Note: this is a relist. This card was auctioned in late April but the bidder did not complete the sale.
About the Player
A short bio from the Helmar “This Great Game” card back: As a boy in Puerto Rico, Roberto was a soccer player before he was a baseball star. Now he wows Pittsburgh fans with his feet and his arms, as an All-Star outfielder and batting champion. Clemente rarely sees a pitch he doesn’t swing at, he’s one of baseball’s notorious bad-ball hitters. “I try to knock him down and he hits a pitch to the wall for a triple,” Dodger hurler Don Drysdale says. Clemente saves his best for the Dodgers, who lost him in the Rule 5 Draft to the Bucs. Clemente owns a career batting average over .340 against the Bums.
About the Series
The Helmar R-319 series was originally 180 cards. Then we expanded it to 240. Then 308. Right now it’s complete at 511 cards. The design is based on one of the greatest baseball card sets of all time, the 1933 Goudey set. The 1933 Goudey set has, famously, four Babe Ruths. We have many of the greatest players from Goudey set, and also Babe Didrikson, Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Martin Dihigo, many other Cuban and Japanese players, and Negro Leaguers. R-319s have a good amount of text on the reverse. When you’re reading the back of a Helmar R-319 we aim to transport you back in time to a moment in the player’s career. Fleetwood Walker and the color barrier coming down. The great Rube Foster’s breakdown. Swede Risberg being banned from baseball. Given the scope, the expense and the complexity for a small company or artist to put together such a big set of original art, no one else may ever attempt to create a set this ambitious.