Joe2019

Did the title throw you? This is NOT about politics, it's about cards from Joe Shlabotnik. Nice ones, too.

But there is a president involved. JFK led off the thick manila envelope that arrived from Virginia this week. He appeared on a Topps and an Upper Deck card, both new to me. My presidential binder is going to have to be upgraded to a 4-inch model soon.

In this Topps Opening Day card, JFK is tossing out the first ball, not at an Opening Day but at the '62 All-Star game as LBJ watches.

Here is the UD from their 2012 Goodwin Champions set. These are really, really well-done cards.

Also in the package from the same set was this addition to my actress/actor stash, the beautiful Carole Lombard.

She was the queen of the 'screwball' comedy craze of the 1930s and was reportedly the highest-paid star in Hollywood. She was killed in a plane crash outside Las Vegas in 1942 while returning from an appearance to promote war bonds. She was 33 years old.

Of course, Joe included some Orioles cards, new to me, of players known and obscure. I like the design of this '94 UD Miggy Tejada more than anything being produced these days. But, then again, I'm an old fart and prefer the less flashy designs.

I grouped these Bowman/Topps/Paninis together but the scan came out smaller than I thought it would. If you can't tell there are a couple of Trey Mancini cards in there. I'm accumulating a lot of his cardboard. Odds are he gets dealt to a contender this week.

This GQ Palmer looks very familiar but I didn't see it in my quick look thru the binder where it should be so maybe it's new to me.

But the stars of the bunch were these terrific '57s! Joe knocked close to a dozen off my needs list.

Don Kaiser is the first of what is a Chicago-heavy group of cards from Joe. He was 6-15 over parts of three seasons with the Cubs and '57 was his last in the majors.

When I was a kid I often heard the 'Moooose' call at Yankee Stadium. I just love this card. Nice to get it as a gift so I can avoid paying the 'Yankee tax'.

He has a Chicago connection as he was a native of there. If you think 'deep dive' stats are a new thing, check out the blurb on the back of Moose's card.

Harry 'I'm NOT the guy from Night Court' Anderson in Connie Mack Stadium. '57 was his rookie year and he got some scattered MVP votes after hitting at a .268 clip.

Dick Donovan had a fine season in 1957 and finished second in the Cy Young voting to Warren Spahn. OK, Spahn got 15 of 16 votes and Donovan got the other one, but still.

Love this Felix Mantilla card shot in Ebbets Field.

Willard Nixon practicing his look to first. He was in his eighth of nine seasons in the bigs, all with the Red Sox. 

Ron Negray had fought his way up the steep Dodgers minor league system and then got dealt to the Phils. After a couple of years there ('55-'56) he was traded back to the Bums and was again in their system when this card was being pulled from packs.

Ray Jablonski looks and sounds like a tough Chicago dude. He also looks like a guy painted into a Cubs uni after being pictured as a Redleg with whom he'd spent the previous two seasons The thing is, he never played for the Cubs as they traded him to the Giants a day or two prior to Opening Day in '57.

Interestingly, his Baseball Reference thumbnail photo shows him in a Cubs cap.

Showing the back of his card here because I love the backs in this set.

Speaking of the Cubs...doesn't Jim King look like dozens of other players from the 50s? He also was on another team for the '57 season. The Cubs had dealt him to the Cardinals during the first week of the season. They had taken him from St. Louis in the Rule 5 draft two years prior.

And then there's Dixie Howell. He had begun his pro career in 1938 in the Cleveland organization and here we are, 19 years later,  and he's in his fifth big league season. He had done a LOT of pitching in the minors. He returned to the Sox in 1958 but saw action in only one game and spent that year and the next back in the minors. At the age of 40, in the Sox spring camp in March of 1960, he suffered a heart attack and passed at 40 years old.

There was another card in the bunch from Joe, a common, but one with an interesting quirk that I thought would make a good stand-alone post. That's coming soon.

Again, thanks Joe for a great envelope full of Orioles and '57 set chase cards. It's a much appreciated boost at a time I was shoving the hobby towards the back burner.

