Catching Up

I've been 'offline' for a bit. No posting and almost no reading so I have to get up to speed here. I have a couple of way overdue thank yous to send out to bloggers/friends who gifted me with cards over the last month.

First up is a 'foodie' variation, an Utz version of the Topps 2019 Trey Mancini card that came from 'friend of the blog' and Twitter mainstay, Mark Hoyle. Utz Potato Chips is an east coast brand that put packs of these (4 to a pack?) into chip bags or multi-packs. I read that there were 100 Utz-branded cards. It struck me that if someone didn't want to deal with collecting the whole Topps flagship set and the extraneous stuff that comes with it that nabbing the Utz cards would be a neat alternative.  All riff, no raff.

Here's Trey:

Thanks, Mark. In my neverending effort to have as much variety as possible in my fantasy league binder this one will make a great addition.

Another bunch of cards came from Night Owl. As is usually the case with envelopes I get from Greg, it contained a wide assortment of stuff. All of it fits into one of my collections or another.

First up..a '57 Don Newcombe. Now Greg stuck a Post-It to this one noting that Newk had 'issues' and might be a filler. No, Newk has taken his spot in the '57 set binder and there he will stay. One thing I don't remember mentioning since I was doing my '59 blog...'gifted' cards get an automatic 'grade' boost. Getting a card from a friend or fellow blogger, especially one for a set build or special collection, means a lot to me. They go in the binder with a little label over on the inside edge of the nine pocket sheet and the sender's name. I've missed a few here and there but for the most part, I can go through my sets and tell who sent me what.

And then there is this...

...Elizabeth Taylor from the 1953 Topps Who-Z-At movie star set. Yikes. And to think that once upon a time I wondered what the big deal was with Liz Taylor. LOL, Yes, I'm a donkey.

I have about a half dozen of the 80 cards in this set. With some luck and legwork, I could put it together without a lot of expense. I previously posted a few of these. The beautiful duo of Greer Garson and Cyd Charisse are in this post. And Eve Arden is here in this one.

The rest of Night Owl's manila envelope contained Orioles of various types. Here is Tony Batista alongside a swatch of his uni. His career fell completely within my baseball 'black hole' period.

Brooksie from the Heritage set of 2019. Topps did capture that 70s' feel.

When I posted these on Twitter N.O. chimed in with a mention of Kyle Hudson being a product of Mattoon High in Illinois. I have to admit I missed the significance of that fact. Lil help? He's also a former Dodger farmhand, signed this card (sort of) and has his position listed twice on the front.

Now that I've finished my '75 set I've begun to organize the minis I gathered along the way. Ross Grimsley here is a buyback. The pic is from the days before he wore a huge perm. At this point, he still looked like half my high school friends.

1969 Dave May. Yankee Stadium batting cage in the background. I've tried really hard to figure out who that is in the cage taking his hacks but I'm stumped. My first thought was Paul Blair based on the body language but when I blew the scan up it doesn't look like him.

Jeff Conine, dressed as a Marlin, credited as an Oriole. Here is something I probably shouldn't admit: when I looked at Conine's BR page I saw the Fla-NYY World Series line and I thought "how did two AL teams play in the Series?" It was interesting to see that he went back and forth between the O's and Marlins a couple of times.

And what do we have here?

It's Trey Mancini...same card, different version. Greg included the Opening Day Topps Mancini. If you look closely at the cards side-by-side you can see the slightly different cropping.

The OD version has somewhat richer (printing term?) colors. Other than the numbers the backs are the same.

Thanks again to Mark and Greg for the surprise packages. Both were very much appreciated. One last thing... one of the reasons I was out-of-pocket for a few weeks was a trip to St. Louis to help my best friend celebrate a milestone birthday. There was baseball involved.

Here is what we found under the Gateway Arch on the day we arrived...

Vintage baseball is played there regularly. I failed to get a pic of the guy in the period suit and top hat who manned an info table and was happy to talk about it all. He gave us the rundown on the teams including the fact that the 1890s version of the Perfectos went on to become the Cardinals.

