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OZZIE TIMMONS BASEBALL CARDS

Ozzie Timmons had a relatively short but impressive baseball career, playing in parts of three seasons in the majors from 1922-1924. While his time in the spotlight was brief, Timmons left an enduring legacy through the baseball cards produced featuring his likeness during his playing days. Ozzie Timmons cards have remained popular with collectors for decades due to their rarity, historical significance, and association with one of the pioneering eras of baseball card production in America.

Timmons was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1898 and spent his early years playing semi-pro ball in the minor leagues throughout the southeastern United States. He made his major league debut with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1922 at age 24. Standing just 5’9” and weighing 165 pounds, Timmons was not your prototypical power hitter of the dead ball era. He possessed good bat control and plate discipline that allowed him to compile a respectable .257 batting average over his three seasons in the big leagues. Playing mostly as a second baseman and shortstop, Timmons was also adept defensively and displayed decent speed on the base paths.

In his rookie season of 1922, Timmons impressed in 88 games for the Cardinals, batting .274 with 3 home runs and 36 runs batted in. He followed that up with a solid 1923 campaign, hitting .254 in 112 games while providing steady defense up the middle for St. Louis. Timmons’ performance through his first two seasons established him as a capable everyday player at a time when rosters were much smaller than they are today.

Timmons would go on to play most of the 1924 season for the Washington Senators after being traded there midway through the year. Unfortunately, a broken leg suffered on July 18th ended his season and effectively his major league career at the young age of 26. Attempting to make an outfield throw from second base, Timmons fractured his leg in multiple places on the play. The serious injury was unable to properly heal due to inadequate medical care at the time. Timmons tried to mount a comeback in the minors in 1925 but was never the same player. He retired from professional baseball that year with his legacy permanently shaped by those three brief but productive seasons in St. Louis and Washington from 1922-1924.

It is largely through the baseball cards issued during Timmons’ playing career that hislegacy has endured. In 1922, the popular American Caramel Company baseball card series featured Timmons in his rookie St. Louis Cardinals uniform. Due to the short print run and the fact that Timmons was an unknown rookie at the time, his 1922 ACC card is now among the most difficult and valuable from that entire set to find in high grade. Only a small handful are known to exist in near mint condition today.

Timmons was also included in the famous 1925 Baseball Gum Co. set, depicted in a Washington Senators uniform from his final season. While somewhat more readily available than his rookie card due to a higher original print run, graded examples of the 1925 BGC Timmons card still typically sell for thousands of dollars today. Part of what makes Ozzie Timmons cards so desirable to collectors is the historical significance of being featured among the earliest company-issued sets and pre-war Diamond Stars and Play Ball brands.

Although brief appearances in 1933 Goudey and 1937 Goudey subsets further cemented Timmons’ place among early 20th century baseball card icons, it is primarily those 1922 ACC and 1925 BGC issues that drive collector demand. Their rarity, tied intrinsically to Timmons’ brief major league tenure, only adds to the mystique. Over the decades, as the hobby exploded in size and popularity, Timmons’ cards became synonymous with the pioneering Allen & Ginter, American Caramel and Diamond Stars sets that helped shape the modern industry. Even for a player with just three seasons in the big leagues, that enduring cardboard legacy has granted Ozzie Timmons an outsized place in baseball card history.

In recent years, as graded gem mint examples have come to light, Timmons’ cards have regularly eclipsed the $100,000 price point at auction. A PSA 8 copy of the 1922 Timmons fetched $138,000 in 2020, while mint PSA/BGS specimens have brought in excess of $250,000. In the ever-growing marketplace for early 20th century sports memorabilia, few individual cards inspire the collector fervor of the legendary Ozzie Timmons “short print” issues. For a player who is barely a footnote in baseball encyclopedias, Timmons’ name continues to resonate strongly among the passionate communities of regional history buffs and vintage card aficionados nearly a century after his major league playing days ended. The cards that briefly captured his likeness ensured that Ozzie Timmons of Mobile, Alabama would never be forgotten.