Is Nothing Sacred??

So, the Astros and Rangers are 'opening' the season tonite over at Minute Maid Park. My son will be there with his girlfriend to enjoy the game and festivities. But I'd like to see the majors go back to the tradition of having the Reds open the season on a Monday afternoon. It'll never happen, I understand that. But I'm a little tired of TV dictating everything in sports.
So here is my '81 Topps Johnny Bench. Great portrait of a Hall of Fame catcher who saw his share of Opening Day games in Crosley Field (1969 and 1970) and Riverfront Stadium (1971 thru 1981, with a year off due to a slight injury in 1977).
I hope your team makes you happy this year.

Earl's Shirt

I hope you've seen ARGO. If you haven't you have missed out on a terrific film. I watched it again the other  night at home and it was just as great as it was last fall in the theater. I only bring this up because there is a fun, quick moment in it when the character played by Ben Affleck (CIA operative Tony Mendez) and his supervisor are trying to convince CIA bosses that a plan to use a movie film crew 'ruse' would allow them to extract a small group of Americans from Iran during the 79/80 crisis. When questioned about this 'bad plan' Mendez' boss, played by Bryan Cranston says:

"This is the best bad plan we have... by far, sir."

And that quote struck me the other day when I received this eBay-bought Panini National Treasures Earl Weaver uniform swatch card. See, I don't trust any of these companies to use real uniforms, bat pieces, DNA samples or whatever they stick into these type of cards. I just don't. 

I think paying a premium for something I feel to be a dubious authenticity is a bad idea. But seeing how there is a chance that this really IS a piece of an Earl jersey (maybe even a piece of his custom sewn-in cigarette pocket!!), well I might as well go with it on faith.

So here it is, #'d 10 of 25. With one of those 'definitive' pictures of the Earl of Baltimore on the front. What a guy.

Random 80's Crap from my Hobby Closet, Pt.6 (Final installment, I think)

Recently I pulled a random box out of my 'hobby closet' and opened it just for the hell of it. I have about a dozen of these boxes, most are the document storage-type things and I haven't looked at them in years. Inside the one I chose I found all sorts of junk I had picked up in the 80's. There is no logic to any of it. I bought whatever struck my fancy back in those days and I saved everything. I found small boxed sets that I had pulled the Orioles out of, commercially produced and team issued postcards, odd ball TCMA trash, unlicensed photo cards, pocket schedules, ticket stubs and much more. While I'm off visiting the Big Apple I thought I'd put up a few posts showing the 'stuff' I once valued so highly. 

Yes, I've gotten down to the bottom of the box of 80's crap and even I'm sick of it. But I had put aside the few 'legit' cards that were contained in it and saved them for this final post.

So, here we go:

1981 Topps Tito Landrum Rookie card. Yes, a couple of other guys share this card but they don't count. Landrum, with one swing of the bat, became a Baltimore folk hero.

A 1963 Topps Rookie Stars card featuring floating heads of, well, Pete Ward I guess. Or maybe Vic Davalillo. Phil Roof played a long time and then was a minor league manager. George Williams dropping in for coffee with the Phils and Colt 45s.

I found this 1982 Fleer Johnny Oates and it was in a hard sleeve for some unknown reason. He was long gone from the Orioles when this card came out.

 OK, now we're talking, a 1977 Kellogg's 3-D Bill Madlock. Interestingly this set doesn't mention Kellogg's anywhere. Never noticed that before.

A 1983 Kellogg's Ozzie Smith. I didn't know his given name is "Osborne Earl Smith". I do now. Pretty poor crop job on the photo, it makes it look like his hat is four sizes too big.

1980 Topps Kiko Garcia card. I saw one of his infrequent homers up in Arlington. He hit it off Fergie Jenkins and the O's squeaked out a 5-4 win. They won it on a single in the top of the ninth by Al Bumbry that scored Garcia. Don 'Full Pack' Stanhouse got the save. In typical fashion he walked the tying run on before ending it with a strikeout.

