1970 Topps Poster of lefty punter(!) David Lee

I have memories of Topps 1968 Football posters, they looked like this:

And I remember the 1971 version, this is one of those:

But the 1970 posters? I got nothing. I don't think I'd ever even seen one much less been aware of them until the David Lee poster appeared on my Baltimore Colts checklist. But once I looked for it I saw that they were cheap and easy to obtain. I picked one up sight unseen from an online dealer. The Lee poster came folded neatly as if it came straight out of the pack. And when I opened it I saw why they were under my (and everyone else's) radar. They are not very good. Generic 'paintings' of guys in logo-less unis which just happen to be the color of the team depicted.

And while we are at it, here are some views of David Lee playing for the Colts.

In that shot he's doing what he did for them for 13 seasons...punting...with his right foot. Now look at the poster again. He's kicking, with his left foot, and there is a holder kneeling next to him. WTH? As far as I can tell from stat sites Lee never once attempted a place kick. Seems weird that they would get it so wrong don't you think? And who wants a poster of a punter anyway?

But, here is an interesting pair of photos:

That's lefty place kicker Lou Michaels who was with the Colts through the 1969 season. I suspect that Topps was planning a Michaels poster, had the artwork done, but changed the wording to David Lee when Michaels was cut loose by the Colts in training camp in 1970.

The 1970 posters were a series of 24 that came inserted in packs of the 2nd Series of Topps football that year. This site has the checklist and shows most of them. They are all as ugly as the Lee poster.

Monday Morning Quarterback #42 Brad Johnson 1997 Pacific

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:  Brad Johnson was a ninth round pick of the Vikings in 1994 after a career at Florida State that saw him play both basketball and football. I was very surprised to read that Johnson had a 17 year NFL career. Just doesn't seem like he was around that long. But he was. Of those 17 seasons he was a starter for a total of six full seasons and parts of some others. He bounced around quite a bit after a couple of years as the Vikes go to guy. He spent a season as the Redskins starter, the Bucs had him under center for their 2003 Super Bowl title season. After that he was back in Minnesota and then Dallas, mostly as a reserve.

Fantasy Impact: I picked up Johnson late in the 2005 season and started him a couple of times down the stretch in place of my regular quarterback, Brett Favre who was having an un-Favre-like stretch. Johnson won me a couple of games and had a nice day for me in the playoffs. I switched to Mike Vick for my championship game and won it. So Johnson has two championship rings, and NFL one and an Ed Hughes League one. I hope he appreciates them both.

The Card: Two things would vastly improve the front of this card...first of all eliminate the 'echoing' helmet visual, just put the Vikes helmet there, and not in gold, thanks. Second, make the players name smaller. The back is very very busy. Did I mention that it's busy? Does it need the manufacturers logo twice? And a copyright line noting the company... and a card number with the company name surrounding it? No.

(Not So) Random 1977 Topps Mexican Football card

I said, when I discovered the '77 Topps Mexican football set, that I would not collect the Colts out of it. Too hard to find and too expensive. So the Howard Stevens card would be my only example of those. But I failed to delete my eBay search for them and one recent morning this card's image was staring at me. How could I resist?

Fred Cox, the Vikingos P'er. I went ahead and picked it up. Just one of those cards that grab me and that I need to have for no logical reason other than I find them cool.

And he looked like a perfect double for one of my favorite actors, the late Broderick Crawford.

Crawford is know for two classic roles. One being that of Chief Dan Mathews in the 50s TV series, Highway Patrol. It was my first 'can't miss' show.

The other role, one you really need to watch if you haven't, is his portrayal of Willie Stark in 1949's All The King's Men.

Cards for no reason

I haven't picked up any new cards other than Baltimore Colts cards in quite awhile. And I don't want to over do the football posts. So I'm going to post a few cards that I had scanned to my Picasa account for no other reason than they are (IMHO) awesome!

'57 Gil Hodges.... I'd like to see him elected to the Hall of Fame. But I don't think it's going to happen.

Leaf Luis Aparicio..... love the halo effect that these cards had. Great picture of Looie!

'62 Ralph Houk.... wearing a windbreaker under his jersey! Pretending to shout instructions! With Yogi Berra talking behind him!

T206 Rube Marquard... there is no such thing as a bad T206.

'58 All Star Mickey Mantle. This card is in contention for one of my favorites of all time.

