Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, who would later be known as “Mr. Cub” began his rookie season in 1954 and would finish the season with a .275 average, 19 home runs and 79 RBI. This offered lineup card comes from the first game of a double-header on September 21, 1954 game between the visiting St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs won the game 4-3 behind the complete game effort of Bob Rush and the walk-off hit of Gene Baker, who singled off of Gerry Staley to score Frank Baumholtz with the winning run. This offered cream-colored lineup card is from the Chicago Cubs from the September 21, 1954 game and has “OFFICIAL BATTING ORDER” printed on the top with two columns “ORIGINAL” and “CHANGE”. The “ORIGINAL” column has the pre-printed order numbered 1-9 and the “CHANGE” column has B and C lines next to the corresponding order number. Written in black pen is the lineup of the Cubs “Baumholtz Baker Fondy Sauer Banks Kiner Jackson Fanning Rush”. The back of this card has the “WRIGLEY FIELD SPECIAL GROUND RULES” and signed at the bottom is Stan Hack, the manager of the Cubs in 1954. Banks was a rookie in 1954 (only playing a handful of games in 1953, none of which matched this lineup) and Kiner was no longer on the team by 1955. This lineup was only utilized once in the 1954 season (or any season) on 9/21/1954. This card has been encapsulated by Beckett Authentication (11135644). Since most lineup cards were thrown out, it is likely that at most a small handful of the rookie lineup cards still exist making this a very scarce and highly sought after line up card.

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