Red Sox Classics - Joltin' Joe's Little Bro'

This year I'm going to continue the trend I've been on of trying to add fewer, but more significant cards to my collection.  Everyone has their own tastes of course, but I've really found that for me adding one or two iconic cards to my collection is much more rewarding than opening a bunch of packs.  Kicking things off for 2014 is a card that was formerly fairly high on my Red Sox want list...

While Joe is the obvious name that comes to mind when you hear DiMaggio, younger brother Dom was no slouch.  Dom played all 11 years of his MLB career with the Red Sox at center field, and was a 7-time All-Star!  Not to mention he missed three of what would have been the prime years of his career (his age 26, 27 and 28 seasons) serving in the military in World War II.  Playing primarily in the '40s, he doesn't have a whole lot of cardboard out there, and this '49 Bowman is one of my favorites.

Dom had one of my favorite old timey nicknames, The Little Professor, which he was dubbed based on his small stature (5'9") and odd spectacles (of which only the right frame is really visible on this card).  He played in over 100 games in every season but his last, which was 1953, and led the AL in runs twice, triples once and stolen bases once.  In the end he was close to a .300 hitter at the MLB level (.298), had nearly 1,700 hits, more than 300 doubles, and scored over 1,000 runs.

This copy's in great shape, with just a small stain near the top of the card (only really visible on the back), which doesn't bother me in the least.  Here's a better look at the back:

This is actually my 5th 1949 Bowman Red Sox card, which takes me 1/3 of the way to completing a team set.  I'd love to knock out the remaining 10 and will definitely be keeping an eye out for them.  Dom here was probably the biggest name to knock off the list, aside from maybe Bobby Doerr.  It feels good to finally add the first vintage Dom DiMaggio to my Red Sox collection.