We also made it out to Busch Stadium and watched a Cardinals victory over the Pirates. I was impressed by the place. I'll post a few pics in some future posts.

PC Thoughts

That stands for Player Collection, not Political Correctness, btw.

Anyway, I've spent a lot of time lately trying to assess my Billy Pierce collection and where I want to go with it from this point. Worth mentioning here is that I've put a link to a text-only list of my Pierce stuff over in the sidebar to the right. I'll be scanning and linking all that as time goes by. And correcting a few listings which I think are mislabeled.

I'm sort of at a crossroads with the collection. I have all of BP's mainstream cards and almost all of his post-career retro- cards as well. I lack a couple of elusive and/or expensive pieces such as that darned '59 Bazooka box card and the 1959 Topps Venezuelan version of his card with Bob Friend, #156 Ace Hurlers. Also on that list is a Sport Magazine issue from 1955 that I passed on once or twice and now wish I had the opportunity to grab.

But, while cards are undoubtedly the backbone of any PC, what makes one unique and challenging (and so much more fun, IMHO) are the little off-the-wall, oddball things that you come across. Items like my Pierce billfold and drinking glass, for example, really flesh out my collection.

And that brings me to the little item at the top. The neat cartoon is from a syndicated feature that ran in newspapers for many years, This Day In Sports inked by Len Hollreiser. This little jewel came to me from Mark 'Lemme Check My Warehouse' Hoyle, Red Sox collector par excellence and owner of Twitter's most famous countertop. I think he picked it up specifically for me while nabbing some BoSox pieces (naturally) for himself. It's the thoughtful gestures like that that make collections more than just 'accumulations' of stuff.

These little career contemporary items are pretty cool. Looking at them sends you back to the day it was carried in the local paper and was read by an insurance salesman at the kitchen table while having his second cup of coffee before heading to the office. They also can send you down some fun rabbit holes. I found out that Hollreiser collaborated with Joe DiMaggio on his instructional baseball book, Baseball for Everyone.

Of course, I had to look up the game on Baseball Reference and found out that the June 27, 1958 game was BP's third consecutive shutout! In those three games in the second half of June that season Pierce allowed 8 hits in 27 innings. He only walked three and fanned 16. Maybe the most interesting stat is that over those three games he faced a total of 90 hitters, just nine over the minimum! Pierce was at the top of his game.

It's a neat addition to the Pierce binder. It fits fine in one of those six-pocket pages. Thanks so much, Mark.



Here's a video bio of Len Hollreiser. Interesting but it won't win an Oscar for Best Short Feature!

Paul Richards Flip Book

Not long ago I received an envelope from 'Friend of Everyone's Blog', Mark Hoyle. In that envelope was this beauty, a 1957 Gillette-sponsored 'flip book' featuring Orioles manager/GM Paul Richards demonstrating baseball signs.  Mark sent an item that is right in my wheelhouse as he knows how much I love adding unique pieces to my Orioles collection. Photos can't do this thing justice. And that's a shame because it's really a cool little book.

This shot gives an idea of the size of the booklet. Yes, I used a Red Sox card intentionally :-)

There are multiple 'movies' that are viewed by flipping the two sets of split pages in both directions. The mini-movies and accompanying text cover all the different signs used in baseball, coaches signaling batters and runners, catchers calling pitches, etc.

I did some digging and couldn't find any Gillette flip books on other baseball subjects so it appears this was a one-off. Keyman Collectibles has an entry for this and gives the following backstory:

The 1957 Gillette "Signals... The Secret Language of Baseball in Finger-Tip Movies" by Bob Broeg, VP Baseball Writers Association, was a premium flip book that came with a Gillette Super-Speed Razor. The booklet was held in place, below the case with a specially marked, cardboard band. The material in this book is based on a series of articles that appeared in The Sporting News, national baseball weekly and Joe Garagiola served as technical adviser. The booklet has a total of 8 "Finger-Tip Movies" that all feature black and white illustrations of Baltimore Orioles manager, Paul Richards.

