Net54 Vintage

I'd never heard of the 1929 Kashin Publication (R316) set until recently. It's not very well known but it has an impressive checklist and the cards are relatively affordable. SCD has a nice little write-up and more info. They don't, however, explain who or what Kashin Publications was and what exactly they published. A few minutes of googling didn't help. that's a project for another day.

I picked up a couple of Kashins from a guy on Net54 for no other reason than curiosity, and the fact that they were cheap. First up is Hall of Famer Bill Terry. He played 14 years for the New York Giants, ten of which could be called 'full' seasons. In those 10 he received MVP consideration in seven of them.

Ethan Allen played the outfield for 13 big league seasons (never a day in the minors), earned a couple of college degrees, and invented a baseball tabletop game that became Cadaco All-Star Baseball. It was my first baseball game and my friends and I played for days on end when we were kids. That is until we discovered Strat-O-Matic.

Here is his Kashin card....

...and here is the game I remember so well.

The guy I bought these Kashin's from threw in a 1919 Zeenut of Tex Wisterzil. I'd never heard of him but I guess that's not surprising as his only 'big league' experience was two years of Federal League ball. But he played 16 years in the minors including right down the road in Galveston. The Zeenuts cards (and there were about 25 sets of these issued over many years) featured players from the PCL. Old Cardboard gives the rundown. 

Wisterzil, a third baseman by trade, was playing for Portland when this card was issued in 1919. I went looking for more info on him and found a routine LA Times blurb from 1919:

The small piece just below that one was far more interesting:

Two hours and 14 minutes of headlocks, finally settled with a scissors and side roll. "Strangler" Lewis seemed to have the match well in hand but fell victim to Wladek Zbyszko's dreaded side roll. For shame!

The stuff you learn while blogging never ceases to amaze me.

Prize Winnings

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to win a contest on The Raz Card Blog. The prize was a base set of these colorful and fun True Heart BBM Japanese lady wrestler cards. They are just quirky enough to be right in my wheelhouse.

Raz has already blogged much of the set so I'll just post a few that I like (and a couple I don't!).

What's up with the frying pan?

I think this is one of the Spice Girls. She's rather frightening.

The next one made me shudder. She bears a remarkable resemblance to a former principal at my school. The woman got her jollies by making everyone else's life miserable. But she hung on to her job because her divisive style of micro-management and intimidation somehow produced decent standardized test scores and in today's world of education that's really all that matters. Honestly, that's all that matters. She was moved to another school a couple of years ago and I'm considering sending her this card and asking her to sign it.

Raz didn't just send my winnings. He stuffed the box with what appears to be a full base set of Ignite NASCAR cards. I'm a gearhead and NASCAR is my favorite form of racing. I think it's changed over the last decade or so, and not necessarily for the better but I still follow it almost weekly. Hey, a race weekend at Talledega will make you love racing and weep for the future of humanity. Trust me on this.

The first part of the set consists of drivers. Tony Stewart is a three time champ but recent off the track issues have reduced his on the track performance, or so it appears to me. He remains my favorite current driver. I hope he can get back to being the 'Smoke' of old real soon. Danica Patrick has had more success as a personality than as a driver but I always hold out hope for a good finish for her.

Both Jeff Gordon and Bobby Labonte are long time favorites of mine. It's a sign of how old I am that I remember when both were up and coming drivers. Now Gordon is finishing his final season on the circuit and Labonte is rarely a factor as he fills a seat on one small potatoes race team or another. But both own championships.

Marcos Ambrose is Australian and currently drives in the V8 Supercar Series for the legendary Roger Penske. I miss his always entertaining interviews on Sirius NASCAR radio. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is another driver I pull for.

The second part of the set shows the car line-up. My father worked for Shell for over 45 years. The Shell car always jumps out at me from the pack.

There are a few special cards as well. Danica Patrick became the first female to win a pole when he qualified first at Daytona a few years back. It wasn't the turning point in her career that her fans had hoped it would be.

Overall it's a great set. Like the Japanese wrestlers it looks really neat sitting in sheets in a binder.

Bur Raz didn't stop with those two sets. Nope, he also added in a stack baseball cards including an awesome acetate Sandy Koufax and some super chromey, shiny Orioles including Eddie Murray and Dylan Bundy.

There is no such thing as an un-awesome Eddie Murray card.

Where do these cards come from? When I buy a pack of cards I get, well plain old cards. But these wild and crazy things exist out there because people always send them to me. Where do the come from? Inquiring minds want to know!

Bruno Sammartino card (He's Italian, that's why)

A week or so ago when I posted the bits and pieces of my Italian-born player collection Mark Hoyle suggested I pick up a card of Bruno Sammartino. (Mark and I are likely among the few old enough to recall him). Sammartino was a huge name in 'rasslin' back in the early 60's. And my grandfather in Brooklyn loved almost nothing more than watching Saturday night wrestling shows. Well, maybe the Friday Night Fights (boxing) and Mitch Miller were close). Sammartino was the biggest name in wrestling in the 1960s.

I figured I'd track down a Bruno Sammartino if I didn't have one already. I couldn't find one among my meager assortment of Goodwins and Donruss Americana cards which is where I figured one would be if I had one. After striking out off to eBay I went.

There are a lot of 'signed' Sammartino cards and this one was the cheapest. It's a sticker autograph but it was only a few bucks more than a single from some goofy WWE card so I bought it.

And now I have a Bruno Sammartino card. How good can life get?