1941 Play Ball Set and Checklist

Posted on December 9, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	Play Ball
Year	1941
Size	2 1/2″ x 3 1/8″
Images	Color
Type	Candy/Gum
Number in Set	72

1941 Play Ball Overview

The 1941 Play Ball set, like the 1940 set, is one of the more important baseball card issues of the 1940s. With World War II occupying a good part of the decade, few card sets were issued. Distributed by Gum, Inc., the 1941 Play Ball set is one of the more notable ones.

While the set is called a 1941 issue, some collectors believe it was printed in 1941 and 1942. With only 72 cards in it, it is much smaller than the 1939 and 1940 Play Ball sets. The smaller size makes it easily the most manageable of the Play Ball sets to assemble. This was a short, full-color set, issued in 1941 (at least partially), the year the U.S. officially got into World War II after the December 7 bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Fronts included a colorized image with the player’s name on a banner. Images are the same as found in the 1940 Play Ball set, only those are black and white instead. Backs included player biographies and a card number. Like the 1940 set with its numerous nicknames, some unique nicknames are featured in the 1941 issue.

In addition to the regular cards, paper proofs of this set are known.

Like other early gum-era cards, these cards are much closer in appearance to a square than a rectangular shape. The aren’t a perfect square with four equal sides but measuring about 2 1/2 x 3 1/8″ (the exact size varies a good bit), they aren’t quite as elongated as later gum cards. The set doesn’t include every big star from the era but has quite a few, including Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Jimmie Foxx, Hank Greenberg, and plenty of other Hall of Famers.

The high number cards are more valuable than the lower number issues. Key cards in the set are DiMaggio and Williams, along with Pee Wee Reese, which is commonly cited as a rookie card (even though that may not technically be accurate).

Speaking of checklisted players, the set is notable for including all three of the DiMaggio brothers — Joe, Vince, and Dom. It is generally believed to be the only contemporary card set that includes all three of them.

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.