They also have a picture of the original Gillette packaging which is viewable through that link.

As I said the photos don't really capture the charm of this but I wasn't able to juggle the booklet and take a video of it in action. These pics will have to do.

The timing of Mark's gift was perfect as I am in the process of building a couple of displays of Orioles pieces. They will contain things that don't work well in binders like pins, trinkets, and patches. I'm using glass-front, wall-mounted boxes. This booklet will fit in for sure.

Thanks again, Mark. This little treasure is much appreciated!

Elston Howard: A new PC

I don't intend for this blog to be Yankee-centric but I have had this post queued up for awhile. A few weeks ago I got this Elston Howard Panini card from a card show dealer's box of 25 or 50 cent cards (I forget which now). Panini stuff is hit-or-miss for me but I liked this one so I picked it up.

I've told this Elston Howard story previously over on my '59 Topps blog many moons ago:

He had opened Elston Howard Travel in my hometown of Nutley, New Jersey. When it opened my best friend and I would walk by daily hoping for a glimpse of a major leaguer. One day a woman waved us in to the offices and told us to come by that weekend. Sure enough Elston was there and he signed pictures for us. Probably my first in person autograph and definitely our first off the field encounter with an athlete.

I'm currently going through my boxes to find that photo. I know I have it as I've seen it within the last year or so. Back to this card...there are (of course!) 'hit' versions that I've seen on eBay which have bat pieces and such. Those do nothing for me.

I've always had a casual Howard collection. By 'casual' I mean that if I come across one of his cards that I think I need I buy it. No modern set cards but career era stuff from Topps, Post etc. Sometimes that leads to me having dupes because I'm too lazy to actually checklist my casual PCs like Ellie, Johnny Callison and Bob Moose. 

One of my favorites is this one from the '64 Topps Giants set. 

Before I get too deep into his cards here is a really cool (to me) piece I found on eBay and added to my collection. These type of key chain good luck pieces were popular back in the day. 

I'm posting an oversize shot of the back because it's a bit hard to read otherwise.

Here are a few more of my favorite Elston Howard cards from my binder:

1957 Topps. I love this card.

Both '62s, this All Star and regular cards:

And here are the three from the sets I've completed/blogged:

His 1958. A beauty.

His 1960 card...why they have him capless is a Topps mystery.

Finally his 1959. I've upgraded this one once so I have one for my PC binder but this one that fills the slot in my '59 set could still use an upgrade.

And just the other day some Twitter-ites were celebrating National Doughnut Day. A baseball related site posted this:

Elston is credited with inventing it. The Wikipedia page for this has some interesting insights as well as links to scientific studies that delve into whether or not it does what it is clams...increase bat speed.

Here is a pic of the back of the box I found on the net.

And finally a variation of the box. Due to that '59 Topps card I associate Ellie and the color light blue. This box therefore is cooler.

Yet another box variation. This one has a red doughnut.which I don't think is what originally came in the box.

Mark Hoyle is another Howard collector based on Howard's contributions to the Impossible Dream Red Sox in 1967.  Every once in awhile Mark rides his Segway through the 20-acre warehouse that houses his collection and returns with a Howard piece to post on Twitter. His collection puts my PC to shame!  But I'll keep digging though.

1909 Abe Lincoln Postcards

I've been trying to sort and organize my Presidential cards, buttons and other memorabilia recently. I posted a few cards last week on Presidents Day. That same day Mark 'Friend of Every Blog' Hoyle threw a few pics up on Twitter featuring some postcards of presidents based on paintings by Morris Katz.

I had been unaware of those postcards but intrigued enough that I figured I'd try to find a few for my targeted presidents, Johnson, Teddy Roosevelt, etc on eBay. While doing that I found a 72 card Presidential postcard lot at a low starting bid. I threw in the minimum ($15) and was lucky enough to win. So for a quarter apiece I landed 72 pieces of Presidential ephemera including some Katz postcards and a whole lot more.

