Card Spotlight: 5-8-09

1941 Goudey #10 - Taft Wright

Most of the talk lately has been about the ugliness of the 2009 Goudey cards. Those cards aren't ugly, per say, they are just faithful to the originals. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. If the cards weren't faithful to the originals, the community would be complaining about that too.

It's about to get uglier. Case in point, 1941 Goudey. These are some of the ugliest cards ever produced. Yet, they are beautiful in their own way. The puke green color actually makes the card stand out. The black and white photo is more pleasing than the cartoonish players of the predecessors. It is clearly a superior card, which gets no credit because of its eye-gouging color scheme.

Call me crazy, but the orientation of the layout reminds me of the Red Man cards that would come out a decade later. Could 1941 Goudey be the inspiration for those gorgeous cards? The separation of the player name, team and position reminds me of that later set. Even the font looks suspiciously similar.

Taffy would interupt his baseball career shortly after this card was issued with a three year stint in the Air Force. He was regarded as being not much of an asset because he was saving himself for his return to the big leagues. He kept in baseball form by playing on the Army Air Force baseball team during some of his military service.

Despite the looks of these Goudey cards, I would be honored to have them in my collection.