Sprinking In Some Sigs

 I recently picked up a small group of signed cards form the Topps 1959 and 1960 sets. I'm not an autograph guy particularly but adding a few to my sets is a nice bit of 'gravy'. What's more, these were in really nice condition so most served as upgrades as well. 

The '59s...

Walt 'Moose' Moryn, whose '59 card blog post is here, was a fun-loving guy and a popular teammate. I included this from his SABR bio in that '59 blog post and seems worthy of being re-printed:

Among those who remembered Moose was Cardwell, whose no-hitter was nearly overshadowed by the drama of the game-saving catch. “He made me famous,” Cardwell told Jerome Holtzman for an obituary in the Chicago Tribune. “After I threw the pitch, I was leaning down with him and saying, ‘C’mon, Moose, make the catch.’“He was a good man, a ballplayer’s ballplayer. After the game I told him, ‘Moose, I owe you a beer.’ And he said ‘I’ll take you up on it.’ He enjoyed life. And he enjoyed people. He always drew the biggest crowd.”Another Cubs teammate was fellow St. Paul native Jerry Kindall, who was just 21 when he first arrived in Chicago fresh from the University of Minnesota. Kindall told Holtzman about his first encounter with the Moose. “I walked into the clubhouse and there was Walt,” Kindall said. “He was wonderful to me. He shepherded me around. He gave the appearance of a very gruff guy, but if you were a teammate, you saw through that in a hurry. He was really a tender-hearted guy.”

It's going on 10 years since I posted this card over on that set blog. Seeing a Ryne Duren card always reminds me of games at Yankee Stadium with my father. May they both RIP.

Johnny Klippstein began his pro career in 1944. Since I remember seeing him pitch I'm feeling pretty old right now. I included his first and last cards on the '59 set blog. Seafoam green card with a pic taken at the LA Coliseum...what's not to like.

The 60s...

Klippstein again and I'd bet this photo was taken at the same time as the one above. His cap sits the same way on his head. Pretty consistent signature through the years for sure.

 

Duren again. Lovely day at the ol 'ballyard as Red Barber used to say.

An old ESPN online story on baseball's hardest throwers had this entry for him:

He was perhaps the first truly frightening "power reliever." Famous for wearing "Coke-bottle glasses" and throwing his first warm-up pitch to the backstop, Duren threw as hard as anybody in the game. In 1958, his first full season with the Yankees, Duren struck out 87 hitters in 76 innings and led the American League with 20 saves. In his second season with the Yankees, Duren struck out 96 hitters in 77 innings.

How hard did Duren throw? Nobody used radar guns in those days, but Duren once told interviewer Dom Forker, "Anyway, I don't know how fast I threw, but I do know that Mantle told me I was the fastest he ever saw. And Tony Kubek said I threw harder than Nolan Ryan."

The alcoholism that hampered his career became others' salvation as Duren became a counselor later in life. 

There was also a 1994(?) Topps Archives faux '54 signed Klippstein in the mix but I didn't scan it. If anyone happens  to be collecting that set signed get in touch.

The Ballad of Carl Mathias (or Chasing Rabbits Down Holes)

When I research players for my 1960 Topps blog I try to find something entertaining for the Off The Charts entry. Something besides his numbers or vitals usually pops up for every player. Frequently it comes from a player's SABR bio, a Wikipedia entry, or local stories that pop up on a Google search. I always find something.

But when I was looking at Carl Mathias' card and googled him I was disappointed. I went through several pages of search results and hadn't found any references to him at all outside of the normal stat pages (Baseball-Reference, etc) and mundane stuff from the 'off-brand', copycat wiki pages.

Then I found something that led me down an entertaining path. The official site of the AA-level Reading Fightin' Phils had a page for Mathias in their Baseballtown section. It stated that his nickname was Stubby. That was a fun fact but I figured I could find more. And I came across this:

Carl Mathias and the flip side of Boston’s biggest rally

Turned out to be a 2014 entry from a blog related to a book about the 100 greatest games in Boston sports history. The author had come across Mathias' name in connection with an improbable Red Sox win in June 1961. The game didn't make it into the book but the author was intrigued enough by Carl Mathias' story that he tracked him down and interviewed him. It's really fun.

Here's a taste of the backstory...

