The "Morrell" of the Story: These Are Tough Vintage Dodgers Cards
Collecting the 1959 to 1961 Morrell Meats Sets
By Kevin Glew
They produced the original "Dodger Dogs," so it was only fitting that Morrell Meats would also unveil cards of Major League Baseball's earliest West Coast stars.
And while their hot dog wieners were being consumed at a brisk pace at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from 1959 to 1961, Morrell Meats cards of baseball greats like Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Duke Snider were being pulled from meat packages purchased in neighboring grocery stores. One promotional card was in each package.
Gil Ramirez, owner of the No. 2 Current Finest 1959 Morrell Meats set on the PSA Set Registry, grew up in the Los Angeles area and remembers opening a pack of hot dogs to get one of these cards when he was a kid. "The card was sealed in cellophane," recalled Ramirez.
In total, three Morrell Meats sets were released between 1959 and 1961 and cards were distributed regionally in meat products in the Los Angeles area. The unnumbered cards present full-bleed player photos on their fronts.
"I love the 'pure card' aspect of the Morrells," said Mark Hellman, who has owned the Registry's top 1959 set since 2004. "They are glossy cards that really make the nice examples shine. The photos are clear and represent the players very well."
Veteran collector Peter Margolis, who has built the No. 4 Current Finest 1959 Morrell Meats set on the PSA Set Registry, likes the fact that the majority of the photos were snapped at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the home of the Dodgers from 1958 to 1961.
"You have a lot of great photos of these guys in their prime. Then, in the background, you see the Los Angeles Coliseum, which is such an unforgettable place, and the Dodgers only played there for a short time," noted Margolis, who lives in Los Angeles.
"To have these sets that contain photographs of the players from this memorable period is wonderful. For me, these cards bring me back to an era that's long gone. I love them."
Though separated from the meat in the packages, these cards are still tough to uncover in high grade. Paul Dubbeld, who has Registry sets of each of the Morrell Meats issues, said the card stock is fragile.
"It's not like the regular card stock," noted Dubbeld. "It's more like a photo stock."
Additionally, the cellophane packaging didn't fully protect the cards.
"Because they were packaged with hot dogs, the oil would seep through the plastic covering that the cards were in," noted Margolis.
This has resulted in high demand for top-grade examples. It also doesn't hurt that the Dodgers were one of the National League's best teams when these sets were printed. The club won the World Series in 1959 and the Dodger teams from this era featured several prominent stars, including the aforementioned Koufax, Drysdale and Snider, as well as Gil Hodges, Carl Furillo, Johnny Podres and Maury Wills.
Here's a breakdown of the three Morrell Meats sets:
1959 Morrell Meats
Dubbeld and Margolis have both stated that the first Morrell Meats set has been the toughest to assemble. These are standard sized (2-1/2" by 3-1/2") cards with fronts that exhibit full-bleed photos. Ramirez pointed out that the photos used for the 1959 cards were the same photos employed for a set of postcards that the Dodgers sold at the Coliseum. The savvy collector also noted that the Milwaukee Braves are warming up in the background in many of these photos.
"I think the photos were taken in one of the series that the Milwaukee Braves were playing prior to one of the day games [in 1958]," added Ramirez.
The horizontal backs of the 1959 cards offer the player name, birth date and birth place in burgundy text above a Morrell Meats ad that highlights the products (wieners, smokees, cheesefurters, polish sausage) that these cards were inserted with. The Morrell Meats logo can be found in the bottom left, alongside the company slogan and copyright information.
"The 1959 release is easily my favorite [of the three Morrell Meats sets]," said Hellman. "I went to the Coliseum as a kid in the 1950s to watch the Rams and, later in 1958, to see the Dodgers. It also became apparent to me that the 1959 set was the toughest of the three."
Just 215 cards in total have been submitted from this series and the highest-graded examples are the three PSA NM-MT 8s and two PSA MINT 9s.
"The 1959 cards are all incredibly difficult to find," said Hellman. "Until I was able to seed the hobby with my find, nearly every 1959 Morrell to be found was hammered. Why? Tough to speculate, but it is true that Dodger stuff became much more interesting to kids in L.A. after they won the championship in 1959."
The find Hellman is referring to occurred in 1984 or 1985 when someone representing a Rabbi responded to an ad he had placed in a hobby publication. Hellman, who lives in Los Angeles, says the centerpiece of the Rabbi's collection was a large quantity of 1959 Morrell Meats cards.
"The most plentiful cards were [Don] Zimmer and [John] Roseboro. I think there must have been 30 or 35 of each - one nicer than the next," recalled Hellman. "The worst examples had little worn tips on the corners, and that's about it. As I recall, there were 20 Sniders, 15-to-20 Furillos, a dozen [Norm] Larkers, maybe half a dozen Podres, [Clem] Labine and Drysdales, and two or three [Jim] Gilliams and [Charlie] Neals. I don't think there was a Hodges - or maybe there was one that was not in great shape - and certainly no Koufax cards. Over the next 30 years, I sold nearly all of the cards I don't currently have in my Registry sets."
