NY State Of Mind

I'd gone through a long stretch without picking up any cards until last week. Then my long-delayed COMC and none-too-exciting SportsLots packages arrived. Honestly, I'd been concentrating on some holes in my publication collection and hadn't done much with cards other than the couple of football sets that I posted here.

But I got those boxes and I had a good time filling empty binder slots for a day or so. On Monday (Tuesday?...pandemics tend to scramble calendars) an envelope arrived from Western New York. Yup, Night Owl had thought of me and sent along some really choice material.

The envelope was bigger than the usual PWE that folks use. Here's why:

It's a Tommy Davis Johnny Pro Standup! This was a terrific promotional set from 1973 that was sold through the mail as complete sets (I think). They are die-cut and were intended to be 'punched out' and stood up. They measure just a touch over 5x7 which leads me to tell you why I was happy to get Tommy D. I bought a set many years ago, it included a couple of the variations and was really nice. But I was dumb, and not sophisticated as a collector. I trimmed my cards to fit into those two pocket pages. Wasn't a big trim, but it was a trim. So I've been picking up singles when I find them inexpensively to replace the ones I mangled. LOL

BTW...Johnny Pro also issued sets for the Baltimore Bullets and Philadelphia Phillies. 

And, as I told Night Owl, Tommy Davis is one of my favorite 'oh, hey...he was an Oriole?' guys. That group is comprised of short-term Birds better known with other teams, Eric Davis is another fave. Reggie is one of the group (eye-roll emoji here). Fred Lynn, Jim Northrup, Doug Drabeck are a few more. Let's not bring up Sammy Sosa, OK? Thanks!

Greg included some 1967 Topps in pretty nice condition. I think there were six or seven of them but I was anxious to put them in the right slots and realized later that I hadn't scanned 'em. You can't deny you've done the same. I was able to quickly pull these and I present them for your entertainment now. Nice cards from a very nice set.

Oh, did I mention that every '67 that Greg sent blindly ended up being useful? I think five of them filled open slots. One was a definite upgrade. Then there was Phil Roof.

I had three or four copies of this card. None of them were as good as the one NO sent. LOL.

Mike Ryan and Jimmy Davenport were the two I liked most. I'm pretty sure that's a subway train headed past the Yankee Stadium scoreboard over Ryan's shoulder.

Davenport was one of those guys I saw a lot of when I was living in Jersey. My best friend and his Dad were Giants guys and I went along on their many trips to Shea. Jim Ray Hart and Davenport both played third and became my favorite Giants for some reason. Maybe it was my affinity for third basemen.

Greg also included some shiny Birds of recent vintage. The Hayes card bumped a minor league card of his out of my fantasy baseball binder.

I saw Andrews Cashner pitch last year on Opening Day in Yankee Stadium. Seems like a loooong time ago. Hard to believe that the Orioles win two days later (which I didn't attend) was the last time they've beaten the f'ing Yankees. LOL

Finally here is Hanser Alberto. Yes, he's a big-league player. Heck, he homered last night in an Orioles win. The bad news is that the Orioles likely couldn't win a pennant in a 60-game 'season' even if you spotted them p-e-n-n-a and another 'n'. That's how it goes I guess.

 

Thanks again, Night Owl. Your generosity is much appreciated. Hoping you and everyone out there stays safe!