Monday, January 14, 2019

10 Posts, 10 Cards, 10 Books, 10 Songs

I enjoy cards, I enjoy books, I enjoy music. Nothing unique about that as I'm sure plenty of you do as well. Recently I've been going thru my hobby collection as I get ready to downsize it. By 'downsize' I mean organizing the good stuff and getting rid of the clutter. All my remaining junk wax era non-Orioles? Adios. Commons from earlier this decade when I was buying blasters that I opened and immediately boxed up? Toast. The 1600 count boxes of 80s and 90s basketball and hockey that I've sifted through for anything worth keeping? Gone.

Anyway, in scrounging through boxes, binders, and shelves I've come across cards, pics, publications I've intended to put up on here but never have. I thought that I'd remedy that over the next few weeks. And just to make writing these more fun for me I figured I'd pair the memorabilia with books and songs I own and enjoy as well. Because why not? And as I implied they will not all be cards.

My guidelines:
  • Only things that have not been posted here will be included
  • The elements may or may not be connected
  • I'm gonna keep them short
Books and music will be from my shelves so you'll get an idea of my tastes in both. Be warned: I'm pretty 'mainstream' when it comes to my reading and listening.

I'll kick this off with the wonderful 1952 Topps Jackie Jensen.  If anyone would ask me why collectors dig the '52 set I'd just show them this card. I'm not sure what the background shows but I like to think it's the colors of a sunset reflecting on a stadium net. Whatever it actually is makes for a great card.

My copy has some seriously rounded corners but I'm fine with having added it to my Jensen PC.


First book up in the rotation of books is Game Faces by Peter Devereaux (that link takes you to the book on Google Books where you can see sample pages). The book features cards from the tobacco era and ties them to history, culture and the people of the time. You can read it from the beginning or just pick it up and browse through random pages. really good stuff.

I own that Mathewson on the cover, but I've shown it here multiple times.


Today I will tie the song to the card, sort of. It's Jackie Wilson, a much-underappreciated talent who really never gets much mention anymore. My friends and I were fans when we were in school in the mid to late 60s. Here's my favorite Wilson song, (You're Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher.


I hadn't thought about him or the song in a long time. Then, during this last Christmas season, I set a bunch of new presets in my Sirius radio to escape some of the temporary holiday stations. It was playing on an R&B channel and soon it was in my gym playlist. Catchy, right?




7 comments:

  1. Great card of Jackie Jensen, a terrific athlete who also played in the Rose Bowl for the Cal Bears.
    Fist player to play in World Series, All-Star Game, and the Rose Bowl.
    G

    Cool idea!

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  2. Jackie Wilson is one of the great singers of all time and was said to be an amazing live performer. I love things like "Lonely Teardrops" and "That's Why (I Love You So)".

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  3. I like your post's themeless theme as well as the Jackie Jensen card and Jackie WIlson song.... Hmmm, maybe you should've had a book written by a "Jackie". I'm not much of a tobacco card person, but that book does look interesting, I'll add it to my list.

    When you say your 80's/90's hockey cards are "gone", does that mean "gone gone" or "slated to be gone"? Not a biggie if they're gone gone, but I might be interested in some if they're merely on the to-do list.

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    1. Slated to be gone. They are taking up room on the floor of my clothes closet at the moment so they are not taking up hobby room space but they will need to be gone at some point soon. I promise to run them past you to see if you're interested before I burn them in the chiminea.

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  4. Awesome song! Gonna play it for my class tomorrow. Love posts that mix up things like books and music. Looking forward to reading the rest of the posts in this series.

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  5. That's my first look at the '52 Jensen card. It does make me look twice at set that's suffered from major overkill.

    As someone who grew up in the '70s, my first thought of the Jackie Wilson song is the Rita Coolidge remake, that's the first time I heard that song, in 7th grade music class.

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  6. The song plays an important part in Ghostbusters 2. Just watched it again last week.

    I'm shipping off a flat-rate priority box of unwanted cards to a contest winner via my blog today. Glad I could find a home for them. Before you burn anything, you might try posting like "up for grabs if you pay the shipping" post with what you want gone.

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