Card Show Vintage...Take Four

As I said before, when I pull cheap vintage out of dealers' boxes I'm usually just picking cards of players I liked or cards that catch my eye. Like these. I saw a lot of the Giants at Shea because my best friend and his father were fans. Since I was going to be there anyway and the 'big guns' had plenty of support I picked Jim Ray Hart as a guy to root for. Love the MacGregor glove with the 'crown' logo on the wrist strap.

I bought two Lindy McDaniel cards, his '67 and '66 Topps. I already had a '66 McDaniel card but I may decide at some point to chase this set so a second one, a very cheap one, may come in handy. I collect his cards and you can read about my McDaniel fixation right here.

Cool that he's a Rawlings guy. In fact that glove looks a LOT like my Rawlings Wally Bunker. That's the exact same webbing.

I think this '66 Pitching Leaders card was a dime. It's brutal but any card with Koufax, Drysdale and a guy wearing that amazing Braves' cap is certainly worth a dime.

I scanned the back, too. I used to read the names and numbers on these leaders cards constantly. Note that there were seven 20-game winners in the NL in 1965. Seven! The NL might not have that many in the next decade! I know it's now totally un-hip, almost blasphemy to even mention games won by a pitcher. But in my day W/L was a pitchers claim to fame.

The only thing cooler than these lists were the team cards that gave the pitchers records against every other team. Those were awesome.

Now get off my lawn, dammit!

Upper Deck Marichal Sweet Spot

There's a TriStar card show coming to Houston next weekend. I still call them 'card' shows but I guess the proper term is 'memorabilia' shows. They are big and dominated by dealers selling other things than just cards. By the size of the lines and what the promotional flyers that I get tell me, autographs are the big draw.

I'm not complaining. I collect all kinds of sports 'stuff' and there are still enough card dealers to satisfy my wants in that area as well. Other than when I looking for '59s I never have a 'game plan' for the shows. I buy on impulse.

At the last show I attended there was a dealer who had a big box of game used cards that he was selling for a few dollars each. I think the highest price he had one any was $5. I'm still new enough in my return to modern card collecting that the 'shine' of these things hasn't worn off.

I bought a handful of these and paid maybe ten or twelve dollars. I was really impressed that I could have a piece of a Juan Marichal uni. I loved watching him pitch when he was in his glory days. Saw him a bunch, too. My best friend was a Giant fan, as was his father. We'd hit up the Giants are Shea frequently. Marichal wasn't my favorite Giant, Jim Ray Hart held that distinction, but he sure was fun to watch.