Monster Card Monday: 1935 Joe Medwick

Pastor Rich Zawadzki can never pass up a chance to send on a good Monster card.  Like this 1935 Joe “Ducky” Medwick card from the set published a couple years ago.

It was Medwick’s fourth year in baseball and he had already established his presence with the St. Louis Cardinals.  He had hit over .300 every season and in the Cardinals’ magical season of 1934, he led the league with 18 triples and drove in 106 runs. 

In 1935, Medwick’s numbers all went up.  Playing every day, he collected 224 hits and hit .353 with 23 homeruns.  More importantly, his 46 doubles and 13 triples helped him drive in 126 runs and score 132. 

Interestingly enough, he didn’t lead the NL in any major category except one… total bases with 365.  He would then lead the NL in TB for three straight years.  Medwick’s 4 year performance between 1935-1938 is probably one of the more under-rated performances by an National League hitter during a span of a few years. 

Medwick’s 1935 card is a great one, to be sure.  Four power numbers, 1-3-6-6 followed by three juicy 7s and four 8s.  Ducky wasn’t much of a walker so he received two 14s but he didn’t strike out much either so just two 13s.

Here’s the thing… could Ducky have gotten a better card?  Was he cheated out of an even more powerful card? 

I plugged his numbers into Steve Stein’s APBA Card Computer.  Even after I factor in sac hits and HBP, his extra base hits per 36 plate appearances come out to around 4.40.  So technically, if you round down, he should have four power numbers.   However, I could make the argument that Medwick deserves the double column treatment.  If you gave him 1-0-0-0-0 (and most likely a fair amount of singles in the second column, his extra base hits would closely match his actual total. 

Regardless, it’s a fantastic card.  Almost as good as his 1937 card featured here a while back.

Fun numbers:  15-7, 64-9, 35-8

thanks, Pastor Rich!