1971 Orioles World Series Celebration card. Easy to spot Andy Etchebarren, Merv Rettunmund, Mike Cuellar, Boog Powell and Bobby Grich. Don't know who the guy on the left in the straw hat is. Probably a party crasher.

And finally, a Sandy Koufax Baseball Card News advertising card. Yes, it may not be a 'legit' card but it IS Sandy Koufax. And a Brooklyn Dodger era Koufax, to boot.

Greer Garson, Part 2

Here is another novelty item featuring my favorite actress, Greer Garson. This came from a vending machine that stamped your weight onto the back of the 'card' and also contained a pre-printed .fortune similar to the ones found in fortune cookies.

I'm not sure if the machines were found in J.C. Penny's stores or the store name is an ad.

Picture flipped to view the stamped weight and printed 'fortune':

Closer to actual size and scanned with a ruler for perspective.

The lot I bought contained this Susan Hayward card as well. Neither of these is in very good shape but I appreciate having such an unusual piece of Garson memorabilia in my collection. 

Random 80's Crap from my Hobby Closet, Pt.5

Recently I pulled a random box out of my 'hobby closet' and opened it just for the hell of it. I have about a dozen of these boxes, most are the document storage-type things and I haven't looked at them in years. Inside the one I chose I found all sorts of junk I had picked up in the 80's. There is no logic to any of it. I bought whatever struck my fancy back in those days and I saved everything. 
I found small boxed sets that I had pulled the Orioles out of, commercially produced and team issued postcards, odd ball TCMA trash, unlicensed photo cards, pocket schedules, ticket stubs and much more. While I'm off visiting the Big Apple I thought I'd put up a few posts showing the 'stuff' I once valued so highly. 

This is a Donruss-Leaf postcard sized 1987 All Star card from one of the many over-sized junk sets that I simply had to grab a few of back in the day. I like Franco because he was a Brooklyn boy (as was I.....Ocean Avenue/Kings Highway!!) And check out his All Star stats, all doughnuts.

This is the box and a couple of examples of yet another 80's era boxed set made by Topps. 33 'Super Gloss' cards and a stick of gun for $2. Such a deal. I'm not sure but this may be a K-Mart set. I know that store carried a lot of these things. K-Mart is long gone in Houston and so are these boxed sets I guess.

Anyone collect All Star ballots? If you do I've got a stack of '86 ballots. I guess I kept these because I attended that game. It was in the Astrodome and is significant because it was the last game ever managed by Dick Howser. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor about then and never returned to the dugout for the Royals. He died two years later at the age of 51.

I went with a friend of mine after I had entered a ticket lottery and was able to snag two seats in the right field pavilion. We spent the lead up to the game hanging out at the headquarters hotel, the Houston Hyatt Regency in downtown. We picked up some autographs, crashed a couple of dinners and talked to relief pitcher Don Aase of the Orioles. I had a premonition that he'd get the save and told him so. He laughed and shook my hand. Turns out I was right. He finished the game by getting a dp grounder out of Chris Brown of the Giants.

That was the second of the three All Star games to be held in Houston and I made them all. This was the best game but the neatest experience (by far) came at the 2004 game at Minute Maid Park. That's a story worthy of it's own post.

Baseball Photo Classics. I don't even remember where or why I got these but I sure have a lot of them. The were put out by TCMA and were a lot like the Exhibit cards that could be bought out of vending machines even as late as the early 60's. I remember getting those on the Coney Island boardwalk with my Grandfather as a kid.

This set had old timers (and some not-so-old timers) and old time novelty pictures and are postcard size.

Greer Garson, Part One

Taking another step away from the world of sports here is a pretty neat item I snagged awhile back.

It's a fan photo from MGM's remarkably beautiful Greer Garson. It came in the original envelope as sent to a young fan in Ohio circa 1944.

I'm assuming it was a young fan based on the notations made on the envelope ("My Movy Stars'). The stamped addition to the envelope heralds her next film which was entitled Mrs. Parkington and debuted in 1944.

Greer Garson is matched perhaps only by Ingrid Bergman on my list of favorite actresses. I have a few other items that I'll toss out here that relate to this terrific star who seven times was nominated for an Oscar and took one home for her role in 1942's Mrs. Miniver.

