Showing posts with label 1978 Topps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1978 Topps. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Cheap Vintage!



I actually came away from the TriStar show last weekend with some baseball cards, I mean besides those I got for a couple of peoples wants. I guy had small 'bricks' of vintage cards marked at $1 and $2 and they were listed as having Hall of Famers and 'stars'. Hey, for a buck or two you really can't go wrong.

I picked up a couple. This bunch is from a package of twenty 1983 Topps cards that cost one dollar. I have about a dozen of the Murray already but I grabbed the brick anyway. Just because he's such a badass. I felt it my moral obligation to buy a dollar brick with Murray on top.


Then there's Joe Morgan as a Giant. He played the game the right way. He broadcast it the wrong way.


I like this Blyleven card. You get the bearded and the un-bearded Bert B. Every time I see him on a card I think of an interview I heard on the Sirius baseball channel a few years ago. He was campaigning HARD for Hall votes.


Powder blue was big back then.


Phil Niekro. He's still in the majors, right?


Smiling Gary Carter. I miss the Expos. Tuesday was the third anniversary of The Kid's passing.


I wish Fisk had played with the White Sox during a different uniform era for that club.


Palmer only looks marginally different now than he did in 1965.


The other bunch of cards I nabbed were 1978 Topps. There were thirty in this brick and they went for $2. The cards were not as nice as the '83 package either in condition or 'star power' but they were well worth the price.

Don Sutton All Star. Four years into the future, on the last day of the '82 season, Earl Weaver's last game, Don Sutton broke my heart.


Ted Simmons, a.k.a Simba. I don't think he ever got his due. He was a really good ballplayer.


There were quite few non-stars in this bunch but Biff Pocaroba at least had a cool name. I think he's looking over at Bobby Cox and wondering when the manager is coming out to lift this old Niekro guy.


The '77 Mets as seen on their '78 team card. My all time favorite Met, Ed Kranepool, is in the center on the row behind the guys sitting on the grass. To the left of him is Joe Torre. I forget about his time with the Mets. Jerry Grote is to the left of Torre. Another '69 Champ leftover. Lee Mazilli, Bud Harrelson and Bobby Valentine are there someplace. That's quite a few future big league managers.


Larry Parrish finished with the Red Sox and managed the Tigers. I forgotten about those things, too.


Rusty Staub, Le Grand Orange! He was hot stuff for a couple of expansion teams for sure. Posing for a card picture wearing a tucked in windbreaker is so 1978.


Steve Garvey All Star card. I think he's a Hall of Famer. Not enough writers did. I think they just didn't like his persona.


When Bruce Sutter was at the top of his game he seemed un-hitable. I mean really un-hittable. I remember one All Star Game where he was making the AL guys look silly.


If anyone has some needs in completing either of these sets send me your list. I'll be glad to send any I have your way.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

My Favorite Vintage Card...1978 Murray Rookie

Fuji over on The Chronicles of Fuji asked for people to post their favorite vintage card. I thought it would be an easy choice. But the more I pondered it, the more I went through my stuff, the harder the decision became.

I considered the "obvious" choices in my collection. Those included my John Unitas rookie, Brooks Robinson rookie, T206 Christy Mathewson, and my tired old 1959 Bob Gibson, the one card of my 1959 set that actually survived from my youth and kick-started my '59 Topps blog adventure. I debated on a Koufax card and my '58 Maris All Star.

But I kept coming back to this guy:


It occurred to me that if I had dropped that one out of my stack and I was comparing all the others to it then the 1978 Eddie Murray rookie was the vintage card I enjoyed the most. It's nowhere near the most valuable card I own but is, in my eyes anyway, the 'coolest'. It would qualify even if it wasn't his rookie card but that trophy just makes it all the sweeter. Murray's bad-ass expression, the unusual pose, the classic (for me) three color helmet. I love it.

I've picked it even though it just barely qualifies as 'vintage' in my frame of reference.

Whatever. This is it. My favorite vintage card. 

Monday, April 2, 2012

Eddie Murray, the King of Cool


Just to kick this thing off I'm posting what has to be my favorite card of all. the '78 Topps Eddie Murray rookie. I've got the O-Pee-Chee version as well. What's not to like here? Eddie looking his usual solemn oh-so-cool self, 'Camp Happy Bird' helmet, Topps Rookie trophy. Just great work by Topps.

My next post will be an explanation of what I hope to do here, my background and interests, and another favorite piece of memorabilia.