1941 Play Ball
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| baseball | | | football |
1941 Play Ball Baseball | |||
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This set was the last of the run of "Play Ball" sets issued by Gum, Inc. before the second World War halted production of new baseball card sets for seven years. This was a smaller set than either the 1939 or 1940 Play Ball issues, having only 72 total cards. Just as they had done in 1940, Gum, Inc. improved upon their previous design. The 1941 Play Ball set was, in some ways, a colorized version of its 1940 set; in fact, many of the players' cards featured the same picture shown on the 1940 card, only with color added. Beneath the picture, there was a banner with the player's name (often with his nickname in quotes) that stretched across the card. The card backs, like all Play Ball issues, featured a lengthy biography; there is no copyright date, however. At the very bottom of most cards in the set is a caption: "Watch for other famous sports stars, famous fighters, tennis players, football heroes, etc. in this series." The set seems to have been intended as part of a larger "Sports Hall of Fame" set, but the other cards never surfaced. The cards that are missing that caption feature an advertisement for Blony gum. The key cards in this issue are the cards of Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio, both of whom had a memorable season in 1941 (DiMaggio had a record 56-game hitting streak and Williams batted .406; after sixty years, no other player has reached .400). This set is notable as the only issue featuring all three DiMaggio brothers, and a rookie-year card of Hall of Fame shortstop Pee Wee Reese can be found here as well. Of the three Play Ball sets, this one is probably the easiest to complete due to its small size. This would be the last major baseball card set for the next seven years, as card production was halted when the United States entered World War II. Not only were the paper, cardboard, and printing supplies were needed for the war effort, so were the players; DiMaggio, Williams, Charley Gehringer, Bob Feller, Pee Wee Reese, and many other players left the league and joined the military to do their part. By 1948, Gum, Inc. (which by that time would be renamed Bowman) would begin a new era of collectible baseball cards.
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| T206 | 1983 Topps | 1980 Topps | 1977 Topps |
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