1961 Fleer Autograph Project - Part 48

Has it really been two months since I posted?  Yes, it has. Does it seem like I always start a post that way? Yes, it does.   I haven't done anything hobby-wise in over three months and probably won't for at least as long going forward.  Do you ever have one of those years where it seems like you have one problem after another?  That has been 2025 for me. A lot has gone wrong in 2025. Nothing existential, but expensive. But all y'all have your own lives and struggles and aren't here to listen to me whine. So, let's get on with it.

This is the 48th signed 1961 Fleer card in my collection. I have a total of 72 and of the 24 I haven't yet posted, 18 are in the Hall of Fame, including today's subject, Redlegs great Ernie Lombardi.  

So, what random, interesting things did I learn about him:

1. Lombardi had a 17-year career - 10 with Cincinnati, 5 with the NY Giants, and 1 each with the Brooklyn Robins and Boston Braves
2. Between 1928 and 1930, he hit .370 while playing for the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League.
3. He caught Johnny VanderMeer's back-to-back no-hitters, which we covered briefly in Part 39 of this series.
4. In 1938, he was the NL MVP. That season, he hit .342 with 19 homeruns and 95 RBIs. Modern statistics give his MVP season a total 4.8 WAR, far less than Bill Lee, Arky Vaughn and Mel Ott, all of who had greater than 8.0 WAR. 
5. Considered one of the slowest ballplayers, he also led the league by grounding into 30 double plays that year, an NL league record that stood for 70 years until 2008 when it was broken by Miguel Tejada.
6. Inducted into the Cincinnati Reds HOF in 1958, he was consistently overlooked by Cooperstown.  Indeed, he vowed to not attend the ceremony if ever elected. His eventual induction, championed by Birdie Tibbets, came in 1986, 9 years after his death.
7. He did not believe in signing autographs. It wasn’t until a youngster asked if he was illiterate that Lombardi, to dispute the point, signed the scrap of paper.
8. There is a picture of Lombardi holding seven baseballs in one hand. 
9. Lombardi struggled to find his place after his career ended and even attempted suicide in 1953.
10.  In 2004 a full-size bronze statue of Ernie was dedicated outside Great American Ballpark, joining those of Frank Robinson, Joe Nuxhall, and Ted Kluszewski at the entrance to the ballpark.

What I am listening to:  John Moreland