1951 Topps Red Back #42 - Ray Scarborough

Ray Scarborough (b. 1917 - d. 1982) played in the majors from 1942 to 1943 and 1946 to 1953 for the Senators, White Sox, Red Sox, Yankees and Tigers.  He was 80-85 in his career with a 4.13 ERA and 564 strikeouts.  He was an All Star in 1950.  He won the World Series in 1952 with the Yankees.  Scarborough retired to Mount Olive, NC after his playing career ended and became friends with someone whom I later befriended as well.  So, there's a bit of a 'Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon' between Scarborough and I.  I always though this was pretty cool.

Deceased: 34

A Couple Pickups From The Card Show

I didn't buy a single card for myself at the card show.  I purchased a few cards for a friend of mine that I thought he would enjoy, however.  I figured I would post them because they aren't ones that would normally end up on this blog.

The first is a 1950 Royal Pudding cutout of Ray Scarborough.  I learned of Ray Scarborough through my friend not too long ago.  He was a pitcher for the Senators, Red Sox, Yankees and Tigers from 1942, 43 and 1946 to 1953.  He had a career record of 80-85 with an ERA of 4.13 and 564 strikeouts.

After his playing career was over, he retired to Mount Olive, NC (which is about an hour or so from where I now live) and opened an oil and supply company.  He also helped to establish the baseball program at Mount Olive College.

My friend knew Mr. Scarborough personally, so anytime I can find something of his, I try to pick it up.

Additionally, I just thought this card looked really cool, so, I think it will be a nice little something to send his way.

I'm also helping my friend work on the 1963 Fleer set and I was able to pick up the short printed Joe Adcock that he needed for his set.

The card is pretty sharp, even though I scanned it crooked.

I had never heard of Adcock, so a little checking on baseball-reference.com showed that he played in the majors from 1950 to 1966 for the Reds, Braves, Indians and Angels.  He was a pretty good power hitter, hitting 336 homers in his career with 1,832 hits and a .277 batting average.

Sometimes it is far more fun to find stuff for others than it is for yourself, and this trip to the card show definitely showed that.  I also got to see some cards that I probably wouldn't have looked twice at otherwise.

Card Show Pickup - 1951 Bowman Ray Scarborough

Something else that I picked up at this past weekend's show was this 1951 Bowman Ray Scarborough. His significance is that he was from a small town nearby, Mount Olive, NC. Yes, the pickles come from there (they're great by the way).

I first heard about Ray Scarborough from a client/friend of mine who had actually met him in person and then spent time talking with his wife after he had passed away. I thought it was a cool story, nonetheless and when i saw the card, I thought I should grab it. Yes, I also grabbed one for my friend.

Virgil Trucks Follow-up

I got a letter today from Virgil Trucks concerning the interview I did last month...
Last week, I sent Mr. Trucks a nice copy of the interview that I posted. I had my friend Babe-O-Licious print it off on some nice resume paper so it would look great. I also included a note with it thanking Mr. Trucks again for taking the time to answer my questions and added a couple follow-up questions. He answered one of them: did he receive a ring for the 1958 Yankees even though he was left off of the playoff roster. He did. My son also wanted to know what Mr. Trucks favorite color was (blue). Mr. Trucks sent Chris an autographed card like the one above. I asked one final question that had been posed by a friend of mine (did he know North Carolina MLB player Ray Scarborough) but Mr. Trucks did not answer that one, unfortunately.
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He said in the letter that he wrote that he appreciated me sending him a copy of the interview to keep. He also said that I did a good job on it (which was really nice to hear). He also said that all of you came up with some really good questions, so I want to make sure I thank each of you again for helping me out with that! I hope that through all of this, I was able to help some people learn about an under appreciated player from long ago in MLB history and maybe even help Mr. Trucks sell a few books.