The 1940 Play Ball baseball card set saw several key changes that built off the success of Gum Inc.'s 1939 release.
Yes, they were still a year away from including color imagery.
But the inner frame and nameplate along the bottom, flanked by a glove, bat, catcher's mask, and a couple of baseballs, were welcome additions.
For example, some players' cards, like Joe DiMaggio and Lefty Gomez, even contained a small pennant to recognize their 1939 pennant victories.
Gum Inc. obviously put creative thought into the design...
They also added big-name heroes of the past like Shoeless Joe Jackson, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner, and Walter Johnson to widen their appeal.
Overall, it was a solid follow-up to their 1939 debut.
And in this guide, we'll take a look at the 15 most valuable.
Let's jump right in!
1940 Play Ball #225 Shoeless Joe Jackson
Estimated PSA 5 NM-MT Value: $4,500
Despite being one of baseball's most controversial figures, Shoeless Joe Jackson is among the most celebrated players in the baseball card hobby.
His 1940 Play Ball issue is a prime example.
You'll notice that this set is loaded with Hall of Famers, many of which were still playing when this set was released.
Yet Jackson's card sits on top.
His legacy suffers from the infamous 1919 Black Sox scandal, which saw him accused of conspiring to fix the World Series.
Despite being acquitted, Jackson was permanently banned from baseball, an unfortunate end to a Hall of Fame-worthy career.
His on-field achievements were remarkable: he amassed 1,772 hits, 792 RBIs, and an impressive .423 on-base percentage.
And Jackson's career batting average of .356 ranks him among the all-time greats, placing him third in MLB history behind Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby.
Known for his powerful swing and exceptional ability to hit for both average and power, Jackson was unquestionably one of the game's greatest hitters.
And though controversy will always haunt his career, collectors overwhelmingly covet his baseball cards.
1940 Play Ball #1 Joe DiMaggio
Estimated PSA 5 NM-MT Value: $2,750
The New York Yankees organization had little time to enjoy their fourth consecutive World Series title.
After grabbing a fourth trophy in the 1939 World Series, New York stared down a protracted holdout process with two of their biggest stars: All-Star third baseman Red Rolfe and perennial MVP candidate Joe DiMaggio.
Both stars held out for weeks heading into the exhibition season, with seemingly no end in sight.
As you might expect, the tabloids had a field day.
Rolfe and DiMaggio reached accords right before Spring Training, cutting off the distraction before any games were played.
And neither missed a beat, even if the third-place Bombers did collectively.
Rolfe put together his third consecutive All-Star campaign, while DiMaggio returned to his post as the Majors' most complete ballplayer.
The 25-year-old center fielder won his second consecutive batting title with a .352 average while tallying 31 home runs, 93 runs, 133 RBIs, and a 1.051 OPS in 132 games.
1940 Play Ball #27 Ted Williams
Estimated PSA 5 NM-MT Value: $2,000
Ted Williams’ sophomore season was both a professional step forward and a horror show.
The numbers were great.
The 21-year-old outfielder built off his top-four MVP finish in year one, hitting .344 with an AL-best .442 on-base percentage, the first of seven consecutive seasons he’d led the league in OBP.
Williams also led the Majors in runs (134) while posting 23 home runs, 43 doubles, 14 triples, 96 walks, and 113 RBIs in 144 games.
You’d think the kid’s first All-Star season would be cause for celebration.
Instead, Williams’ sensitive and stand-offish attitude got him in trouble.
After saying no to an interview with one of the head honchos of the press corps (due to the writer’s drunken state), Teddy Ballgame became Media Enemy #1.
Smear pieces popped up regularly.
Fans alternated between booing and cheering him, causing him to regularly blow a gasket.
Williams was stuck in a no-win situation, albeit a situation that would get easier one .400 season later.
1940 Play Ball #133 Jimmie Foxx
Estimated PSA 5 NM-MT Value: $600
As young Ted Williams' stock rose, Jimmie Foxx stubbornly held onto the Boston spotlight for one or two last go-arounds.
At 32 years of age, Foxx battled the effects of years of drinking and multiple head injuries throughout the 1940 season.
