Leaf Me Be

The last brick in the 1960 Leaf set wall has been put in place thanks to my long-delayed COMC delivery. I bought this baby in March and I'm happy to have it in the binder today.

I had a few other needs in the set when I nailed down ol' Gene here, but they all came months ago thanks to eBay and the very generous gifts I received from a Twitter acquaintance, Talmer Curry, who dropped the last of these jewels on me.

Green was a long-time Cardinals outfield prospect who finally made the majors in 1957. In his career, which spanned all or parts of seven seasons, he had the distinction of leading both leagues in Grounding Into Double Plays. He was a regular in the outfield for St. Louis in '58 and hit .281 with 18 doubles and 13 homers.

In December of 1959, after his playing in just 30 games, the Cards traded Green to the Orioles for smooth-swinging outfielder Bob Nieman. Green by this time had taken up the tools of ignorance as a big-league side hustle. The photo for this card must have been in Spring Training of 1960 because Green spent the season at AAA Miami before being called up in September.

He played right field against the Senators on September 23, a week or so before the end of the season. That game, those four at-bats (a ground out, a single, and two pop-outs, one of which ended the 4-0 O's loss) are his only appearance for the Birds. After the season he was left off the protected list and was taken in the expansion draft by the new Washington Senators.

He was the Nats' regular catcher in 1961 and he had another good year fueled by frequent work as he hit .280 with a career-high 18 homers.

Sports Illustrated had a story about the expansion Senators in '61 and Green rated a paragraph:

Gene Green, an outfielder and reluctant catcher with the Cardinals years ago, is now, at the age of 38, a more enthusiastic pupil of catching under Coach Rollie Hemsley. His strength, though, is at the plate, not behind it.

He moved on the Indians and (briefly) the Reds for a bit before leaving the game after the '63 season. He was only 47 when he died in 1981.

Poking a bit down a Google rabbit hole I found that Green is a member of the Rochester Red Wings Hall of Fame. From their site:

Outfielder/catcher Gene Green played three seasons (1956, 1957 & 1959) with the Red Wings. One of the best players to play for Rochester during the Cardinals era, Green helped lead the Red Wings to the Governors’ Cup championship in 1956 while batting .300 with 23 home runs and 96 RBI. Green, a two-time International League All-Star, finished his Red Wings career with 62 home runs and 254 RBI in 371 games.

Looking at his listing on the Trading Cards Database I realize I have an entire run of Gene Green's major release cards. Which is something I guess.  His rookie card came in the '58 Topps set:

Green got a pink one in '59. Outside of the black cards, pink ones are my favorites.

I haven't posted his 1960 card on that blog yet but it's coming up before too long. That's the Polo Grounds behind him on both the '59 and 1960 cards.  Same photo session, even the folds in his jersey are identical.

Here's his 1961 Topps card. Probably a photo from 1960 Spring Training since that appears to be an Orioles road jersey. The Cards didn't use the piping like that.

 In '62 Topps added a 1B listing to his card. That's strange because he'd yet to play a game there in his career and he was unlikely to push past Tito Francona for the Tribe's 1B job. He had two appearances at first that year.

This '63 is the only one here that's not my own scanned card. My '63s are in a box buried in a closet. But I know I've got Gene...he's on my 'Got It' list. He's back to being a OF-C guy. And this is his final card.

If you are a 'card back geek' you can decide for yourself which of the sets from those years you prefer. I'm a 1960 back fan.

And Google Books turned up this quote from The Gigantic Book of Baseball Quotations

I picked up some other fun things in the COMC delivery. I also have ventured into the murky waters of SportsLots and came away in one piece, if a little bumfuzzled by their arcane website. I'll toss those up here in the next few days.

Stay Healthy my friends.

The Leafs Are In The Bag

There seems to be a point in all of my set chases where I say to myself: "Self, why on earth did you decide to collect this damn thing?" Usually, it's when I'm frustrated with a star card that has eluded me for a while. In the case of the 1960 Leaf set...well, it's hard to point to that one moment. But I can tell you what was behind it...lack of homework.

