This is the card that inspired it all. Before 1930 George Puccinelli, before 1953 Ted Williams, I posted an article about my buddy Brando’s replay which included this 1930 Babe Herman card. I received an email a few days later from Aaron Wilson who suggested that I do a “longer post about the best hitter cards you’ve ever seen.” I replied to Aaron saying it was a fine idea and maybe I’d just make it a permanent thing. That’s when Monster Card Monday was born. So Aaron, thanks for the great idea!
Babe Herman was a fine hitting right fielder for the Dodgers, Cubs and Reds in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1930 for Brooklyn, he really raked and hit career highs in average (.393), run scored (143) doubles (48) and homers (35). As a career move, it probably wasn’t the best year to choose to hit in the .390s with Bill Terry hitting .401 but it still established Herman as a slick hitting outfielder.
| Split | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1930 Totals | 153 | 699 | 614 | 143 | 241 | 48 | 11 | 35 | 130 | 18 | 66 | 56 | .393 | .455 | .678 |
Babe Herman’s 1930 card is pretty fun especially if you like nice results like 11-3 or 26-14 or 51-7 (who doesn’t?). He’s got plenty of power with numbers (1-3-5-6) plus the aforementioned 51-7. He does have the two 10 combination. Some APBA baseball fans don’t like that. If you’re playing Herman within his 1930 season, it won’t affect him too much since B (or better) pitchers are pretty scarce.
With all the hit numbers and power numbers, you would think that Herman might give up something in terms of on-base. Nope, he gets four 14s. If you’re looking for Babe Herman’s Achilles heel, it’s probably his fielding. He’s rated an OF-1.
Fun numbers: 44-6, 51-7, 26-14
Babe Herman had a very solid career for 13 years and hit .324 with a .532 slugging percentage. The interesting thing is that throughout his whole career, he only led his league in one category in one year. He led the NL in triples in 1932 with 19. That probably says more about the stiff competition among his peers than anything.
And don’t forget that Babe Herman was the double for Gary Cooper in the beloved movie, “Pride of the Yankees”. Herman appears in the movie in most of the long distance action shots.
Apparently Gary Cooper was far from being athletic.
Hi Bill,
That’s right, I had forgotten that!