Vintage Athletes - Part 44

 More Baseball Cards

A lot of you enjoyed my fake baseball cards in my last Vintage Athletes post, so here are some more of them.

My fake cards use real photos of the players, just photos that you normally wouldn't see on a baseball card.  These photos were all black and white, so I colorized them to make the player stand out.  Without further ado, here are real and fake baseball cards for 12 more players.

Don Lang played for the Cincinnati Reds.  This is a real baseball card.

And this is my fake Don Lang card, using a 1939 photo taken by LIFE photographer Bernard Hoffman.

George Shuba played for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

My fake card uses a 1955 locker room photo by LIFE photographer John Dominis.  Shuba's head is cut off because Dominis was photographing other players, and Shuba happened to be in the background.  How do we know it's George Shuba?  Because in other photos in the photo set, we can see his face, and he's in front of the locker with his number (#8).

Hal Newhouser played for the Cleveland Indians ...

as captured in this uncredited locker room photo.  Pants?  Who needs pants?

Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier to become the first black player in Major League Baseball when the Brooklyn Dodgers signed him in 1947.

LIFE photographer Francis Miller photographed Robinson in the locker room in 1955.

Joe Albanese had such a short major league career that there seem to be no baseball cards of him.  This is what an Albanese card might have looked like, using the format from another Washington Senators baseball card and a photo of him playing for the Senators in 1958.

I had to include him because of this photo by LIFE photographer George Silk of Albanese in spring training for the Boston Red Sox in 1956.  He got injured in spring training and went back to the minor leagues, and in 1958 the Red Sox traded him to the Washington Senators, where he played part of one season.

Karl Spooner was a pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

LIFE photographer Grey Villet caught Spooner in the locker room during the 1955 World Series.

Roger Craig pitched for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies.  This is a baseball card from when he was with the Dodgers.

Here he is in the locker room in 1956 when the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn, in a photo by LIFE photographer George Silk.

Roy Campanella was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948, one year after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the major leagues.  His playing career ended in 1958 when he was paralyzed in an auto accident.

LIFE's George Silk photographed him getting into a whirlpool bath in 1956.

Sandy Amoros was a Cuban left fielder for the Brooklyn Dodgers, which later became the LA Dodgers.

Here's LIFE Photographer John Dominis' locker room portrait of him in Brooklyn in 1955.

Stan Musial, considered one of baseball's greatest hitters, played for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1941 to 1963 with time out serving in the Navy during World War II.

I don't have any nude photos of him, but this 1952 locker room photo by LIFE photographer Francis Miller doesn't leave much to the imagination.

We end with a two-for-one.  Mel Ott was one of baseball's most feared sluggers in the early 20th century.  He was signed by the New York Giants in 1926 as a 16-year-old right out of high school, and he played with the Giants for the rest of his career, ending in 1947.

Johnny McCarthy was Mel Ott's teammate on the New York Giants from 1936 to 1941, playing first base.

This uncredited photo shows Mel Ott, at left, and Johnny McCarthy enjoying a shower together.  Full disclosure: the photo cut off the end of Ott's butt, which I have restored to a reasonable approximation.

Yes, I know that a baseball card never shows two players, but I'm just having fun.