Pins and Needles

Every once in a while I pull my riker mount cases off the wall and change out some pins. These three are new and are gonna go in my vintage pin display.

I like all things Spahn as I've noted several times. This pin was given to fans on a night honoring the great lefty. It came just two months after he took part in one of the great pitching duels in modern baseball.

I was also happy to add this small PM10 of Don Newcombe.


This Browns pin is not destined for the display, at least not yet. It'll have a spot on my St; Louis Browns cap for a while. I wore that cap to The Maple Leaf, Houston's best (only?) hockey bar last night to catch Game One of the Stanley Cup finals. I wore it to rep my best friend who is a Blues fan even though I'm not really rooting for either team. As expected it was packed and rowdy (in a fun way) last night. My boys and I enjoyed it as always.

This one, like the other two, has surface scratches but stuff like that just adds character. 


Three cheap additions to my pin collection. Now all I need is the ambition to pull down those displays.

Don Newcombe

I had something different planned for this post but I heard of Don Newcombe's passing this morning. I don't really have a dedicated Newcombe collection but he was one of those guys who just happened to have a lot of great cards. Here's my favorite, his 1954 Bowman:

Newcombe was, of course, a terrific pitcher and competitor, the first-ever Cy Young winner. But he was much more. He spent much of his post-career time helping others fight a battle he had won earlier, the rocky road to sobriety. It's a subject close to my heart.

I did a Newcombe post back in 2015. That was a spin-off of a Night Owl post featuring Newcombe's '56 Topps card a few weeks prior. Tonight, as I thought he would, Greg has a nice tribute to the late Dodgers star. Plenty of cool cards on that one, both vintage and modern. If you haven't already done so, check it out. You'll see what I mean about Newcombe having so many sweet cards.

R.I.P.

1961 Topps MVP Don Newcombe

Late in September Night Owl featured Don Newcombe in his 1956 Topps Card of the Month feature. It's a sweet card and it reminded me that Newk was included in the Topps MVP subset from 1961. It's a group of cards that I've been (very) casually collecting for what seems like decades.

I went out and found this copy on eBay and am very happy to add it to my collection. Don Newcombe is a often overlooked figure in the history of baseball in general and the Dodgers in particular. Night Owl outlined much of the story in his post.

I commented over there that Newk never got much consideration for the Hall of Fame and that's understandable I suppose. He got a late start in the majors due to a couple of factors. He came of age in a time when he wasn't going to be signed by a major league team. He spent a few seasons pitching in the Negro Leagues before Jackie Robinson broke through those barriers. And once signed by the Dodgers he had to climb up that incredibly deep farm system put together by Branch Rickey. In the end his numbers don't hold up to those pitchers enshrined in the Hall but his reach was much greater than just baseball stats. A recovered alcoholic Newk devoted much of his post-career time to assisting others to reach sobriety.

My father, a pinstripe-bleeding Yankee fan, had good things to say about Newcombe. And that was high praise considering that my old man lived just blocks from Ebbets Field and yet held the Bums in such low esteem that he never even walked the few blocks to see a game there until the Yanks played a World Series game in Brooklyn.

As for me I never saw Newk pitch but I do remember him being acknowledged one Sunday evening after his retirement as he sat in the audience at the Ed Sullivan show.

A few final random Newcombe thoughts:

• I couldn't find a Newcombe bio in a quick Amazon search. With as many baseball books as are published each year I'd have thought he would be the subject of one.
• He hit .271 as a major leaguer with 15 homers and over 100 RBI. The Astros have a first baseman who hits under .200. I'm just saying.
• He finished his career with a season in Japan as a first baseman/outfielder and hit 12 dingers and batted .262. Those numbers, at the age of 36, placed him 11th and 12th on the league leader boards in those categories. 
• Someone was kind enough to add the year of this card to the back. It doesn't bother me one bit. It shows that once upon a time someone cared.

Here is a checklist of the 1961 MVP subset. The ones I own are in red italics and I'm looking for the rest.

• 471 Phil Rizzuto - New York Yankees MVP
• 472 Yogi Berra - New York Yankees MVP
• 473 Bobby Shantz -Philadelphia Athletics  MVP
• 474 Al Rosen - Cleveland Indians MVP
• 475 Mickey Mantle - New York Yankees MVP (added Oct 19)
• 476 Jackie Jensen - Boston Red Sox MVP
• 477 Nellie Fox - Chicago White Sox MVP
• 478 Roger Maris - New York Yankees MVP
• 479 Jim Konstanty - Philadelphia Phillies MVP
• 480 Roy Campanella - Brooklyn Dodgers MVP
• 481 Hank Sauer - Chicago Cubs MVP
• 482 Willie Mays - New York Giants MVP
• 483 Don Newcombe - Brooklyn Dodgers MVP
• 484 Hank Aaron - Milwaukee Braves MVP
• 485 Ernie Banks - Chicago Cubs MVP
• 486 Dick Groat - Pittsburgh Pirates MVP

Random vintage pitchers, posted randomly

I haven't picked up much recently, card-wise. I've missed the last two monthly card shows. I did get a nice PWE from Brian of Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary. I'll have those scanned and posted soon.

These three cards of  pitchers have been sitting in my scanned folder, in search of a theme. I can't come up with one so it's time to post them...themelessly!

I'm not sure why I glanced at this '66 Wilhelm and thought it was some sort of modern alt reprint at first. I had no memory of it even though the '66 set was one I collected seriously back in the day. A few stray marks on the back don't ruin it for me.

The card is not a 7th series/high number but one site describes cards 447 to 522 as 'semi' high numbers and says they are nearly as scarce as the high numbers. The top edge when viewing the reverse is ragged. The card in general is just as off center/miscut as it appears in the scan.

Someone posted a '54 Bowman Don Newcombe awhile back and as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted one. It's the sort of card I can usually find cheap at the monthly show but I knew I'd be missing a few shows so I nabbed the lowest priced presentable example I could find on the net.

The background makes this card. Love the Ebbets Field backdrop with the Baby Ruth ad.

This last card is the 1979 TCMA Willard Schmidt. I know Schmidt's great nephew and as a result I've collected his cards. I believe I have all his standard issue cards. This is one of the oddballs. There is a border on this card but my scanner decided to edit it out. I don't like my scanner.