New York-born Joe Ginsberg was raised in Detroit and signed with the Tigers in 1944 at the age of 17. He soon found himself in the Army and playing service ball in the Philippines. After WWII he returned to the Tigers and debuted with them with a ten-game trial late in the 1948 season.
In 1950 he made the team for good and went on to spend thirteen seasons in the majors with seven different clubs. Except for a couple of years as the lead backstop in a platoon situation for Detroit, he played mostly as a backup catcher.
Ginsberg played his last big league game as an Original Met in 1962. He started their home opener in the Polo Grounds but mostly sat on the bench after that as was released around the first of May. He had a brief whirl in the minors later that season but soon retired to work as a sales rep for the Jack Daniels distillery.
He died in 2012 at the age of 86.
It's a little amusing that one of his cartoons makes note that he started wearing glasses, yet the front of his card lacks any specs.
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