When you think of number one in baseball terms, you usually think of a leadoff batter who may wear that uniform number. Usually, it’s a player of small stature such as a Phil Rizzuto-type infielder.
When I think of number one, I don’t think of the uniform number worn by some players. No, what pops into my mind is Andy Pafko’s baseball card.
It was 64 years ago and the 1952 Topps baseball card set was the first the company produced. Pafko was number one in the 252-card set, which featured the iconic Mickey Mantle rookie card.
My yeshiva buddies and I immediately started collecting the new Topps cards and studiously tried to memorize the information on the back of the cards. We were still a year or more away from studying for our bar mitzvahs and had more time on our hands for important things like baseball card collecting.
We put the cards in numerical order and wrapped a rubber band around the stack. That, of course, kept the cards together but caused the Andy Pafko card to have a crease around the middle.
We saw Pafko’s face more often than we saw our yeshiva teachers. At the time, Pafko was more famous for an event the previous year.
Playing left field for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Pafko watched Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” off a Ralph Branca pitch sail over the left field wall at the Polo Grounds during the 1951 National League playoffs. (The Dodgers and New York Giants had finished the season tied for first, hence the need for a playoff series.)
Thomson’s three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth gave the Giants the win in the decisive third game. It also gave Giants broadcaster Russ Hodges the most memorable call of his long career. “The Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the Pennant, they’re going crazy, they’re going crazy,” Hodges bellowed several times until he fell silent from exhaustion.
Born in a small Wisconsin town in the second month of 1921, Pafko began his major league career with the Chicago Cubs in 1943. Two years later he helped the Cubs get to the World Series against Hank Greenberg and the Detroit Tigers. The Cubs lost the Series – and haven’t made it back to the Fall Classic since.
After nine years with the Cubs, Pafko was traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1951 and helped vault the team to the World Series against the Yankees in 1951 and 1952 (the Yanks won the Series both times).
The Boston Braves relocated to Milwaukee after the 1952 season and Pafko was traded to the Braves. He was the only Wisconsin native on the team and quickly became a fan favorite.
Pafko’s old Giants nemesis Bobby Thomson was traded by the Giants to the Braves before the 1954 and became Pafko’s roommate. “Bobby was a gentle man and gentleman, ” Pafko recalled. “He was very modest and never wanted to talk about the famous home run he hit.”
The righthanded-batting Pafko spent the 1953-59 seasons with Milwaukee and played in the World Series in both ’57 and ’58 against the Yankees. He compiled a .285 lifetime batting average with 213 home runs during his 17-year big league career.
Pretty good numbers, but he’s most remembered for being the number-one card in that first-ever Topps set. A ’52 Pafko card in mint condition sold for $84,000 in 1998.
Pafko was a much-sought-after autograph signer at card shows through the years and would frequently appear at Cubs games in Wrigley Field, leading the singing of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the 7th inning stretch.