#54 Leo Kiely

#54 Leo Kiely
Progress: 1st of this card
211 of 407  51.8% complete
How acquired: Sent by CommishBob  (thank you)
Condition: Excellent
This Kiely is a card I could have sworn I had.  It's one I've probably bid on a dozen times only to come up short.  Typically, I like to find a seller with a good number of cards up for auction at the right price and combined shipping, and I'll bid on 10-15 of them knowing I'll come up short on most.  I've noticed I typically come up short on the same cards over and over again.  Not necessarily on semi-stars either, typically the cards that routinely out price the other commons are just aesthetically attractive ones.  I'd put this Kiely in that category.

I'm a Yankees fan.  As a kid, Yankee Stadium was where I saw games, and even though I identified as an Expos fan then, the Yankees were my AL team of choice.  When Montreal lost the Expos, the Yankees became my team by default (it didn't hurt that at the time, I could take a train the the old Stadium from my college and enjoy the now non-existent $8 bleacher seats).  My point being, I'm not a fan of the Red Sox.  But even as a Yankee fan, I can acknowledge that the uniform shown on this card is an all-time classic, and give credit to the Red Sox for not messing with a good thing.

In addition to it being a cool looking card, there may be a bit of a novelty factor that keeps the price point on this Kiely slightly higher than the other commons in the series.  Kiely was the first Major Leaguer to play pro-ball in Japan.  He did so during his military service in the middle of his career in 1953.

Stats: 7 seasons, 26 wins, 27 losses, 3.37 ERA, 1 home run as a hitter

Best Hall of Fame Showing: N/A