Space Cards, G-Men ...and other weirdness

My Net54 grab-bag purchase and latest hotel show scrounging yielded some stuff I had no business adding to my collection. But it's some fun stuff and post-worthy (I guess).

These first two cards are from the 1957/58 Topps Space Card set. I had never seen these. A little digging turned up the fact that these cards, 88 in all, were recycled for another set, Target: Moon somewhat later. The dates of issue for some of these non-sport sets are sometimes murky. The Topps Archives blog does a great job of researching this sort of thing. These were also re-issued in England through Topps' agreement with A&BC. Some were also included in repacks and promotional tie-ins as late as 1968.

The artwork is uncredited as far as I can tell. I saw a Topps mainstay, Norm Saunders, credited for these on at least one reference page but checking Mr. Saunders' website finds no mention of them.

This is a fun one..astronauts playing checkers in space. Well, OK then.

Just for grins, I checked to see what putting this set together would cost, or if it was readily available already completed. Lots of listings for singles on eBay at prices from about $4 and up. One complete set, from a British seller, for over $450. I think I'll just enjoy these two in my non-sports binder.

And speaking of tough to put together...check out these next two cards. They are from the 1936 G-Men and Heroes of the Law set.

Gum, Inc. (aka Bowman) issued these as a skip-numbered (and probably unfinished) set of 168 cards. The card numbers run into the 400s. Some background and the known checklist is available here.

I blew these up so the backs could be read here. That's about as much text as I've ever seen on a card.

I'd guess that these were done to jump on the popularity of the Dick Tracy comic strip which premiered in the early 1930s. This page has a link to a slideshow of the whole set.

You can get a better idea of the size of these with this scan I did of one next to a standard Topps card.

Haven't had enough of guys with guns? My dealer and friend Daryll had a stack of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. cards in his non-sports box. I picked out a couple of Robert Vaughn examples. This is the best of the bunch.

I really enjoyed that show back in the day. But it wasn't my favorite...that honor goes to Combat!  I've posted a few of these cards previously but I think these two capture the main characters best:

Rick Jason as Lt. Gil Hanley...

..and Vic Morrow as Sgt. Chip Saunders.

Like everything else we enjoyed, my friends and I had debates on which character was 'the best' in the show. I was a Hanley devotee. Sadly, both actors died tragically.

I'm still not done with the oddballs. But I'll mix in a few baseball posts so both regular readers don't completely abandon ship. 

Catching Up

I've fallen way behind on posting. Lots of reasons...from lack of inspiration to a complete revamp/remodeling of my hobby room/office. I've also been doing some work on the home network and switching over from Chrome to Firefox. FF, btw, while cleaner and quicker than Chrome, doesn't play well with Blogger. I smell a conspiracy. Off-topic...I haven't used a Mozilla product since their first attempt at a browser (Phoenix) but I was a hardcore Netscape Navigator user back in the day. My school district was an early adopter.

But that up above doesn't mean I haven't been busy when it comes to picking up cards and memorabilia. Most of my new acquisitions are additions to my Billy Pierce and Charles Bender collections.My posts of those guys never get much in the way of readership so I'm in no rush to scan and post them.

One group of cards I do have scanned is my card show haul from April. I followed myusual MO....sifting through the cheap vintage boxes and snatching whatever caught my fancy. Some of these I already owned but who wouldn't want a second copy of the '67 Ed Charles?

So here they are. Starting off with some '82 Kelloggs. I have to admit I'm coming around to seeing past Rickey Henderson's quirks and I'm beginning to appreciate what he did on the field.

Schmidt...best NL third baseman I've ever seen.  ;-)

The Wizard of Oz. I always thought the two-tone cap detracted from this uni. Now I'm not so sure.

Here's the back of Ozzie's card blown up so you can read the teeny font used to describe the drama surrounding his trade to the Cardinals during the winter of '81-'82.

Mike Cuellar, at Shea. I think I've written about the time I sat next to him and Fred Gladdingin at a game in the Astrodome. Both were DL'd and sitting right behind home plate. Cuellar was charting pitches. My Dad and I were in the seats he sometimes got from Shell Oil. They were pretty sweet.

Here's The Glider! I hear Bob Murphy's voice in my head whenever I think of this guy. Love that A's uni.

I have this Elston Howard on my PC but I keep thinking that one day I may chase the  '64 set.

Richie Allen. Why isn't he in the Hall of Fame? I think he belongs.

'67 Boog. Because why not?

'64 Juan Pizzaro. See my remarks on the Elston Howard card. Exactly the same here.

This Palmer wasn't a need but I kind of hate leaving his cards in a bargain box.

Love the '61 Post Cereal cards and I love Wally Moon cards so this was a no-brainer.

And I'll finish up with a pair of 1969 Topps Deckle Edge inserts. I really need to dig thru my cards (and that's the plan for the summer) and pull out what I have of these. I'd bet I'm fairly close to the whole thing.

Richie Allen in his 'Rich Allen' mode.

And a sorta stoned-looking Jerry Koosman.

That's it for now. I'll try to do better next time.

