In celebration of the 65th anniversary of Topps baseball cards, my collection is going to be the subject of this year-long series.
Shortly after starting my obsession in 1971, the goal was to have at least one Topps card from every year.
Although the 1952 set is considered to be the first released by Topps, the company issued two series that was a part of the game a year earlier as well as some other cards.
As it does every year, Major League Baseball will soon celebrate Jackie Robinson‘s arrival to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.
However as much as Robinson deserves the accolades, there were many others who should be remembered for following in his footsteps as they integrated the remaining teams in the big leagues.
The 1955 cards in this series honor two of those players, Curt Roberts of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chuck Harmon of the Cincinnati Reds.
Roberts began his career with the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues from 1947-1950.
The second baseman was signed by the Boston Braves in 1951 and eventually ended up in the minors with Pittsburgh before making his major league debut with the Pirates on April 13, 1954. He spent the entire season in the majors playing in 134 games, while batting .232 and hitting his only career home run.
In his first big league at bat, Roberts hit a triple off future National Baseball Hall of Fame member Robin Roberts as the Pirates went on to defeat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2.
Playing only six games in 1955 with the Pirates, he was shipped back to the minors with a .118 batting average. He made it back to the big leagues the following season for 31 games, but it would be his last year in the majors. He was traded during that summer to the Kansas City Athletics.
From that point, he would play professionally in the minors until 1963 with the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox organizations.
In 1969, Roberts died when he was hit on the highway by a drunk driver, while changing a flat tire.
Only Three Years in Majors
Harmon’s big league career didn’t last much longer than that of Roberts.
Making his debut with the Reds just four days after Roberts in 1954, Harmon shares the distinction of integrating the club with Nino Escalera, as both were used as pinch-hitters against the Milwaukee Braves on April 17.
Harmon played in 94 games as a rookie in 1954. The next season, he was in 96 with the Reds and hit five homers with 28 RBI.
After 13 games in 1956, he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. A year later he was shipped to the Phillies where he ended his major league career in 1957. He would play in the minors until retiring in 1961.
An accomplished basketball player as well, Harmon tried out for the Boston Celtics, but didn’t make the team before moving on to baseball.
He was inducted into the Hall of the Fame at the University of Toledo in 1977. He played three years of basketball and baseball for the Rockets during the 1940s.
As a high school basketball player in Indiana, Harmon was a member of the state championship teams from Washington in 1941 and 1942. He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1989. In 1995, he became a member of the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame.
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