This is the second in new Monster Card Monday series.
You know him, you love him. By popular demand, here comes George Puccinelli of 1930.
Puccinelli is probably pretty obscure in the history of baseball unless you are an APBA player. He played for a total of 187 games and 607 at-bats in the 1930s (interestingly, he played only in even years, 1930, 1932, 1934 and 1936). His stats for the time he did play actually weren’t bad. He batted .283 with 19 homeruns with 102 rbis and 109 runs.
But it was his first year in 1930 with the Cardinals that gets his claim to fame with APBA fans. For 11 games and 16 at-bats, he was superman.
| Year | Tm | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1930 | STL | 11 | 16 | 5 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .563 | .563 | 1.188 | 1.750 |
The ‘Count’ got his due with the cardmakers of APBA when they came out with the 1930 card set. They saw fit to give him a card that would make George Herman Ruth blush. Puccinelli’s card had five 1’s and 2 6’s and sevens all the way through 61. It’s the 9s at the bottom that always make me do a double take.
True to form, he had no 14s since he didn’t walk in his short stint in ‘30.
A quick look at his entry in Baseball Reference shows that of his 11 games, Puccinelli pinch hit in 8 of those games and played outfield in the other three. All but two of his at-bats were against left-handed pitchers.
Outside of his statistics, there’s not a lot of info on George Puccinelli. However, I did find this Kansas City Times obituary of his on The Deadball Era website.
Sadly, Puccinelli died at an early age at 48 in 1956. I hope wherever he is, he knows he does make APBA fans smile whenever they look at his card.
Thank you for posting this. As great as the card is, give me this gentleman with a runner on third base :)
Amazing card no question. The 61 7 is pretty cool too. Too bad about his early passing. Thanks for posting.
@jeff lol but the interesting thing is that if he’s facing an A pitcher with that runner on third, those five tasty 7s are reduced to fly outs.
Of course, the 8s get through then.
Would this be what Roy Hobb’s card would look like?
Was he carded in the origainal 1930 set? I used to have it, I guess i got it about 1977. I don’t remember him being carded.
I just started a 1930 replay after I did some searching though boxes from about 35 years ago and was shocked to find an original 1930 set! Score for me! I can tell by how the cards are stuck together that I must have never played them. TALK ABOUT OFFENSE. Good lord.
oh yeah, it’s a fun set.
Check out some of John Brandeberry’s final stats from his 1930 replay.
http://www.apbablog.com/replay/brandos-1930-replay-the-final-stats-are-in
I must say it was a joy coming across this 10-y-o feature of the 1930 George Puccinelli card. Was recently playing a pick-up game with a friend: 1930 St. Louis Cardinals vs. 1930 Chicago White Sox (Sox won 9-3) using cards printed in the 70’s. And we couldn’t stop wondering what the Count’s card would look like!
Gilles Thibault just mentioned him in our latest interview with him!