'56 Topps Pee Wee Reese

I've started adding some '56s to my collection. Nothing special, mostly commons in f/g condition. Saying I like the set is like saying I like ice cream, hell everyone does. I also have a vague goal of completing a Hall of Fame collection. I'll never finish it unless I hit the Powerball lotto. Years ago I got started by picking up some of those 1961 Fleer All Time Great cards of some of the real old timers, guys like Grover Cleveland Alexander and Hughie Jennings. Guys I figured I'd never get a 'real' card of.

But as time has gone by I've been able to afford 'real' cards of Babe Ruth, John McGraw, Frank Chance, Chief Bender and several others. So I am again going to pursue Hall of Famers. When I came across this Pee Wee Reese in an online auction I saw a chance to get a '56 and add a H-o-F player whose card I lacked. I'm sorta, kinda, in a way a half-ass Dodger fan (mostly because of my long standing Sandy Koufax man-crush and the fact I once lived in Brooklyn) so the '56 Reese had special appeal. Plus, he's finishing off a dp in the background pic. Nice.

The price was right and the card looked pretty nice so I grabbed it. I scanned it before I pried it out of the PSA grade slab so the scan isn't as sharp as the card looks in hand. But you get the idea.

And I learned something in the process. According to the cartoon on the back Harold Henry Reese got his nickname by winning the national Pee Wee Marbles Tournament as a kid. I'd bet there isn't a kid in America that has any idea what a marble was used for back in the day.

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?

Let's watch TV

Digging through some shoe boxes (yes I do keep cards in shoe boxes) I turned up this '55 Bowman of Oriole outfielder Gil Coan. It's seen it's better days but it is certainly within my collectible range. Someone sent this along in a trade or as a break throw-in last year. It's a dupe, I have one in my Oriole base collection but you can never have too many '55 Bowman Orioles now can you?

Coan was a long time Senator and was a regular for about six seasons prior to being traded to the second year Orioles for 1955. He was waived and signed by the White Sox that July and finished his career with the Giants in 1956.

Coan hit .303 in both 1950 and 1951, easily his best seasons. He even got some scattered MVP votes in 1950. He had a career average of .254. The back of the card references his speed and it's shown in the fact that he was second in the AL with 23 steals in 1948.

This is his last major issue baseball card not counting reprints and reissues. The '55 Bowmans are pretty unique of course with the 'TV' motif. I see these and am reminded that while our family was one of the last ones in America to own a color set, my grandfather in Brooklyn had one of the first. And he had a window unit A/C as well. Damn I loved visiting my grandparents!

Speaking of speed this picture turned up in a google image search. It's from The Sporting News archives and shows Coan (on the right) and Cleveland's George Case at the line for a 'race'. It is dated from 1946.

Hair today, Gone Tomorrow

The NFL had 'playboys' players before Joe Willie Namath came along (Paul Hornung and Frank Gifford come to mind) but Namath changed the way Americans looked at it's heroes. He was, as they say, brash and irreverent. He had the audacity to spit in the eye of the established NFL and with his Super Bowl III backed up his words. As a Baltimore Colt fan I was certainly no admirer of Namath, hell I hated him after that game but in retrospect he had a fine career. He's a Hall of Famer and, while his numbers don't bowl you over, he certainly had the 'celebrity' and charisma that made it impossible to keep him out.

I own two Namath cards with this 1972 being my favorite. The 1972 set is pretty mundane to my way of thinking but this card of Namath, with his hair, sideburns and far away gaze, is pretty cool. On this day of giving thanks..... Broadway Joe, I forgive you.

To restore the cosmic balance of the universe, however, I need to post a card of the greatest football player ever, John Constantine Unitas. It's a "Monarch Corona" card that someone sent my way a long time ago. I had no idea what it was until I googled that name this morning. Turns out that is a brand of privately printed cards that are manufactured and sold by a guy named Allen Miller. I'd be astounded to learn that any entity or athlete has actually authorized these cards so if you want to find out more you can google it yourself. I check out his website and I will say he does some nice work.

Anyway here is the 'anti-Namath', my hero, the great Johnny U.

William Howard Taft Campaign(?) Pin

I picked this one up for $12 last month. It was just different enough to catch my eye and the price for a century old pin was right. The stain doesn't detract much from the unique gold eagle design. I've seen this pin elsewhere being described as being issued for the 1912 campaign but I have no way to be sure. It just might be an inauguration souvenir.

William Howard Taft was president from 1909 through 1913. He was trounced in his re-election bid. He received just 8 electoral votes in what was the worst defeat of a seated president in history. That 1912 election was contested by Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt (who Taft had served under a a cabinet member) and Taft. Wilson won with just 41% of the popular vote.

Taft was the first President to throw out the baseball season's traditional first pitch. He served a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after his days in the White House.

I Give Up...

... on the NHL season. I don't know who deserves the blame, and I don't care. I just know that last season was a fun one and I thought the NHL had some momentum. Now, hell, I've lost interest.

I just hope that after the January games are officially cancelled I can get my money back on the tickets I bought through Stub Hub to the Rangers-Stars game in January.

Good Ol' Gump Worsley seems to share my feelings, yes?

That's a 1970 O-Pee-Chee card, btw. One of my few non-Ranger vintage hockey cards.

1964 Philadelphia Gum John Mackey

One of my favorite football cards is this John Mackey from the '64 Philly set. I like the card, sure, but I like it mostly because of John Mackey. He changed the position of tight end from one of a blocking end to a pass catching weapon.

He had speed and size and great hands. I was fortunate to have seen him play in person. My father and I drove through a pouring rainstorm to see the Colts play the Oilers in the Astrodome in October of 1970. It was the only Baltimore Colt game I ever attended. Mackey caught two Johnny Unitas passes for 21 yards. He was no longer a focal point of the team's offense but he still had skills.

Two things stand out about that game. First is that had it not been a Colt game we might not have gone. The rain was horrendous as it often can be in Houston, and we had to get up from watching the Orioles and Reds playing Game Two of the World Series. But it was the Colts and my Dad knew how much I wanted to actually see Unitas play so off we went, listening to the Orioles as we drove.

The second thing is how the Colts won. On their last drive of the game Unitas threw a scoring strike to Roy Jefferson for the winning TD. As long as I live I'll never forget seeing my all time favorite athlete throw the pass and begin to trot towards the sidelines even before it was caught, not even watching. Even nearing the end of his career Unitas was a joy to watch.

A few months later Mackey took a tipped pass off the hands of Eddie Hinton and the Cowboy's Mel Renfro and scored a 50 yards TD in Super Bowl III. Those were heady days for me!

John Mackey is a Hall of Famer but politics held him out of the Hall for far too long. His work as the NFLPA's first president was held against him. It angered me at the time. He has since been named to many all-time great lists including being ranked as #48 on the NFL Network's Top 100 NFL players of all time.

John Mackey, an engaging, witty and intelligent man in his prime was defeated by dementia in his later years. He died of the effects in July of last year.