Don't get me wrong…I love this thing. But there were a few times that I was tempted to pack it in and admit defeat. The 'high numbers' (can cards #'d 73 to 144 really be called high numbers?) are a pain to find and a pain in the wallet when you do find them. I quickly determined that any of the high numbers priced below $20 were a bargain. I grabbed any I could. Some came cheap, as low as $8 if I got lucky. Others ended up costing me closer to $30. Had I looked harder at the set before I was committed to it, I may have bailed. But I stuck with it.

You can read all the particulars of this quirky thing over on the SCD website if you want to. Over here, I'm celebrating finishing it! And an interesting finish it was. A month or two back I returned from one of my extended breaks from the chase and dug into eBay. I found a seller with a bunch of these up for auction. I bid on all I needed but only won one of them.

The day after those auctions closed I found a dealer with a stack of these things, and at reasonable prices. Plus, and sweet Jesus this was great, he was accepting offers. I jumped in and nabbed several at better prices than I had seen in the past. Between those purchases, my eBay win, a BIN or two and a COMC delivery I went from lacking 15ish to needing just four or five. A nice chunk of the haul came in one day:

Inspired by my new gems, a trip back to COMC turned up a Gene Green card and into my basket it went. Then an eBay search led me to this one and even with the 'Yankee tax' I couldn't complain too much.

Meanwhile, I had posted the photo of my 'big delivery haul' on Twitter and something amazing happened. Talmer Curry, an Orioles/Ravens fan who I had never interacted with, reached out to me with word that he had some '60 Leaf high numbers and asked what I needed. Wait, what?

I messaged him back with my needs and low and behold, Talmer asked for my address so he could knock two real toughies off my list! Here's one...

I think that in all the time I had been working on this set I'd only seen one Johnny Callison on eBay and I remember that I was outbid, by a lot. And now here I had this card through the generosity of a stranger. And then there is this other one Talmer sent...

His given name is Barbra O'Neil Chrisley but whatever it is I'm damn sure happy to slide him into one of the last open slots in my binder. Mr. Chrisley is rarely available in the usual places. But he's mine now.

And so it came down to this guy(s). The Two Smiths is another rare one, or at least it seemed to me to be next-to-impossible to find at anything approaching a reasonable price. But I did another in a long line of eBay searches for it and found one that had one low bid at the time. Figuring there was no way it would stay that way I stuck a snipe on it for $60. That's more than a reasonable man should pay for it but I'm rarely reasonable. And I won the last 1960 Leaf I needed for less than $16.

It is a pretty neat card actually. Here's a look at how the back differs from the standard ones.

So that's a wrap. I'll post some others here as I get the chance. There are very few 'stars' but a lot of these guys have fun baseball stories to tell. And some of the cards in my binder do as well. Like my Curt Flood card. The only one I saw for a couple of years is still sitting there on COMC with a $130 price tag. It's not even graded. If I was going to quit on this set I figured it the Flood card was going to do it. But I ended up nabbing a real beauty of a Flood for 1/10th that price.

Little victories like that, and being the recipient of generous gifts like the one from Talmer Curry, make this hobby such fun.

I'm done with this one but not 'finished'. For one thing, I have the Gene Green card at COMC and when I last looked my purchases had a late June expected shipment date. I'm fine with that. It's only cardboard and the folks there have bigger fish to fry, like trying to stay safe while working. My cards will get here when they get here.

And if you read that SCD entry you'll see that there are a couple of variations that I may or may not decide to track down at some point. There are also some prototypes floating around, but they are far out of my range. And finally, there are a couple of cards I would like to upgrade. I have one of two of those on the way already.

But the bottom line is that I have met my goal. I have a set or two on the horizon but I think I'll just sit back for a bit and savor this one.

Set Build Update

This sort of thing doesn't mean much to anyone else but sometimes I need to pause and take stock of where I am in my set building. It helps me to zero in on what I need to look at and determine what project, if any, I can look at tackling next.

The three sets I'm actively working on with expectations of finishing in the not-too-distant future are:

1957 Topps Baseball. I am at 391 392 of 407 in the base set (96%). Of the sixteen I need only the Sandy Koufax is high dollar although the others are also in the semi-scarce 4th Series. (Since I began typing this yesterday I've won an auction for the Koufax card.) Still, these are not hard to find and only a few dollars more than the rest of the set's commons. I figure to have this one 'complete' by the end of the year if I can make the hotel shows between now and then.

