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RUSS SNYDER BASEBALL CARDS

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Russ Snyder had a relatively short but productive major league baseball career that spanned from 1955 to 1966. His legacy has lived on for decades thanks to the baseball cards that were printed featuring his image during his playing days. Russ Snyder cards have become quite collectible and valuable items for vintage baseball card enthusiasts.

Snyder broke into the majors with the Baltimore Orioles in 1955 at the age of 23. He quickly established himself as a reliable utility player who could play various positions all over the diamond, most prominently third base, shortstop, and second base. Snyder impressed right away by hitting .301 with 13 home runs and 67 RBIs in his rookie season of 1955 for the O’s. His strong rookie campaign marked the start of what would be a decade’s worth of Russ Snyder baseball cards.

Several notable card sets from the mid-1950s feature Snyder’s rookie season, including 1955 Topps, Bowman, and Play Ball. Of those, the 1955 Topps card is generally the most sought after by collectors. Topps was the premiere baseball card producer at the time and their cards from the 1950s era are some of the Holy Grails for vintage collectors. Snake-bitten PSA Gem Mint 10 graded samples of Snyder’s 1955 Topps rookie card can fetch thousands of dollars at auction. Even well-centered, sharply cornered copies in raw near-mint to mint condition demand premium prices.

After his breakout rookie year, Snyder continued to be a regular on Baltimore’s lineup card throughout the late 1950s. As a result, he appears in many of the vintage card sets from 1956-1958 including Topps, Bowman, Post, etc. His 1956 Topps card is another popular version among collectors, as is the 1957 issue that depicts him batting left-handed. Condition is critical, as with any vintage card, but high grade Russ Snyder cards from the mid-1950s can still sell for hundreds or low four figures depending on set, year, and centering/corners.

Snyder enjoyed his career-best statistical season in 1958 when he belted a personal-high 21 home runs and drove in 76 runs while hitting .276 for the Orioles. Not surprisingly, his 1958 Topps card tends to be one of the more expensive of his 1950s issues. That season truly encapsulated Snyder at his best – a versatile infielder/outfielder who could hit for some power too. His defensive versatility allowed him to find regular at-bats despite Baltimore having future Hall of Famers like Brooks Robinson and Luis Aparicio on the roster as well.

After six seasons in Baltimore, Snyder was traded to the Kansas City A’s during the 1960 season. He finished out that year and played two full seasons in Kansas City, appearing in their cards from 1960 through 1962 issued by Topps. Snyder turned in two solid offensive campaigns for the A’s, batting .278 with 13 home runs and 68 RBIs in 1960 and hitting .266 with 13 homers and 56 RBIs in 1961. His stats and the A’s cards from this period don’t command the same premium as his earlier Orioles issues, but high grade examples can still sell for hundreds in today’s market.

Following the 1962 season, Snyder was dealt again, this time to the expansion New York Mets. He spent one year playing for the 1962 iteration of the hapless Mets team that lost 120 games. As a result, Snyder’s lone card as a Met from the 1963 Topps set is quite collectible for fans of 1960s baseball memorabilia. The 1963 Mets had some other future fan favorites like Cleon Jones and Ron Hunt also featured. Well-centered copies of Snyder’s 1963 Topps Mets card in high grades can fetch well over $100 due to its historical significance involving one of the worst teams in baseball history.

After his sole season in New York, Snyder’s major league playing career wound down. He spent 1964 and 1965 bouncing between the Chicago White Sox and Washington Senators organizations. He did not receive any new baseball cards during this time as he was more of a journeyman reserve by that point rather than an everyday starter. Snyder hung up his spikes for good after the 1966 season at the age of 33.

In summary, Russ Snyder played parts of 12 seasons in the majors from 1955-1966. Along the way, he established himself as a versatile and productive player, especially early on in his career with Baltimore. The vintage baseball cards produced of Snyder during his tenure with the Orioles, A’s, and Mets remain popular with collectors today. Keys cards include his 1955 and 1956 Topps rookie issues as well as his 1958 Topps card showing him at his statistical peak. Higher end examples demand substantial prices, with PSA/BGS Gem Mint 10 sample cards bringing thousands. Even well-centered raw copies still sell strongly. Snyder may not be a household name, but his baseball cards ensure collectors and fans can enjoy remembering his accomplishments decades later.

