A Battle of Wills

I needed a Derek Norris card for my Fantasy Baseball collection. Well, to be honest I wanted a 'Derek Norris as a Padre' card for my Fantasy Baseball collection. I had a Norris card but it was this one:

Wrong team, wrong year and you can't even see Norris' face.

Off On A Tangent Comment: Lots of folks love these kind of cards but I'd rather that a guy's base card at least show me the player in a way I'd recognize. But that's a debate for someone else's blog.

Back to the the Norris '15 Opening Day card. After my fantasy year was over I went through my binder. I looked for any card I could reasonably 'upgrade' from 'placeholder cards' (minor league card, wrong team, die-cut card, etc) to one with the guy's correct team.

I found the Padre Norris card with a "$1.15 BIN or Best Offer" price on eBay. I usually try to limit my fantasy cards to no more than a buck including postage but this was the cheapest one I saw. (Yes, cards are cheaper on COMC and SportsLots but with those I have to wait to buy enough to make the shipping worthwhile). Just for grins I offered the guy $1. He declined and counter-offered with $1.08 (LOL). So here we were, a dealer and I in a showdown over a crummy 2015 card and 7 or 8 cents at stake.

My online poker days are behind me so I just folded to his bluff and paid the $1.08.

I really like how bad ass Norris looks in this shot. Too bad he did nothing for my team in the week or so I had him.

Freeing Carl Yastrzemski

Nearing the end of my quest to complete the '63 Fleer set and I was down to just a handful of cards. Yaz was one of them. I found a decent enough copy very reasonably priced on eBay and won it with a $14 bid.

The down side? It was in a case. My vague rule of thumb....If it isn't some big-time valuable card and it's needed to complete a set it's coming out to breathe. Busting cards out of their plastic 'prison' always makes me nervous because I've messed up my share but Yaz wasn't all that difficult.

Ten minutes with a couple of small screwdrivers and the Boston hero was back on the scanner and then into his waiting slot in the binder.

You can tell by looking at the top scan that the corners are not as sharp as the scan of the 'free' Yaz make them appear. No matter, I'm very happy that Yaz is out of the case and in the house.

Just a couple of these to go. Let's hope my snipes hold up.

Please Don't Judge Me

I like oversized collectibles. Postcards, 8x10s, even those old 5x7 photocards that Topps (and others) foisted on us in the cardboard bloated 80's...all that stuff is in my collection. The '68 Dexter Press Photo Cards are one of my most treasured collectibles. So I guess it's no surprise that I bit when Topps produced this 'commemorative' 1970 World Series Champions set made up of 5x7 reproductions of 1970 Topps Orioles cards.

I don't know what the big deal about a 45th Anniversary is other than an excuse for Topps to churn out one more set in their line of Cardboard Icon stuff. While the 1970 set gets a fair amount of  well deserved criticism I cherish the Orioles in the set. I think Topps chose some really great pics.

This Cardboard Icon set contains ten cards plus the 'header' card shown above. As advertised they are blown up, gold bordered versions of  the originals. The set is numbered, I bought the cheapest available version which was numbered to 49 (why 49?) and my set is #5. If I was given a choice of sets I would have taken set #1 but #5 would have been my next choice. Not that it makes any difference in the grand scheme of things.

Anyway, here is Dave McNally. I like the fact that the larger photo size makes it easy to see what's going on in the background. McNally is posing with a bunch of hard working fellow Spring Training engaged teammates behind him.

The little World Series 'trophy' that's been added is embossed and stands out every so slightly from the surface of the card. Next up is the always smiling Paul Blair.

Boog Powell at Yankee Stadium. Looks like Mark Belanger is posing for a different photographer behind him.

Brooks Robinson in another Yankee Stadium shot.

Jim Palmer, Spring Training in Miami.

Frank Robinson, in still one more Yankee Stadium shot. He has the contented look of a man who knows a championship is in his future.

Davey Johnson posing as a second baseman flipping the ball to his shortstop or to a fan hanging out at the railing. No telling who that is way back to the left leaning into this Spring Training shot.

Topps included the two Orioles All Star cards, Brooks and Frank Robinson. The printing on these, especially the black ink, has a bit of the 'embossed' feel that is present with the World Series trophy logo on all the rest of them.