Once I'm done with the 407 'regular' cards I will add the four unnumbered checklists and possibly the three 'contest' cards I lack. I consider the checklists to be part of the set but I may be content to binder just the single 'contest' card I own.

I have several cards in this set that could easily be upgraded. My friend Darryl has a new supply of '57s in really nice shape. I'm going to have an upgrade list ready for his next hotel show.

1974 Topps Baseball. My want list shows twenty cards. Eleven of those are 'Washington' variations. One is a 'variation of a variation' (#599C which is a font difference on a 4 player rookie card that has both a Washington and San Diego version). Factoring in some cards that have been put aside for me by a fellow blogger I have four empty slots in my binder. Only the #1 card of Hank Aaron has any cost attached. I've just been fussy about getting a decent copy on the cheap.

As with everything else concerning this set build, figuring out a percentage is complicated. I have the full Traded set and one copy of all the unnumbered team checklists. I am ignoring the 'star variation' on the reverse of those. And I have representative pieces of the inserts. I need nine 'Washington' cards (two of the eleven on my want list are promised). I have both versions of the Alou and Apodaca 'errors'. Let's call this set 98.5% done. Let's also call it a pain in the ass.

1969 Topps Football. This set (thankfully) is pretty straightforward. I have 222 of the 263 cards (84%). There is one silly error/variation, the 'red dot/yellow dot' Jim Turner card. I have one of them and I'm not too concerned with the other. Only the Csonka rookie card among those 41 I need is anything more than a common. I'll have this one done by years end if I don't get lazy. I have a wrapper and a couple of the '4 in 1' inserts.

This next set is a long way from being completed. Not because I need a ton of cards, but because they are pricey and not available at shows very often.

1960 Leaf Baseball. This is the black sheep of post-war vintage sets. It's not very popular and the 'second series' is scarce and costly on a per card basis. Try asking a dealer at a show if he or she has any 1960 Leaf. LOL You get 'the look'. Sigh.

There are 144 cards on the checklist plus the corrected Jim Grant/Brooks Lawrence wrong photo error. I have 100 of the 145 cards (69%) including both Grants. The 45 I lack are all part of the scarcer 'second series' and routinely list for over $20 a shot, much more in some cases (thanks, Yankee tax!). I've been trolling eBay lately and have found a few 'bargains' in the $8 to $12 range but those are rare. At the rate I'm going I figure to finish this, well, never. But everyone needs a goal, yes?

My other ongoing project:

1961 Topps Stamps. My other 'ugly duckling' chase! Topps issued 207 unique stamps plus a second Al Kaline. I won't go back over the oddity of this thing (some teams have more stamps issued than spots for them, other teams with fewer stamps than spots)but if you are interested you can check out this post I did in 2018.

The bottom line is that I need 42 stamps to fill the maximum slots in the album. I'd need 72 stamps to have a copy of each one issued. My goal is to just fill the album.

My effort to achieve that has been stalled lately. COMC has been my best bet for finding stamps but nothing I need has come up lately. Like the 1960 Leaf set these things never show up on dealers tables except for a few superstars like Mantle and Mays. But digging and scrounging keeps me occupied. Gluing that final stamp into the album is going to become cause for celebration!

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My lists of needs for these sets can be found over on the right side column. Any help is most welcome.

I also have some other ongoing set chases (sports and non-sports) and player collection needs and I'll delve into them next time.

Oh, I did mention upcoming projects. I've gotten suckered into one with another blind buy of a card lot. Hopefully this goes better than the '74 chase. Here is a hint...

Leaf Me Alone

Since sometime last year I've been rather casually gathering some cheap 1960 Leaf singles. I couldn't even explain why. Unlike with the 1961 set, for example, there wasn't one moment I can point to and say 'That's when I decided to collect the set'. It just sort of snuck up on me. No big multi-card lot purchase. No spotting it on someone else's blog and getting instantly smitten. One day I just picked up the stack I had on my desk and counted 35 or 40 of them. I realized then that I was too far gone to turn back. It was like the day long ago that I noticed my coffee table was covered with empty longnecks and Weller bottles. I was hit with the fact that I had a problem.

