1940 Crowley’s Milk Set and Checklist

Posted on December 14, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	Crowley’s Milk
Year	1940
Size	3″ x 5″
Images	Blue Ink
Type	Food
Number in Set	18

1940 Crowley’s Milk Overview

1940 Crowley's Milk Frankie Silvanic This rare 18-card set featured players from the minor league Binghamton Triplets team of the Eastern League that was managed by former player Bruno Betzel.

Crowley’s Milk distributed these cards and the Crowley Foods company, founded in 1904, is still in existence at the time of this article. The mode of the distribution of these cards is unknown.

These 3″ x 5″ included full-size player images printed in blue ink. A unique aspect of these cards is that they were printed inside a red and white ink baseball-scene border. Putting it all together, you get an America-themed red, white, and blue card. Backs of these cards were entirely blank.

In addition, the cards included replica signatures as well as a brief inscription related to Crowley’s Milk. For example, cards for several of the players read, “Crowley’s is Tops!” The card of manager Bruno Betzel says, “Don’t forget to drink Crowley’s Milk.” Bill Bevens’ card reads, “I drink Crowley’s Milk.” The inscriptions appear to be also written by the players as they vary from card to card and often appear in the same style as the signature.

Several of the players reached the major league. However, there are no true big time stars found in the set. Despite that, the cards are extremely valuable because they are very rare. In decent condition, they generally start around $150-$200.

Because the cards are 3″ x 5″ in size and blank-backed, they could have been conceivably used as postcards. At least one such example of that has been seen.