More 1961 Topps Goodness... Wes Covington

I finally picked up this card after admiring it for a long time. I can strike it from the list of my Most Wanted cards. That Milwaukee Braves uniform is a classic. Wes Covington wears it well, the stirrups are the standard of a bygone era and the pose is pretty unusual for cards back then. I even love that patch on his left sleeve. It's a lot more dignified than the screaming brave logo that appeared in about 1957 if I am not mistaken.

I wonder if the photographer had Covington pose like that or did he catch him as he was pulling a bat from the rack before batting practice and by calling his name got him to look up. Probably a pose but either way it's a unique and beautiful baseball card.

Covington has two cards in the 1959 set that I am collecting, an All Star card and a his regular card which features a good portrait shot. He was an interesting man who lived and worked in Edmonton, Alberta and wasn't involved much in baseball except for his work with a minor league team there.

Mike Curtis Mug Shot ('71 Topps)

I'm not sure what Mike Curtis was arrested for but I think it's pretty fortunate that the Topps photographer was on hand to snap his picture for his '71 card at the same time the cops were doing their thing.

I can't decide if I think this is a great football card or a terrible one. What I AM sure of is that Mike Curtis was one bad ass football player!

I have an autographed Mike Curtis pic that I'll post here soon.

Super Bowl Sunday

Today is the Super Bowl of course. And if all has gone as planned I will turn on the game at the kickoff and  I've successfully avoided all the endless talking heads and stupid personality features that make up the day long pregame.

I'll be rooting for the Ravens, but not very passionately. Baltimore is my hometown but I was long gone before the Ravens showed up. Between the time the BALTIMORE COLTS were highjacked to Indy and the Texans showed up here in Houston I tried to be a Ravens fan. It didn't take. Just felt wrong to cheer for a team that had been taken from their home the same way the Colts had been.

I've gotten over all that. It was painful for a long time but now the Colts are just another team. I don't get twinges of disgust at seeing the blue and white on someone else's team like I used to. What's the point. I adopted the Texans, bought season seats and never have looked back.

I have some cards of Raven players. These are guys I've had on my fantasy team in the last few years. Like almost all the shiny new cards they are all pretty and cool. But are they half as cool as the 1961 Fleer Abner Haynes card up top. I mean look at that thing. They don't make those cards anymore. The great helmet-less action poses! I wonder how many times they asked Abner to jump across the photographers field of vision before they got one they liked? Once? A dozen?

That scan does absolutely no justice to the actual card. In hand, except for the brownish aging tint on the back, it looks like it came from a pack last week.

Here are the Ravens from my fantasy team collection:

Let's hope it's a great Super Bowl!!

Some 1961 Topps Goodness

The 1961 Topps isn't my favorite vintage set but there are some cool things about it. The regular Koufax card is just great. The MVP cards of Maris and Aaron are unique and the All Star cards have the classic 'breaking out of the Sporting News' look. 

Here is my Brooks Robinson All Star. A classic card.

And these Rookie Award cards, with the top hat logo are spectacular. This was the second year for them and it is one of the best Topps subsets ever.

Along with the Dodger special at the top I recently picked up the nice Bill Henry. He's a University of Houston alum as am I. He had the unique experience of having his 'baseball identity' hi-jacked. Some other Bill Henry was claiming to be the MLB vet. It all came unraveled when the real Bill's wife received condolence cards on the death of her husband. Even the phony Bill Henry's family had fallen for his ruse. I've linked to the original Rick Reilly story in my post of Henry's 1959 card.

Speaking of my 1959 Henry, not long after that post I received and email from someone with the Pasadena Tx. ISD system (or it may have been Chamber of Commerce or even Historical Society) who asked if I would donate the card to be used as part of a display honoring Henry as a member of that district's Hall of Fame. Pasadena Texas is just south of my home. Anyway I got busy and didn't respond right away and the idea got lost in a busy time. And so did the email because I hunted for it and never did find it again. I still feel guilty for not responding. It would have been neat to have one of my '59s in that display. Looks like they found one anyway. 