Much like that problem this new '60 Leaf thing is gonna cost me both time and money. But, unlike bourbon and Lone Star, it's not likely to kill me or land me in jail. This little (144 cards, give or take) set doesn't get much (any?) love from hobbyists. You almost never see it mentioned in publications, featured among auction listings, or displayed in dealers' showcases. Let's face it. it's not very popular. I guess I could have blown it off and just put the 40 or so cards I had (minus my Orioles) into a box and moved on. Hey, if I'd have given it much thought I'd have come up with this:

Reasons NOT TO collect the 1960 Leaf set:

• It's a B&W set! Ugh.
• Only headshots! Ugh
• The checklist pretty much sucks! Ugh
• We hated these back in the day! Ugh
• High numbers and scarcities! Ugh
• Errors and Variations! Ugh
• Nobody wants to hear about it! Ugh (OK, I don't really care so much about this one)
• Boring card backs! Ugh 
• My scanner hates them! Ugh
• Stupid Really stupid pricing! Ugh 
• Dealers don't have them! Ugh

I'll deal with the list in a second. First, here is a repost of cards I picked up at the Dallas-area card show a few weeks ago...

That was a long list of reasons to not collect this one. B&W headshots are probably first on everyone's list of things to exclude from a baseball card set. Black and white had last been used in a mainstream set with the '53 Bowmans. And those babies had much more artistic photos. And the Leaf checklist is uninspiring. No Aaron, Mays, Mantle, Clemente, Koufax, Spahn...you get the idea. In fact, the included Hall of Famers are all in this post. That's not to disparage them in any way (love ya, Brooks!) but sprinkling in a few of their friends might have been nice.

When we spent out post-lunch recess time flipping cards in the St. Mary's School playground circa 1962 Leaf cards were not allowed. I distinctly remember that we felt they were old and dull. The backs packed a lot of info but they were as boring as the fronts. Wall of text, no cartoons.

And as I am quickly discovering there are some silly prices attached to the second series of these things. And the price points seem so damn random. Nowhere do I see references to any of them being short printed but sky-high price tags seem to stick to certain players for no apparent reason. Finding that the cheapest Gordon Jones on COMC is pushing $40 is discouraging, to say the least. the fact that I hardly ever see these things at shows means one good source of possibly cheaper copies (through bargaining) is out the window.

Then there are the actual variations and an error or two to deal with. The Al Smith(s) and Mudcat Grant are the most well known. The incorrect photos (other than Grant) were not corrected which avoids even more heartache. And getting the things scanned properly on my Canon takes a change in settings which is a PITA and once you post them nobody's gonna read the post anyway (not that this has ever stopped me from collecting what I collect!).

BTW... you can see what I said about not collecting these a few years ago by clicking here. That post has a link to the rather snarky PSA review of the set.


So I just spent four paragraphs convincing myself that I made a bad choice in starting this thing. What's the other side of the coin? Let's see...


Reasons TO collect the 1960 Leaf set:

• I like it! 😇

Yes, I do. For all it's faults and lack of appeal I like it. I can't explain it, but I couldn't explain my high school girlfriend either. Sometimes you just do stuff, ya know?


OK, enough typing. here are the rest of the Hall of Famers.

Sparky Anderson was about 25 years old when this picture was taken. ╚(•⌂•)╝Yeesh. OTOH, Brooks Robinson looks almost too young to be a big leaguer. This has always been one of my favorite Brooks cards.

Here's the wall of text back I was mentioning.

I like the card number graphic.

The Genuine Baseball Photo bit is sort of charming.

The copyright line names Sports Novelties, Inc of Chicago. Nowhere is Leaf mentioned...

...not on the boxes or pack wrappers.

But back to the cards....

Hoyt always wore his cap like he was still in the service.


these next two cards are among my favorites, not only of the Hall guys but in the whole set.

And finally, Jim Bunning. Seems to have a rabbit under his cap.

So, I'm in too deep to turn around and swim out. Gotta just go with the tide. I'm at about 60% completion (88 of 145ish counting both Grants). The list of what I need is over in the sidebar. If you have any that you'd let go of on the cheap or would like to trade for other vintage stuff, gimme a shout.

