It was raining vintage!

Here I was thinking that I was running low on blogging material/ideas and suddenly a big ol' envelope arrived from up Canada way. I came from Chris who does a couple of great blogs, Diamond Cuts and Wax Stains being the main one. He is also collecting and blogging the 1964/65 Topps Hockey Tall Boys set. He had told me he was sending a couple of cards. Turns out he sent a huge lode of vintage Rangers, Orioles and even a few Man U cards. More than I can do justice to in one post.

That Ron Stewart is a 1968/69 OPC. At least the head is Ron Stewart. Chris is better at this stuff than I am so he might be able to ID the body. I run hot and cold on this set. I think they are kind of a mess but maybe a mess in a good way. Everyone else seems to love 'em so they must have something appealing. I do like the 'papa bear-mama bear-baby bear' feel of the three dark shirted skaters in the drawn background.

There is something disturbing about this '73 OPC Steve Vickers card. I guess it's his expression. I can't put my finger on it but he looks like someone plucked from the 1973 version of Times Square and asked to pose for a hockey picture card. If you remember Times Square from back then you know what I mean.

Topps didn't even bother using their own picture of Ranger tough guy Orland Kurtenbach for his 1969 card. They cribbed this one from the Rangers Blue Book (media guide) of a couple of years previous. I've wondered when exactly hockey players decided not to tie their sweater laces. I have a couple of Rangers sweaters and I still tie them up. If I don't I feel the same as I would if I didn't tie my shoes.

Here is Rod Gilbert from that same set. He was the guy that all the girls swooned over. He ALWAYS looked like this.... calm, classy, impeccable. Hell, I saw him on the tube last month and he still looks like this. Fabulous hockey player. He never had enough help on the Rangers. When he got the help i.e. Brad Park, management traded it off for used up stars (I'm looking at you, Phil Esposito).

1978 OPC Walt Tkaczuk. He was high up on the Rangers scoring list for awhile. I never remember him with a beard. In that era of Rangers history it certainly wasn't a 'playoff beard'. And one day I'd like to run into the guy who decided that changing the Rangers look to this horrific clown suit would be a good idea. I came close to weeping when I saw this stuff.

Anyway, that's a few of the cards from Chris' bounty. I'll switch to some of the Orioles in my next look at the cards he sent but I haven't yet scanned the very best of the vintage hockey. I'll get to that soon.

Group Break (Hockey) Goodies

My son texted me Wednesday morning  and reminded me that last night would have been Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals had the Rangers run that string out. I really wished he hadn't done that.

But to ease my pain I went back and flipped through the cards I picked up in a fancy-pants hockey card group break run by Matt of Cardboard Conundrum. There were three different types of fancy-pants cards involved but I didn't care what they were, I was just ready to pick up some shiny Rangers. And I did.

Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky and both former Rangers that have moved on through trades. As with most chrome heavy cards these look a whole lot better in hand than they do in a scan.

I also was assigned the Canucks and Hurricanes in the break and these are the best cards of those teams.

Back to the Rangers. I like this Derek Stepan card. Who doesn't like a guy who plays hockey with a broken jaw?

Matt tossed in this Martin St. Louis card that he picked up in one of his personal boxes. It's the only card I've seen of him in his Rangers gear. He plays with a lot of heart. I miss Cally but MSL is a real positive on Broadway.

Thanks for the extras Matt, and for busting those fancy-pants boxes!

Fumio Fujimura 1949 Japanese Bromide

I hadn't done much with my Japanese cards in a year or so it seems so I picked up something to add to my 'type' collection. I didn't have a Bromide card of this sort and it was pretty reasonable so I bought it. The set is classified as the JBR 13 1949 Yakyu Shonen. The set consists of 36 cards of Japanese players and 12 cards of the San Francisco Seals' PCL team. The cards were distributed in sheets and the individual cards were hand cut from these sheets. I found a picture of the Seals cards. It's at the bottom of the post.

The front side text under the picture consists of his name and position with his team (Tigers) in parenthesis. The same info (plus the players age) runs down the right side of the card's back. At least that is my understanding..... Fujimura is listed as being 34 years old on the card and his Baseball Reference page puts him at 32 in 1949.

