Sunday, July 12, 2020

Some Pretty '67s


I'm at an odd spot with my 1967s. I'm past the point of no return, as it were. I've made a couple of decent-sized 'lot' purchases which kind of commits me to the set. But I'm not yet to the point where I'm trolling COMC and eBay to begin filling in slots. In fact, I don't really know what slots I have open.

I don't collect McCovey cards per se, but I sure do enjoy onwing some. The one up top is one of my favorites. A great portrait shot.  The '67 set is so clean.



 Jim "I'm not in the Hall of Fame you dummy' Kaat looked like a high schooler himself. And he did for another 20 years.


We moved from New Jersey to Houston (for the first time) in the summer of '67. It's hard to believe now, but the house my folks bought was just about at the western edge of Houston civilization. There wasn't a whole hell of a lot between us and San Antonio. But we were close to a shopping center where there was a brand new supermarket and an Eckert's (now CVS). Both sold cards and I bought plenty of them since I didn't know a soul and had nothing else to do but continue to build my '67 collection. Lord knows it was too damn hot to do anything outside.

Another lefty, Whitey Ford. If I had a buck for every time I saw him pitch at Yankee Stadium...I'd probably have thirty bucks. At least.


Don Drysdale. here's a fun fact...from Opening Day right up through the month of June in 1968 Drysdale made 18 starts. Only once in those 18 starts did he allow more than two earned runs. Once. 'Year of the Pitcher' or not, that is damned impressive. And of course, that run included his stretch of six consecutive shutouts.


Joe Nuxhall, former 14 15-year-old big leaguer, and wearer of the short-sleeved rubber sweat top.


Rico Carty who kept his wallet in the back pocket of his baseball pants because he didn't trust banks fo the clubhouse safe. At least according to Jim Bouton in Ball Four.


And last but certainly not least, one of the big cards from the high number series...#600 Brooks Robinson. I really love this card. I own one that's slabbed as well as this one which will go in the set binder. I used to have a couple more of this but at one point while I was at college my brothers, and some cousins who were visiting decided to make a 'scrapbook' of Orioles cards and cut them up into their component pieces (name, photo, team name, etc) and glue them into spiral notebooks. Lucky me.

I also sent one to the first person I got to know when I joined the hobby community online. He was an Orioles fan in Australia and I sent him a box of Orioles cards, maybe 100 or more. I never heard back from him. He never again responded to my messages. I wasn't looking for something in return or even a thanks, but to just ghost me was pretty weird. I hope he enjoyed the cards.


I'll commit to this set with some energy once I clear off some of the projects that are sitting on my desk right now. One of those projects, something I've wanted to tackle for maybe three decades, is finally coming to fruition. I'm saving that for another post.

10 comments:

  1. As someone doing that "am I collecting '67" thing myself, I know how it goes. Think it's safer that way. I don't need the high numbers scaring me every day.

    Your experience with the Australia O's fan, I've experienced a few times myself. A couple times I've sent cards to someone and then THEIR BLOG GOES DARK. How else are you supposed to think but "was what I sent THAT bad?"

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  2. Man, you gave someone a 67 Brooks Robinson and they didn't even say thanks? That sucks.

    I love the 67s, but those high numbers dissuaded me from ever getting a start on that set.

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  3. Several interesting pieces of trivia. Nice to see Rico Carty. I'm in the process of writing a post on him right now. As for being ghosted. My buddy ghosted me after I sold him a 1986-87 Fleer basketball set for $400 back in the early 90's. Ran into him a few times at shows and stuff... but never got the full payment.

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  4. I am glad to see at least 2 other 1967 set fans working on this set.

    Commish, as you may know, Joe Nuxhall retired before the start of the 1967 season, but got a card anyway. Nuxy is one of 3 players in the set whose MLB debut was in the 1940s. (Smoky Burgess and Curt Simmons are the others.)

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  5. I am glad to see at least 2 other 1967 set fans working on this set.

    Commish, as you may know, Joe Nuxhall retired before the start of the 1967 season, but got a card anyway. Nuxy is one of 3 players in the set whose MLB debut was in the 1940s. (Smoky Burgess and Curt Simmons are the others.)

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  6. Nice cards, all. Well, maybe not that Nuxhall... The rubber shirt ruins an otherwise nice photo.

    I would, in theory, love to collect 1967 Topps. I would also, in theory, love to invent a time machine and go back 53 years to buy a couple of wax boxes from each series to bring back with me.

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  7. High numbers scare me too much to consider chasing a set. I have a hard enough time paying that much for the handful of Giants commons.

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  8. When people talk about the records in baseball which will never be broken, I don't hear them mention Nuxhall as the youngest player ever. It's really, really hard to imagine a situation where a 15-year-old or younger plays in the majors again. (I don't think there's any chance it would have happened if there weren't so many players off fighting World War II.)

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  9. Where I came from (St. Louis), the '67 high numbers were easy to come by for some reason. I had a lot more trouble getting the 5th and 6th Series cards.

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  10. "The '67 set is so clean."

    You nailed it there. What a great-looking set. Hope we'll all see some set build updates in the future!

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