Orioles Picture Pack Photos

My ongoing re-organization efforts have led to me coming across stuff that has been 'buried' in boxes and binders. I found a stack of  50 or so of these Orioles 50s/60s Picture Pack photos. KeyMan Collectibles' website has a nice summary of the origins of these. They were sold at ballparks and through the mail in 'packs' of 12 to 25. Most were produced by Jay Publishing. KeyMan notes they originated in the 40s but I see some online that look to be from the 1930s.

I bought sets at Manny's Baseball Land souvenir store across River Avenue from Yankee Stadium. Manny's was the 'walk-up eBay' of the day. They sold everything! Others came from Memorial Stadium concession stands or through the mail from the team. Some of the ones I'm posting originated from my purchases back then. Others I've bought through the years. All mine (and all the others as far as I know) are 5x7 pics on semi-gloss paper. Some of the Orioles shots were taken by the team's 'official' photo guy, Mort Tadder.

I thought I had one of the original team-issued envelopes but that might have fallen victim to earlier 'purges'. I came across a few pictures online of other teams photo packs:

I'll kick off with a nice early 60s Brooks Robinson picture.

I wasn't surprised that I discovered several of Brooks in my stack but I was at having three Jackie Brandt pictures. He had a nice run with the Orioles from 1960 thru 1965. He was indirectly part of the deal that brought Frank Robinson to the O's. He traded to the Phillies for Jack Baldschun who was part of the package the Birds sent to the Reds three days later. These next two photos look to be from 1962 or so.

This third Brant show him in their highly under-appreciated 1963 home uniform. Brandt played third base for the Astros in the first game I watched in the Astrodome in the summer of 1967.

Next is Tall Paul Richards. I've seen this photo a time or two (or 12). For one thing, it was used on his 1960 Topps managers card.

Hoyt Wilhelm threw his knuckleball in Baltimore from '58 thru '61 which helps me date some of these things.

Robin Roberts won 42 games for the Birds in the early 60s and few folks even remember him being there. I saw him beat the Yankees at Yankee Stadium but I'm not sure what year it was.

The sets contained many similar photos from one year to the next. Check out these two Chuck Estrada photos. Same Memorial Stadium shot with different cropping. I have multiple examples of this same thing.

Jim Gentile...my uncle loved this guy. Said he was 'a man's man'. Whatever that meant. I guess it meant he could hit the hell out of the ball.

Notice anything odd about this next one of Luis Aparicio?

Yup, pinstripes! Ack! And you can see a part of the interlocking S-O-X logo on his shirt. The photo the only Orioles one I've seen that has been altered to reflect a team change. But Jay Publishing (or whoever was responsible) did a really nice job of changing his cap.

Wes Stock was a pretty handy reliever. He was more or less a set-up guy before they called them that. Back then they went a couple of innings.

Gus Triandos was the big bat in the Orioles lineup during their early years in Baltimore. Like Brandt and Roberts, he ended his career with the Astros. Jim Gentile popped up in Houston, too. That was all Paul Richards doing as he became the team's GM.

Steve Barber had a brief run as the O's ace before Jim Palmer claimed that job.

I have quite a few photos that date from 1956/57 or so. Dick Williams is one. He had several stints in Baltimore as a player but that cap dates the shot from 1956ish.

George Kell finished his Hall of Fame career in Charm City in 56/57.

Back to the early 60s for a Ron Hansen picture. Love that sleeve patch Bird!

And we'll end this bunch with a 1963 shot of Brooks Robinson.

Tucked into the stack was this other Brooks Robinson photo. It was slightly smaller than the Picture Pack photos and on different, thinner matte paper. It's also clearly a Mort Tadder photo. He was the Baltimore area photographer whose work is easy to spot by Orioles fans. The pics he took, including hundreds of team-issued postcards, were everywhere.

I have no idea where it came from but the photo and font used are identical to the glossy Brooks photos the team sold back in the 70s and 80s. I'm guessing someone just copied and reproduced it for whatever reasons.

Billy Pierce Collection additions

Back in December of 2014 I was able to find an affordable Swifts Meats Billy Pierce. It took me by surprise to nab one in nice shape that I could afford. These are neat and unusual collectibles. When I posted that first one I did some research into how they were distributed when they were issued in 1957. 

It turned out that they came with packs of hot dogs AND via a mail-in order form. That post has much more detail and some links to info/checklists. Click here to go back to it. 

