#266 Murry Dickson

#266 Murry Dickson
Progress: 1st of this card
206 of 407  50.6% complete
How acquired: sent by reader Dave
Condition: Near Mint
This is another fantastic looking card sent by blog reader "Dave."  This card looks brand new, even the printing on the back looks fresh, or at least as fresh as a 65 year old card can look.  Dickson's stats are worth a click.  He put together 18 seasons on the mound and lost two to military service.  The poor guy was a work horse on some truly abysmal Pirates teams.  Case in point, in 1952 the Pirates went 42-112 finishing 54.5 games behind the Brooklyn Dodgers.  Dickson went 14-21 with 21 complete games and a 3.51 ERA (and finished 13th in NL MVP voting).  The rest of the starting pitchers on the Pirates managed to combine for 15 wins.  The back of this card speculates that he "probably has lost more one run games than any pitcher in baseball today," and I'm not going to argue with that speculation.  This card also shows he won 20 games in '51, it doesn't show that the Pirates went 64-90 finishing 32.5 games behind the New York Giants.  Dickson for his efforts was able to lead the NL in losses three straight seasons from '52-54 (21/19/20) and had 8 straight seasons of losing at least 14 games (10 straight of at least 11).  If this guy had spent his entire career with the Yankees he'd probably be a 300 game winner and A-List Hall of Famer.  As it stands, I had never heard of him before this card arrived.

Stats: 18 seasons, All-Star, 172 wins, 181 losses, 3.66 ERA, 149 complete games, 253 hits and .231 avg. as a hitter, went 2/5 with 2 doubles, a run and RBI in '46 WS w/Cardinals (14 IP in 2 GS, 3.41 ERA)

Best Hall of Fame Showing: N/A