TriStar, the Post Office, and other rants

First off I need to thank everyone who reached out here and on Twitter after I posted about my brother's death. My appreciation is heartfelt, believe me. Now, back to business.

I attended the TriStar show this past Saturday. I wasn't able to meet up with Marc from Remember the Astrodome as he was there on Sunday. But I spent time with my friend Daryll, the hotel show promoter/dealer and I did bump into an old friend who I hadn't seen in many years. Jon O. is an Astros/Colt 45s collector and was a part of our small, regular crew that hung out at a couple of LCSs and did all the shows together. We had a nice time reminiscing and, in particular, telling stories about our old, and now departed friend, John Baucum a.k.a. John Oriole.

But I did more than chat up my friends. I also knocked a huge dent into my 1971 and, to a lesser extent, 1975 want lists. The show itself was one of the better TriStar ones I've attended here in Houston. More dealers with solid offerings, less tables/booths with folks selling roasted cashews and sunglasses. Yes, those have been a thing in the past.

This post has a few of the non-set chase cards I picked up. I semi-collect Allie Reynolds. I've noted several times he was my father's favorite pitcher.

I bought the '56 Spook Jacobs card because, well, it was a buck. And they put 'Spook' on a Topps card. BTW..his given name is Forrest Vandergrift Jacobs. I found a nice story about him online. He passed away about eight years ago. One of the local SABR members writes about old players and he had a column about Jacobs in which he explains the nickname. But I have my doubts.

I was unaware of this JFK set and I need to look into it. I grabbed a handful of these from Daryll's oddball bin.

I also found a signed Gump Worsley card. I have tried to nab one on eBay a few times but never was able to do so.

Oh, rants. Yes, I almost forgot that I mentioned rants in the title. Well, I'll spare you my annual whining about being out $27 before I get to the first table at TriStar shows ($12 parking plus $15 admission). I'll spare you but I won't stop being annoyed by it.

The Post Office! I went to mail some packages on Monday. Normally when I'm sending someone a few cards I just fold up a 9-pocket, use those hard sleeves for strength, and stick a stamp or two on it. Never a problem. Monday I had large envelopes to send so I took my card PWEs to hand over the counter. The lady said they were parcels! Parcels? They barely weigh an ounce. She proceeded to add about two or three bucks postage to my stamps on each of them. ┌П┐(ಠ_ಠ)

 Here, I can't go on. Listen to some Isaac Hayes live. The Shaft soundtrack is what I played in my dorm room every night the first year I lived on campus.

Nostalgia Is A Helluva Drug

I worked at the Houston Post newspaper from about 1971 or 1972 until 1991. I left to do other things during that time but I kept coming back, working part-time or full. Sometimes just as a summer fill-in and sometimes as a second job. I loved the Post. Especially during the years the paper was owned by the Hobby family, one of Texas' most distinguished. The Hobbys sold the paper in 1983 and it was never the same.

The Post passed on to the Great Press Room In The Sky in 1995 leaving behind a quirky building and a lot of upset employees who had been given no warning of the closure. But I digress.

I have a few mementos of my time there....some pencils, stationary and this comic-sized booklet intended to be used in schools through the Post's Newspaper in the Classroom Program. It was printed in 1972-ish and features a two page spread on each U.S. President through Richard Nixon. I'd forgotten all about it until I was clearing my work desk drawers last week. It's printed on stock that is about one step up from standard newsprint. 

It's discolored over the years but it's not fragile like a regular 45+ year-old newspaper would be, I was reluctant at first to scan the thing because I figured that folding back the pages and pressing it to the platen would damage it. But It seems none the worse for wear now that I'm done.

The cover:

The graphic wraps around to the back cover:

The Presidential Seal is awesome. Makes me wish we still had a president.

I stuck GW's portrait up at the top. Appears to be the same portrait as is seen on the dollar bill.  I took a photo of the JFK spread for perspective.

Here is GW's 'fact page'/bio. It's funny how a some pages have aged differently than others. The discoloration is slight with some but others have turned a much darker shade of orange/brown. I'd guess that two different qualities of newsprint were used to print this and combined in the collating process.

Honest Abe. He lost the popular vote and yet went on to become arguably our greatest President. Sigh.