The Boston Red Sox first baseman struggled with equilibrium issues due to sinus problems, and his eye in the batter's box got a little cloudier.
It's a testament to Foxx's greatness that he powered through with such a fantastic 1940 campaign.
Finishing sixth in the American League MVP race, Foxx slashed .297/.412/.581 with 36 home runs, marking the last of twelve consecutive 30-homer seasons for the Hall-of-Famer.
Double X also posted 101 walks, 106 runs scored, and 119 RBIs for his career's seventh-and-final 100/100/100 campaign.
He wasn't as spry as the 21-year-old Williams, and the wheels were slowly coming off, but Foxx was still firmly among the game's elite performers.
1940 Play Ball #40 Hank Greenberg
Estimated PSA 5 NM-MT Value: $500
The 2017 Houston Astros are just the tip of the baseball-cheating iceberg.
While the trash can bangin’ Astros are treated by some like a championship asterisk, what they did wasn’t new news.
Take the 1940 Detroit Tigers, for example. 3.5 games out of first place heading into September, the Motown Kitties finished 18-10 to wrest away the AL pennant from the Cleveland Indians.
It was a heart-stopping run.
It was also the result of theft.
According to Hall-of-Fame left fielder and 1940 AL MVP Hank Greenberg, the Tigers stole signs with the help of pitcher Tommy Bridges and his new rifle scope.
Greenberg hit nearly .400 in the season’s final month with a mind-bending 15 home runs in 28 games.
He had hit no more than eight in any of the previous five months.
The Detroit Tigers rode their manufactured momentum to within an eyelash of a World Series championship before falling to the Cincinnati Reds in seven.
1940 Play Ball #168 Honus Wagner
Estimated PSA 5 NM-MT Value: $500
Honus Wagner made an incredible mark on the game during his three seasons with the Louisville Colonels and eighteen with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Often considered one of baseball's greatest shortstops in MLB history, Wagner was also among the earliest five-tool superstars.
His 3,240 hits, eight batting titles, 1,733 RBIs and career .328 batting average proved he could produce at the plate.
Defensively, Wagner was a pioneer at his position, known for his quick reflexes and strong arm, which earned him recognition as one of the finest fielders of his era.
And it was on the basepaths where Wagner earned his nickname "The Flying Dutchman."
Once on base, Wagner was a nightmare for opposing teams, using his blazing speed to swipe 723 bases, good enough for tenth place on the all-time leaderboard.
As a testament to his greatness, Wagner was one of the five original Hall of Fame inductees in 1936.
When it comes to baseball cards, Wagner is forever immortalized by his infamous T206 card.
But this one is also a must-have.
1940 Play Ball #30 Moe Berg
Estimated PSA 5 NM-MT Value: $400
Moe Berg may have been the most interesting fellow in baseball history.
Berg's story reads out of a movie.
He played barely well enough for fifteen years to earn a Major League paycheck.
However, it may not have been his play that kept him there.
Depending on who you believe, Berg's MLB position might have been a cover for his work with the CIA.
In 1934, Berg visited Japan with a traveling baseball team and used both a disguise and his mastery of Japanese (and eleven other languages) to take top-secret photos of the Tokyo skyline.
The photos never proved useful to the Americans' WWII efforts, but the story outstrips the facts.
In 1940, Berg retired from baseball and doubled down on the weirdness.
While he hung around the game and mentored young talents like Ted Williams, it was his not-so-secret yet secret government work that made his tale taller and taller.
1940 Play Ball #120 Walter Johnson
Estimated PSA 5 NM-MT Value: $400
1940 Play Ball #88 Mel Ott
Estimated PSA 5 NM-MT Value: $300
By 1940, Mel Ott was the best of a bad New York Giants bunch.
Three years after a third World Series appearance in five years, New York was knee-deep in what would stretch into a 13-year-old October drought.
Most players at the core of those pennant teams were either gone or aged out of relevance.
Fan interest plummeted, and the Giants were now in-city afterthoughts to the hated New York Yankees.
It was a terrible time in Giantsland.
The only thing they seemed to have going for them was the play of Ott.
The 31-year-old right fielder/third baseman had his worst season by OPS+ (137) since his age-18 season and failed to register an MVP vote for the first time since 1933.
