Card of the Day: Stan Musial 1948 Leaf #4

“Pin-Up” of the Week: Stan Musial 2/15/11 Medal Of Freedom Award Pin

Last night the Cardinals won the NLCS and have paved their way into the World Series once again.  I was really pulling for the Dodgers because its been awhile since they’ve made it to the World Series.

The Cardinals have been around for 131 years and have had a slew of great players.  But one of them will always rise above the others, and that’s Stan Musial.  To commemorate Stan Musial receiving the Medal Of Freedom Award from President Barack Obama at the White House, the Cardinals made this pin.  It wasn’t distributed as a stadium giveaway or sold at their gift shops.  These were handed out to front office employees and other members of the Cardinals organization.  That makes them quite rare.

A few examples of this pin have surfaced on eBay.  One recently sold for $100.00.

Card of the Day: Musial / Mantle / Yastrzemski 1992 Score The Franchise Players Auto

Flashback Product of the Week: 1955 Rawlings Musial

Rawlings is not the first company that comes to mind when you think of a card manufacturer.  With their headquarters located in St. Louis, it makes perfect sense that they would team-up with one of the best Cardinals players in history, Stan Musial.  This small, six-card set, was released in 1955 and actually made up the side panels of the box that contained a Rawlings glove.  In order to get the cards, you had no other option but to cut them out.  This is why most of the cards you’ll find aren’t in the best condition.  A lot of them look as if they’ve been to hell and back.  Depending on the condition, single cards go sell well into the hundreds if you find a good example.

When it comes to a product like this, trimming will always be a factor.  Collectors had to get these out themselves.  There was no way around it, not unless they kept the box intact.  Trying to figure out whether one of these cards was trimmed recently or fifty years ago is almost impossible.