A collection of awesome cards requires at least one Don Mossi card. It's a federal regulation I think.

Vintage Baltimore Colts...and my wantlist

I've made pretty good progress on my quest to collect all the Baltimore Colts cards from 1950 through the clubs departure to some other place after the 1983 season. I've grabbed cards online from eBay, COMC and a couple of online dealers as well as at last week's card show and, best of all, from fellow bloggers and friends of the blog.

Over on the right just under my profile paragraph is my updated 'needs' list. There are only a handful of vintage football enthusiasts out there in the blogging world but if you happen to be one of them and have anything I'm looking for, we need to chat.

There are several Johnny Unitas cards on my list. I have all his career era cards but that's a separate PC. I want to pick up copies for my Baltimore Colts collection as well. I've nabbed most of them now, mostly lesser conditioned ones but I'm not going to spend a ton on cards I already own. The one card that I will not duplicate in my Baltimore Colts collection is the '57 Topps Unitas, his rookie card. The cost is prohibitive on that one so I have a Heritage/Archives(?) reprint taking that spot.

I'm not going to go overboard posting Baltimore Colts cards here since the football card interest is minimal in the blogosphere but I will show off some good ones.

Like these right here. First up is the 1969 Unitas up top. It's off center but just about everything about Johnny U. appears off center in every picture of him anyway....his hair, his shoulders and his smile.

The Ray Berry card below comes from one of my favorite sets of all time, the 1964 Philly Gum. Along with the '61 Fleer set the photos in this set just grab me.

The 1954 Bowman Ken Jackson card shows the Baltimore Colts in their blue helmet days. The jersey Jackson wears is likely a practice shirt since the Baltimore Colts' actual jerseys had 'Northwestern' stripes on the sleeves.

And finally this is the 1959 Topps Unitas. As with the '58 football set this one gives a hint of what was coming design-wise with Topps' next baseball set. the alternating colors of the player name of course was seen in the '60 baseball set.

And again Johnny U. sports the crew cut, crooked smile and shoulders he was known for. He looks happy and you would be too if you were coming off a win in the "Greatest Game Ever Played".

1957 Swift Meats Billy Pierce

I didn't think I'd ever have a Swifts Meats Billy Pierce in my collection. They are pretty difficult to find and can get pricey. I lucked into this one recently. I wouldn't ever buy one of these other than to fill a PC. They are pretty odd and not very attractive. The pieces are meant to be punched out and assembled. With 18 different players they form a 9 man team for each league and were intended to be used with a baseball board game.

This didn't scan very well in it's case and I'm undecided as to whether or not I'm going to open it up so the lousy scans and photos I took (below) will have to do.

Interestingly I had read conflicting reports of how these were distributed. First I understood that the came as a mail-in premium from the company complete with the game board. But last night I did some checking around on the net and found an advertising piece showing that one of the players came in each pack of Swift's Franks.

There is evidence of each form of distribution right here:

Here is a look at a sheet of six players that came with the mail-in redemption:

This is an assembled Jackie Jensen player piece for use in the game:

I took these with my phone and they are marginally better than the scans. If you are curious this page has the checklist and a look at each individual card.

1969 Orioles Yearbook

At the card show on Saturday I made one non-card purchase...an Orioles yearbook form 1969 that cost me $5. The thing was absolutely pristine, too. So nice in fact that it immediately took the place of this one in my publications bookcase. I wanted to make a post of it but I simply couldn't bring myself to flatten it out on my scanner so I scanned a few pages from my original and here they are.

The Orioles were a 91 win team in 1968 and finished second to the Tigers but were never actually in contention. Earl Weaver, who had a nice feature in the yearbook, took over a team in July that was six games over .500 and 10.5 games out and saw them go 48-34 but actually lose ground to Detroit. But better things were on their way in '69.

Too bad the yearbook isn't as memorable as the '69 Birds club it profiles. It's pretty run-of-the-mill as far as yearbooks go. The Weaver profile....

Coaches get a glimpse, and there was a similar page on the front office crew.....

Players got a write-up and a few pics each. I didn't scan it but Brooks and Frank Robinson were 'combined' in one profile page.

The standard roster page.....

This color photo formed the centerfold and was perforated for easy removal.

The books ends with the obligatory 'wives, special days and fun photo' section....

Even the ads were mundane. Luckily for a publications collector like me the Orioles would venture out into more ambitious yearbooks in the years to come.