Regardless, he was still an All-Star hitter and the heart of another depleted New York lineup.
Ott slashed .289/.407/.457 for the sixth-place Giants with 19 home runs, 100 walks, 89 runs, and 79 RBIs in 151 games.
1940 Play Ball #175 Christy Mathewson
Estimated PSA 5 NM-MT Value: $300
Christy Mathewson's name is bound to be mentioned in any discussion centered around the best pitchers in baseball history.
Renowned for his remarkable control and innovative pitching techniques, Mathewson is credited for developing the "fadeaway," a precursor to the modern-day screwball.
Long story short: during Mathewson's 17 years in baseball, he was one of the last people you wanted to see if you were stepping into the batter's box.
With a staggering 373 wins, Mathewson sits in third place, tied with Grover Alexander, on the career wins list.
And his 2.13 ERA puts him in a tie with Al Spalding for eighth-best all-time.
Aside from his incredible career statistical achievements, Mathewson tossed two no-hitters, won two Triple Crowns, and led the New York Giants to the 1905 World Series title.
During that Series, Mathewson more or less singlehandedly dismantled Connie Mack's powerhouse Philadelphia Athletics.
In three starts, Mathewson tossed three shutouts.
And over those 27 innings, he struck out 18 batters while walking only one.
1940 Play Ball #173 Napoleon Lajoie
Estimated PSA 5 NM-MT Value: $275
1940 Play Ball #179 George Sisler
Estimated PSA 5 NM-MT Value: $200
1940 Play Ball #41 Charlie Gehringer
Estimated PSA 5 NM-MT Value: $200
Detroit Tigers legend Charlie Gehringer had one last quality season left in him coming into 1940.
Luckily, that season came during one of the most exhilarating pennant runs in franchise history.
Five years after the organization's first World Series win, the Tigers found themselves in hand-to-hand standings combat with four other American League teams.
The Yankees and Indians traded pennant positioning with them all year, and the Red Sox and White Sox hung on the periphery as potential threats.
Detroit ultimately got the better of a crowded field, riding a molten-hot September to the league pennant.
As for Gehringer, he was on fire for the entire second half, hitting .331 with an OPS over .900 from July through September.
It was the last hurrah for the former MVP and batting title winner.
The veteran second baseman followed a rough Series showing against the Reds with the worst season of his career.
He retired one year later.
1940 Play Ball #141 Casey Stengel
Estimated PSA 5 NM-MT Value: $200
1940 Play Ball #6 Lefty Gomez
Estimated PSA 5 NM-MT Value: $175
The 1940 New York Yankees were snake-bitten.
Lefty Gomez took plenty of the venom.
The 31-year-old southpaw entered Spring Training with a laundry list of grueling pains.
Already suffering through a chronic back issue, Gomez was forced to punch through added neck, knee, and shoulder discomfort.
Somehow, the Hall-of-Famer compartmentalized it all to make it to Opening Day.
He didn't last much longer than that.
Gomez was lifted from the game after five strong innings against the A's with stiffness in his throwing shoulder.
The prognosis turned out grim.
He made just eight more appearances over the remainder of the season.
After seven consecutive All-Star appearances and four straight World Series titles, Gomez's body was now going out on him.
It was a microcosm of an injury-riddled season in the Bronx.
New York missed out on the pennant for the first time in a half-decade.
To compound things, their ace would not be their ace for much longer.
1940 Play Ball Baseball Cards In Review
Unlike the 1939 and 1941 Play Ball sets, which featured rookie cards of Ted Williams and Pee Wee Reese, respectively, the 1940 Play Ball set doesn't contain any big-name rookie cards.
That's probably the biggest drawback of the 240-card checklist.
And it may be why this set doesn't seem to get as much attention as it deserves.
Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of collectors out there who love this set.
But, for some reason, it seems to fly under the radar more than it should.
To help fill out the expanded checklist, Gum Inc. included several former players who had long since retired.
As a result, there are over 50 Hall of Famers in the set.
That means nearly one in five cards is a Hall of Famer.
So, if you're a fan of vintage baseball cards and looking for a set that packs plenty of punch, you can't go wrong with 1940 Play Ball.