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When you are not batting, talk baseball with the host while the other takes his licks. If you are looking for the glitz and glamor of Today's HOME RUN hitting contests, then you better look elsewhere. This charming little series is nothing more than two guys hitting baseballs on a summer day, trying to best the other guy. Although the competition is serious, and for serious (well, serious for the day!) cash, no one seems to take it too seriously.
Struss added that these were printed on thinner stock than traditional cards. Brian Karl, who owns the No. 3 Current Finest 1959 Home Run Derby set on the PSA Set Registry, agreed. "They just don't come up very often," said Brian Dwyer, president of Robert Edward Auctions. "As far as sets from the 1950s are concerned, I would say we see this set with much less frequency. I believe we have only ever sold two or three complete sets." The highest-graded collection on the PSA Set Registry boasts a GPA of 6.05.
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"When I got home, I started counting them and there were 20 different cards - 19 different players and the host. And there were 20 complete sets." Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron (February 5, 1934-January 22, 2021) established himself early in his career as one of the greatest power hitters in baseball. Aaron had humble beginnings near Mobile, Alabama, but found that sport offered a way out of the cotton fields – which, by the way, helped to build up the strength in his hands for his powerful and effortless swing. Henry’s focus as a teenager seemed to lean more towards sport that his studies and his skill on the baseball diamond allowed him to abandon school for greener pastures like the Negro Leagues. His performance as a member of the semi-pro Mobile Black Bears earned him a spot on the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League. It has been estimated that Aaron hit .366 with five home runs and 33 RBI in 26 Negro League games before catching the eye of two Major League franchises, the New York Giants and the Boston Braves.
"Maybe if they had a youngster with them, they would've given them a set. I'm not sure if they gave singles out or not. I don't remember anyone saying that I had this one single or that single." Zimpleman didn't part with any of his sets until three years later. "The photography is very simple. They're unlike anything else issued at that time, so I think that draws people to them. And their rarity certainly doesn't hurt their appeal. They have sort of a mystique about them." Mickey Mantle hit the most home runs on the show, a total of 44 during his five appearances. Wrigley Field in Los Angeles had an inner fence with palm trees and a brick wall located several feet behind it.
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In 1959, American Motors produced an unnumbered 20-card set to help bring attention to the new television program Home Run Derby. Hosted by Mark Scott, this fun competition pitted many of the best sluggers in the league against each other. The participants came away with a cash prize, with the winner receiving $2,000 and a chance to return the following week. As one of the show’s participants, Killebrew was included in the set along with the likes of Hank Aaron, Mantle, and Mays.
Upon retirement, he joined the Braves head office and since 1980 has served as the senior vice president and assistant to the Braves president. Henry Louis Aaron was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982. In 1999, the Hank Aaron Award was created to honor each league’s most effective hitter. That same year, The Sporting News placed him fifth on their “100 Greatest Baseball Players” list. In 2002, President George W. Bush presented Hank with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1953, Henry was promoted to the Jacksonville Braves of the South Atlantic League and he once again proceeded to tear up pitching as he led the league in batting average (.362), runs , hits , doubles , RBI and total Bases .
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In later years the intro, as well as some comments at the close of the show, were narrated by former Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Ross Porter. Jensen was the only player to hit four and subsequently five home runs in a row, doing so in the fourth inning of the final episode. Baltimore Orioles10–11One pitcher for the show was former major leaguer Tom Saffell and the catcher was minor leaguer John VanOrnum, later a San Francisco Giants' coach. Art Passarella, a former American League umpire who would go on to a TV acting career, served as the plate umpire.
If a batter hit three home runs in a row, he would receive a $500 bonus check. A fourth home run in a row would be worth another $500 bonus check. Any consecutive home runs hit beyond that would each be worth $1,000.
