Graig Kreindler Negro League Centennial Set

A few months back I saw an ad (somewhere..Twitter?) for a new Negro League set. It was produced in honor of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Negro National League in 1920. Of course, black baseball in the Staes and the Caribean goes back to the 1860s. There are included cards of players and pioneers that reflect that.

The cards were to feature the artwork of Graig Kreindler. I love his work and the set looked promising.  I ordered one and pretty much forgot about it until I got a shipping notice last week.

The set, produced by the negroleaguehistory.com site, arrived yesterday and I'm happy with it. Kreindler's art is super. The set consists of 184 cards plus a couple of unnumbered extras. There are cards for every star and multiples of many which reflect different teams they played for.

The backs give the player's vitals and contain a short write-up. When there are multiple cards of a player the write-up is different for each one as they reflect the team/career path of the player.

Included was a two-sided card that gives some background on the project. I'm showing it and any other text-heavy cards because the font is not easy to read otherwise.

Just gonna toss a few of my favorites up here. There are many of the Cuban and other Latin American players here, and some of the Negro leaguers played winter ball in those spots and have cards showing them in those unis.

Josh Gibson, as you'd expect, has a few different cards included. Beckett has the checklist and other info on their site.

There are also cards for some of the well known MLB stars that got their 'professional' start in the Negro Leagues.

When Jackie Robinson's KC Monarchs club took the field even Bob Uecker would have known where they were from.

Minnie Minoso looks like he's 40 years old here but he played for the NY Cubans in 1948 which would make him 22.

I love this card of Elston Howard in his Monarchs gear. I may pick up a single for my Howard PC.

Here's something I didn't know...Luis Tiant's father was a baseball star in Cuba. Orlando Cepeda's father has a card in the set as well.

Goose Tatum became famous for his Harlem Globetrotter success, but he played ball, too. The card mentions that his super-human 'wingspan' helped him as a first baseman but put a huge 'hole' on his swing.

Pioneers get cards including Toni Stone who played right alongside the guys.

Some of the unis that were worn were very sweet:

In a nice touch, Kreindler included a card of an 'unknown' player as a tribute to the many, many guys who played in obscurity. As noted on the reverse, teams traveled with small rosters and sometimes picked up local players to fill out lineups. Some players slipped through the cracks of the spotty recording and chronicling of teams/games and never got credited in a boxscore. Others played briefly before giving up due to the tough travel conditions and the difficulties of travel in a country where they were not welcomed everywhere.

As an 'early adopter' (i.e. I think that I ordered a set when it was still being financed) I received an extra copy of card #23 which depicts Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson signed by the artist. It was a nice surprise.

Even the box is attractive.

With the borders of the cards being a what they are I'm not wasting any time sliding the set into binder pages. And I may unfold that box and stick it in a one-pocket if I can.

EDIT: P-Town Tom was posting his thoughts on the set about the same time this went up. Check out his post here.

The set runs from $55 to $60 depending on where you purchase it. I've seen it on eBay and at the site I linked at the top. Net54 members can get it thru one of the authorized dealers who posts over there. Search for member 'buythatcard' and you'll find Howard's post about the set.

Money well spent for me.

Card Show Highlights

I can't remember the last time I visited a major card show on a Friday. But summer break opens up opportunities and I'm glad I chose to go to the Houston TriStar summer show yesterday. In a mild surprise nearly all the dealers were set up and ready to go when the doors opened at 3, or at least soon thereafter. One real benefit is that there were no autograph guests scheduled when I was there so the place had the quiet, laid back feel of a hotel show. No blaring announcements of the next signature guests and no lines of guys holding boxed footballs and framed jerseys snaking through the aisles. 

I found some things I was looking for but the best part by far was coming across a table manned by two Negro League veterans. Dennis 'Bose' Biddle has written a book and does much traveling on behalf of the effort to preserve Negro League Baseball history. He, like my daughter is doing now, had a career as a social worker. Interesting guy who says he is the youngest living veteran of the Negro Leagues. That's a claim that is not without a bit of controversy.  

Ray Knox was a soft-spoken gentleman who spent several years in the NAL. He's from Evanston, Illinois and played for the Chicago American Giants and New Orleans Eagles. 

It was fun talking to them. They were not selling items but rather exchanging them for donations to Mr. Biddle's organization. I came away with the cards and this signed baseball. 

We took a couple of pictures but they didn't come out well.

The rest of the three hours I was there was devoted to two goals....finding some trade package items and finding inexpensive 1970 cards for my set build. Mission accomplished in both areas. Ironically I got the 1970 cards from my dealer friend Darrell who sold me the starter lot in the first place. I could have waited until his hotel show next Saturday and saved myself the parking and admission fees at TriStar but I'd have missed out on meeting Bose Biddle and Ray Knox.

I also raided Darrell's cheap non-sports box and came up with some neat stuff. I have a nice little collection of baseball Exhibit cards. I remember getting some from vending machines on the Coney Island boardwalk when I was a kid.

But the following items were new to me. They are Fortune Telling Exhibit cards from 1935. The idea was simple. Put in a coin and the Exhibit Supply Company laid your whole life out on a postcard sized piece of cardboard.

 Weird, right? But interesting enough to spend fifty cents on. here is the ext from both as it is hard to read otherwise.

I'd never seen these Kelloggs' Presidents 'stickers' from 1980. I snatched up all the ones Darrell had. Not much info out there on these. Supposedly there was a card set and a sticker set. 

They are pretty small (see below) so I blew up the reverse of one. Hell I could barely read the thing in hand so this helps me as well. LOL

Here is the U.S. Grant next to the Topps Grover Cleveland I bought (it's a dupe I find).

I grabbed a stary shiny Batman card for my Batman binder. I have no idea what it is other than it comes from some DC sponsored set but hey, it's Batman!

I also found a few 1960 Leaf cards. I may try to finish this set off one day. It's not real popular and the cards can be found pretty cheaply. It holds a certain charm for me though. I remember having some of these back when they were new but I don;t recall how I ended up with them. I suspect my folks just grabbed 'baseball cards' at Korvette's to go in Easter baskets or as stocking stuffers.

So the show was worth the trip. I seriously doubt I'll go back tomorrow even with my Father's Day 'kitchen pass'. I'll save my leftover cash for the hotel show next Saturday.

1993 Negro League cards from the Ted Williams set

I had a mild curiosity in the history of the Negro Leagues in the past. Most of what I knew was confined to the names of the teams that were based in Baltimore and some history of the players who came to the majors after playing in those leagues...guys like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays... names everyone knows.

But a trip to Birmingham in January gave me the chance to visit the Civil Rights Museum there and while the focus isn't on baseball or even sports there was enough there to get me interested in learning more.

So these cards from the 1993 Ted Williams Company set fit right in to my collection. They came from Mark Hoyle and I have seen other bloggers post a few that he sent them so if these are dupes I apologize.

The '93 Williams set is another item I was aware of but really didn't know much about. I had dropped out of collecting then. Through the years I have picked up a few cards here and there that Williams issued, mostly Orioles and Baltimore Colts related ones.

They put out some quality stuff. The Negro Leagues subset is particularly interesting as it conveys some history that many people are not aware of. I like the use of historic photos on these. Mark's PWE included almost the complete subset. The others are on COMC and I'll pick them up in my next 'sweep' through that site.

Thanks again, Mark, for these and for all you do for all of us bloggers.