#36 - Johnny Groth - St. Louis BrownsJohn Thomas Groth, affectionately known as "Johnny", played for 15 seasons in the Major Leagues, although he saw action in more than 100 games only 6 times, and played only 12 total games over his first 3 seasons. Most of his time was spent with the Detroit Tigers, including his 1952 season, which explains why he is depicted in a Detroit hat on this card.
If this were the 70's, Topps would've done a terrible air brush job to turn that into a Browns hat. Had O-Pee-Chee been around in 1953 we'd probably get a "Now with Browns" notation on the front of the card. Instead, the painting is left as is, and I believe this may be my first 1953 Topps card where the hat/uniform differs from the team listed on the card.
The Tigers claimed that Groth was "the next DiMaggio" when he first began his career back in 1946, but as evidenced by the fact that your average baseball fan has never heard of him, he never really lived up to the hype. To be fair though, those are some pretty big shoes to fill. What kind of organization would put that kind of pressure on a 20 year old?!?!
Set Status: 41/274 (15%)
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