I like this '61 Henry a lot more than my '59 because the Reds uniform of the day, sleeveless pinstripes and red undershirt is really attractive. And the white over red cap is nice, too.

I don't know as much as I should about the history of Topps Most Valuable Player subsets. I'm pretty sure they were first issued in 1961 in a 16 card group. The only others I can remember were the 1975 MVP cards which featured the Topps cards of each years MVP, two to a card. I can't remember how many there were of those but I bet I could find out easy enough. 

Here are the 1961's in a list:

• 471. Phil Rizzuto
• 472. Yogi Berra
• 473. Bobby Shantz
• 474. Al Rosen
• 475. Mickey Mantle 
• 476. Jackie Jensen 
• 477. Nellie Fox 
• 478. Roger Maris
• 479. Jim Konstanty
• 480. Roy Campanella
• 481. Hank Sauer
• 482. Willie Mays 
• 483. Don Newcombe
• 484. Hank Aaron
• 485. Ernie Banks
• 486. Dick Groat

I have the Roger Maris, not in great shape, but it's a favorite of mine as it was issued in his record setting year.

 And finally, that card up top. I've been lacking it for quite awhile. I'm slowly but surely knocking Koufax cards off my wantlist. It's got a crease, and it's got a slightly blurry photo (but not as much as the scan makes it seem) but it was affordable. And that counts for a lot.

A Nice Package, Part Two ;-)

My family first moved to Houston in the summer of 1967, early July to be exact. I was heading into my sophomore year of high school and I was the one family member that hated the idea of pulling up our New Jersey roots and heading down here. I pretty much figured that being summer I wouldn't know anyone or even get a chance to know anyone my age until school opened. And a new school itself was not something I relished.

But Houston had baseball, and with the Orioles struggling following the great 1966 season, I decided to throw myself into following the Astros, just because. We were in a hotel for a few days before our moving van arrived and I remember cutting out Astros game stories, box scores and pictures from the Houston papers, the now-defunct Post (where I later was employed for many years) and then afternoon published Chronicle.

Those clipping turned into a scrapbook of the second half of the Astros' dreary 1967 season. I wasn't new to this. I had kept New York Ranger scrapbooks for years. Which brings me to the card at the top of the post. It was part of the Nachos Grande group break and it is why I was happy I dealt the Twins for the 'Stros as my 'second' team. I would never seen it otherwise. It's a 2004 Upper Deck Play Ball Home Run Heroics Eddie Mathews.

It's a gimmick card, sure, but it commemorates Eddie Mathews  500th homer which he hit in a Friday night game on July 14 of that season in Candlestick Park. I don't specifically remember listening to that one but I listened to just about every Astros game that year after we arrived. What I do remember (and probably still have stored somewhere) is the newspaper account of Mathews' milestone. Those were the highly competitive days when newspapers held deadlines until the West Coast games were finished before going to press.

So when this card came out of the stack from Chris I really got a kick out of it when I realized what it was. There are a couple of others in the break that are worth mentioning, for differing reasons.

This is Dave Crouthers, a 2001 3rd Round pick of the Orioles. After the 2004 season, with a 30-25 minor league record, the O's tossed him along with Mike Fontenot (who?) and Jerry Hairston, Jr. into the trade for Sammy Sosa. This may be the most obscure autograph card I own but in looking at that trade I did discover that both Crouthers and Hairston played for Southern Illinois. I also now know that Hairston played for the Orioles for seven seasons and then for two teams for two seasons and five teams for one season. So there.

This is Annette Charles. I have no idea who she is or why she has a card and I don't care either. Plus she's rather unattractive in a Pat Nixon sort of way. 

Pinnacle Press Cal Ripken. Any Ripken is a good Ripken. That stance is #845 of the 1252 different ones that Cal used in his career.

