Cards from the Old Man Part 21: The LAST card!

This is the twenty-first in a series of posts about cards I received from the old collector in our town who had library card catalogs full of cards from the 1950's-1970's. You can see those original posts here and here if you missed them.

You may recall my May contest, posted on May 1st, was to guess the year and player of the final "Cards from the Old Man" card. Only three people, Night Owl, madding, and omegawax guessed the right year, 1959. No one guessed the right player.

Well, here he is.

Robin Roberts died 4 days after that contest post and I didn't post anything about it. I had been thinking about him because I knew this card post was coming so it was sad to hear the news of his passing.

Robin Roberts had a very nice 19 year career. Hall of Fame nice according to the BBWAA who elected him to the Hall of Fame in 1976. Roberts pitched in 676 games, posting a 286-245 record. He had a 3.41 ERA to go along side his amazing 305 complete games (36th all-time) and 45 shutouts. He even found time to earn 25 saves along the way. He threw 4,688.2 innings, striking out 2,357 (40th all-time). Roberts won 20 or more games 6 times, including a career high of 28. He threw 300+ innings 6 times, the same 6 years he won 20 or more games. He had 20+ complete games 8 times, including a staggering 30+ complete games twice.

Roberts made 5 All-Star appearances and made it to one World Series with the 1950 Phils. Unfortunately, the Yankees swept that Series 4-0. Roberts had a masterful performance in his one start, pitching a 10 inning complete game in Game 2, losing 2-1 in the 10th on a Joe DiMaggio homerun.

Roberts was the Sporting News Player and Pitcher of the Year in 1952 when he posted a 28-7 record with 330 innings pitched and 30 complete games. He repeated the SN Pitcher of the Year honors in 1955.

RIP Robin Roberts.

I've enjoyed writing this series and I wish I had a 100 more of these great old vintage cards to show off. Unfortunately, my friend ended up with most of the cards through trading and the fact that he was willing to go to the old man's house more than once.