Batman #26 and other things

Several months ago, in the midst of my Batman sketch card frenzy, I received an email from an artist who offered to do one for me. After a bit of back and forth and a few stops and starts I received the sketch card. It's a nice addition I think. Along with two done for me by one of my school's art teachers I've now filled three binder pages with sketch cards. I think it's time to call it a day and put the Batman binder away for a bit.

When the artist (he called himself CCM) sent me the sketch card he was kind enough to fill the envelope with some other things from his collection.

First and foremost was this Leaf sketch card of the late Lee MacPhail, the long time baseball executive.  According to Wikipedia MacPhail had an extensive baseball resume. He spent 45 years in the game serving as the director of player personnel for the New York Yankees, the president and general manager of the Baltimore Orioles, chief aide to Commissioner of Baseball William Eckert, executive vice president and general manager of the Yankees, and president of the American League.

I honestly had never seen a baseball sketch card that was issued by a major card manufacturer. A trip to eBay showed me that Leaf has done a bunch of sketch cards with subjects ranging from Stan Musial to Sting.

Of the ones I saw the many of best were from Rich Molinelli who did this MacPhail. Here's a shot of MacPhail outside Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

The Orioles card CCM sent included some pretty cool ones. Like this manufactured patch of Jim Palmer's rookie card. Topps put this out in 2013.

Among the standard cards I got were these two 1960 gems. Both of these were upgrades to the ones I had in my 1960 Topps binder.

A week or so ago someone on FB or Twitter asked about the first baseball card you remembered owning. I know I had some '59s and I saw a friend's 1958s but the first card I specifically remember pulling from a pack was the 1960 Albie Pearson. I got a few packs of cards in my Easter basket as a kid and I remember getting Pearson. That was just about the time I was developing my own ideas about favorite teams and players instead of following along with my Dad's Yankees/NY football Giants preferences. I had decided that since I had been born in Charm City the Orioles and Colts were 'my' teams so I bet I was thrilled with this card. that's probably why I remember it rather than the rest of the packs. Maybe.

Somebody needs these

I frequently go through bloggers' wantlists to see if I might have anything they are looking for. I know most of you do this. Sometimes I see something that may help fill someone's needs that is close at hand. I keep a lot of my vintage dupes and other more current cards that I have no need for in storage boxes under a daybed our cat's lounging platform in my home office.

But sometimes I'm pretty sure I have an item stowed away in my hobby closet. Those take some digging to find and in that case I make a note to remind myself to look for it the next time I venture into the holy hell that is my storage area. I do the same thing with items I see that other people blog about that have peaked my interest.

A couple of weeks (months) ago I stuck this Post-it on my monitor:

I know it's not an 'I need to buy these' note because I finished the '63 Fleer set a year or two ago. And I ended up with a bunch of dupes. This morning I ventured into my closet in search of something else and came across my Fleer dupes and pulled out the Aspromonte and Pearson. So now I can fill someone(s) needs!

Except for one big problem. I failed to note whose wantlist(s) prompted me to make that note. I have the feeling that the two cards are sought by different people because I clearly added Pearson's name after I made the note with the Aspromonte. I've sort of half-assed it checking some blogs and I can't find the right one. Maybe whoever needed them has already filled the slots. But maybe not.

So I ask you...is either (or both) of these cards on your wantlist? If so get in touch and I'll get them to you on my next post office run.

Post-ing Memories

Back in the days when these Post cards were issued on cereal boxes I had a routine. Most evenings while my Mom was busy in the kitchen I'd wait on our front steps to see my father walking down the block as he made his way home from the bus stop (#32 DeCamp Lines bus out of the Port Authority). He's have a late afternoon edition of one of the New York papers, usually the Daily News. I'd grab it and read as much as I could before supper was served. In those days there was more day baseball and sometimes if the Yanks were at home and had played in the afternoon there would already be a game report in the paper.

While we ate we'd have the radio on (no TV allowed during meals!) and more often than not we would catch the nightly 15 minute sports report done by Stan Lomax on WOR. His is one of the voices of my youth. He'd been a sportswriter who had entered the world of radio very early doing all manner of play-by-play and had one of the longest running daily shows in broadcasting history by the time he retired.

I found (and cherish) one .mp3 sample of his work. It's not typical because it's a drop-in segment from a gig he did with the talk/comedy show duo of Bob and Ray. And it is from late in his career (1976) when clearly his best days were behind him. But it certainly displays his unique cadence and inflection. 

I especially enjoyed his show during baseball season. He would give recaps of day games played or in progress and he's give the batteries for the upcoming night contests. I'd listen intently as Lomax would click off homers and starting pitchers for the Orioles and Phillies (yes, I followed the Phils for a bit back then). 

Lomax also spent a lot of time on boxing and college basketball, two sports I followed as a kid (almost entirely due to him) but which barely register with me now.

Here is the minute and a half audio clip of Stan Lomax which I posted to YouTube:

All of this is a roundabout way of getting to the three 1962 Post cards up top. Frank Malzone just seems to typify baseball of the early 1960s era. Good bat, good glove and a member of the hated (by me) Red Sox. His was a card I didn't seek out but I did appreciate. Much more so that that of Albie Pearson. Whenever I heard his name mentioned the only thing I thought of was how small he was.

Now Art Ditmar...he's a Stan Lomax-type guy in that I associate him with weeknight games at Yankee Stadium. Whitey Ford always seemed to pitch on Sunday but Ditmar was the guy we would catch when we made a game on a Tuesday night. He was also the guy my friends and I mocked for reasons I can't really remember. He was my 'Dooley Womack' before I actually had Dooley Womack to make fun of. I have previously shown off my Art Ditmar collection. 

The '62 Post above and '61 that follows are the latest additions.