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As noted earlier, this set offers 20 cards - featuring 19 players and Scott. Nine Hall of Famers - Mantle, Aaron, Willie Mays, Al Kaline, Eddie Mathews, Duke Snider, Harmon Killebrew, Ernie Banks and Frank Robinson - are highlighted. It's likely that many of the 1959 Home Run Derby cards that have resurfaced and been graded can be traced to Zimpleman. The hobby pioneer is unsure, however, if the way he received his cards was common.
After leading the Braves to the South Atlantic League championship, he was named the league’s Most Valuable Player. He then played winter ball in Puerto Rico, where manager Mickey Owen helped improve his hitting even further by adjusting his stance allowing Henry to hit to all fields rather than only left and center, to which he was accustomed. At the Braves 1954 spring training, Aaron made it very difficult for management to keep him off the roster and when left fielder Bobby Thomson broke his ankle, Henry took over in left for the newly relocated Milwaukee Braves. Aaron, renamed as Hank by a local sport reporter to make him seem more approachable, was added to a lineup that already included future Hall of Fame slugger Eddie Mathews and All-Stars Del Crandell, Joe Adcock, Johnny Logan and Andy Pafko, among may others. In his second year, 1955, Hank led the National League in doubles , notched 27 home runs and 106 RBI, and earned his first of 21 All-Star Game selections.
One of the most elusive cards of Hall of Famers in high grade is the Snider single. "In my opinion, they were issued in pretty similar numbers," said Struss. "The only reason I say that is because if kids had their choice of cards, every one of them would've chosen Mickey Mantle or Hank Aaron. And you see these cards, including the card of Mark Scott, in pretty even numbers." "I don't think that there are a lot of people working on this set because there just aren't enough cards to go around," said Rice. "I didn't really trade any of the sets until 1971 when Crawford Foxwell, from Cambridge, Maryland, had a get-together at his house," remembered Zimpleman, adding that about 30 collectors were present. "I took the sets there and I started trading them for a Goudey Babe Ruth and stuff like that. It was like a bonanza, but I kept one set for myself."
There were also umpires along both foul lines to help judge fly balls that were close calls. Here are some recent auction prices realized, rounded to the nearest dollar, for some 1959 Home Run Derby cards . The legacy of this “colorful” show, and its card set, will continue resonating for decades, a perennial vote of sorts on one’s All-Star ballot. While some frown about those and other Home Run Derby elements, it appears many more celebrate them.
The highest grades currently listed are PSA 8 (NM-MT), with only eight of those reported. Mantle, the set’s key player, appears the most in the Pop Report , and even mid-grade slabbed versions can bring $15,000 to $20,000. Hodges and Dodgers teammate Duke Snider experienced limited success on the TV show, but they did contribute to a World Series title over the Chicago White Sox in 1959.
Though his career was riddled with injuries that kept The Mick out of the lineup far too often, Mantle finished his playing career with a .298 batting average, 2,415 hits including 536 home runs and drove in 1,509 RBI. Filmed in December 1959, “Home Run Derby” was a groundbreaking weekly television series that pitted baseball’s top sluggers against one another in head-to-head battles for long ball supremacy. The show took place at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles (home of the Pacific Coast League’s Angels), chosen because of its near-symmetrical dimensions. Unlike modern derbies, hitters were allowed three outs per inning ; the player with the most homers after nine frames was declared champion. Winners received $2,000, with an additional $500 going to anyone who hit three consecutive big flies (another $500 was awarded for a fourth straight home run; anything beyond that was worth $1,000).
Though it sounds like chump change today, remember that in 1960 the average big-league salary was around $17,000 a year. "The prices have gone up recently because a few sets have been disassembled, and I think it's been a long time since that's happened," said Struss. While one player was taking his turn at bat, the other player would sit at the host's booth and have a brief conversation, typically unrehearsed small talk about the contest or the player's performance that season. Scott took him up on it, speaking into the microphone sotto voce, similar to a bowling or golf announcer, whenever Mays stepped up to the plate. Sometimes when the batter hit a ball into the deep outfield, the player in the booth would comment that it would have gone for extra bases in a real game, to which Scott replied that "on Home Run Derby it's nothing but an out".
