'59 Topps set build #6/572 Bill Hall

With the recent acquisitions at the monthly card show, I have a little over 100 cards towards the set.  I may need to make the posts on this project a little more frequent in order to keep up.   This is the 6th post so far...

Card #49:  Bill Hall

My poor effort at scanning unfortunately chopped a little off the top of Hall's card.  There is a little more white at the top, making this a nice copy of Bill's only card.  Many of you will probably remember the Bill Hall that played for the Brewers during the early 2000's.  The Trading Card Database doesn't distinguish between the two players if you do a Bill Hall search.

I'm pretty sure that this was one of the first cards I purchased for the '59 set last May at the Robert Morris card show.  It's in really good shape, the corners are nice and the edges are nice and smooth.  I don't think that I'll even worry about replacing this card.

Career beginnings:  Bill signed with the Pirates as an amateur free agent in 1947

Career Line:  .262 average, 1 HR and 15 RBI's.

• I'll be very curious to see if there are any other cards from the '59 set that contain detailed minor league stats similar to what you see on Bill's card.
• Bill had 3 ABs with the Pirates in the '56 season.  These were not included on the back of the card.
• Hall played for teams such as the Hollywood Stars (appropriate), the Columbus Jets (in '59 & '60) and the Salt Lake City Bees.
• This card is also the first card that I've shown that doesn't have a cartoon drawing on the back.  
• I can imagine that Bill batted 8th a lot during the '58 season, because 8 of his 15 walks were intentional.

Bill spent his entire 13 year career in the Pirates system.  I can see why Topps wrote the line that Bill was a fine candidate for the regular catchers position. Bill was one of 3 backstops to play for the Pirates in 1958, and his OPS was higher than the other catchers who played for the Pirates that year.   Unfortunately for Bill, the Pirates made a big trade in January of '59, picking up Smoky Burgess (the #1 catcher for the '59 Pirates), Harvey Haddix and Don Hoak from the Reds for Frank Thomas and 3 part time players. 

Bill's only career HR came off of St. Louis pitcher Jim Brosnan.

Bill passed away on New Years Day, 1986 at the age of 57 in his hometown of Moultrie, GA.

thanks for reading, Robert