A pair of 50s Bowman invade the Treasure Room

It's not often that I add vintage Bowman, but when I do I like to do it on the cheap.

1950 Bowman Dale Coogan and Eddy Fitzgerald

One of the dealers at a local mall card show gave me a super sweet deal on the above two Bowmans.  Both for $4 TOTAL!!!!  I always go to his booth looking through boxes upon boxes of vintage Topps trying to complete my Pirates team sets and pick up any star players I can grab cheaply.

There's not much information on these two guys on the web.  Dale Coogan played in only one season for the Pirates as a 19 year old.  His OBP was .338 over 53 games.  Not a bad on base percentage, BUT when you're a 1st basemen and have a slugging percentage of .326, you're likely not going to get too many reps especially when Johnny Hopp is slugging a ridiculous .522 with an OBP of .420 at the position.  I'm guessing Hopp got injured and Coogan played during that stretch then was released or sent back to the minors.

Eddy Fitz Gerald was the team's primary backup backstop in the late 40s and early 50s. He played 6 seasons with the Pirates, then went on to play 7 seasons with Washington, before retiring at the age of 35 as a Cleveland Indian.  His lifetime stats are .260/.323/.336 with 19 Homeruns and 542 career hits.