It was an autographed card of Bill Hayes of the Yankees, featured with a picture of Joe DiMaggio. I hadn't heard of Hayes, but that's not uncommon for some of the lesser known players of the '30s.
I had some digging to do.
From what I can tell, Hayes never made it to the Majors. The back of the card says that he spent 14 years in pro ball, but I assume they were all in the Minors. I can't find any of his stats, however. Perhaps I am not very good at Google.
The most info I can find comes from his obituary (credit: Amarillo Globe News):
Bill spent 16 years in professional baseball, starting in the spring of 1937, including two years in spring training with the New York Yankees. During his baseball career, he also served the Chicago White Sox, Boston Braves and Detroit Tigers. After the 1951 season, he appeared on the cover of the Sporting News magazine as the Minor League Executive of the Year. In 1954, he moved to Texas and became well known as a pioneer in developing a two-party state. He won the first contested Republican primary for lieutenant governor of Texas and delivered more than 1,300 speeches. In 1964, he was nominated unopposed as U.S. congressman-at-large and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention pledged to Sen. Barry Goldwater in his bid for the presidency. He flew with Sen. Goldwater to many cities, including Amarillo, where he spoke preceding Sen. Goldwater's address.Interesting. It looks like he was obviously a very bright and well-rounded guy to play pro ball for so long, serve as a successful minor league executive, and then have a very accomplished career in politics.
As for Big League Cards in Teaneck, NJ, here is a Google image of the office since the address was listed on the card.
So many questions still unanswered, but this is certainly one of the more unique cards I've ever received from another blogger.
Coincidentally, Nick sent me one of these cards a few weeks ago - interesting little oddballs, aren't they?
ReplyDeletehttp://wrigleyrosterjenga.blogspot.com/2017/11/yo-who-dat.html
Sweet custom oddball.
ReplyDeleteVery intriguing. From the same newspaper, "Hayes is a man who owns a photo of himself standing arm-and-arm with Joe DiMaggio. The Yankee Clipper and Hayes dressed in Yankees uniforms at Boston's famed Fenway Park.
ReplyDeleteThis is the man who still receives phone calls from Joe's brother, former big leaguer Dominic DiMaggio.
So what's up with the baseballs?
"When I'm driving around neighborhoods, if I see a pickup baseball game, I like to stop and give those kids a baseball card and a baseball," Hayes said. "I bet I haven't given five away this spring and summer. Kids don't go out and just play baseball, anymore. Things have changed."
There's a picture here of Bill at 89.
http://amarillo.com/stories/071507/mlb_7997379.shtml#.WhXceVXtx1s
Interesting! Thanks for looking that up. He was like a real life Moonlight Graham.
DeleteI found it at the bottom of a random garage sale box of commmons here in Michigan.
ReplyDeleteI actually have this card in a case since I was maybe 5 hrs old. I was at a kolidea scoops In Amarillo (ice cream shop) he asked my name, asked if I liked baseball, signed the card and gave it to me. It’s in mint condition, do you happen to know the ballpark value?(pun intended)
ReplyDeleteProbably $1. The value of your memory/the story is worth far more than the actual card.
DeleteThis card is from my father, Bill Hayes. (Not Billy Mays Hayes.)
ReplyDeleteHe was with the Yankees in 1937 and 1938. He went through spring training with them in St. Petersburg, FL. He told some great stories of the train rides to and from training. He was friends with Lou, Joe and Joe's brother, Dom. I think I still have a Christmas card from Dom. My older brother was named after Kemp Wicker (sp) as they were also friends. He remained pretty tight with a bunch of the guys and while it's now faded and worn to the point where you cannot see many of the names any more, I have a baseball that was originally signed by the 1938 Yankee team.
Side note, Dad was a first baseman, so was Lou Gehrig. As Lou was one of the finest to ever play the game, dad never got called up to play. He went on to spend the next 14 years with the Milwaukee Brewers, the Braves organization and a couple of other teams I just can't remember. He did some umpiring and was voted in as a Sporting News something of the year. Like I said, it's been a long time. I believe a friend of his made up the cards and he would hand them out to kids who liked baseball. He knew they weren't worth much, but it made the old man happy.
Additional side note: Dad became a huge Texas Rangers fan and was friends with Tom Grier (announcer) and his wife. They came to town a couple of times and were genuinely the nicest people. We all had lunch one day and it was delightful.
The old school ballplayers are slowly going the way of the dinosaur and I don't know that dad would recognize the game today. He died in 2009 and is sorely missed.
Correction: Tom Grieve with the Rangers Organization.
DeleteThanks for the reply and background. Hopefully that is indeed how the cards came to be. It's a cool keepsake that I still keep in my collection.
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