Fumio Fujimura is a Japanese Hall of Famer who played, mostly as an infielder, for the Hanshin/Osaka Tigers both before and after World War II. He finished his baseball career as the Tigers' manager in 1957. He had managed them at the age of 29 in 1946 and took over again in 1955

Here is his page from the Japanese Hall web site (English version):

The first "Mr. Tiger"; famous for his aggressiveness

Inducted 1974 Category Elected by the Selection Committee for Players From Hiroshima Born August 14,1916 Died May 28,1992 Alma Mater Taisho (Goko) Junior High School

The winning pitcher in Koshien (1934) joined the Tigers in 1936 and played as a clutch hitter until his retirement in 1958.The aggressive"Mr.Tigers,"home-run king in '49, MVP in '50, was famous for his long "wash-line pole bat.

I'm not sure what a "wash-line pole bat" is but maybe this shot of Fujimura gives an idea:

Here are the 12 SF Seals included in this set:

I've been working on the railroad (collection)!

Well, I have to confess it's not really much of a collection. The only 'authentic' Santa Fe Railroad items I have are a few vintage postcards from the 50s . Mostly I have pins and reproduced badges. I became interested in the Santa Fe line when I first saw my father's train set as it rolled around our Christmas tree many, many years ago.

The place I bought these newest items is the Galveston Railroad Museum. The museum is housed in the former Santa Fe Union Station. They have two wonderfully restored ATSF Warbonnets numbered Santa Fe 315 and 316 among numerous other train cars and engines. The place took a huge hit during Hurricane Ike in 2008 and was under about eight feet of water but it's been refurbished and is better than ever. The progress the staff has made is remarkable.

The shot glass and pins at the top come from the museum shop and are the latest additions to a modest cache of Santa Fe items. Here is a shot I took when we visited the museum about a month ago.

Two of my vintage postcards:

Nothing in my Santa Fe 'collection' is worth more than the couple of bucks I paid for each item but I like having them on display among my sports stuff.

Monday Morning Quarterback #15 1993 Collector's Edge Phil Simms

In this ongoing series of posts I am going to feature cards from my fantasy football player collection, specifically the 117 quarterbacks I've had on my team's roster since 1980. I have one selected card for each player in my All-Time Flyers binder. Through the years I've tried to use as many different card varieties as possible while holding on to my preference which is: a card issued in a year I owned the player showing him in the proper team uni in a vertical format. Card availability and my whims have had a big impact on that standard as we will see. 

NFL Info: Phil Simms was drafted in the first round by the Giants out of Morehead State in 1979. He played for 14 seasons. He was MVP of Super Bowl XXI, leading the Giants to a 39–20 victory over the Broncos. In that game he set the record for highest completion percentage in a Super Bowl, going 22 for 25 He made the Pro Bowl in 1985 and 1993.

After his playing career he moved into the broadcasting booth and has done quite well. He's worked for ESPN, NBC and got some assignments outside of football including the Olympics with those networks. He currently works for CBS and Showtime. He's the lead color man on CBS' AFC team alongside Jim Nantz.

Fantasy Angle: Not much in my history concerning Phil Simms. I picked him up on waivers in 1985 but never used him as Neil Lomax and Vince Ferragamo carried me to an 8-4-1 record that season. He was never a huge TD guy and back in the day we were a TD points only league so Simms wasn't a particularly hot item.

The Card: Collector's Edge was a brand during the 1990s when every day seemed to bring out a new set. I remember seeing them at card shows, usually in the 10 cent star binders and boxes. This '93 design was typical of the brand. Not bad actually, big clear action picture of the front, blue marbleized border with a team helmet. The back uses a different shot but the stats are limited. I never cared for incomplete stats on cards. I'd prefer using either the previous year's numbers or the whole career. Putting the past four seasons there seems silly. I have no idea what the stamped number signifies. The '93 First Edition' logo makes me think that this was Collector's Choice initial offering. I'm not going to bother to look that up.

Fathers Day

I'm sure most of us can say that we got our love of sports from our Dads. I know I did. He's been gone for a few years but I'll always have memories of the great times we had at ballparks and arenas in and around New York and elsewhere as I was growing up. And even much later as I was able to take him to ballgames. He loved watching the Texans and Astros in later years. Thankfully I was in a position where I could repay in a small way the stuff he did for me back in the day.

So in his honor I'm posting cards of his favorite players (or guys who were among his faves... I don't have a DiMaggio to post for him. Joe D. was his hero.

The one team we both lived for was the Rangers. I went to my first game with him in 1959 or 1960, I'm not sure which. Anyway his favorite Ranger was longtime Blueshirt backliner Harry Howell.