About a month or so I came across another listing for one of these in my general Billy Pierce search on eBay. The seller described it as a 'Type card', i.e. 'a piece of junk you can own just to say you have one'. But in the pictures it looked just fine, very collectible.  And he wanted $31 for it. I don't recall what I paid for my first one (it was 'graded' by some fly-by-night company) but it was over $100, maybe closer to $125. I mean these babies are pretty hard to find. And a quick search on eBay shows how much the going rate normally is.

So for $31 I had to take a closer look. It's got a stain and one of the punch-out body pieces is halfway 'punched out' but it's not that much worse than my slabbed one. I kept looking for the catch but I never found one so I grabbed it.

I would normally never buy a second copy of something of this ilk but at that price I simply had to pull the trigger. Heck, I'd buy one of these of a random player at that price. 

So anyway, I now have two of these. And at one point I never thought I'd even have one. 

I'm not sure which side of these is considered the 'front' so here are both sides. Click the link above for a look at what they are like when assembled and to see the game board they were supposed to used on.

This next item is much less significant in terms of hobby relevance but it was a more exciting pick-up for me. This is a J.D. McCarthy postcard of Billy Pierce that I never had seen before. I've refined my BP search on eBay to where I have eliminated the Topps cards and all the other common items that were showing up again and again.

One night this thing hit my screen and I didn't hesitate to nab it. McCarthy postcards are a great addition to player collections. I figured that a Pierce or two had been produced but there is no checklist available so I had no way to know for sure.

I'm a post card fanatic. Every season from about 1968 or so I would write to the Orioles requesting a price for their team issued postcard set. After a few years they began sending a souvenir list without my even writing. Once or twice someone in their PR office sent me the late season additions to the year's postcards unsolicited. I spent a decade or so putting together a listing of Orioles team issued postcards only to find out that it had already been done. At some point in the mid 1980s the Orioles got away from producing the sets, or at least including them on their price lists. I remember once calling their offices to inquire about them and getting no real answer. My collection really got moved to the back burner when that happened. (They have since resumed producing that cards but when they did so I have no idea.)

But meanwhile I had come across McCarthy's cards and I've amassed quite a few Orioles examples. The late Bob Lemke came into possession of McCarthy's files and you can read his post concerning that right here.

Well, I've made a short story long but the bottom line is that I've found a BP McCarthy and am glad to have done so. And to make it just a bit better the card was mailed between two of my favorite places, Chicago and North Jersey!

This last piece is another dupe that I added because it was cheap and available. It's a picture pack photo which was done by Jay Publishing as team sets in the early 60s. They were sold at stadiums, by mail order and at places like Manny's Baseballand across Jerome Avenue from the ballpark in the Bronx. I've posted this one and some other Pierce variations before. For a couple of bucks adding a signed copy didn't require much thought.

Billy Pierce Picture Pack Photos--White Sox Edition

Jay Publishing, who put out the Yankees yearbook that I posted a week or so back, was better known for the Picture Packs they sold through the mail, at some retail outlets and especially at ballparks. I know they sold them at Yankee Stadium and I remember them at Manny's Baseball Land across Jerome Avenue under the elevated subway.

I'm guessing most collectors of vintage stuff are familiar with these. They were produced as far as I can tell from about 1956 through the mid-60's. All are 5'x7' and all were black and white. The sets usually contained 12 player pictures but many set had a manager's picture included. All are blank backed as far as I know.

I recall them in manila envelopes because I bought some through the mail but I see them on eBay and in auctions in plastic packaging. I suppose that's how they were sold in ballparks but I can only picture the photos being hung up individually at concession stands, probably as a way to advertise them.

I had some when I was a kid and I still have a couple of Orioles pictures from the sets. But within the last few months I've found a four picture Billy Pierce lot and a couple of single ones. I also bought a White Sox partial team set to get the Pierce.

This one with Pierce posed at Yankee Stadium is my favorite. Brings back memories of seeing him pitch there.

All the others are portraits. Funny thing about these Jay Publishing pictures. The paper stock varies. The type font varies. The caption varies (team, team w/city, no team). It's as if Jay Publishing put the production out for bids and chose a different contractor for each set or year.

These last two are the same photo with slightly different cropping.

I have a few from Pierce's days in San Francisco and I'll post them separately.