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1950 Bowman Al Rosen (#232) - Card of the Day
Happy Leap Day! Which also means…happy 25th birthday to Al Rosen!
Yes, it was on this day 100 years ago that Albert Leonard Rosen was born in Spartanburg, SC. But since that day — like today — was February 29, Rosen was only able to see 22 more of his actual birth “dates” before he passed away in 2015.
In between, Rosen put together careers as a baseball player, stockbroker, Las Vegas impresario, and baseball executive.
Of course, for us here, it’s Rosen’s work on the diamond that put him into the spotlight and into our collections (if we’re lucky).
The Cleveland Indians originally signed Rosen as an amateur free agent in 1942. He climbed slowly but surely through the Indians system the rest of the decade, with an interesting detour to Kansas City in 1948.
That assignment, to the Blues, saw Rosen loaned to the Yankees’ Triple-A team as compensation for reliever Charles Wensloff heading to the Indians.
Rosen hit 25 home runs for K.C. that summer, just as he had at Double-A Oklahoma City the year before. Mixed in among all that minor league firepower, Rosen also showed up for a few major league games for Cleveland in each of 1947 and 1948.
Rosen spent May and June of 1949 with the Indians, then ran out the summer with the Triple-A San Diego Padres.
That would finally be the end of his minor league seasoning, as Rosen broke camp with the Indians in 1950 and never looked back. By the end of the season, he had smashed an American League-leading 37 home runs to go along with a .287 batting average, 116 RBI, and 100 runs scored.
Bowman treated collectors to the fetching Rosen rookie card you see above that summer, even while he was in the midst of his breakout season.
Rosen hit 20 more home runs every season through 1955, including a league-topping 43 in 1953. He also hit .336 with league-leading totals of 145 RBI and 115 runs, enough to help the Indians contend and for Rosen to cop A.L. MVP honors.
By then, though, Rosen was on the brink of his 30s, and the new decade would bring back and leg injuries that in turn led to a steep decline. Though his bat was still potent when he was in the lineup, Rosen found that a more and more difficult task.
He stepped to the plate for the last time on the last day of September in 1956. All told, Rosen played parts of ten seasons in the majors, hitting .285 with 192 home runs, 717 RBI, and enough “what-ifs” to fill an 800-count box.
And, of course, Rosen also set the stage for collector confusion when Alan “Mr. Mint” Rosen hit the hobby like a Mike Tyson punch in the 1970s and 1980s.
Were they the same dude? Of course not, but there were plenty of us kids (and probably adults) who thought they just might be.
But for as much of a hobby icon as he was Alan Rosen could never “leap” through the imagination quite like Al Rosen does on his birthday.
1948 Cleveland Indians Picture Pack
Even though Rosen only played five games for the 1948 Cleveland Indians, he was still on the roster that October when the Tribe took on the Boston Braves in the World Series. You know, when he was six years old (on the leap scale).
Manager Lou Boudreau called on the rookie to pinch hit for Satchel Paige to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning with the Indians down 11-5. Rosen popped out against Warren Spahn and Cleveland lost…but only the game.
In the end, Rosen and the Tribe got their rings in six games, the last World Series title for Cleveland until…well, you know.
Fans taking in a game at Municipal Stadium that magical summer, and the next, could buy “picture packs” of postcard-sized black-and-white of Indians players.
From lots I’ve seen for sale online over the years, it seems like maybe they were sold in packs of 10 (or 20 or 30). Anyway, you can still find singles on eBay, with ungraded commons selling for $10 or so.
Graded stars like Paige, Larry Doby, and Bob Feller range into the hundreds or thousands of dollars.
That’s Dale Mitchell up there — he played left field for the Indians that year, hit a home run in the Fall Classic, and led the majors by being caught stealing 18 times.
—
As baseball teams go, the Indians and Guardians have mostly been non-factors for my fandom. I’ll usually root for them when they’re in the playoffs because of the underdog/lovable loser factor — otherwise, I don’t follow them much.
But wouldn’t it be sort of cool if a Cleveland legend like, say, Rocky Colavito, got to see the team nail down another World Series victory?
Might even be cool enough to make me check the American League Central standings a bit more often.
Anyway, thanks for reading.
—Adam