And finally a 'laundry' card of Rafael Palmeiro. In August 2005 I was driving my family from NYC to Baltimore on our monumental East Coast vacation when the news broke that he'd been suspended for steroid use. When we attended the games at Camden Yards the sign congratulating him on 3000 hits was still up. But he wasn't playing.

Of the cards that I received as part of Chris' 'trade stack', this is my favorite:

It's a 2005 Upper Deck Classics Lyman Bostock. He was a talented young outfielder for the Twins and Angels who was shot an killed in 1978 in a case that was the result of Bostock being in that too familiar 'wrong place, wrong time'. He'd only played four seasons in the bigs when he died. If you are a fan of the powder blue double knit era, this is a card for you.

Here are a few others with quick observations:

I liked Frank Viola with the Twins. But wearing that terrible Met road uni with the shoulder stripes? Ugh. Still kind of a neat card. Looks like he's charging a bunt.

There is no way this guy hit 50 homers in one season. He's the bat boy. I don't believe he was juiced but I'm totally convinced the ball was. It was part of baseball's attempt to pull fans back into the game.

EDIT: The more I look at this card the more I'm convinced it actually IS the bat boy.

I don't know Kevin Foster but that's a screamin' Cubbie throwback, isn't it? 

Chris Sabo, without his goggles. He just looks weird like that.

 btw....THIS is Chris Sabo.

Cliff Floyd pulling a hammy, again. He does Sirius fantasy baseball radio shows. He's pretty good at it. Funny and insightful. Better than he was at staying healthy.

A Nice Package, Part One ;-)

I had planned on going to the big Tristar memorabilia show last Saturday. But I was sick as a dog and didn't make it. Since I'm not really looking for anything in particular, don't have a want list or anything, I was OK with missing it. I figured it was money that would be better used on our vacation trips anyway. So, unlike in the old days, I blew it off. No big deal.

That is until Monday morning when good ol' Night Owl started chirping about his weekend card show experience. He picked up some really cool stuff. Grabbed a couple of nice Koufax Leader cards, some '77 Topps he needed and a bunch of stuff from bargain boxes. Even a recent shiny Topps Frank Robinson card that I'd never seen, Very cool. And so I felt that twinge of regret. Now I was wishing that I HAD gone to the show on Sunday when I was feeling better and not worried about being 'a good husband' and taking care of what was needed to be done at home. I was kind of kicking myself all day at work. That lasted until I got home and a big thick yellow mailer was in the box. It was my goodies from Chris of the Nachos Grande blog! I had bought in to his group break a couple of weeks back AND claimed his 'trade stack' by sending some cards off his want list.

So I was feeling instantly better. I was getting some new-to-me card stuff after all. Cool. I opened the package and then spent the better part of ten minutes getting to the cards themselves. Chris' mailouts are pretty much secure from any possible natural or man-made disaster. When the Zombie Apocalypse occurs only Twinkies, roaches and Chris' card packages will survive. But with the help if a box cutter and some elbow grease I was able at last to spread out the goodies across my desk. The group break cards consisted of Orioles which I claimed as my team, and Astros for which I had traded my randomly assigned 2nd team, the Twins. That trade, by the way, was one I regretted for awhile when early packs opened by Chris contained no Astros and at least one Twins 'hit' and some other neat cards I could no longer claim. But in the end the Astros represented themselves pretty well.

The Brooks Robinson Upper Deck card at the top was one of the Orioles. I like it because it features a picture I don't recall seeing on a card. I got the Ripken out of that set as well.

This is a Topps Chrome Ripken from a year I can't read off the back because the printing is too small for my old eyes. If you have some of these you can appreciate the live and in-person over-the-top look of them. Did they all have a hologram baseball and tie dye design. I'm getting facial tics from staring at it right now. Let's move on.

