Post War Vintage....1949 Leaf Paige

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

The lack of Paige cards is not attributable to "collating"
problems. The collating process doesn't know the difference
between a Paige, a Doby, or any other player....it's random.
If this was true there would be other players in this 2nd
series of 49 cards that would be just as tough to find.

I have seen many of these "scarce" Leafs over the years in
the process of completing my set and up-grading it. Sure there
are players like Enos Slaughter, George Kell, Bob Feller, and
Larry Doby that are somewhat tougher than the others; but, no
where near as tough as Paige.

In 1981 I was doing research on this Leaf BB set and the 1949
Bowman set for an article for Bob Lemke. I spoke with an older
Leaf employee in Chicago and I visited with George Moll, near
Philadelphia. Moll ran the Adv. agency for the Bowman Gum Co.
They talked about the litigation battle of which Gum Co. had the
rights to market BB card premiums with their Gum product.

Bowman was first with their 1948 BB issue, and when Leaf was
first in 1949 with their BB issue, Warren Bowman (Pres.) took
the Leaf Co. to court. We know the outcome of this litigation,
Bowman won their case. The conflict was not only who was first
to market, but who had contractual rights to portray certain
players. Satchell Paige was the focus of attention, as were
some other players. But, since Paige was the new "hot" rookie
ballplayer the year before, Bowman argued that they exclusively
had the rights to portray him, and that Leaf should desist from
marketing him.