Five Card Stud

Robert of $30 A Week Habit sent folks five cards. All we had to do is write a 100 word post about them. Here goes....

'59 style Topps Bill Russell. Love Russell. Love pink cards. Love '59 Topps. Fun card!

'75 Dan Dierdorf. Vintage football cards are cool things. That helmet logo bites though. LOL

Arian Foster. Shiny chromified 2011 card. Cool card, odd guy. Goes in my Texans binder.

Rod Gilbert. My first hockey hero! Great skater, wicked shot. The GAG Line, Goal A Game. Gilbert, Nevin, Ratelle. They were awesome!

100 words, on the nose. Thanks so much, Robert!

I'm in a hockey kind of mood

My Rangers came back on Monday night. I mean they came from waaaay back. They scored five goals in the third period for a 5-4 win over the Minnesota North Stars Wild. Of course I wasn't watching or listening to the fun game, I was getting my culture on.

This Rod Gilbert is my latest vintage hockey addition. Buying it is like sticking my hand over hot coals. Seeing my favorite Ranger skater wearing the horrendous 'crest' sweater gives me facial tics. But a Gilbert card is a Gilbert card. And this is the last one issued during his career. 1978/79 was Gilbert's final one in uniform. 

He was involved in a contract dispute that season and never got on-track. From making the All Star team in 1977 he went to a two goal, 19 game campaign in 1978. And then he retired. He's worked for the Rangers for many years and is still seen around the Garden frequently.

The Sports Illustrated cover was on my bedroom wall for many years. That's the Gilbert I remember, not the more shaggy late 70s Gilbert. I still have my original mag cover in a binder someplace. It's full of tack holes from my many room and house changes through the years.

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.

It was raining vintage!

Here I was thinking that I was running low on blogging material/ideas and suddenly a big ol' envelope arrived from up Canada way. I came from Chris who does a couple of great blogs, Diamond Cuts and Wax Stains being the main one. He is also collecting and blogging the 1964/65 Topps Hockey Tall Boys set. He had told me he was sending a couple of cards. Turns out he sent a huge lode of vintage Rangers, Orioles and even a few Man U cards. More than I can do justice to in one post.

That Ron Stewart is a 1968/69 OPC. At least the head is Ron Stewart. Chris is better at this stuff than I am so he might be able to ID the body. I run hot and cold on this set. I think they are kind of a mess but maybe a mess in a good way. Everyone else seems to love 'em so they must have something appealing. I do like the 'papa bear-mama bear-baby bear' feel of the three dark shirted skaters in the drawn background.

There is something disturbing about this '73 OPC Steve Vickers card. I guess it's his expression. I can't put my finger on it but he looks like someone plucked from the 1973 version of Times Square and asked to pose for a hockey picture card. If you remember Times Square from back then you know what I mean.

Topps didn't even bother using their own picture of Ranger tough guy Orland Kurtenbach for his 1969 card. They cribbed this one from the Rangers Blue Book (media guide) of a couple of years previous. I've wondered when exactly hockey players decided not to tie their sweater laces. I have a couple of Rangers sweaters and I still tie them up. If I don't I feel the same as I would if I didn't tie my shoes.

Here is Rod Gilbert from that same set. He was the guy that all the girls swooned over. He ALWAYS looked like this.... calm, classy, impeccable. Hell, I saw him on the tube last month and he still looks like this. Fabulous hockey player. He never had enough help on the Rangers. When he got the help i.e. Brad Park, management traded it off for used up stars (I'm looking at you, Phil Esposito).

1978 OPC Walt Tkaczuk. He was high up on the Rangers scoring list for awhile. I never remember him with a beard. In that era of Rangers history it certainly wasn't a 'playoff beard'. And one day I'd like to run into the guy who decided that changing the Rangers look to this horrific clown suit would be a good idea. I came close to weeping when I saw this stuff.

Anyway, that's a few of the cards from Chris' bounty. I'll switch to some of the Orioles in my next look at the cards he sent but I haven't yet scanned the very best of the vintage hockey. I'll get to that soon.

Weird Little Collections: Original Six Favorites #6 The Rangers!!!

By the time this post is published the Rangers/Flyers 1st Round Series will be history. So I'll be either batshit crazy happy or pissed off enough to stab my cat. No reason I can think of to explain why I've mellowed so much as a fan in every aspect of sports EXCEPT when it comes to the New York Rangers.

Which brings us to this, the final installment of a small series of posts in which I've featured a favorite player from each of the Original Six NHL teams. Like everyone else I choose to ignore the fact that the 'Original Six' are far removed from actually being the first NHL franchises. But I digress.

