1940 Play Ball Set and Checklist

Posted on December 7, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	Play Ball
Year	1940
Size	2 1/2″ x 3 1/8″
Images	Black and White
Type	Candy/Gum
Number in Set	240

1940 Play Ball Overview

Like the 1939 Play Ball set, the 1940 Play Ball set includes black and white cards in one of the final pre-war issues. The set is categorized as R335 in the American Card Catalog.

The design of the cards sort of play into the time period. World War II had just begun and these somewhat dull cards are a stark contrast to the mostly colorful sets of the 1930s. The set is one of the landmark sets of the 1940s, in part because the decade had so few sets.

One of the more unique aspects of the set is that it focused on player nicknames. Here’s a closer look at those.

Fronts included a black and white image with the player’s name on a banner. Images are the same as found in the 1941 Play Ball set, only those are colorized instead. The addition of the player name was different from the 1939 set, which only included that on the back. Backs included player biographies and a card number. The bottom of the backs also included an assortment of advertisements for Play Ball producer, Gum, Inc., and one highlighted their 1940 Superman Gum set, one of the more popular non-sport issues of the decade.

Play Ball produced a total of three sets – 1939, 1940, and 1941. Here was my list of the top ten cards across all three sets.

Retired Legends

One of the distinguishing characteristics of the set is that it included cards of numerous ex-players. Those are some of the most popular cards in the entire set.

At the top of the list is a card of Shoeless Joe Jackson. The Jackson card is not only desirable because he’s one of the legends in the set but also because Jackson simply doesn’t have many cards in the pre-war era.

Even though it was produced about 20 years after Jackson’s major league career had ended, it is still one of the more valuable post-career cards of players in the pre-war era. It can sell for $1,000 or more, even in lower-grade condition.

Jackson isn’t the only big name retired player in the set. There are plenty of others, including the likes of Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Nap Lajoie, Tris Speaker, and plenty of other pre-war Hall of Famers.

One of the more interesting cards is that of Wagner. While cards of other retired players included pictures of them from their playing days, Wagner’s was a contemporary card, showing him as a coach with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Roy Hobbs / The Natural Movie Card

The 1940 card design was used in the popular movie, The Natural, featuring fictional character Roy Hobbs (played by Robert Redford).

The cards used the 1940 Play Ball design but were actually in color as opposed to black and white, as requested by the movie’s producer. The cards were designed by TCMA, a popular baseball card company that released a number of issues.

Here’s the full story on the Roy Hobbs 1940 Play Ball cards.