Hage's Dairy of Southern California sponsored regional card sets from 1949-51, offered at concession stands for Lane Field Park, home of the PCL San Diego Padres. Most came packaged with popcorn and it's possible others entered the hobby via company or team promotions.

1949 proves the rarest of these Hage's sets and contains 105 players on thin stock with blank backs and one of four color tints, Black & White, Sepia, Blue, or Green. The combined SGC/PSA population reports for its F65-1 catalog number show fewer than 200 total graded examples for all players, making these true diamonds in the rough!

Rinaldo "Rugger" Ardizoia bounced around the minors more often than most players, as his Italian birthplace gave him ""enemy alien"" status during WWII and limited him to teams who could provide supervised domestic travel during those years. After the war, he appeared in a single game for the Yankees in 1947 before returning to the PCL, which brought him to Seattle.

The SGC AUTH grade reflects what appear to be hand-cut edges that waver near its corners. A bit of additional typical handling wear and foxing appear on the front and back. Regardless of technical grade, just two examples appear on combined population reports, so its scarcity outweighs any cosmetic flaws in collector interest!