1939 Play Ball Card Set Guide

Set Description

In 1939, "Gum Inc." released the companies 1st set of baseball cards, known as Play Ball. The cards were printed in black and white but used high quality photographs depicting 161 different players. The fronts show the large photograph with a thin white border around them. The backs contain the full legal name of the player (ex: Joseph Paul DiMaggio), card number, player biography, and a Play Ball advertisement at the bottom. Many cards have variations of the players name being in all upper case letters vs. upper and lower case letters. The key cards in the set are the Ted Williams rookie (#92) and an early Joe DiMaggio (#26). This set is considered by many collectors to be somewhat bland, as the lack of colors hurts the popularity. An interesting side note is some cards have red stamp on the reverse reading "SAMPLE", which were part of promotions at the time. The "sample" cards are quite rare and fetch a premium.

Set Information

Manufacturer: Play Ball

Year: 1939

Cards in Set: 161

Card Size: 2-1/2" x 3-1/8"

Series

Series 1: 1-115

Series 2: 116-162

Notes

Card #126 was never issued

Errors and Variations

The majority of cards from #2-115 were printed with the player's name in all capital letters and both lower and upper case letters. Neither command a premium

Key Rookie Cards

Ted Williams (#92)

Key Cards/Hall of Famers

Joe DiMaggio (#26)
Charlie Gehringer (#50)
Mel Ott (#51)
Hank Greenberg (#56)
Moe Berg (#103)

Subsets

None

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1939 Play Ball Baseball Checklist

1 Jake Powell RC
2 Lee Grissom RC
3 Red Ruffing
4 Elden Auker RC
5 Luke Sewell
6 Leo Durocher
7 Bobby Doerr RC
8 Cotton Pippen
9 James Tobin RC
10 Jimmie DeShong
11 Johnny Rizzo RC
12 Hersh Martin RC
13 Luke Hamlin RC
14 Jim Tabor RC
15 Paul Derringer
16 John Peacock RC
17 Emerson Dickman RC
18 Harry Danning RC
19 Paul Dean RC
20 Joe Heving RC
21 Dutch Leonard RC
22 Bucky Walters RC
23 Burgess Whitehead RC
24 Richard Coffman
25 George Selkirk RC
26 Joe DiMaggio RC
27 Fritz Ostermueller
28 Syl Johnson RC
29 John Wilson RC
30 Bill Dickey
31 Sam West
32 Bob Seeds RC
33 Del Young RC
34 Frank Demaree
35 Billy Jurges
36 Frank McCormick RC
37 Virgil Davis
38 Bill Myers RC
39 Rick Ferrell
40 Jim Bagby RC
41 Lon Warneke
42 Art Jorgens
43 Mel Almada RC
44 Don Heffner RC
45 Merrill May RC
46 Morrie Arnovich RC
47 Buddy Lewis RC
48 Vernon Gomez
49 Eddie Miller RC
50 Charlie Gehringer
51 Mel Ott
52 Tommy Henrich RC
53 Carl Hubbell
54 Harry Gumbert RC
55 Arky Vaughan
56 Hank Greenberg
57 John Hassett RC
58 Lou Chiozza RC
59 Kendall Chase RC
60 Schoolboy Rowe RC
61 Tony Cuccinello
62 Thomas Carey RC
63 Heinie Mueller RC
64 Wally Moses RC
65 Harry Craft RC
66 Jimmy Ripple RC
67 Eddie Joost RC
68 Fred Singleton RC
69 Elbie Fletcher RC
70 Fred Frankhouse
71 Monte Pearson RC
72 Debs Garms RC
73 Hal Schumacher
74 Cookie Lavagetto RC
75 Stanley Bordagaray RC
76 Goodwin Rosen RC
77 Lew Riggs RC
78 Moose Solters
79 Jo-Jo Moore
80 Irwin Fox
81 Babe Dahlgren RC

82 Chuck Klein
83 Gus Suhr
84 Lamar Newsome RC
85 Johnny Cooney RC
86 Dolph Camilli
87 Milburn Shoffner RC
88 Charlie Keller RC
89 Lloyd Waner
90 Bob Klinger RC
91 John Knott RC
92 Ted Williams RC
93 Charlie Gelbert RC
94 Heinie Manush
95 Whit Wyatt RC
96 Babe Phelps RC
97 Robert Johnson
98 Pinky Whitney RC
99 Wally Berger
100 Buddy Myer
101 Doc Cramer
102 Pep Young RC
103 Morris Berg
104 Tommy Bridges
105 Eric McNair RC
106 Albert Stark
107 Joe Vosmik
108 Frankie Hayes
109 Myril Hoag
110 Freddie Fitzsimmons
111 Van Mungo RC
112 Paul Waner
113 Al Schacht
114 Cecil Travis RC
115 Red Kress
116 Gene Desautels RC
117 Wayne Ambler RC
118 Lynn Nelson
119 Willard Hershberger RC
120 Rabbit Warstler RC
121 Bill Posedel RC
122 George McQuinn RC
123 Ray Davis RC
124 Walter Brown
125 Cliff Melton RC
127 Gilbert Brack RC
128 Joe Bowman RC
129 Bill Swift
130 Wilbur Brubaker RC
131 Mort Cooper RC
132 Jimmy Brown RC
133 Lynn Myers RC
134 Tot Pressnell RC
135 Mickey Owen RC
136 Roy Bell RC
137 Pete Appleton
138 George Case RC
139 Vito Tamulis RC
140 Ray Hayworth RC
141 Peter Coscarart RC
142 Ira Hutchinson RC
143 Howard Earl Averill
144 Henry Bonura RC
145 Hugh Mulcahy RC
146 Tom Sunkel RC
147 George Coffman RC
148 Bill Trotter RC
149 Max West RC
150 James Walkup RC
151 Hugh Casey RC
152 Roy Weatherly RC
153 Dizzy Trout RC
154 Johnny Hudson RC
155 James Outlaw RC
156 Ray Berres RC
157 Don Padgett RC
158 Bud Thomas RC
159 Russell Evans RC
160 Gene Moore RC
161 Linus Frey
162 Whitey Moore RC