1957 Charlie Neal: Purchase inspired by Night Owl, Post inspired by Fuji

A day or so ago Fuji asked about 'impulse' buying among card collectors, more or less among vintage collectors. He called it a case of 'Love @ 1st Sight' and he asked readers to chime in with their thoughts. He asked specifically:

Have you ever seen a card and knew instantly that you had to own it? If so... what card was it?  What impressed you about the card? Have you purchased it? 

After my usual response to Fuji..."There he is, showing off his teachers' questioning skills again"... I knew instantly what he was talking about. Hell, I do that almost every day while I read these blogs. A couple of more recent instances jumped immediately to mind.

I don't remember where I first saw the 1961 Wes Covington but I do remember thinking "That's just gorgeous. It's art!" And I added it to my Most Wanted Cards page. I hunted for quite awhile for a nice copy at a reasonable price and nailed it earlier this year. Here it is again, just because...

You might remember awhile back that Night Owl showed off his 1957 Charlie Neal card. He expounded on it's beauty. I saw it and knew that I wanted a copy for myself. I thought that before I ever read his text describing the great Schaefer scoreboard visible behind Neal. Throw in the timeless Dodger uni, Brooklyn cap and classic card pose and you have a very collectible card.

I literally went straight to eBay and COMC to find a copy for myself. That's it at the top. In hand it's just as nice as I thought. A couple of added bonuses: the classic 50's era text that Topps provided: "... he can turn on the steam to take an extra base and is also a flashy fielder." Good stuff.

And one thing I hadn't known until the card arrived is that Neal came from Longview, Texas. Well, back when I was in college I made a few trips up there to visit someone I was seeing at the time. Good memories.

So, there you have it. Two cards that I saw and had to have. If I did a post covering all my purchases of that nature it would take all day. Sometimes I think PayPal should have a built-in 'cooling off' period.

I Dunno What It Is, You Tell Me..... #1

OK, I'll admit it. I'm a big fan of Jennifer Beals. Not the young 'Flashdance' Jennifer Beals, that would be kinda creepy (but I remember thinking she was pretty hot then, too) but the mature adult Jennifer Beals.

In my short tenure as a Facebook user I had my own personal 'meme'. I posted JB pics for every New York Rangers' win or loss. It was a gimmick but I was having fun with it. So were my friends (well, maybe not my wife).

The only Jennifer Beals-related 'card' I've ever found was this French-issued oversized 'card'. Scenes from Flashdance on the front, crew, cast and synopsis on the back. I took enough french to know the card (or more accurately the set I'm guessing)  is entitled Mr. Cinema's Sheets (info 'sheets?), subtitled An Illustrated History of the Modern Cinema.

I'd guess there are plenty of others for many other films but this is the only one I was interested in. As an added bonus, I give you more pictures of the lovely Jennifer Beals.

And, as a point of info... my friend and one time college roommate, Robert Wuhl had one of his first Hollywood appearances in Flashdance. He had a scene or two as a club patron.

Astrodome Sportscaster Card from the late 1970s

The Sportscaster Card set is a monstrously huge set of oversized cards that were sold via subscription in the late 1970s. They covered just about every possible aspect of sports from athletes to coaches to venues and equipment. The cards were marketed in the U.S., Europe and Japan and I believe they were mostly printed in Italy. There are several sites dedicated to them and this one has a database listing all of them.

I recently picked this one up online along with three other 'non-sports' oversized cards via an eBay dealer. The other three are from similar sets and are European in origin. I'll get to them soon.

The Astrodome is currently the subject of much debate in the Houston area these days. The place is slowly decaying as it sits unoccupied next to Reliant Stadium and I've seen estimates for it's yearly 'upkeep' costs as high as two million dollars a year. The basic argument is whether to bring it down or 'repurpose' it.

I sure have great memories of the place. I sold beer there for awhile at Oiler games. I had my first date with my wife there at a Houston Cougar football game. I can't list every great event I've seen in it but they include some thrilling Astros playoff games, and in particular the Game of the Century between Houston and UCLA in January of 1968.

I picked this card up simply because it shows the exact view I had from my UH football seats as well as the view I would have had if I could have seen anything from my beer kiosk on the mezzanine level.

I also found a version of the card done in French being sold on eBay.

El Presidente!!!

If you happen to be my boss and you are reading this I want you to know that I actually was sick Thursday. I did not skip work to go to Minute Maid Park for the third game of the Orioles-Astros series. Stop reading now, thanks. 

OK, with that out of the way, I'll let everyone else know that I got to Minute Maid Thursday about when the gates opened. I can't recall being that early to a game before. I got there with the hopes of connecting with one of my very favorite Orioles, Dennis Martinez. He is the bullpen coach for the Astros this season. I went to the first two games of the Orioles-Astros series with my wife and I couldn't ask her to get to the game that early. I figured I was lucky that she went at all.
When I got into the park on Thursday I watched a couple of Orioles playing long toss and made my way out to the Astros' bullpen area in rightfield. I figured that Denny would make his way out there at some point and sure enough, about 45 minutes before game time a lone uniformed figure appeared in the home dugout and began walking out towards me.
It was indeed Martinez and he he came my way and told me to hang on as he dropped off his gear. He signed my card as I requested and we talked for a couple of minutes about Houston, my 'Angry Bird' cap (he asked me where I got it) and his second major league appearance, a game late in 1976 that I saw in person at Yankee Stadium. He pitched 6 or so innings in long relief and gave way to Tippy Martinez in extra innings. The O's eventually won.

