1934 R313-A Gold Medal Foods - Mickey Cochrane

abothebear
Aug 14, 2021
2 min read

Like Goose Goslin, Mickey Cochrane joined the Tigers in 1934. The Tigers president tried to get Babe Ruth, but when that didn't work out, he went after Mickey. This was fortuitous as Babe Ruth only had one good season left. Cochrane won the MVP in 1934, and was even better in '35 when the Tigers did end up winning the World Series. Cochrane is still regarded as one of the top catchers of all-time. He was excellent defensively, and none could match him for hitting. For career on-base percentage, Mickey sits at 20th all-time, right below Mickey Mantle and right above Frank Thomas. No other catcher is even close. Mickey Cochrane is probably underrated.

This card is interesting because the "D" on the hat, and the "Detroit" on the jersey are clearly add-ons. This is photo of Mickey in his Philadelphia As uniform. It seems they could have gotten a Detroit photo, they had a whole season of him in uniform before they went to press. But people didn't care about that kind of thing back then, I guess.

I have owned two of these. The first one I'm pretty sure was the most I paid for a card in the set - around $50. It is the first or second most valuable card in the group. The second came in that great lot of R cards I mentioned before. They were nearly identical in condition. And since the first one was graded, I sold it (and got more than $50 for it).

Oh yeah, Mickey was also the team's manager.