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1949-50 Toleteros Leon Day SGC 80 EX-MT 6
The lack of Negro leaguers on American trading cards during the halcyon on the Negro leagues makes this THE card for HOFer Leon Day, the most consistently outstanding Negro league pitcher of the late '30s and '40s. It was issued during the '49-50 season when he played for the Santurce Cangrejeros, after the graceful right-hander had just won the NNL pennant with the Baltimore Elite Giants in what would be his last full Negro league season, though he'd continue to play in Canada for awhile. Of course, Day made his name pitching for the Newark Eagles from '37 to '48, a span in which he went undefeated in '37, pitched in a record 7 East-West Games, whiffed an apparent Negro league record 18 batters in a 1-hitter against Baltimore, and pitched an opening day no-hitter in '46 against the Philadelphia Stars (after returning from WWII where he saw action in an amphibian unit that landed on Utah Beach on D-Day). His best season came in '37 when backed by the Eagles' "million-dollar infield," he went 13-0 (according to sometimes fictitious Negro league records). Every time Day pitched was D-Day, as he could throw any pitch for a strike. It's not Satchel Paige or Hilton Smith or Smokey Joe Williams who holds the career strikeout record in the Negro Leagues, the East-West Game, and the Puerto Rican league. It is Leon Day, once described as "the best pitcher in colored baseball today," which is taking in a hell of a lot of ground. Day's precious Toleteros card, numbered 22 in the set of 216, shows him in his Santurce uniform, reflecting the mild-mannered good nature that belied his ferocity on the mound (and at the plate, also being one of the best hitters in the Negro leagues, and next to Cool Papa Bell perhaps its fastest player, once running the 100-yard dash in 10 seconds, in uniform). Card is 1 7/16 x 2 1/8" with his name under the picture in upper-case letters. Verso reads "Toleteros" in red above "22" and "Bombo al pitcher - Out" (this was used in a makeshift baseball board game) and "Distribucion gratis" and "Ptd. in U.S.A." Condition of card is a solid SGC 80 EX-MT 6 with very strong edges and corners, however it was slightly downgraded because of a tiny amouth of crazing to the bottom third of the card. In addition the back of the card has a smallest amount of toning. This EX-MT 6 example (which is the highest known) presents much nicer than its technical grade.
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