1954 Ultimate Set

I am starting a little side project on this blog that I will run every Sunday applying the ultimate set concept to the 1954 sets. One of my favorite team collector blogs is The Phillies Room. Jim, who runs the site, has been reviewing every Topps set and the Phillies cards contained in them. He noted that the selection of Phillies in some of the years was lackluster as most of the good players seemed to be in the Bowman sets. Bowman was a Philadelphia based company, and my theory was that this had something to do with the lack of Phillies. So I am putting together an ultimate checklist for 1954. Maybe we can get an idea who and what teams were in what sets. Keep in mind that I own none of these cards, so I may have a few mistakes in some of the info in my checklist.

What sets are being used?
The Topps set will be the starting point and then players with Bowman cards only will be added. Regional sets will be used to round out the set. The Dan Dee set (noted as DD), a 29 card set given away in bags of chips is one of them. Since the company was based out of Cleveland, the majority of the players are Indians with a handful of Pirates and a few all-stars from other cities. Also being used is the Red Heart set (noted as RH), which was marketed with dog food. It was a 33-card set of all-stars, although the Cubs, White Sox, and Cardinals were represented more than other teams, so this may have been a regional issue. If you wanted a Stan Musial card in 1954, you had to get the Red Heart set. The third set that I am using is the Johnston Cookies set (noted as BJ). These were issued from 1953-1955 and contained only cards of the Milwaukee Braves.


Retired Players
There were a handful of retired players that appeared in these sets. These are players who would never appear in another game after 1954. They are listed below. One player that I am having some difficulty finding info about is Ben Johnson, who's only card is in the Johnston Cookies set. It appears that he may have never played a game in the major leagues. Angel Scull is another player that appears to have no major league career, but played on the independent Havana Sugar Kings in 1954. I will get to that team in a few minutes.

__	TO	57	RT	Luis Aloma	CHW
__	BO	171	RT	Carlos Bernier	PIT
__	TO	203	RT	Harry Brecheen	BAL
__	BO	215	RT	Johnny Bucha	DET
__	BJ	29	RT	Paul Burris	MLN
__	BO	126	RT	Cliff Chambers	STL
__	TO	228	RT	Gene Hermanski	PIT
__	BJ	12	RT	Ben Johnson	MLN
__	BO	151	RT	Pat Mullin	DET
__	TO	104	RT	Mike Sandlock	PHI
__	TO	204	RT	Angel Scull	WSH

Players in the Military
Here is an issue that I haven't had to deal with compiling sets from 1981 on. But 1954 was one year after the Korean War came to an end and military service was still a requirement. There were a handful of players who would have decent major league careers, but served in the military and didn't play a game in 1954. These include:

__	TO	221	MT	Dick Brodowski	BOS
__	TO	43	MT	Dick Groat	PIT
__	TO	13	MT	Billy Martin	NYY
__	TO	249	MT	Vinegar Bend Mizell	STL
__	BO	185	MT	Daryl Spencer	NYG

Players on New Teams
In the 1980s, players appear in traded sets, so a list is created of the cards of players on their old teams. There was no traded set in 1954, but due to the nature of both Bowman and Topps issuing their cards in series, a few players appear on a 1953 team in one set, and a 1954 team in another set.

A few exceptions I made here is for Saul Rogovin and Paul Smith. Rogovin played for the White Sox in 1953 and reappeared in the major leagues in 1955 with the Baltimore Orioles. Paul Smith played for the Pirates in 1953 and didn't reappear in the majors until 1957, again with the Pirates. Where did they both play in 1954? For the Havana Sugar Kings. The Havana Sugar Kings were an independent team based in Cuba in the International League in 1954. I am not sure what kind of relationship the Sugar Kings had with the major leagues that year, so I placed these two players on this checklist since they would reappear in the majors again.

__	BO	163	OT	Dave Philley	PHA
__	BO	140	OT	Saul Rogovin	CIN
__	TO	11	OT	Paul Smith	PIT
__	BO	109	OT	Roy Smalley	CHC