1954 Quaker Oats Sports Oddities #15 Jackie LaVine (Swimming)

1933 Goudey baseball cards were issued during the worst part of The Great Depression. The set ended up at 240 cards (239 printed in 1933 and one in 1934). In an effort to attract collectors, several of the games top players were honored with multiple cards including "The Great Bambino" who appeared on 4 different cards.
The Babe was once asked why he made more than the President of the United States, the Babe answered simply: "I had a better year than he did."

The Elusive Nap Lajoie
One of the most important facts regarding the 1933 Goudey set was their infamous marketing ploy. Goudey took "marketing" to a whole new level to keep people buying packs by never issuing card #106. Collectors wrote the Goudey Card Company complaining. They were rewarded with Goudey sending them the un-issued card #106 (Nap Lajoie) in 1934.

Competition was raging between Topps and Bowman in 1953 and 1954 leading to problems with both companies sets. Bowman caused Topps to missing 6 cards in 1953 with Topps getting revenge by signing Ted Williams to an exclusive contract in 1954. Bowman then had to pull Ted Williams card #66 from their set shortly after they started printing, replacing it with Jimmy Piersall, who also was on card #210 making the 1954 Bowman Ted Williams #6 one of 50's scarcest cards.

Perhaps distracted by it's competition with Topps, the 1954 Bowman set was filled with errors and variations. Nearly 20% (40/224 cards) had some sort of variation, with some having more than 2.

The St. Louis Browns recent move to Baltimore also made things interesting. Bowman's artists had no idea what an Orioles jersey would look like - so they just madeone up.