Like the fronts, the backs are replicas of the original cards.

Most of the backs are sharp and clear. They reproduced well. Except.....

...for Dave Johnson's card. This one is not nearly as sharp as the rest.

I saved one card for the end. Don Buford. I was scanning these as I opened the wrapper and didn't notice the fact that the team designation on Buford's card looks so terrible. How does this stuff happen on what is supposed to be a specialty (or at least premium priced) product? C'mon man!

UPDATE: I've contacted Topps Customer Service regarding the Buford card. We'll see what they say.

A Few More '63 Fleer

I'm close to finishing this set. I haven't scanned them all but I had a few scans ready to go. These happen to include some of my favorite 'enemy' players (read: non-Orioles).

Bob Gibson was just emerging as a standout when this card was issued. He had been a regular in the Cards' rotation for a couple of seasons and as a first time All Star in 1962 he pitched a couple of innings and allowing a run. I can't say for certain Gibby is the best righthander I've ever seen but he was definitely the most intimidating. Rather than repeat my favorite Gibson memory I'll just link to that post.

Bobby Richardson was a steady Yankee in the middle of their infield for most of the years I watched games at the Stadium growing up. He was an excellent 2nd baseman and pretty good hitter most years. My Dad (and Yankee broadcaster Phil Rizzuto) loved the guy. He's a good TTM signer as well.

I was always a fan of Tommy Davis and always thought of him as a Dodger. In the 1970s he came to Baltimore and showed he had something left in the tank. I was looking at his Baseball reference page and was reminded that he played for the Astros in 1969/70. I had absolutely no memories of him in a Houston uniform and I realized that it's because I was living back in New Jersey during the bulk of those two seasons.

In fact Davis played for ten different teams in his 21 year career. I had no idea. hey, he was third in the 1962 MVP balloting and picked up some scattered MVP votes 14 years later as an Oriole. Cool.

Frank Lary was a really good and very popular pitcher for the Tigers from 1955 thru 1961. He won a career high 23 games in '61 and led the league in complete games, finished third in the Cy Young voting, seventh in the MVP race and earned a Gold Glove. Then his career fell off a cliff thanks to shoulder problems. He had a terrible '62 season but Fleer included him in the set anyway.

When I wasn't rooting for the Dodgers as my NL team I was a fan of the Phils. This isn't among the better cards in the set. Ruben Amaro has his face obscured by the shadow of his cap brim and he doesn't fill much of the frame. But we do get to see some of Wrigley Field so there's that.

I was looking up some stuff on Amaro and clicked thru a couple of links to where I saw that his son, Ruben Jr., is now the first base coach of the Red Sox. Has anyone else ever gone from being a major league GM to a job as a first base coach?

'63 Fleer Don Drysdale and Ron Santo

I've just about wrapped up the '63 Fleer set. I won a cheap auction for a Yaz and I'm looking at adding one more player card, Roberto Clemente as well as the elusive checklist.

Meanwhile here are a couple of the 'stars' of the set, Hall of Famers Don Drysdale and Ron Santo. That horrific looking 'crease' across the middle of the Drysdale isn't anywhere near as visible when the card is in hand. That seems to be a recurring theme with these. I'm not sure of why it happens. I guess my scanner just doesn't mesh with this set.

Both of these are Polo Grounds photos. I like how on the Santo card you get a hint of the apartment buildings on Coogan's Bluff behind the stadium.

I scanned the backs side-by-side for some unknown reason but it does serve to show the wide variety of shades of green you can find on these things.

Santo's card points out how his average fell off in 1962 from the previous season. In fact he lost about sixty points from his average and it was the lowest of his career until his last season which he spent with the White Sox.

Drysdale, on the other hand was coming off a career year. He had 25 wins pitching 314 innings. Three hundred inning seasons are a thing of the past. The last pitcher to reach that was Steve Carlton in 1980. If you have a minute scroll down to the bottom of Drysdale's Baseball Reference page and check out how many times he ranked among the leaders in various pitching categories.

What Have I Done?

I'd guess that everyone who dabbles in this memorabilia hobby has done this....make a purchase and know immediately (maybe even beforehand) that it's a mistake that you'll regret very soon.

