Pass The Milk, Please

A few more from my 1962 Post Cereal pickup...

Figured I'd toss up some National Leaguers since my last post (no pun intended) focused on AL guys. NL players got the red trim although a few errors occurred where they had blue grid lines around their stats. I'm very likely to blow those variations off. No need to build a master set when I'm gonna collect these in 'over-excited-nine-year-old-cut-these-out' condition.

The always underappreciated John Roseboro kicks this thing off. The Dodgers are the first team in the checklist for the Senior Circuit. The AL got the first hundred cards, the NL the next hundred in this 200 card set. Which reminds me...I was curious how Post decided the order of the teams in the checklist. They are aligned close to their 1961 finish, but not exactly. Obviously, the Dodgers didn't win the NL pennant in '61. The Reds did that and they are second in the checklist.

I did a bit of digging and played a hunch. Sure enough, the teams were numbered in the order of the major league standing in early- to mid-August, 1961. Between August 7th and 13th, the teams' spots in the standings and checklists matched with the only exception being following the games on the 11th. So that's the week the set must have been planned. Worth noting is that there were 10 AL clubs and 8 NL clubs in 1961. Fans of the newly formed Mets and Colt .45s didn't have player cards to look for on their boxes of Grape-Nuts in 1962. On a positive note, the NL teams got more players per team.

Player success and popularity have a bearing on the cost of these things but scarcity is an even bigger factor. Some players were included on the backs of less popular cereal and so fewer of their cards were snipped from boxes and put into kids' collections. There seem to be plenty of Ed Mathews cards out there.

My Santo is pretty brutal. He appears to be bothered by that fact.

The 'V' or checkmark that appears on my Mossi was on every card I received in my original lot purchase. No issue for me. 

Killer got the V for Victory treatment as well.

Back to NL guys. I think I like the red elements more than the blue of the AL cards.  I've given some thought to 'trimming' some of the cards where there is room to do so. I could 'fix' the Elroy Face card's top with an X-Acto blade, for example. No need to though, I'll never get these things graded.

Ruben Amaro was portraited by his son, Ruben Jr, a player/coach/executive, on a couple of episodes of The Goldbergs. Amaro Jr. went to the same school that's featured in the show and was attended by Adam Goldberg who based it on his life. That's a weird fact.

1962 Post Cereal

As my '67 Topps chase reached the point where I was looking at only needing the high number SPs, I figured I could take up an oddball-ish set just for grins. I happened upon a Net54 member looking to dump a nice, big starter set of 1962 Post Cereal cards at a bargain price. Right up my alley.

I had a lot of these back in the day. In '62 my siblings were just about the age where they would want cereal for breakfast and I, as a pre-teen, loved the stuff. (Honey Comb and Alpha bits were my favored Post offerings) Add in the fact that there was a family down the street with about six boys junior high age and younger, and there were plenty of these floating around my block.

My goal here is just to collect the cards. I don't care at all whether or not they were cut straight, folded, or have kids' names written in the blank backs. These were trimmed from box backs with blunt, dull scissors for the most part and I think that adds to their charm.

The lot I bought was mostly American Leaguers. And there were plenty of stars in it.

I also found quite a few more at a card seller's store online and grabbed more cheap ones. That bunch got me this mantle.

I had a Pierce in my BP collection but I needed one for this binder so for a buck I grabbed this one. 

I also found some of the last inexpensive '67s that I needed and those will get posted soon. 

Charley Maxwell, aka Paw Paw...aka The Yankee Killer. He sure resembles some TV personality but I can't quite figure out who it is.

Anyway, I'll have a wantlist up and if you have any of these that are collecting dust, I'd be happy to swap for 'em.

Mas 67s

Here are a few more from my spending spree. I meant to spread the super-duper stars out a bit but whatever. Still some pretty nice cards.

Lotta power in these smiling Pirates. 

If there was anyone on the '69 Mets I liked it was Donn Clendenon. Probably because he'd been a member of the original Expos, even if for only a few months. I'd latched on the Expos as my NL team. I have always had an affinity for expansion teams in baseball. I'm not sure why. I dug the original Padres as well. 

I remember what an interesting time it was. Clendenon had refused to report to the Astros earlier that year after the Bucs dealt him this way.

Lou Brock. All Class. RIP

Denny McLain recently had a big garage estate sale of much of his memorabilia. He invited people to browse through his house and promised refreshments. I didn't have to wonder if Pepsi was on the menu. He served hot dogs as well.

Bob Uecker sure got a lot of mileage out of a six-year stint in the majors.

Got some team cards as well. Damn scanner cut off the right side but these are already in the binder so I'm not rescanning. One of these is not like the others. Hmmm.

The Braves moved to Atlanta in 1966. Maybe...well, I have no idea why that would make Topps use the shot they used. and not crop out the background. 

Some good news...after just north of four months, today I received an email from COMC...my order from the first of July is being shipped. Glory be.