Editing Johnny Mize (section)

==Early MLB career==
[[File:Johnny Mize Cardinals.jpg|thumb|left|Mize with the Cardinals]]
Mize was known as both "Big Jawn" and "The Big Cat" for his smooth fielding at first base. In 1937 he batted .364, but Cardinals teammate [[Joe Medwick]] took the title with a .374 average. He led the league in triples and OPS in 1938. In 1939, Mize finished second in the league's [[Most Valuable Player]] (MVP) voting after leading the league with a .349 average and 28 home runs.<ref name=BR/> Mize's 43 home runs in 1940 set a Cardinals team record that stood for nearly 60 years. At the end of the 1941 season, however, Cardinals general manager [[Branch Rickey]], who believed in trading players before their skills began to decline, traded Mize to the [[History of the New York Giants (baseball)|New York Giants]]. In exchange for Mize, the Cardinals received [[Bill Lohrman]], [[Johnny McCarthy (baseball)|Johnny McCarthy]], [[Ken O'Dea]], and $50,000.<ref name=BR>{{cite web|title=Johnny Mize|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mizejo01.shtml|publisher=[[Baseball-Reference.com]]|access-date=January 31, 2014}}</ref>

Mize was involved in a 1941 lawsuit against Gum Products Inc. The company manufactured a set of baseball cards called Double Play. Mize sued because he argued that the company did not have his consent to use his image in the card set. Gum Products Inc. won the lawsuit, but the company stopped producing its Double Play series because of the expenses it incurred during the legal proceedings with Mize.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Jamieson | first = Dave  |  title = Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession  | publisher = Atlantic Monthly Press, imprint of Grove/Atlantic Inc.  | year = 2010  | location = New York  | page = 92  | url =  https://books.google.com/books?id=yoW77vwAvnUC| isbn = 978-0-8021-1939-1}}</ref>

The Giants pursued Mize after learning that their first baseman, [[Babe Young]], was going to be forced into military service. In 1942, Mize hit for his lowest batting average to that point in his career (.305), but he hit 26 home runs and led the NL with 110 RBI.<ref name=SPT>{{cite news|title=Cards trade Johnny Mize to Giants|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19411212&id=ECBPAAAAIBAJ&pg=4460,2749619|access-date=January 31, 2014|newspaper=[[St. Petersburg Times]]|date=December 12, 1941}}</ref>