The Koufax in this series is easily the most valuable Morrell Meats card. This single showcases the legendary lefty in a pitching pose.
"There are a lot of Koufax collectors and this card just doesn't become available that often," said Dubbeld.
Just 17 have been graded by PSA and the sole PSA NM+ 7.5 represents the highest-graded example. It sold for $25,152 in a Mile High Card Company auction in October 2018.
"I don't think I've ever seen a Sandy Koufax other than the one I have," added Margolis.
Two other Hall of Famers - Snider and Drysdale - are also featured in the set. Neither have had an example grade above PSA EX-MT 6 to date.
"What's interesting is that all the pictures featured on the Morrell cards were taken at the L.A. Coliseum, except for the Drysdale. They took his picture at Los Angeles' Wrigley Field," said Ramirez, noting that this applies to the Drysdale photos in all three Morrell Meats sets.
There are also two uncorrected error cards. The Labine single mistakenly presents a photo of Stan Williams, while the photo on the Larker card is actually Joe Pignatano.
"Whenever a Labine card or a Larker card surfaces, they get sold quickly because they are just really difficult to grade," said Ramirez. "And for some reason, the Labine is very hard, if not impossible, to find in high grade. I've never seen one higher than a [PSA] 6."
There are two PSA 6 examples of the Labine. A PSA PR+ 1.5 with MK qualifier sold for $99 on eBay in July 2017.
On top of the 1959 cards being generally harder to find than singles from the other two Morrell Meats issues, they are also more elusive in top grade. In some cases, Ramirez commented, it appears that colors from the product packaging have bled on to the cards.
1960 Morrell Meats
The 12-card, 1960 Morrell Meats series seems to have been more widely distributed than its predecessor. More than three times as many cards from this offering have been submitted to PSA than the 1959 series. This was also the only Morrell Meats set in which the cards were printed in Japan.
Like the 1959 cards, these showcase full-bleed photos on their fronts, but the backs are significantly different. The subject's name and vitals are printed in blue at the top, while year-by-year statistics were added in the middle. The Morrell Meats logo is in the bottom left next to advertising information that notes that the company's franks are "served exclusively at all Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Games."
Four Dodgers - Walter Alston, Roger Craig, Wally Moon and Larry Sherry - can be found in this offering but are missing from the 1959 set.
The Koufax single is again the highlight. This card exhibits the 24-year-old southpaw smiling in a non-action photo that was taken at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Of the 123 submitted, there have been five PSA 9s with none higher. One PSA 9 sold for $6,600 in a Mile High Card Company auction in September 2017.
Reports indicate that the Furillo, Snider and Hodges cards are short prints. To date, the highest grade achieved by all three cards has been one PSA 8 each.
"I think Furillo was short printed because he was released by the Dodgers in May of 1960," noted Ramirez.
Drysdale is once again part of this series. Eighty-one examples of his card have been sent in to PSA for grading and there's one PSA GEM-MT 10, which represents one of only two examples (the 1960 Roger Craig card being the second) to have garnered this lofty grade from all three Morrell Meats sets.
Ramirez said you see a lot of flaking and corner wear on these cards.
"In 1960, production was sent to Japan and the card stock used was horrible," added Hellman. "When stacked, the obverse stuck to the reverse of the card on top and resulted in many cards being left with white spots on the fronts from paper loss. Nonetheless, there are still a lot of high grade 1960s."
1961 Morrell Meats
The final Morrell Meats Dodgers set was reduced to six cards. At 2-1/4" by 3-1/4" each, the cards, themselves, were also smaller. The card fronts boast full-bleed photos, while the backs are similar to those in the 1960 set but showcase burgundy text rather than blue. If you look closely, you'll also notice some other differences from the 1960 backs, including the vitals missing from the top, a symbol in the bottom-right corner rather than the word Japan and an extra line of stats to account for the 1960 campaign.
Dubbeld stated that this set was harder to assemble than the 1960 set.
The Koufax card flaunts the same photo as his 1959 single, but it's much easier to obtain. Of the 124 evaluated, there have been five PSA 9s, three PSA NM-MT+ 8.5s and 18 PSA 8s. A PSA 9 sold for $3,034 in a Mile High Card Company auction in October 2018.
The Drysdale is the second-most desirable card. Of the 67 sent into PSA, there has been one PSA 9, one PSA 8.5 and six PSA 8s. A PSA 9 sold for $1,560 in a Heritage Auctions sale in April 2018.
This set also houses a Maury Wills card that was distributed two years prior to his mainstream rookie (1963 Fleer). Of the 52 Wills cards submitted, there's one PSA 8 and 11 PSA NM 7s.
Two other Dodgers - Tommy Davis and Frank Howard - also made their Morrell Meats debuts in this issue.
For more information on the 1959-1961 Morrell Meats card sets, please visit PSA _Card_Facts.