Card show haul

OK, 'haul' is a bit strong but it was a well spent two hours on Saturday. First thing I did was show the infamous OPC 1970s to show promoter/dealer friend Darrell who took them back and offered me full credit and then some. I used that at his cheap-o vintage tables to hit some other folks' want lists and scrounge some cheap vintage for myself.

I have great memories of the Post and Jello sets of the early 1960s. There were plenty of them available Saturday and I took about a half dozen. Since I have almost no issue with whatever shape these are in I could easily be persuaded to chase one of the sets.

The Don Mossi and these next three are from the 1962 set. I probably should have bought every one he had (at .50 apiece) but I wanted to grab a few other things I saw.

Daddy Wags Leon Wagner. The Angels should cut the foolishness and call themselves the Los Angeles Angels again just so they could go back to this cap.

Pinch hitter deluxe Smoky Burgess. Not cut very well but I always remember that I was one of the kids who loved to cut the cats apart after we finished the boxes.

I'm sure I have this card of Hoyt Wilhelm already but I grabbed it anyway. Hoyt was awarded the Purple Heart after serving during WWII and being wounded in the Battle of the Bulge.

This is a '61 Hector Lopez. I always liked him because my father did.

Not every card I bought was vintage. This shiny Bowman looks way better in hand.

PSA has graded 75 of these 1965 Topps Embossed Boog Powell cards as 'Mint 9'. This is not one.

I'll end this post with a '68 Dooley Womack. I once had the idea that I would put together a Ball Four 'set comprised of a card  of every player mentioned in the index of Jim Bouton's book. It would have been what bloggers now refer to as a 'frankenset' but back then nobody knew that term. I don't know why I never went through with the goofy notion. It would have been fun!

I'll post the rest of the show haul next time.

Card Show haul

When I returned from my little Trump-inspired break from this blog I was kind of concerned that I'd have nothing to post. That's not been the case. I have all kinds of stuff. The problem actually is that I just haven't had much time. Not only have these posts been sporatic but I've largely ignored my two active set blogs. 

But I'll try to do better now that my work schedule has hit the 'off season'. These are some of what I picked up a couple of weekends ago at the hotel card show I frequent. Nothing like the fantastic stuff Mark Hoyle nabbed last weekend at a show and showed off on Twitter but whatcha gonna do? 

I bought a handful of  '57s from a bargain box (almost everything I get at shows is from vintage bargain boxes).  Some of the ones I nabbed went out to other collectors already but these are what I kept. 

I never pass up a Harry 'Suitcase' Simpson card. This is probably my third '57 Topps Simpson. One of them went out to a collector. I love this card with it's old Yankee Stadium background. 

Here's another dupe. I had this Juan Pizarro in my PC but for about a quarter I added this one to my stack. I know what you're thinking...'Who the hell has a Juan Pizarro PC?'.  Guilty as charged.

Same thing goes for this '62 Post Brooks Robinson. There is nothing nice about this card other than it being Brooks but for the price I figured I might just pass it on to someone who is looking for a placeholder.

Now these I bought for me. Is there anyone who doesn't love Kelloggs' cards, especially 1970 Kelloggs?  I have a long, convoluted and not all that interesting Joe Pepitone story that I may relate one day. But the bottom line is that he dated a girl who lived down our block when we lived in Nutley, NJ. She ended up as an item in the New York Daily News at one point and was the talk of the neighborhood. Those were fun times.

Rico Petrocelli had a brother who ushered at Yankee Stadium. He told me and my friends he was 'authorized' to sign his brother's autograph. I had a couple of Yankee game programs signed by him. LOL

When my daughter was young and mildly interested in sports she was a Nolan Ryan fan. These two oddballs were a dime each. I bet there is a Nolan collector out there who could use them.

This is a better '69 Bob Moose than I have in my ...errr... Bob Moose PC. I bought it hoping it would be so.

And then there is this Jim 'Mudcat' Grant Topps coin. My dealer friend always has a pile of these coins, always in pretty brutal shape. This is the first time I've spotted a Grant.

As mentioned above the rest of what I bought went out thru the postal system last week. I spent three hours and about $20 total. I resisted an urge to buy a 1970 Topps 'starter' lot and headed out for a Banh Mi and Vietnamese coffee. It was a good day all around.

Random Vintage Being Random Pt 3

Last installment of card show vintage. I brought home about 35 cards but some are headed out in a PWE and others were not really worth scanning.

A couple more 71's here. I didn't realize I had nabbed as many as I did. Maybe something in my subconscious is urging me to collect it. I doubt that's going to happen though.

First up is Lindy McDaniel out there all by his lonesome on the Yankee Stadium mound. No way to prove it but I'd like to think this shot was taken on the same day as the photo for the '71 Vada Pinson card. I've determined that one was taken on a day I was in the stands. If so I might be pictured somewhere in that crowd beyond McDaniel over near the third base dugout. That's where I was seated that afternoon. 

This is not the most 'action-filled' of the on-field photos in the '71 set. But I like how it gives a sense of the solitude pitchers must feel out there on a big league mound with the game in their hand. 

