Card of the Month - August 2011

The dog days of summer are upon us here in New England, and although pre-season NFL football started this past week, it's pretty much baseball and only baseball right now. What better time to show off a recent vintage addition to the collection. I've mentioned a few times that two types of cards I really enjoy are 1950's Bowman and vintage catcher cards. August's Card of the Month combines both:

Fine, so Matt Batts wasn't exactly spectacular in his 10 years in Major League Baseball. He was mostly a backup catcher, except in '53 when he started for the Tigers and appeared in 116 games. All I know is he's got a pretty nice-looking 1952 Bowman card.

Batts actually began his career with the Red Sox in 1947, but a couple of trades found him with the Tigers organization early in the 1952 season. He was known as a solid defensive catcher, and actually caught the second of Virgil Trucks' two no-hitters in the 1952 season.

This card brings me to 15 1952 Bowmans.