mel Clark

I'm going to take a quick break from my dissection of 1990s baseball cards for this.

I was looking for something else on eBay and stumbled on this card. I only own one 1955 Bowman and it isn't a Phillie. For $3.49 (including shipping) I thought it was worth buying.

The card is in pretty good shape considering it's 60 years old. It doesn't have a mark on it (that blemish on the back is in the cardboard), the corners are sharp (a little ding on the bottom right) and the card is well centered, front and back (compared to the few that beckett.com has posted). The one I already owned is poorly centered.

I don't know nothing about Mr. Clark that isn't in Wikipedia (which isn't much) and baseball-reference.com. He played for the Phillies from 1951-1955 as a part-time outfielder. I was only 3 years-old in his last summer in Philly. He died in 2014 at 87 in West Columbia, WV, about 10 miles from his home town of Letart WV in 2014. His last game was in 1957 so he had a lot of years left. I wonder what he was doing all that time?

Instead of biographical information on the back of the card there is a nice little essay "My advice to youngsters".