Can't Have Too Many Cards: Do It Yourself COMC Packs #30/35 -- Hank Greenberg

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Do It Yourself COMC Packs #30/35 -- Hank Greenberg

I recently had 8 months worth of Check Out My Cards purchases shipped. I divided the 153 cards into 35 groups. I like to think of these as hand picked "packs". I'm posting them in random order. "Pack" #19 was $1.90 including shipping.

Here's a pack of Greenbergs, five cards since I actually bought 2 of the Turkey Reds (a hazard of holding your COMC basket too long).

Hank was just 30 when he was drafted in the Spring of 1941 and was coming off an AL MVP year. He'd lose 4 prime years to the war. From Wikipedia:
The Detroit draft board initially classified Greenberg as 4F for "flat feet". Rumors that he had bribed the board and concern that he would be likened to Jack Dempsey, who had received negative publicity for failure to serve in World War I, led Greenberg to be reexamined, and he was found fit to serve.

Drafted in 1940, the first American League player to be drafted, his salary was cut from $55,000 ($861,000 today) a year to $21 ($300 today) a month. Greenberg was not bitter, however, stating, "I made up my mind to go when I was called. My country comes first." After most of the 1941 season, however, he was honorably discharged when the United States Congress released men aged 28 years and older from service, being released on December 5, 1941, two days before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Greenberg re-enlisted and volunteered for service in the United States Army Air Forces, again the first major league player to do so. He graduated from Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the USAAF. He eventually served overseas in the China-Burma-India Theater, scouting locations for B-29 bomber bases. Promoted to captain, Greenberg served 45 months, the longest of any major league player.

Of course Hank is also arguably the greatest Jewish sports star ever.