These three cards are of Orioles players who played most of their careers while I was not paying attention much. There is a big gap in my baseball fandom history from the '94 strike to about 2010 or so. Other than a very casual knowledge of the Astros' doings during that time and a couple of games in Camden Yards and  Yankee Stadiums II & III I was oblivious to the game. Anyway, there were several cards from each of the sets you see. And Astros from those sets, too. These included local players I DO know.

It's Shiny Holographic-ish Lima Time! I think you had to live in Houston back in his prime to appreciate just what a squirrel he was. He was on TV all the time with one stupid commercial or another. What a character. He had a sizzling wife, though. I once told my wife that Lima's wife was the only woman I'd leave her for. My wife rolled her eyes and gave me 'that look'. She's heard me say that about Giada, too.

Craig Biggio will make the Hall of Fame one of these days, maybe next year. My kids loved him. They went to see him get his 3060th and last hit in his last game from field box tickets courtesy of dear old Dad. 

Here's a rare Jeff Bagwell card that does not feature him swinging like he wants to hit one to another dimension.

And a couple of cards of my favorite Astro, Lance Berkman. I first saw him play at Rice University. And he seems like a real gem of a guy. I'm really happy he got his World Series ring, even though it was as a Cardinal. Could have been worse, he could have won it as a Yankee. That Cardinal-Rangers Series, by the way, is pretty much what won me back as a baseball fan.

And now for my two favorite group break Oriole cards:

I just love the Upper Deck Past Time Pennants set. Just terrific photography and a sweet design. I got four from this set, two I had that I've shown before, the Eddie Murray and the Brooks Robinson. Of course the best one I own is the gorgeous Rocky Colavito. The Ripken and Palmer make it a nice foursome of Oriole cards from this set. I have a nice four card display frame waiting to be filled.

That's enough for now. I'll post a couple more, including the card a wasn't expecting that turned out to be my favorite of the break, when I get the chance. I'll also show off the cards I got in the 'trade stack' group.

A Pack of Racing Cards

I was at a Target store not long ago and while I was waiting for my wife to finish shopping I went to the card display and found a mixed up box of all kinds of packs marked .99 so I grabbed one of the NASCAR packs. 

I used to be a huge NASCAR guy but that was more than a few years ago. I follow it still but not nearly as closely as I did in the 80s and 90s when I knew every driver, his crew chief and his sponsor. Now I will watch the Daytona 500 and a few others, or at least DVR a few and watch if anything exciting has happened.

Anyway I bought this pack of Press Pass 2011 cards not knowing what to expect. I was very pleased to open it and recognize the guy on the first card, Bobby Labonte. One of the two Texas Labonte brothers, Bobby was a favorite of mine back when he was winning races and a title for Joe Gibbs in the green Interstate Battery #18. There was a guy I'd see driving around my part of town that had a Chevy painted up to match that car. I secretly envied him. Labonte is still racing, has decent finishes from time to time but his days as a driver for a first rate team are gone.

The Mobil One car has been on the track for many years but I remember it when it carried the #1 on the sides. And Dodge has pulled out of NASCAR this year.

Here we go! The Home Depot #20. Too bad it is not Tony Stewart's ride anymore. 'Smoke' is a throw back to an earlier era in auto racing. He's either upfront or crashing to get there. He drives anything with wheels. After Stewart formed his own team the #20 was driven by Joey Logano. He was a young hot shot who probably got a NASCAR Sprint Cup ride too early. He's never lived up to his hype.

I spend a lot of time on I-10 which is a major east-west route and I'll see a few NASCAR haulers rolling through Houston from time to time. I still get a kick out of seeing them. Jeff Burton drives the #31 Caterpillar car.

There were a couple of other cards but I'm figuring that posting four will lose me plenty of readers as it is. I have one more NASCAR post but it's a story from my first in-person race. These Press Pass cards are nothing special. Typical slick, colorful and shiny modern stuff. One pack is plenty for me.