I think one reason my affinity for my Blueshirts is so strong is that as I grew up they were the only team that everyone close to me 'agreed' on as a rooting interest. In baseball I was an Orioles fan, my Dad was a Yankee fan and my best friend and my closest cousin were devotees of the Giants and Braves respectively. In football I held the Baltimore Colts dear while my father was a football Giants guy and my buddy rooted for the Browns.

But when it came to hockey I don't even think I knew anyone who wasn't a Rangers fan. My family, my friends and their families, everyone at school, my coaches and all my NY/NJ clan of relatives lived and died (mostly died) with the guys on Broadway.

That might explain why as I type this on Tuesday evening I just told my grown son to "turn down the bleepin' TV or close the bleepin' door so I can't hear the bleepin' game cause the score is bleepin' me off". Yes, I'm a grown man who won't listen to a playoff game in which my team is losing 4-0. Yes, I'm that immature stupid.

But here I am attempting to sooth my soul with a posting of Rangers cards. These cards are not of themselves from the Original Six 'era' which ended in 1967, but all the players here are favorites of mine from back in the days of Bruins hatin' rage. Most of them came just the other day from (who else?) Mark Hoyle, a fine Boston lad (ha!) who sprinkles his dupes and vintage gems among all of us in the blogging community. Mark, I salute you!

First up is Eddie Giacomin. Fast Eddie was simply a god to me during his reign as the Rangers' goalie. He was up there with Johnny Unitas, Brooks Robinson and John Mackey in my personal Mt. Rushmore of sports heroes.

These two cards, from 73/74 and 74/75 represent the end of the 'Giacomin Era'. He was waived in October of 1975 and picked up by the Red Wings. I was working at the old Houston Post and a friend there told me of the deal. I had to read it for myself on the ticker. I'm pretty sure I didn't cry but I likely would have had I not been in the middle of a busy sports department full of tough old veteran writers. Even though I knew his days were numbered with my team I was crushed by the news. Ironically Eddie's very first game as a Red Wing came against the Rangers a coupe of nights later in Madison Square Garden. Ranger fans cheered him like the hero he was and someplace I have a picture of him skating across the Garden ice with his head down as he cried with the emotion of it all. I'd have given anything to have been there!

Rod Gilbert was smooth, classy and the Rangers best scorer. I had his poster on my wall (I never could find a Giacomin poster, Eddie was the kind of guy that they made posters of). His number '7' was the number I wanted as a little leaguer.

Jean Ratelle, Vic Hatfield (we called him 'Two Sticks'... number 11, get it?) and Walt Tkaczuk were scoring forwards for the Blueshirts. All are among my top Rangers favorites.

And last, but not least:

The great Hall of Famer, Brad Park. His debut was much anticipated among Ranger fans after he was 'drafted' in 1966. I saw Park get his first career goal..... the last goal in a 9-0 pasting of the Bruins early in 1969. He had been playing well but I remember that there was a lot of talk about his inability to score that first goal.

Like Eddie Giacomin Park was dealt away by the Rangers but unlike Eddie Park had a lot of hockey left. I always thought his #2 should have been retired by the Rangers. It was later, but only after it was won by the great Brian Leetch. Park had the bad luck to come along as a defenseman during Bobby Orr's career. Even when Orr retired his shadow loomed over everyone else at that position for awhile.

Thanks again, Mark. I love these and the Big E cards you sent.

NHL on suicide watch

Last week the NHL cancelled all games through December 14 and the All Star Game as well. They supposedly think that the Board of Governors meeting on December 5th will lead to a settlement and a December 15 start to the season can result in a 58/60 game schedule.

Frankly my dear, at this point, I don't give a damn. I actually hope they ditch the games through January so I can get a refund on my Rangers/Stars tickets and use the cash for Christmas stuff.

But just because I'm nostalgic for good ol' shinny I dug out some of my 1994(?) Parkhurst Tall Boy reprints. I love this set as it features players from my days as a serious hockey fan. These posted cards are those of the Rangers 'Goal-A-Game' aka GAG line of the late 60's. (No Ranger choking remarks, please.) Vic Hatfield, Jean Ratelle and Rod Gilbert were a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

Note the Northland branded sticks. Quite visible particularly on Rod Gilbert's card. I used one of those on the ponds and parking lots of New Jersey as a kid. I still have one that I did some repairs on. I cut off the well worn blade and replaced it with a street hockey blade and I still mess with it from time to time.

A hockey stick from 1966 and a baseball glove from 1965. You get the feeling I have a hard time letting some things go?