2014 BOWMAN MATTHEW BOWMAN
A seemingly simple question had the crack Card of the Week research staff spending late nights at the library last week.
To wit: How many players have shared a surname with the card set in which they are appearing, as is the case with this 2014 Bowman Matthew Bowman?
Limiting this query to the major brands, we find that Robert Fleer never made it out of the low minors in the late ’50s. Herb Score predated the card set of the same name by some 25 years. Jimmy Topps is a statless blip in the baseball-reference.com database. And sadly, Eddie Donruss and Sal Upperdeck never existed.
If we allow for homophones, we can note that Hank Gowdy appeared in the 1936 Goudey set. But as we all know, homophones are for the weak…
So after scouring the books, the only other legitimate occurrence that we could uncover is the 1955 Bowman Roger Bowman.
This Bowman was a cup-of-coffee pitcher for the Giants and Pirates in the mid ’50s who finished his career with a 2-11 record and a 5.81 ERA. His greater success came in the minors, where he won 131 total games, including 22 for the 1954 Hollywood Stars.
I dig this post.
I immediately thought of Ernie Bowman, who was on a ’66 Mets Topps card but B-R tells me he only was in the majors from 61-63. Which brings to mind another question: Can anyone beat getting a card in a set three years after his last MLB performance? Sure, sure – there’s all of those “Turn Back the Clock” type issues but Topps actually thought Ernie was going to play for the 66 Mets.
This post was great! It’s a shame we never got to see Sal Upperdeck play. Maybe he was too weak as well. Why is the Maryland state flag in this card? Also, nice 2.86 K/BB ratio Mr. Bowman.
Ernie put up some less-than-stellar numbers in the minors in ’64 and ’65. Maybe he had friends in high places at Topps.
Patrick, this card is a State and Hometown parallel card– all of these cards utilize the featured players’ state/country flag as a background. I believe they’re available 1 in every 8 packs…
Sal Upperdeck was highly touted but never put it all together. I understand that he and Sid Finch tried unsuccessfully to launch a business on Long Island together.