I don't think any President has led a more diverse and entertaining life than Teddy Roosevelt. Public Service Announcement: Read This Book.

My man, LBJ:

The last President in the publication is Richard Milhous Nixon. Another fascinating and complex character. A few years ago I watched a lecture on the 1968 election and how George Wallace's presence siphoned off votes that likely would have put Hubert Humphrey in the White House. How would Viet Nam have played out? No Watergate? It was pretty interesting.

Back to the Post. This is the building as seen in my time there:

The building inside was as interesting as it appeared from the outside. We called it the 'Castle'. The Houston Chronicle bought the Post properties many years ago. They immediately began using the presses but it wasn't until a few years ago that they moved their main offices from their downtown Houston location to the Post building southwest of town. They then put their name on the outside. I drive by often but I can't even look at it now. In the 70's there was a real rivalry between the two papers, the Chronicle was our 'enemy'. I've been reading the Chronicle since the Post died but I've never gotten over that. LOL

Lastly a note about a memorable day at work. In May of 1976 a tanker truck fillied with liquid ammonia was speeding through the elevated interchange of US 59 and the 610 Loop right outside the Post building. It crashed thru the guardrail on the upper ramp and crashed. I'll never forget being herded upstairs to the third floor but not before telling my drivers (I was Ad Services dispatcher then) not to return to the building. I had them take their company-owned delivery vehicles and head home.

Here are a few pics I found and following them is a video done by my late friend Judd McIlvain who was a reporter at KHOU back then.

You can't see our building in the first one but it's behind the elevated freeway ramps.

The Pearl distributor was across the Loop and a block south from us. The Post would be just off to the right.

It was a hell of an explosion. Shook the building something fierce and broke this concrete pillar.

There's the Post  between the pillars in these next two pics.

Here's the KHOU video. If you've read this far thanks for indulging me on my trip down memory lane.

Panini Presidents

I posted some of the 2015 Topps Archives Presidential Chronicles cards last month which led to a comment about these, the Presidents subset from 2012 Panini Americana.

Now I consider myself a 'penny-pinching presidential collector'. There is no way I'm going to spend what it takes to get an original Lincoln campaign ribbon for example, or an authentic LBJ signature. Those are two items I'd just love to have but won't pull the trigger on. 

But when it comes to my presidential collecting I love cards, cheap campaign pins and other knick-knacks. These cards were cheap, and they are really pretty nice. Black and white photos seem to suit a set like this. The gold presidential seal and the red/white/blue logo give them just enough color. A couple of the pics used are definitely too familiar but others are new to me.

Every President (and a couple of First Ladies) is included in the subset. The rest of the full base set comprises a weird mix of track athletes, women soccer players, astronauts, the Tuskeegee Airmen and heaven knows what else. But all I'm interested in is the Presidents.

I pulled and scanned the eight Chief Executives that I'm most interested in. 

Honest Abe......IMHO our greatest president. 

Teddy Roosevelt....maybe the most interesting guy to ever occupy the office. I've read five or six books about him in the last couple of years and I still haven't tired of him.

JFK, my first hero (outside of Johnny Unitas I guess).

LBJ....my favorite president. A man of great strengths and great (maybe greater) flaws. I love this photo of him.

Richard Nixon..... he let his paranoia overwhelm his genius.

Gerald Ford.... seems to me to have been the nicest guy to ever serve as President, at least in my lifetime. I'd have loved to have met him to find out.

Bill Clinton...another very smart man who did some very dumb things.

Barack Obama...not the best picture of the bunch but it kind of shows the stress that comes with dealing with the political world today.

How's that for a "no politics" rundown of political guys?

About the same time I was buying these I came across a couple of other items that fit neatly into my collection but didn't kill my budget. One is a JFK pennant. Purports to be authentic but condition (nice) and price (cheap) left me with some doubts. I have it on my wall and it's a nice item either way.

The other is an souvenir LBJ pen. The seller speculated that it came from the White House gift shop but did that sort of thing even exist back then? It might have come from the LBJ Library gift shop but no matter the origin it makes a nice addition to my Johnson collection.

Sorry for the oversized photos.