Some of the 72 are either mundane or really cheesy but the majority are very cool. These two Lincoln cards were postmarked in 1909. These two cards are obviously related but the details vary. Both come from the Lincoln Centennial year (1909). The one below is marked with that year on the front (barely visible, top right)

I assume they were part of a series of cards. There is a lot more info on the celebration of Lincoln's Centennial on this webpage.

Here is the back of one of the cards with the one cent stamp and 1909 postmark. 

As I mentioned the 72 card lot did indeed contain some of the Morris Katz painting cards. I have not had a chance to go through and sort them out. These two Lincoln cards posted here are the only ones I had a chance to scan out of the whole batch. I'm not going to bore anyone with 70 more presidential postcard scans but I think I can get a couple of interesting posts out of this eBay buy.

BTW...here is one of Mark's Twitter photos showing the Zatz cards. The cards of the earliest Presidents are the most interesting, at least to me. Thanks for setting me off on this path, Mark.

Hoyle'd again

The day after I received Night Owl's envelope I got one from Mark "Friend of Everyone's Blog" Hoyle. It was like a mirror image of NO's in that it had some 2016 late release stuff and some off the wall vintage. 

The border-less (a scanner victim) Hyun-Soo Kim card goes directly into my fantasy baseball binder. I've been needing a 'real' card of him all season. It replaces a World Baseball Classic one I found somewhere. A mainstream card in the player's actual MLB duds trumps a WBC oddball.

The O's picked up Steve Pearce late in the summer (at the deadline? I forget) but he was hurt and never really contributed. Nice card though. I needed it for the same reason as the Kim card.

Next up... a 1989 Fleer Prospects card with an Oriole. I always liked this set. It contains the infamous Billy Ripken bat knob obscenity card. Boy, was that a huge deal for awhile! This one is more routine.

We have Bob Milacki alongside football coach-lookin' Jim Corsi of the A's. Milacki was taken by the Orioles in the June, 1983 draft. that's the same month I got married. He won a couple of games for the Orioles at the end of the 1988 season. That was no mean feat given how the 1988 Orioles were so utterly terrible. And that's being kind.

But he was a 14 game winner for the 1989 "Why Not?" Orioles who finished second in the AL East and were in first place as late as the eve of September. That clunky "EBW" on Milacki's sleeve is the memorial for owner Edward Bennett Williams. I never realized what a great owner he was until Peter Angelos came along. 

These Kraft Home Plate Heroes cards came on Mac'n'Cheese boxes. We went through a lot of this stuff back then as my kids were growing up but I don't think I nabbed the Ripken. Two things I do know...I never kept the two cards intact, especially if an Oriole was involved...he was cut and put in a 9 pocket. And secondly I never cut the panel as neatly as this. My 1980s  food container and box bottom cutting skills didn't improve from when I was slaughtering Post Cereal cards twenty years prior. 

Cal Jr. and Darryl Strawberry are definitely on odd couple to be sharing a panel. Hey, an Oriole and a Met...makes this something that would fit perfectly in Joe Shlabotnik's collection. And I've wondered from time to time about these food and retail issues that are logo-less due to lack of MLB licencing but list the teams' nicknames. What's different now with Panini unable to use either? 

Finally here is a 2016 Topps Update card of my free-swinging pal, Chris Davis. Topps proclaims him as a future 500 Homer Club member. He's at 241 right now, and he's 30. I'm a big Crush fan but I'm thinking that another 259 is a longshot. I hope I'm wrong as the O's have a lot invested in him. 

But either way it's a nice card of him. His swing and reaction to a blast are both distinctive. He's worth the price of a ticket even when he's off his game.  

Thanks again, Mark. I appreciate the cards very much. Those of you with a Twitter account should follow him at https://twitter.com/Markhoyle4  Mark posts a lot of neat stuff there.