RUSS KEMMERER BASEBALL CARDS

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Russ Kemmerer was a pitcher who played in Major League Baseball from 1925 to 1933. While he didn’t have great stats or reach high levels of fame during his career, Kemmerer’s baseball cards have become quite collectible and valuable in the decades since he retired from the game. Let’s take a deeper look at Russ Kemmerer’s playing career, the baseball cards that were produced featuring him, and why they have gained so much interest from collectors in modern times.

Kemmerer was born in 1903 in California. He made his MLB debut with the Philadelphia Phillies at age 22 in 1925. In his rookie season, he appeared in 27 games and compiled a 4-7 record with a 3.59 ERA. Kemmerer showed promise but struggled with injuries and consistency over his first few seasons. He bounced between the Phillies and minor leagues for a few years before eventually sticking in the majors full time with Philadelphia from 1928-1930. His best season statistically was 1928 when he went 10-15 with a 3.80 ERA over 36 games pitched, 30 as a starter.

After the 1930 season, Kemmerer was traded to the Boston Braves. He spent 1931-1932 with Boston before moving to the Brooklyn Robins/Dodgers for his final season in 1933. In 9 MLB seasons total, Kemmerer had a career record of 54-86 with 551 strikeouts and a 4.22 ERA in 278 games pitched, including 144 starts. His career win-loss percentage of .385 and ERA+ of 95 were fairly average for a pitcher in the 1920s-30s era. Kemmerer didn’t have any particularly outstanding individual seasons or achieve major accolades, but he provided steady starting pitching for multiple teams over nearly a decade in the big leagues before retiring at age 30.

During his playing career, Russ Kemmerer was featured on various baseball cards from prominent manufacturers of the 1920s such as Sporting News, American Caramel, and Play Ball. The most significant Kemmerer cards that collectors seek today were produced after he retired. In the 1930s, two new companies emerged – Goudey Gum Company and the National Chicle Company – that began mass producing baseball cards as premiums inside gum and other products. This greatly expanded production versus the single-player or team sets from earlier in the decade.

Kemmerer received cardboard in both the 1933 Goudey set as well as the 1936-37 National Chicle issues. The Goudey card is notable because it was the brand’s first-ever complete baseball set and helped kick off the golden age of modern cardboard collecting in the 1930s-50s. Kemmerer’s card has the #11 designation. For added visual interest, it shows him in a batting pose instead of pitching. As with his playing career, nothing about the KemmererGoudey card stands out – it has no special backs, parallels, autograph variations, etc. Yet it remains highly collectible due to being one of the key early post-retirement issues.

Likewise, the Kemmerer entry in the 1936-37 National Chicle set is unremarkable on its face. It captures him in a generic Phillies uniform pitching pose and has basic front/back graphics identical to other players of the time. These sets are also considered landmarks as they helped popularize modern cardboard collecting and were widely distributed sitting alongside early comic books on spinner racks in America. Scarcity also adds appeal as decades of kids ripping, chewing, and discarding the cards led to the collapse of the supply. Various states of the Kemmerer cards from both the Goudey and National Chicle issues have become highly collectible.

Even though Russ Kemmerer was hardly a star on the diamond and his playing achievements didn’t merit special cards, the timing and circumstances of these early 1930s issues have bestowed significant nostalgia value and rarity status onto cardboard bearing his likeness. Serious vintage collectors drool over finding pristine “gems” of either the Kemmerer-Goudey or National Chicle versions in their quest to assemble complete pre-war sets. While he may not have stood out on the field, Kemmerer has since become synonymous with the early roots of the tremendous baseball card collecting hobby that emerged post-career. Graded high-end specimens have reached four-figure price tags in recent modern auctions.

What made Russ Kemmerer’s playing career average became extraordinary when placed in the context of the cards crafted after his days were done. His cardboard’s placement in pioneering 1930s issues by Goudey and National Chicle that mass-popularized the collector’s pastime endowed pieces with his likeness a mystique and desirability more than his stats alone ever could have. Today the cards live on as prized relics from when the industry was born, part of baseball history as prized by vintage hunters as records Kemmerer set on the hill. Even an otherwise ordinary player can achieve greatness through the cardboard that commemorates him when they break new ground for the collecting community.