The Red Sox, as I noted in the book’s introduction, once rallied for eight runs with two down in the ninth for a 13–12 win over the Washington Senators. That game, in June 1961, didn’t make the cut. But a detail from that game became lodged in my mind. While cross-referencing various sources, I noticed that Carl Mathias, Washington’s starting pitcher, was still in the game when the Red Sox started their historic rally. Then I noticed Mathias’s lifetime record: 0–2.
In other words, the poor guy was on the mound at Fenway Park with a seven-run lead in the ninth inning, one out away from picking up his first win in the major leagues … and he never got it.

And it also tipped me to something I had looked at but hadn't fully processed…Mathias pitched 29 big league innings. and allowed five home runs. Not that big a deal until you know that three of them were hit by Mickey Mantle.

Here's Mathias' 1960 Topps card. It'll be posted on the 1960 set blog soon.

I also found a few other quirky things while researching in the past few weeks. And both were prompted by comments from Fuji. The first was a minor error. I was reading about Dan Dobbek and found that his Baseball Reference's Bullpen page stated that the Washington outfielder had been intentionally walked by the Red Sox three times in a game early in the 1060 season. Fuji's curiosity was peaked, and he found that it was two walks, not a record-tying feat after all. Not a big thing, but it did remind me that just because someone writes something on the internet doesn't make it true.

And finally, a quote from Cub's pitcher Art Ceccarelli in yesterday's post caught Fuji's eye. Ceccarelli was commenting on pitching in Wrigley Field and said "It wears pitchers down. The winds are unbelievable. Willie Kirkland once hit a home run off me that Ernie Banks called for at shortstop."

Fuji mentioned that he would have liked to see Kirkland's homer. So I thought, remembering the Dobbek deal, that I should find out if Willie Kirkland had ever homered of Ceccarelli in Wrigley. Sure enough, it happened on August 13, 1959. But the neat part of that game turned out to be that the Cubs beat the Giants, 20-9. It was 10-7 Cubs after four. There were eight homers in that game. Giants pitchers issued 13 walks, four to Ernie Banks (yes, he was at short so the Kirkland homer story is possible). Stu Miller walked five of the eleven guys he faced (the wind must have played hell on his knuckler) and Don Elston got a five-inning save. Getting a save in a 20-9 win is weird in itself.

Of course, none of this comes close to the high adventure of looking into the cartoon on the back of  Don Rudolph's 1959 card.

After The Fox

I've stated more than once several dozen times over the years that I am not particularly 'condition conscious' when it comes to my vintage sets. But I do have preferences and, well, limits. And when you assemble sets using a good sized 'starter' lot you always end up with a certain percentage of stinkers in the mix.

Issues with corners, centering, creases, marks, and paper loss might or might not cause me to decide that I need a better copy of a card. I don't really have a formula that tells me 'this card goes over the line' or anything like that. It's just a gut feeling. This is where I usually paraphrase Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said in the Court's 1964 ruling on an obscenity case.. 'I can't define it... but I know it when I see it'.

That's how it is for me when it comes to upgrading or no upgrading. Condition X doesn't automatically trigger my eBay finger, nor necessarily does Condition X + Condition Y. But when I'm flipping through a binder I'll pull a card that just looks 'wrong' in the slot.


I got the ball rolling on my 1960 build a few years ago with a nice 200+ card purchase from eBay and was pretty pleased with the results. Oh, there were a few dogs in the mix, but overall I had no complaints. I received this '60 Nellie Fox All-Star as part of the lot. He managed to stay in his slot for about three or four years until the terrible back of the card got to be too much for me. Observe...


The Old:

That's pretty brutal. But the back side is where the damage was so I managed to ignore it, at least until recently. When I pulled it to look at it in hand I noticed (again) that the back was so damaged that the cardboard loss goes almost all the way to the front of it. Not good. So a few weeks ago I found a better one. These are not very costly and I really, really like the design so I don't know what took me so long to get a better one....

The New:

That's much better. Off-center? Sure. But I'll take it. I have two or three commons that probably could stand a bump but they will do for now.

My Favorite Year (for the Orioles)

The post title is NOT a reference to the Peter O'Toole movie from 1982 (a fun flick, btw) but rather this is a contest entry post, something I don't often do. Collecting Cutch's Brian asked folks to post about their favorite team's memorable, non-title-winning season.

This was timely (I've been blogging the 1960 set) and untimely (I've been traveling for the last week and haven't been online much). But better 'almost late' than never. As I hinted, the team is the 1960 Baltimore Orioles, aka the Baby Birds. BTW..everything posted here is from my collection.