Oh, one last thing. Here is a look at the marbles that came packaged with these in 1960. Might be fun to find a pack of these!

EDIT+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I meant to include a link to Jeff Katz' fun SABR Card Blog post on this set. I just looked at it again last night (I had left a comment back when it was published) but it slipped my mind today. Well worth checking out.

Johnny, of Johnny's Trading Spot, left a comment a bit ago and noted that he, too, collects this thing. I'm off to find his want list. I already know I don't have any dupes for Jeff. He's chasing the second series like me.

And finally, I want to give Whitey Herzog his well-earned due. He's a 2010 Hall of Fame inductee and has a (possibly airbrushed?) card in this set.

North Texas Card Show

I woke up early this past Saturday and headed up I-45 through Dallas and on to the North Texas Card Show staged at the Comerica Center in Frisco which is the Dallas Stars' practice facility among other things. It was a four hour trip and was the first time I'd traveled out of town for a card show since the National was held twice in Arlington, Texas in 1986 and 1990.

It was a nice 'medium' sized show, bigger than the hotel meeting room shows I hit all the time but smaller than the TriStar events. About 200 tables I'd say.

They had several former members of the Dallas Cowboys as autograph guests and I had no interest in them but I hadn't remembered that former major leaguer Eddie Robinson was going to be there. He served in the Navy during WWII and then played 13 seasons of baseball in the American League. He played for 7 of the 8 AL teams that existed during his career. He was a favorite of my Yankees fan father who always told me Robinson was under-appreciated as a ballplayer. He was pretty spry for a 98-year-old and I asked him to sign a copy of his book to me. Many years ago I came across one of his game-used gloves that he had signed at some point. I have it in storage and wish I had paid more attention to the show flyer and ads. I would have dug it out and brought it along.

There were several of the major auction houses with booths at the show. I didn't stop at them but I did enjoy the displays that they brought along. First is this beautiful Roy Campanella jersey that was in place near the Heritage Auction booth. Sweet, yes?

But this next display really had me drooling. A complete 1915 Cracker Jack set. Unreal to see it up close.

Just beautiful cards.

Of course, I had to find the card that is my personal white whale, the Chief Bender card.

I spent about four hours circling the floor, minus a Diet Coke break and the time spent with Eddie Robinson. I didn't spend a lot of money but driving up and back in one day kind of forces one to want to come home with something. And I did......here is a quick look:

This very nice 1954 Bowman Jackie Jensen is a fine addition to my rather informal JJ PC.

The same dealer had some very deeply discounted '57s which I snagged. I'm not ready for really begin my pursuit of the set but I pick up cheap cards that I know I need whenever I come across them. This Dodgers' Sluggers is a neat card...even with the wicked creases.

Speaking of Dodgers...I also chose this Duke Snyder. It was in very nice condition for the price.

As was this Red Schoendienst.

I spent most of my show budget filling my 1971 want list. I found several dozen, Here are a few. The Hundley card is a replacement for the one I bought and then lost at the last hotel show.

I also bought a stack of 1960 Leaf gems. I'll have more on these in an upcoming post.

When you entered the show everyone was given a stack of oversized Upper Deck hockey cards. I didn't get a Rangers card but this Joe Thornton is kind of fun. I've been watching a lot of the Stanley Cup playoffs. To say it's the craziest playoff season may be an understatement.

Thornton has played over 1800 NHL games without winning the Cup. That's the most of any player still working this year. I'm hoping he gets his shot.

                                                                          

And as I was sitting at a dealer's table I heard my number called for the hourly door prize. I was awarded a Panini Instant basketball card of this guy:

I enjoy the Rockets but my knowledge of the NBA is pretty limited. When the guy handed me the card he pointed out that it is numbered as #1 and advised me to keep the seal on the holder. Not sure what to say about it other than it's better to win than not win.

By about 4:30 I'd put about 9000 steps on my Fitbit and my back was telling me that it was time to go. Another long drive home has convinced me that I'm no longer built for 8-hour road trips. Next time I'll stay over a day. But it was fun. It's nice to see different dealers is a different venue.