I believe it is an impossibility to pass up a thirty three cent card showing Walt 'No Neck' Williams and those great 70's 'burns. The fact that Topps did such a lousy and obvious airbrush job on Walt's cap while ignoring his White Sox' uni is just gravy.

Tony Cloninger in that Braves cap. I have a mental block against the guy's correct name. I have always seen/spelled/said it as 'CloLinger'. Tony Clolinger. When I typed it right there it looks so obviously wrong but when I look at the card I see CloLinger. Next you'll tell me that the scan is crooked. Harumph.

John 'Blue Moon' Odom poses with a couple of water towers in the background. This is Spring Training but I'm reminded of the trips my wife and I took along Route 66 this summer through Illinois, Missouri and Kansas and over the winter in Arizona. Those small towns along the way all spout water towers although the old fashioned ones like the ones on this card are rare.

It also just struck me as to how many of the players on the cards I bought have memorable nicknames.....

...like Harry 'The Hat' Walker. Walker was fired as manager of the Pirates about the time I first arrived in Houston in the summer of 1967. He was hired by the Astros about the time we moved back to New Jersey the following June. He was still managing when I returned to attend college here in 1970. He was a major leaguer for 11 seasons but a regular for about half that. He spent two prime years in the service and survived a harrowing stint in WWII with Patton's Third Army in France and Germany.

I bought this card because it shows off the Astros' classic 'shooting star' jersey. They've worn this a few times as a throwback but I wish they had gone to it fulltime when they switched back to the orange and blue color scheme.

And finally there is this nice '61 Topps Jack Sanford. They reused this photo the next year (lightening the sky in the background) but I like the '61 a lot more. This was the best card I bought as far as condition is concerned. A bit off-center but the corners are nice. That, plus Jack Sanford was a badass. He's one of the guys who I've profiled three times over my three vintage Topps set blogs, 1958, 1959 and 1960. With guys like that I feel I 'know' them.

I was pretty happy with what I picked up at the show. I spent less than I usually do and still came away with these and cards to send off to another blogger. I can't wait for the next hotel show.

Random Vintage Being Random Pt 2

Continuing with my vintage pickups from last Saturday. Some of these are also from the 3 for $1 bin but others were in my friend's boxes at up to a dollar each. 

The 1971 Topps set has some great cards. This isn't one of them....

Lee 'Skip' Pitlock looks like he was just told to eat a spider by Willie McCovey. And I know third graders who have better signatures than that. Pitlock pitched for the White Sox a few years after his stint with the Giants and had a career mark of 8-8 in 59 games. He got into real estate and then the mortgage industry after retirement. Here is a short, promotional bio-type video of him with something neat in his pocket.

I think I paid a buck apiece for these two flawed Post Cereal cards. But I couldn't pass up Rocky Colavito even with that mangled airbrush job on his cap.. '61 wasn't a bad year for him: 45/140/.290 with 30 doubles.

I already owned this Brooks Robinson Post from the same year but i can always stick this one into my oddball/food issue Orioles binder.

Johnny Callison was a favorite of mine when he played for the Phillies. I collect his cards and according to my spreadsheet on Dropbox I needed both of these. But I suspect I had them already, at least the '65. I'm seriously behind on updating my PC spreadsheets.

Norm Siebern played for the Orioles just before they became an AL powerhouse in 1966. He played in two World Series with the Yankees before having some good years with the A's. I knew all that.

What I had completely forgotten was that he also played for the '67 'Impossible Dream' Red Sox. He got into Game One against the Cardinals and came up to pinch hit in the bottom of the 7th with two outs and Reggie Smith on first. Smith was immediately caught stealing so Siebern played 1st base and got to bat in the 8th. He singled. If Smith had stolen that base and Siebern then gotten that single who knows how the Series might have turned out.

Mack Jones was second only to Rusty Staub in popularity with the expansion Expos in 1969. I'm a sucker for Braves cards that feature that cap prominently.

Wrapping up with three more '71s. I picked these up strictly for the uniforms that are showcased. Jim Gosger had a long career as a spare outfielder who occasionally was able to grab a starting spot and hold it for awhile. He had an eventful 1969 season. He began it with the Seattle Pilots and his time with them was immortalized in Jim Bouton's Ball Four. Gosger had a great line in the book which I won't spend any time on here.

He was dealt to the Mets that September and played a bit for the Series-bound club down the stretch. He was not eligible to play in the Series but the Mets voted him a share of their winnings amounting to $100.

I believe that the first non-Orioles cap I ever bought was a replica of the iconic Expos one that Gosger is wearing. BTW...I found out thru some googling that Gosger has an interesting Facebook feed. I looked at it briefly and saw that the guy really likes 70's music. For whatever that's worth.

These last two 71's are here simply for the awesome green and gold A's ensemble.

I don't remember how I felt about these uniforms back then. I probably hated them. But now I find them to be very sweet. Sal Bando certainly wears it well.

The Dick Green card is seriously miscut. And scanned at a slight angle. But I'm posting it anyway.

One more collection of card show vintage coming up later this week.