#66 Lee Walls

Lee Walls played for ten seasons in the majors after being signed by the Pirates in 1951. He had some big seasons in their chain but failed to produce much with the big club and was dealt to the Cubs in 1957.

The year this card was produced was easily his best in the majors as he made the NL All-Star team and had career highs in homers, RBIs and batting average. He finished in the Top Ten of several offensive categories, including WAR.

He later toured much of the rest of the NL, playing for the Reds, Phils, and Dodgers, mostly as a fourth outfielder and pinch-hitter. He was on the Dodgers 1963 Series team but didn't get into a Series game.

He returned to baseball 15 seasons after his playing days as a coach and minor league manager. He died at 60 in 1993.

My copy is obviously off-center and sort of scuffed but, man, check out that cartoon!

#33 Cal Neeman

Cal Neeman signed with the Yankees in 1949 and started a long climb thru their system with a two-year military stint along the way. He reached the AAA level but wasn't going to push Yogi Berra or any of the other Yankee catchers aside and was taken by the Cubs in December 1956 in the old Rule 5 Draft.

 He made the Cubs roster without much fanfare in 1957 but won the starting job and had a solid rookie year. He was named to The Sporting News' rookie squad after hitting .258 with 10 homers in 122 games. He had a nice season behind the plate as well as he led the NL in several defensive categories. The card even notes that he caught more games than any other NL catcher in that 1957 season.

For a variety of reasons he never approached that amount of playing time again. He played for four different clubs after his three-plus years in Chicago, always serving as a back-up.

After baseball Neeman returned to college and became a teacher and coach. He was later a school supply sales rep. He passed away in 2015 at the age of 86.

#41 Dave Hillman

Dave Hillman (given name: Darius Dutton Hillman) worked his way up the Cubs' ladder from 1950 until he broke into the majors in 1955. As the cardback notes he suffered a sore arm but rebounded in 1956 and the next season he had a spot starters job in Wrigley.

In 1958 Hillman went 4-8 with 16 starts among his 32 appearances.

After a career high eight wins in 1959 he was traded to Boston where he worked out of the pen for a couple of years with mixed results. In 1962 he was bounced back and forth between the Red Sox and Reds before being dealt to the expansion Mets where he finished out the year (and his career).

Two things I really like about this card...1) the full team name the Cubs wore in that era and 2) the fun 'Hollywood' cartoon on the back.

One thing I don't like...it's miscut bigly. Sad!

#135 Mike Drabowsky

Despite what the card tells us this isn't "Mike" Drabowsky...this is Moe Drabowsky. How Topps made this mistake is a mystery. Moe was born Miroslav Drabowski in Ozanna, Poland and immigrated here to the U.S. with his family as they escaped the spreading Nazi influence in Europe. He was given the Anglicized name of Myron Walter Drabowski. His last name was misspelled as 'Drabowsky' in school but he never bothered to correct it.

Moe, one of baseball's best practical jokers, pitched for eight franchises over a 17 season span from 1956 through 1972. He never made and All Star team or received any big award votes but he did have some sterling moments. He won two World Series championships with the Orioles.

In 1958 Drabowsky began the season in the bullpen. But in May he was inserted into the rotation and  made twenty starts for the Cubs. He went 9-11 for a team that was 10 games under .500 and finished fifth.

Yellow cards abound in this set and this is yet another one. I scan four cards at a time and I've tried to do two yellows and two other colors when I can. This is the first of a couple dozen '58s I am scanning that I picked up from COMC. They are in general the best conditioned cards that I have for this set build so far. Not perfect, and some are off center or have some marks on the reverse, but they have really good corners and crease-free un-scuffed fronts.

WikiFact: In the opening game of the 1966 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Drabowsky entered the game in the third inning with one out and the bases loaded. After striking out the first batter, he walked Jim Gilliam to force in Lou Johnson for a run to cut Baltimore's lead to 4–2. That would be the last run the Dodgers scored in the entire series, however, as the Orioles would sweep the Dodgers 4–0, their next three wins coming on shutouts from Jim Palmer, Wally Bunker and the starter Drabowsky had relieved in Game 1, Dave McNally. He set a still-standing one-game World Series record for relievers by striking out 11 batters, including tying Hod Eller's 47-year record of six consecutive strikeouts in the 1919 World Series.