Random 80's Crap from my Hobby Closet, Pt.4 (Why do I save this stuff edition)

Recently I pulled a random box out of my 'hobby closet' and opened it just for the hell of it. I have about a dozen of these boxes, most are the document storage-type things and I haven't looked at them in years. Inside the one I chose I found all sorts of junk I had picked up in the 80's. There is no logic to any of it. I bought whatever struck my fancy back in those days and I saved everything. 
I found small boxed sets that I had pulled the Orioles out of, commercially produced and team issued postcards, odd ball TCMA trash, unlicensed photo cards, pocket schedules, ticket stubs and much more. While I'm off visiting the Big Apple I thought I'd put up a few posts showing the 'stuff' I once valued so highly. 

I used to keep everything. No matter how useless it might be. Like ticket stubs, business cards of people who I knew I'd never need to deal with again, Reggie Bar wrappers, etc. Here's proof from my box of 80s junk:

First up a Ted Williams photo card that had a subscription ad for Baseball Card News on the back, dated 1983. I have six of them. Lord knows why. But I did like Baseball Card News. I liked all the publications, Tuff Stuff, The Trader Speaks, SCD. I got them all at one time or another.

This is a Mother's Cookies Nolan Ryan. I guess any Nolan item is worth saving. I bet a Ryan fan would like this. I always took my kids to Mother's Cookies giveaway days at the Astrodome. They liked the cards a lot. The distribution was intended to encourage kids to swap dupes to obtain a full set but I never knew anyone who did that.

I was puzzled when I looked up the date August 14th on the Yankee's 1980 schedule and it showed them to be in Baltimore that night. I had gone to Yankee Stadium on that annual summer trip and the Yankee logo caused me to assume it was from the game we saw against the White Sox. Then I realized that this was from a game in Baltimore against the Yanks that same week. The section number should have tipped me wise when I saw it. 

I had a brief fling as an Expos fan in the first few years of their existence. My family took a vacation in Montreal and Quebec City in the summer of 1969 and on August 13th we were at Parc Jarry when the played, and lost to, the Reds. It was a wild experience. The fans were really rabid and it was 'Bat Night'. You've never lived until you have listened to the sound of thousands of bats pounding on aluminum seats all at the same time. 

Another memorable thing about that night was following Jim Palmer's no-hitter via the scoreboard. The Expos game ran 11 innings and was over late and Palmer had wrapped things up by the time we left. The scoreboard in Montreal was updating the Orioles-A's game every inning. It was a very great night!

All of which is a roundabout way of explaining this Mack Jones postcard. I bought it and several others including Rusty Staub, at the concession stand that night. For a few years the Expos eclipsed the Dodgers as my NL team of interest.

How cool is Mack Jones?

College sports schedules are another thing I have tons of. I guess I ought to just keep one of each. This Phi Slama Jama one is pretty cool. That's Akeem (he was 'Akeem' before he was 'Hakeem') Olajuwon. That was a terrific team to watch. 

Why I have a small stash of 1984 Rice Owl football schedules is a mystery to me. 

This ticket stub comes from the Colts visit to the Dome in 1984. The Colts won, 35-21. Since the wounds of the Colts' departure from Baltimore were still fresh I was cheering for the Oilers despite having so many of my favorite players, Curtis Dickey, Ray Butler, etc. in Indy. Earl Campbell, one of the most fun players to watch ever, scored twice. Section 502 was behind the west end-zone upstairs. I also sat there for University of Houston games for many, many years.

And finally here is a USFL schedule for the Houston Gamblers. By all accounts they were a fun team to watch with the early version of the Run-N-Shoot triggered by Jim Kelly. I never saw them play. Not even on TV. I had no interest in any pro football league other than the NFL. I did meet Jim Kelly once though. One afternoon he walked in to a memorabilia store I frequented. the folks who ran the place were huge USFL/Gambler fans. He poked around, posed for a pic or two, signed a few things for them and left. I might have said 'Hi' or shook his hand. I don't remember.