#289 Tommy Holmes
Progress: 1st of this card
298 of 407 73.2% complete
How acquired: $12.00 on eBay
Condition: Very Good
I've come to accept that my baseball knowledge prior to around 1960 isn't what I thought it was. Case in point, Tommy Holmes. I'd never heard of him. And the fact that this card rarely showed up on eBay, and when it did, usually carried a price tag north of $50, really drove me nuts. Turns out I'm just not that smart. Otherwise, I'd have known of the lifetime .300 hitter Tommy Holmes, and this being a popular card wouldn't have been such a source of frustration to me.
In 1945 Tommy Holmes nearly won the Triple Crown. He led the league with 28 home runs, finished 2nd in batting average hitting .352 (a mere .003 behind the leader) and 2nd in RBI's with 117. For good measure he also led the league in hits (227), doubles (47), Slugging (.577) and OPS (.997), and set a then record with a 37 game hitting streak. I guess the writers valued "winning" more then, because Holmes somehow finished 2nd in MVP voting to a guy who had 47 fewer hits, and only hit 6 home runs (I'm sure Phil Cavarretta had a fine season, but come on). For about seven years, Holmes was an absolute monster, then his career sort of flamed out. In any event, it's a name I'm glad I've come know as a result of this endeavor.
Stats: 11 seasons, All-Star, 1,507 hits, 292 doubles, .302 avg.
Best Hall of Showing: 0.8 % in 1958
Wow! I think this might be the one and only time someone's position is listed as "ex-manager". I've never seen this before!
ReplyDeleteI'm in my late 40s and I only know of Tommy Holmes because I remember Pete Rose passing his hitting streak in 1978 to set the new modern NL record. Pete of course later tied Wee WIllie Keeler's all-time NL record at 44.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog, by the way--I just discovered it. I am also working my way through collecting a 1952 Topps set (at least 1-310 for now). I am about 200 cards in so I am enjoying your posts. And I was probably bidding against you on some of these....