I'm not much of an autograph collector but I was pretty stoked to get a chance to get a card signed by a favorite player from back in the Orioles heyday and even better, getting to kibbitz a bit with him. He's always been gracious in the times I've seen him at the park and he hasn't changed it appears.
The day was made even better with an solid 3-1 win for the Orioles as J.J. Hardy picked up four hits and four O's pitchers combined to hold the 'Stros in check. Quite a change from the night before when Freddy Garcia and Steve Johnson threw a batting practice session and the Astros hit six dingers.
Oh, here's my cap.

Vintage Bowmans from the Card Show, Part Two

This is the pair of 1950 Bowmans I picked up at this past weekend's TriStar show. There are two differences between these and the previous season's issue. For one thing, and it's pretty minor, is the back of the cards have changed from a vertical to a horizontal alignment. The bigger change is the added backgrounds on the cards. instead of the previous year's solid color backgrounds the 1950 cards show the player against a ballpark element such as a fence, a brick wall, grandstands or just a sky with clouds. Makes for a much more appealing set, at least in my opinion.

The first card here is Gerry Priddy. He's one of those guys who is a lot more interesting than you'd expect. Priddy, who is sometimes referred to as 'Jerry', was an infielder signed by the Yankees in 1937. He hit very well as he moved up the Yankee ladder and he made the big club in 1941. He boldly told the incumbent second baseman, Joe Gordon, a future Hall of Famer, that he (Priddy) was the better player. That, obviously didn't sit well with the veteran heavy Yankee club and when Priddy hit .213 and spent more time on the bench than not it probably didn't displease those in the clubhouse.

He improved his average to .280 in 1942 but still couldn't get a regular spot in the Bronx and supposedly asked for a trade. Dealt to the Senators Priddy spent a couple of productive seasons in D.C.  sandwiched around two years of military service. But his numbers slipped in 1947 and he was traded to the Browns where he hit .290 or better in both of his seasons there.

Prior to the 1950 season he was dealt to the Tigers and after a couple of productive years he slipped to a part time role in 1952/53. That was his last time in the majors.

He continued playing ball with the Seattle Raniers in the tough PCL for a few years and then tried his hand as a professional golfer without much success.

Now for the interesting part. On June 6, 1973, Priddy was arrested by the FBI in California and charged with trying to extort $250,000 from a steamship company by threatening to put a bomb aboard one of its vessels, the Island Princess. He was convicted and sentenced to nine months in prison. Priddy died in 1980.

Doyle Lade's card shows him warming up down the left field line in Wrigley Field. There is even a fan in the stands included in the backdrop. The Nebraska native was signed by the Indians and played in the White Sox chain as well before being acquired by the Cubs and debuting in 1946 with a brief stint of three games.

From 1947 thriugh 1950 Lade was a spot starter and reliever for the Cubs. His best year was his first full one, '47. He went 11-10 with a 3.94 ERA that year making 25 starts. He didn't approach those numbers or that number of starts in his final three years.

He finished his pro career in the Cubs minor league system and Texas League, retiring after the 1954 season. During his career Lade was known as a good hitting pitcher and he put together a respectable .220 batting average.

So there you have it. Four nicely preserved vintage Bowmans for $12 as I walked out the door. Like a nice wedge shot onto the 18th green from 35 feet this is just enough to make me forget the frustration of the day and bring me back for more card shows.

An AJ Clinic

Only thing better than an Orioles win is seeing it in person. First of three Orioles games in Minute Maid versus the Astros tonite and it resulted in me going home happy with a 4-1 win. The rest of my family, not so happy.

Adam Jones made two spectacular catches racing on to Tal's Hill in dead center and those won the game. Catch the hilites if you can. One down, two to go (to). I love the Astros in the AL. Gonna see three Oriole games a year just a 15 minute ride rom my house.

Vintage Bowmans from the Card Show, Part One

Damn Blogger. I had this post written on Sunday night and when I scheduled it for Monday it just vanished. Here is my second shot. I'll skip my 5 paragraph rant about the current state of card shows. I summary I spent $22 to park and enter the Houston TriStar show today, bought a handful of cards that will be going to the post office soon, and snared four Bowmans, two each from the '49 and '50 sets. Total asking price for the Bowmans was $15.50. I offered $12 and walked away happy.

The guy selling these was the last dealer I visited. He had many boxes of vintage and a sign reading "70/80/90% off Beckett." 

I skipped over the Topps and dug through to the Bowmans. I have a few from 1951 on but nothing prior. Now I do. Most of the Bowmans were in rough shape, to put it mildly. But I found some very presentable ones and settled on four. Two, the 49s,  I'll show here and the two 1950s will be in my next post.

Don 'Cab' Kolloway played for the White Sox, Tigers and, very briefly, the A's between 1940 and 1953, with a couple of seasons spent in the military during WWII. He hit .271 in nearly 1100 games as a second-baseman and later, with Detroit, a first-baseman. This card is considered his rookie card despite being issued nearly a decade after his big league debut.

After he retired he opened a bar, cleverly named Kolloway's, in Blue Island, Illinois and ran it until 1969. He passed away in 1994.

The very serious looking Jake Early toiled behind the plate for nine seasons between 1939 and 1949, all but one with the Senators. He hit only .241 for his career but he did make the 1943 AL All Star team as the starting backstop and scored a run and had a sacrifice in the AL's 5-3 win.

Early played, coached and managed in the minors into the early 1960s and actually got some playing time as player/manager in 1960 giving him a span of 24 years between his first and last pro at bats. His defensive stats point to a lack of skills behind the plate but he did have a powerful arm. In fact he once picked Ted Williams off base twice in the same game. The second of those came in the ninth inning with Williams getting nabbed off third with one out and representing the tying run! The Nats won that game 1-0.

While both of these cards have flaws (the Kolloway has a pin hole and the Early has creases and some staining) I am glad to add them to my collection, particularly at an average price of $3.