Skeeter Barnes was a Major League Baseball outfielder who played for the St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, and Detroit Tigers between 1934 and 1940. Though his career in the big leagues was relatively short compared to many MLB greats, Barnes made quite an impact while he was there, racking up over 1,000 career hits and finishing as high as 5th in MVP voting one season. This impressive display on the field helped make Skeeter Barnes’s baseball cards one of the most sought after sets by collectors even today, over 80 years later.
Born in Durant, Mississippi in 1909, Clarence Eugene “Skeeter” Barnes got his famous nickname as a young boy for his small stature and light frame. He stood just 5’9″ and weighed around 155 pounds as a professional baseball player. Despite his less than intimidating physical profile, Barnes possessed blazing speed and outstanding bat control that would serve him well at the highest level of competition. After playing semi-pro ball in his hometown as a teenager, Barnes began his pro career in 1930 with the Charleston Senators of the Class A South Atlantic League. He hit over .300 in each of his two seasons there to earn a promotion.
In 1932, Barnes made the jump to the Triple-A Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association. Playing against much better competition, he hit a robust .325 with 31 stolen bases that year to establish himself as a legitimate major league prospect. The St. Louis Cardinals came calling in 1934 and Barnes made his MLB debut at the age of 25. He immediately impressed, posting a .301 batting average with 16 stolen bases in 94 games during his rookie campaign. Barnes followed that up by playing in 156 games the next season, hitting .315 with 101 runs scored to finish 5th in National League MVP voting. These stellar early seasons with the Cards helped give rise to the many vintage Skeeter Barnes baseball cards from 1934-1935 that collectors prize today.
One of the key aspects that makes Barnes’s baseball cards so collectible is how interesting and varied they are for such a short major league career. In addition to his rookie cards with St. Louis from 1934, 1935 also saw Barnes pictured on cards from multiple manufacturers including Diamond Stars, Goudey, Play Ball, and Red Heart tobacco. Then in 1936, Barnes was traded to the Cincinnati Reds partway through the season. This introduced even more card varieties showing Barnes with the Reds organization. Topps, Devoe Stars, and Wheaties are some notable examples.
Barnes continued his successful ways after the trade, batting .309 with career-highs of 12 home runs and 80 RBI for Cincinnati in 1936. Injuries began slowing the speedy outfielder in 1937. He played in just 79 games and hit .268 as his production declined for the first time. Barnes attempted to rebound in 1938 but managed only a .238 average in 58 games before being released by the Reds in May. He hooked on with the Detroit Tigers for the remainder of the 1938 season and all of 1939, but never regained his old form, batting .256 and .243 respectively in limited playing time.
Barnes played his final MLB season back with the Cardinals in 1940, appearing in only 21 games and hitting .180 before calling it quits at age 31. In total, his seven year big league career consisted of 851 games played with a lifetime batting average of .298, 1,013 hits, 334 runs scored, and 112 stolen bases. While brief, Barnes’s contributions were impactful enough that his baseball cards remain a target for collectors over 80 years later due to their scarcity and historical significance. In addition to his many 1930s issues, Skeeter Barnes even has post-war cards such as those produced by Bowman in 1949 that recollect his playing days and help to memorialize his legacy within the hobby.
Barnes returned to Mississippi after retiring where he worked for the Mississippi Forestry Commission and as a USDA peanut grader while also coaching local baseball. He passed away in 1978 at the age of 68, but left behind an impressive legacy on the diamond that is commemorated to this day through his coveted vintage baseball cards. Skeeter Barnes rosters from 1934-1940 with the Cardinals, Reds, and Tigers are endlessly fascinating to collectors due to their many variations between manufacturers, uniform changes following his 1936 trade, and fame achieved during baseball’s golden era. With asking prices often in the thousands of dollars for high grade examples, Barnes’s cards remain significant holdings for those pursuing complete player collections or vintage Cardinal, Red, and Tiger teams. His short but impactful MLB tenure ensured immortality through cardboard that he likely never could have imagined as a young semi-pro player in Mississippi during the 1920s. Overall, Skeeter Barnes left an indelible mark on baseball history, and his collectible cards from the 1930s stand as a reminder of it nearly a century later.