This 1965 Howell came as part of an amazing package from Chris of the terrific Diamond Cuts and Wax Stains and 1964 Tall Boys blogs. I'll have plenty more to say about that envelope real soon.

Next up, Whitey Ford's 1964 Topps Giants card. As I noted Joe DiMaggio was my Dad's favorite ballplayer, and Allie Reynolds likely his favorite pitcher, but whenever I see a Ford card I'm reminded of the umteenn times he and I saw this guy pitch in Yankee Stadium. My Dad loved doubleheaders and we went to most of the ones the Yanks played on Sundays in the 60s'. I bet Ford pitched in 75% of them, usually the first game.

My Dad also was devoted to the New York Football Giants, as they were called by those who had grown up with two Giants franchises in New York. He and I never saw that Giants play in Yankee Stadium but we always went to Princeton to see them play the Eagles in their annual exhibition game there. The NFL wasn't on TV like it is now back in the day. We listened to many more games together on the radio than we could watch on the tube. I wasn't a Giants fan but the sound of Marty Glickman and Al DeRogatis broadcasting from Yankee Stadium is part of my being.

My Dad always loved Sam Huff. He never failed to mention that Huff was a 'real football player'! This 1963 Huff really takes me back. I love this card. It looks like it was shot during the training camp sessions we went to up in Connecticut back then. Good times, great memories. I'd never fail to tell my Ol Man what the Colts would do to the Giants if they met for the title.

My Dad was a helluva guy. I bet Sam Huff would say he was 'a real father'!

One last thing, here are a couple of pics of my Dad at the 2005 World Series. First outside Minute Maid with my friend and college roommate Robert Wuhl (a.k.a Arli$$):

We watched the game from Roger Clemen's suite. My Dad got a huge kick out of it all. Great night, he talked about it all the time after that.

1968 Topps Game Inserts

I was holding off on typing up a post until I watched Saturday night's Stanley Cup Game Five. But the Rangers and Kings want to keep playing and keep playing (headed into overtime #2 at the moment) so I'll get to work.

These two 1968 Topps Game inserts are the rest of Jim from Downington's envelope. They sort of got overlooked as I endeavored to find out more about those Orioles stand-ups but they are pretty cool themselves.  They are certainly designed to mimic the 1951 Topps Red and Blue Backs although the front lacks the 'diamond' element of the originals. The backs are very much the same. The '68 set has a pretty good representation of the game's stars. They six pitchers included are not nearly up to the level of the 27 hitters. Take a look at that checklist. Many Hall of Fame types are here including 8 of the first 10 in the numerical checklist.
Here is Brooks wearing an Orioles cap that they had put in their rear-view about three or four years prior to the set's release.

Frank Robinson's card has a more up-to-date photo and he represents a 'triple' as opposed to Brooks designation as a HBP. Ouch.

(Damn, Rangers just lost. I will focus on the fun season just past and try not to bitch about the HORRENDOUS tripping call that was went down in the third and allowed the Kings to tie up the game. I won't bitch, I won't bitch.....)

Back to the post, here is the back of the '68, compare it to the '51 at the bottom. 

1968 Topps Game Inserts checklist with Hall of Famers bolded (Richie Allen's Hall credentials are a topic for another day):

• 1  Matty Alou
• 2  Mickey Mantle
• 3  Carl Yastrzemski
• 4  Henry Aaron
• 5  Harmon Killebrew
• 6  Roberto Clemente
• 7  Frank Robinson
• 8  Willie Mays
• 9  Brooks Robinson
• 10  Tommy Davis
• 11  Bill Freehan
• 12  Claude Osteen
• 13  Gary Peters
• 14  Jim Lonborg
• 15  Steve Hargan
• 16  Dean Chance
• 17  Mike McCormick
• 18  Tim McCarver
• 19  Ron Santo
• 20  Tony Gonzalez
• 21  Frank Howard
• 22  George Scott
• 23  Rich Allen
• 24  Jim Wynn
• 25  Gene Alley
• 26  Rick Monday
• 27  Al Kaline
• 28  Rusty Staub
• 29  Rod Carew
• 30  Pete Rose
• 31  Joe Torre
• 32  Orlando Cepeda
• 33  Jim Fregosi

Every one of those cards can be had for less that $10, most far below that. The only exception might be the Mantle card. Below I've posted the images of my Billy Pierce Blue Back for comparison's sake.

Again, Jim, I thank you for the great group of cards you sent. I'm going to snag the rest of those Orioles Stand Ups and I may just have to put this '68 game set together as well.