My first live game came in 1959 and by 1960 I was a big baseball fan. I decided that I would have 'my own' team and not follow the lead of my father (and everyone else around me) and adopt the Yankees. Baltimore was where I was born so naturally, the Orioles fit.

And the Paul Richards-managed 1960 Orioles were the first edition to which I paid close attention. They were also the first Orioles club to compile a winning record and actually be in contention (well, sort of). The began the year well and held the top spot in the AL in late June. July was pretty rough and included a disastrous five-game homestand which saw them swept by the Yanks and Senators. They slid back as low as fourth in the standings, behind the White Sox, Yanks and Indians.

But a young team can sometimes be oblivious to the pressures of sports and the Orioles rebounded nicely and retook first place in August before ending the month just a game back of the Yankees. They continued hot and jumped in front for a while before reality (and that Yankee depth) caught up with them and they faded to second, eight games out. I was there for the September 18th doubleheader that the Yankees swept on their way to a complete, four-game series sweep. That dropped the O's out of a tie for first to four back. Game, set, season.

It was a disappointing finish but it was the franchise turnaround which launched them towards the very successful 1966 club and beyond. The team featured 26-year-old Jim Gentile who had been picked up from the Dodgers for cash and some spare parts, rookie Ron Hansen at short, a still-maturing Brooks Robinson at third and a rotation made up of one veteran and four youngsters. That starting staff, Chuck Estrada, Milt Pappas, Jerry Walker, Steve Barber, all 22 or younger (plus 35-year-old Hal Brown), was the main reason for the 'Baby Birds' nickname.

Brooksie, Gentile, Hansen, and Estrada all made the AL All-Star team in 1960 which is quite remarkable given the depth of talent in baseball at that time.

And, as it happens, 1960 was the first year I actively pursued a Topps set. I'd seen '58 cards in the hands of a friend. And I'd received a few packs of  '59s to call my own. But in 1960 I began really asking for cards, keeping them in order in cigar boxes, trading with friends and looking for packs whenever we shopped. I remember the cello rack-packs at E. J. Korvette stores that my father liked to shop in. They also had cards at Bamberger's in Newark.  I'm fairly certain that I didn't complete the set but I remember how exciting it was to hold those things in my hands. Especially the stars and the Orioles!

This has been a fun little exercise. Thanks to Brian for prompting me to take a look back at the beginning of my love for this historic (and sometimes frustrating) franchise.

One last note... the scorecard posted up top is from the 1960 opener which resulted in a 3-2 win over the Senators. Last week, while on family business in the NY area I made spur-of-the-moment decision to attend the Orioles taking on the Yankees on Opening Day in New York. My brother and I braved some very chilly, windy weather (for which I was seriously underprepared) and had fun despite the Orioles loss.

If you need any proof that the decision to attend the game you need look no further than what I wore. Dylan shirt, NYR cap! "Undercover Bird Guy" at his best!

I did manage to find something with the Orioles logo (whatever happened to stadium gift shops that carried all the teams) and changed into it part way thru the game.

If I could have found some duct tape it wouldn't have had both logos, believe that!

Power Up!

I've really neglected my 1958 and 1960 Topps set blogs in recent months. And I feel bad about it. Not because I was disappointing the vast armies of readers who were terribly interested in my latest card post from sets issued before they were born. (Those folks don't exist, BTW) No, I miss the fun of looking at these beauties. And scurrying down the rabbit holes that researching them frequently reveals.

Speaking of which did you know that Vic Power (b. Victor Pellot) was on track to be the first black player for the Yankees but was traded out of their system because of his lack of fielding prowess, or so said GM Dan Topping. Power contended there were other reasons at play. The fact that he won seven Gold Gloves during his career does work to impune Topping's statement.

So I'm going to crank 'em back up. I'm not sure how often I can get posts written and online but I'll do what I can. I'm probably going to change the contents of the posts. I want to make them short and to the point.

I'm also going to post the cards in numerical order. I'll begin with the #1 card and work through the set skipping the cards I've already posted obviously. This'll make it easier to track and eliminate the kind of things I used to concern myself with. Dumb stuff like whether or not I'm posting the same color card too frequently or trying to seed the blog with subsets and specials at certain intervals.

I think the only concession I'll make to my old ways is that I'm going to continue to post a 1960 team card along with the manager and coaches cards.  I kind of liked having them all together.

Readers here will be able to see the latest posts in each blog over on the right-hand side of course. Each set has a Hall of Famer in the #1 slot, btw. Look for them to appear on a blog near you soon!