I was killing time between scouting last week and stopped at a Target. I ventured over to the card aisle as I always do just to see what they had. I rarely buying anything but I like to see what's around.

But like the dope that I am I decided that I was going to waste some cash since I hadn't attended the local show for a couple of months and I felt my hobby budget was yearning to be spent. I soon found myself at the checkout stands holding a large hanger pack (I guess that's what they are called) of Heritage High Numbers/Updates(?), a hanging box of 2015 Topps Regular Set Update and an Astros team set. That was one of those things that Topps puts into blister packs.

My premonition that I was wasting money turned out to be spot on. The Heritage pack got me two cards of guys for my fantasy baseball binder.

And that was a a hollow victory because I already had cards of Boxberger and Lowrie from this year with the correct teams. But I felt obligated to use these new ones in the binder.

I got about five cards of other guys I've actually heard of including these two:

And I got a bunch of cards of guys about whom I'm clueless....

And no Orioles, dammit.

The Update box was more interesting. A couple of old school Astros on special cards:

Home Run Derby cards.....they make me hear Chris Berman in my head. Ugh.

Two useless Orioles cards. Manny Machado in an All Star warm-up jersey. Don't need this. And a Mike Mussina card. I'm not one of those Orioles fans that insert a expletive between 'Mike" and 'Mussina' when I say his name but I also don't need to see him in orange and black anymore.

Brock Holt goes in the fantasy baseball binder. The other card is fancy with a gold-ish border and the throwback Topps logo.

Fernando! I like my Stadium Club Fernando more. And we begin seeing the hate my scanner has for newer Topps cards with white borders.

Same deal. My scanner hates these. But it's a Griffey (and Brandon Belt???).

Guys from the World Series.

Hamels updated. I kept his '15 as a Phillie card in the fantasy binder.

A braves pitcher with a gold-ish card.

This Aoki guy had a couple of hits on a mid-season Sunday night to hurt my fantasy team's week as I recall. Don't need to be reminded of that.

And the last card of interest is Dallas Keuchel wearing one of those atrocious All Star caps. Outside of pimping these for profit is there a reason for these to exist? I think not.

But the card is here because it reminds me of this:

Speaking of the Astros the team set had a few cards I thought were pretty nice and cards that represent one huge boatload of strikeouts.

So all in all it's pretty obvious that I could have found a decent '63 Fleer Yaz for what I paid for this stuff. Live and learn.

1963 Joe Adcock (Short Print)

I picked up the Joe Adcock out of the '63 Fleer set quicker than I thought I would. It's one of the pricier cards in the set. Fleer is said to have pulled the card late in the production run and replaced it with the checklist card (which is the highest cost card of them all).

Note that Big Joe is listed as being on the Indians. But his uni and place in the set (right after Frank Bolling and Warren Spahn of Milwaukee) tells you that he was on the Braves when the set was being planned. Adcock was traded to Cleveland on November 27 of 1962 so Fleer must have had the preliminary checklist in place before then.

Interestingly his name should have put him in front of the other two Braves since the players for each team were numbered in alphabetical order by last name. My guess is that Adcock not only was pulled from production but he was a substitute for another player in the first place.

Looking at the Braves roster from 1962 shows that only Joe Torre is a possibility...his name comes after Spahn's... but he was just a part timer in 1962. The more likely scenario is that Adcock filled the slot originally designated for Richie Ashburn of the Mets who were the next team on the checklist. Ashburn retired after the 1962 season but he had hit .302 and made the All Star team so he was a likely candidate. And that slot would have fit his name since Roger Craig comes next on the checklist.

All that and $2.99 will get you a pack of Topps something or other at Target I think.

But back to the card. For some reason going in to my chasing this set I was under the impression that this card would be second in cost but that wasn't the case. I didn't pay as much for it as I did for the Maury Wills (and maybe the Koufax but I bought that years ago and I don't remember what I paid). I expect to pay more for the Clemente, maybe the Yaz and certainly the checklist. Those are the last three I'm looking for.

Like a lot of the '63 Fleers it's off center but otherwise it's in pretty fair shape. My scanner makes the corners look a bit sharper then they are but overall it was a pretty nice example for the cost. I saw a bunch of these going for more that were not in nearly the condition of this one.