1964 Peñafiel #90 of Pete Reiser. Graded a 1 by SGC. There have been a total of two examples of this card graded by SGC, the highest grade being a 3. Bug damage to bottom right.
Pete Reiser is one of the biggest "what if" players in baseball history. In 1941, he led the National League in batting average, runs, doubles, triples, slugging percentage, OPS, and several other categories. He was 22 years old. He led the league in stolen bases the following year, then spent 3 years serving in WWII, and led the league again upon his return in 1946. The young Dodger star appeared to be on a direct path to Cooperstown. But he played baseball like an absolute psychopath, constantly diving for balls and crashing into walls. As a result, he suffered a number of injuries and concussions, the most famous coming in 1947. In a June game at Ebbets Field, Culley Rikard hit a bomb to center off of Ralph Branca that Reiser sold out for and caught, then smashed his skull on the Ebbets concrete wall. He was knocked out and bleeding badly. People thought he might be dead. But he came to, having merely suffered yet another concussion. Broken bones, separated shoulders, and multiple concussions derailed was was once a promising career. He would go on to be a coach on the Dodgers' staff from 1960 to 1964. This card pictures him shortly before his final season coaching with the Dodgers when the barnstormed in Mexico City before the 1964 season.
The 1964 Peñafiel set, issued in Mexico, contains 207 cards. It is mostly players in the Mexican League, but also has cards of all-time Mexican greats as well as all-time Major League greats that are cartoon-like drawings instead of photographs. It also has cards of the Los Angeles Dodgers team that barnstormed in Mexico that year. The images on those cards depict each player in Mexico and are unique images not found on any other cards. They measure 1 3/4" by 2 1/2". There are between 3 and 5 examples known of each card, and almost all of them have paper loss on the reverse due to having been pasted into the accompanying album. The backs were printed upside down.