Bob Moose PC

I've seen a lot of major league games through the years but only one no-hitter. That came September 20, 1969 at Shea Stadium when the Pirates' Bob Moose slammed the door (at least for a day) on the Mets' pennant express. That game was the last loss the Mets suffered at home that year as the rolled to the World Championship.

I became a Bob Moose fan that day and while collecting his cards has never been a huge priority I did have a page with a couple of them in one of my binders. I recently thought that since his cards are all very cheap I'd finish out my PC, at least with his regular Topps cards.  COMC provided most of these.

That's his '68 rookie card up top. I don't know about anyone else but those cheesy Pirates caps with their logo on a patch always made us wonder how team could be so cheap. I mean out little league caps had logo patches! Moose's cardmate, Bob Robertson looked like he was going to have a big career as a slugging firstbaseman. He hit 53 homers in his first two seasons as a regular in Pittsburgh but while he played for about a decade in all he never again approached those numbers.

The rest of the Moose collection starting with 1969 through 1972:

The 1969 is my favorite as it pictures him as I always remember him, in that sleeveless Bucco gear. The later Pirate unis bring back too many bad memories of Orioles World Series defeats.

'73 & '74......hardly looks like the same guy in these two cards. I saw Moose beat the Astros in August of '74 at the Astrodome. He had a pair of wins that season in Houston and I saw the second one. I only recall which of the two I saw because I had just moved into an apartment close enough to the Dome that I could walk there. I'd had my fill of dorm life after a couple of years and getting an apartment was a big move for me.

This is the '73 O-Pee-Chee version. Looks the same on the front.

Here are the backs of the two versions. OPC on the right. They had to ditch the stylized font to squeeze in the bilingual text in the cartoon.

I have both the '75 regular and mini cards.

This 1976 card is the last one Topps issued of Bob Moose. Not long after the '76 season, on his 29th birthday, Moose died in a car wreck while headed to a golf outing at Bill Mazeroski's course in Ohio.

Moose was also featured as the Pirates' rep in the 1970 comic booklet insert.

The last cartoon panel references his '69 no-hitter.

Here is his 1976 SSPC card. And yes, Joe Shlabotnik, it's taken at Shea. I recall those ugly plywood(?) panels they installed behind some of the seating sections. Plus, I can spot one of the Big Apple's Finest behind Moose.

The best part of having a Bob Moose PC is that his cards are cheap and easy to chase. You can find acceptable copies of all of them for around a buck or less. There are a handful of regional issues out there, a couple of which I put lowball bids on from time to time. No hurry on those.