More Card Show Vintage

When you are digging through a huge plastic tub of old cards trying to fill your hand with $5 worth of 20 centers you end up grabbing stuff for any old reason. I had no sets to fill and no goals to meet so I just grabbed what caught my eye. Here is a portion of the stuff I took home:

1962 Jim 'Mudcat' Grant. I mean, why not? Love this card of Grant which I'm guessing was taken pregame on a sunny Sunday at 'the big ballpark' as Red Barber used to call it. That means there is a fair chance i was there that day. I need more Mudcat Grant cards...hell, everyone does.

Marv Grissom doesn't look all that happy to have had the San Francisco Seals' logo painted onto his cap.

In the 1954 Series Grisson entered Game One in the Polo Grounds with the Giants and Indians tied 2-2 with one out and runners on the corners. You can be assured that the crowd was buzzing as he walking in from that far away Giants bullpen. Not because of Grissom mind you, but because that one out was the result of Willie Mays' storied over-the-shoulder catch that robbed Vic Wertz of an extra base hit.

Grisson retired the side after loading the bases with a walk to pinch hitter Dale Mitchell and then pitched two more innings until  Dusty Rhodes' three run dinger won the game for him and the Giants in the bottom of the tenth. Looking at the play-by-play I noticed that Grissom gave up a double to Wertz to open the tenth. But Leo Durocher had faith and he kept Grissom in the game. I'd have to think that nowadays the manager would have been headed for the mound and tapping his arm before Wertz had even pulled up at second.

Maybe even more remarkable is that Grissom was allowed to lead off the bottom of the ninth in that World Series game! It's not like Durocher was out of pitchers, heck Grissom wasn't even the #1 bullpen option for the '54 Giants. That role was held by Hoyt Wilhelm. The basics of baseball have never changed but the philosophy of it sure has.

Wes Covington may have changed teams but with the Phillies, as with the Braves, he likes being photographed at the bat rack.

Like the Mudcat Grant, this '67 Topps Chuck Hinton holds a memory-invoking background view of Yankee Stadium. He was originally signed by the Orioles, btw.  And he made the 1964 All Star squad as a member of the Senators. Now you have some trivia questions to ask at your next trip to the corner bar.

A .20 cent 1979 Yaz card. He was a ballplayer. And I need more cards of him. That cap though. The red cap with a blue brim they wore back then just looked wrong to me.

1981 Donruss Reggie. I have no idea why I picked this card, either to buy or scan. But here it is. Pop quiz time...Who's bat is Reggie holding?  Answer at the bottom.

1970 Steve Barber. I was a big Steve Barber guy back when he pitched for my Orioles. I wasn't happy when he was traded to the Yankees. Here he is with the Seattle Pilots who took him in the expansion draft and for whom he won 4 games in 1970. By the time this card hit the stores in Topps '70 set he was gone from Seattle as were the Pilots. They were the Brewers and Barber was cut by Opening Day. His days as a front-line starter were behind him but being a lefty he was able to hang on through 1975.

Reggie is apparently holding Fred Stanley's bat. Stanley wore #11. He had 10 career homers, three two homer season. Jackson had 40 two homer games.