Monday, August 14, 2017

Joe Knows

Got a neat package in the mail late last week for Joe Shlabotnik. He knocked off five of the remaining dozen or so 1970 Topps cards I needed. I threw them into one picture because I didn't intend for this blog to become a 'set blog' and that's kind of the way it was headed lately. 

Anyway, here are the 1970s. These are all from the semi-high number series which have proved to be just as difficult to track down in terms of reasonable price/condition as the high numbers. Included are an Expo and a Pilot player, two reasons I love this set. Plus a former Strat-O-Matic staple from my dorm days, Ted Uhlaender. 


Joe included a bunch of other stuff in the package. These next two cards are the most fun....

This card comes from the 1975 Topps (English) Football set. The design is familiar to everyone reading this. Just like the Topps baseball set of the same year it's about as colorful (colourful?) as a set can get. It would be fun to see this thing in binder pages. For an idea of what it would look like click to this hobby site. I don't have the time or inclination at the moment but this would be a fun set to chase. If you have even the slightest interest in soccer cards you should poke around this site. It's got tons of info and pics.

I don't remember Jim Holton but he also played in the old MSL or whatever it was they called the prior US pro soccer league. His time with Man United came when the club was struggling and they even suffered (gasp) relegation! Soccer fans, particularly English ones, love to sing/chant during games and apparently this was a thing in Holton's day:

'Six foot two, eyes of blue, Big Jim Holton's after you'


Interesting to note that the stat area on the reverse instructs you to 'fill in season's record' for 1974/75. Here is a closer look.


Hyun-Soo Kim is no longer an Oriole as he was dealt at the trade deadline as part of the Orioles 'pennant push' (try not to laugh at that). I scanned this one in the card sleeve so you could see that Kim is announcing to me that he's a variation! Good thing he told me, too because my card-ignorant ass would never have known. 

Joe hit me with more Orioles, too. Some suffered from my scanner's aversion to bright white borders but these were fine:

Shiny Bowman sluggers. I only realized in the last year that Bowman isn't all rookies/minor league prospects.

Brooksie Panini Diamond King. Sweet card. I sure wish they had a license.


University of Houston alum Michael Bourn. His Oriole career ended before it started with a hand injury. I had him a few years back in fantasy so this one will bump the old one. Orioles card--->any other card.


Added value bonus! A pic I found of Jim Holton from the 80s on getty. Him, his wife and kid are wearing the caps he was awarded for his International competition appearances with Scotland. Groovy, yes?


Thanks for the cards, Joe. And I'll have another Shlabotnik-centric post this week.

3 comments:

  1. I love it when collectors scribble on the sleeves. It is hard to keep all the variations sorted out, and Topps' tiny type doesn't help. Why even bother printing code numbers if no one can read them?

    Ted Uhlaender's daughter Katie was an Olympic skeleton racer. If I recall correctly, she wore his championship ring during a race.

    The soccer cards are fascinating to me. I'd be inclined to purchase a few (or the 76-77 style that I've seen copied in modern inserts) but I wouldn't know who to collect!

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  2. I wouldn't have known Kim was a variation had I not bought it from COMC that way... hence the helpful penny sleeve.

    Even though I know few of the players in the 1975 Topps Footballer sets (there's an additional blue-backed Scottish set as well), I gladly scoop up any affordable copies I run across, whether for myself or others. I doubt I'd ever make a run at the set, but it would be a fun chase if I did.

    Allan Sherman had a similar version of that song: "Eight-foot-two, solid blue, five transistors in each shoe, has anybody seen my gal?"

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  3. I love Brooks so much even a logoless abomination looks great to me

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