It's Hockey Time Again

My Rangers open their home schedule tonight at Madison Square Garden after splitting a pair of road match-ups. I'm glad to have them back on the ice. Just enough time has passed for me to have gotten over their Cup Finals loss to that team out in California.

I'm leading off the celebration with a card sent to me recently by Mark Hoyle. One that is new to me and very welcome seeing that it features my favorite Rangers skater, Rod Gilbert. That's a 1976 Topps Glossy insert. I wasn't collecting hockey cards in '76. I was living in Houston, not long out of college, and keeping up with the Rangers via long distance was difficult.

The set consists of 22 cards, one of which is Phil Esposito as a Ranger :::shudder::: and Brad Park and Jean Ratelle in Bruin sweaters. For those reasons alone I won't be chasing this set. But I'm sure glad to add this one to my ever increasing Rod Gilbert collection!

Rod Seiling played for the Rangers for just over a decade, from the early 1960s through 1975. He was one of those guys who seemed to become a lightning-rod for fans' frustrations during some disappointing seasons around Madison Square Garden. When you looked at the club's defensemen you saw the near legend Harry Howell, the brilliantly talented Brad Park, the uber-cool Jim 'Chief' Neilson and the pair we loved to rag on, Seiling and Arnie Brown.

Hey Rod, consider this my apology.

Here is a trivia question for your next bar nite. What two North American athletes have won the most championships? The answer: Henri Richard and Bill Russell. Both won 11 rings as players.

Henri is the younger brother of Maurice 'Rocket' Richard. I never saw Maurice play but I did see Henri many times throughout the second half of his career in the 60s and 70s. Like his brother, Henri Richard is a Hall of Famer.

The 70-71 Topps hockey set has that 'Pop Art' vibe to it. It's certainly different. If I was a Canadiens' fan I'd probably be perturbed that their iconic logo is rendered in pink here.

btw.... Hoyle included many other goodies in the two (yes, two) envelopes that arrived last week. When my life settles down I'll be posting some others.

Random 80's Crap from my Hobby Closet, Pt.2

Recently I pulled a random box out of my 'hobby closet' and opened it just for the hell of it. I have about a dozen of these boxes, most are the document storage-type things and I haven't looked at them in years. Inside the one I chose I found all sorts of junk I had picked up in the 80's. There is no logic to any of it. I bought whatever struck my fancy back in those days and I saved everything. 
I found small boxed sets that I had pulled the Orioles out of, commercially produced and team issued postcards, odd ball TCMA trash, unlicensed photo cards, pocket schedules, ticket stubs and much more. While I'm off visiting the Big Apple I thought I'd put up a few posts showing the 'stuff' I once valued so highly. 

The Denis Menke 'postcard' above and the Tom Burmeier below are two of the J.D. McCarthy cards I found in the box. These were produced by the Detroit based photographer of the same name who provided them to players for the purpose of sending them out to fill autograph requests. I've known of some instances where a player added one of these to a response in addition to the card/photo sent by the fan.

McCarthy produced these for players in at least the four major sports and who knows who else. They were produced over the course of at least four decades. Most sources list the cards as being from the 1950s through the 70s but Menke coached the Blue Jays in 1980/81.The style of the name block varies as does the back. Most I have are blank backed but the Burgmeier has a back (shown below) that features a 'Produced by...' line down the center which gives it a more traditional postcard 'look'. That one, btw, shows the pitcher in a uni that has the 1969 Baseball Anniversary patch.

While the cards had various fonts and name plate styles the one identifying mark that is always present in the stylized JDM logo found on every one, at least every one I've seen.

Here is the logo from the Menke card:

Back of the J.D. McCarthy Burgmeier card:

Another group of cards I found in the box were from a 'set' put out by a firm called Pro Star Promotions of Canada. These postcard-sized cards were issued in 1972 and are unlicensed with all team logos airbrushed out.

I also have the 'checklist' and listed are the AL and NL postcards as well as the 'set' that was comprised exclusively of Montreal Expos. As you can see on the checklist the company had also issued a set of posters in addition to the postcards. And in addition I see eBay listing for Expos posters that are not on the checklist, Ron Swoboda for example. I've seen listings for Montreal Canadiens cards as well. I posted an eBay image of one, Henri "The Pocket Rocket" Richard, at the bottom.
The cards as well as the checklist are blank on the reverse.