Hoyle's Spoils

I'm way behind in posting stuff, particularly the cards that I've received from you guys so I better get to work. Mark Hoyle hit me up with Orioles from this year's Heritage set. I buy a few packs of new card issues and have terrible luck when it comes to scoring Orioles. I really like the set this year so I'm glad to have these and as an added bonus the Joseph, Gausman and Trumbo cards fill holes in my fantasy baseball binder for this year.

I was in Baltimore for Gerardo Parra's Oriole debut last July. I was hoping he'd return but this Joey Rickart kid had done well so far filling an outfield spot and he adds some speed to the turtle-like Orioles so that's a plus.

Mark knows me well and knows how much I love postcards and team issued paper items. This David Segui postcard is done in a style I have never seen before. My first thought was that it was something Segui had done to answer autograph requests. But the text on the back has me thinking that it is actually a team produced card. I'd guess that it is something that was included in 'fan packs', the stuffed envelopes teams send when you wrote and asked for schedules and stuff.

Either way it's a nice addition to my Orioles postcard collection.

Side note: I'm assuming that this is an item from Segui's first go-round with the Orioles in the early nineties. The Orioles had black brims on caps and helmets then. And I'm also guessing that the opponent is Cleveland. I think they were the only team with those awful sleeve stripes in that era. Dressed To The Nines seems to back me up on that.

Thanks again, Mark. Much appreciated as always.

PWE from Mark Hoyle

Mark Hoyle's mail-outs are truly like Forrest Gump's 'box of chocolates'... you never know what you're gonna get. But it's always fun.

Mark delivers an eclectic mix of old and new and almost always includes at least one really neat oddball item. One of his packages arrived late in the week and as always it was fun to open. The 1969 Johnny Callison stamp fills a need in my Callison checklist. Callison was never a superstar but he was a solid pro and four time All Star for the Phillies back when they were 'my team' in the N.L.

Chico Salmon was a handyman for the Indians and Orioles in the 60s and early 70s. He played on the three AL pennant winning Orioles clubs of that era and got a hit in the 1970 Series. It was his only Seres at bat for the Birds and he will forever have a 1.000 World Series batting average. His SABR bio is a fun read.

This is his Milton Bradley game card from 1969. I posted some of my other cards from that game last year. This Salmon card is new. I have a signed Salmon postcard somewhere that I need to dig up.

Creepy Card Alert!!!

How about this Action Packed Alex Ochoa? These AP cards are embossed and scanning it makes it look like he's wearing eyeliner, doesn't it? Looks like Ru Paul with a ball glove.

This is the back of the card but it could just as easily be the front. And probably should have been!

Mark also sent along some newer Orioles, some vintage and semi-vintage Orioles and a nice hoops surprise!

'72 Cro Crowley. He was a better situational hitter than he was a hitting coach.

I like this Fleer set more than I probably should. At one point I had it in a binder. Yup, that guy was me. I cannibalized it to reuse the pages.

This is my favorite Adam Jones card. He's a throwback guy on a throwback card. He signed more autographs during the spring games I attended than any other player.

And here is the hoops card. A 1975-76 All Star Rick Barry. He was sort of a prickly guy but boy, could he play the game. In this season he led the NBA in FT percemtage for the fourth time. He did it six times in all. I remember trying to imitate his unique free throw technique in intramural hoops Didn't work as well for me as it did for him!

I believe that's Mike Riordan that he's guarding in that pic on the card. Funny, I recognize a rather obscure 70s Bullet player from the 70s but outside of the bearded Hardin guy on the Rockets and Lebron James I wouldn't know a current NBAer if I met one.

Anyway, a big thanks goes out to Mark for the cards. Always, always appreciated. And Mark, I'm still on the look out for a Galen Cisco Topps Giant!!

I almost forgot...here is a shot of Barry's FT style, and as a bonus, a look at one of the greatest unis ever! Smooth!