Random Vintage Being Random Pt 3

Last installment of card show vintage. I brought home about 35 cards but some are headed out in a PWE and others were not really worth scanning.

A couple more 71's here. I didn't realize I had nabbed as many as I did. Maybe something in my subconscious is urging me to collect it. I doubt that's going to happen though.

First up is Lindy McDaniel out there all by his lonesome on the Yankee Stadium mound. No way to prove it but I'd like to think this shot was taken on the same day as the photo for the '71 Vada Pinson card. I've determined that one was taken on a day I was in the stands. If so I might be pictured somewhere in that crowd beyond McDaniel over near the third base dugout. That's where I was seated that afternoon. 

This is not the most 'action-filled' of the on-field photos in the '71 set. But I like how it gives a sense of the solitude pitchers must feel out there on a big league mound with the game in their hand. 

I believe it is an impossibility to pass up a thirty three cent card showing Walt 'No Neck' Williams and those great 70's 'burns. The fact that Topps did such a lousy and obvious airbrush job on Walt's cap while ignoring his White Sox' uni is just gravy.

Tony Cloninger in that Braves cap. I have a mental block against the guy's correct name. I have always seen/spelled/said it as 'CloLinger'. Tony Clolinger. When I typed it right there it looks so obviously wrong but when I look at the card I see CloLinger. Next you'll tell me that the scan is crooked. Harumph.

John 'Blue Moon' Odom poses with a couple of water towers in the background. This is Spring Training but I'm reminded of the trips my wife and I took along Route 66 this summer through Illinois, Missouri and Kansas and over the winter in Arizona. Those small towns along the way all spout water towers although the old fashioned ones like the ones on this card are rare.

It also just struck me as to how many of the players on the cards I bought have memorable nicknames.....

...like Harry 'The Hat' Walker. Walker was fired as manager of the Pirates about the time I first arrived in Houston in the summer of 1967. He was hired by the Astros about the time we moved back to New Jersey the following June. He was still managing when I returned to attend college here in 1970. He was a major leaguer for 11 seasons but a regular for about half that. He spent two prime years in the service and survived a harrowing stint in WWII with Patton's Third Army in France and Germany.

I bought this card because it shows off the Astros' classic 'shooting star' jersey. They've worn this a few times as a throwback but I wish they had gone to it fulltime when they switched back to the orange and blue color scheme.

And finally there is this nice '61 Topps Jack Sanford. They reused this photo the next year (lightening the sky in the background) but I like the '61 a lot more. This was the best card I bought as far as condition is concerned. A bit off-center but the corners are nice. That, plus Jack Sanford was a badass. He's one of the guys who I've profiled three times over my three vintage Topps set blogs, 1958, 1959 and 1960. With guys like that I feel I 'know' them.

I was pretty happy with what I picked up at the show. I spent less than I usually do and still came away with these and cards to send off to another blogger. I can't wait for the next hotel show.

Random Vintage Being Random Pt 2

Continuing with my vintage pickups from last Saturday. Some of these are also from the 3 for $1 bin but others were in my friend's boxes at up to a dollar each. 

The 1971 Topps set has some great cards. This isn't one of them....

Lee 'Skip' Pitlock looks like he was just told to eat a spider by Willie McCovey. And I know third graders who have better signatures than that. Pitlock pitched for the White Sox a few years after his stint with the Giants and had a career mark of 8-8 in 59 games. He got into real estate and then the mortgage industry after retirement. Here is a short, promotional bio-type video of him with something neat in his pocket.

I think I paid a buck apiece for these two flawed Post Cereal cards. But I couldn't pass up Rocky Colavito even with that mangled airbrush job on his cap.. '61 wasn't a bad year for him: 45/140/.290 with 30 doubles.

I already owned this Brooks Robinson Post from the same year but i can always stick this one into my oddball/food issue Orioles binder.

Johnny Callison was a favorite of mine when he played for the Phillies. I collect his cards and according to my spreadsheet on Dropbox I needed both of these. But I suspect I had them already, at least the '65. I'm seriously behind on updating my PC spreadsheets.

Norm Siebern played for the Orioles just before they became an AL powerhouse in 1966. He played in two World Series with the Yankees before having some good years with the A's. I knew all that.

What I had completely forgotten was that he also played for the '67 'Impossible Dream' Red Sox. He got into Game One against the Cardinals and came up to pinch hit in the bottom of the 7th with two outs and Reggie Smith on first. Smith was immediately caught stealing so Siebern played 1st base and got to bat in the 8th. He singled. If Smith had stolen that base and Siebern then gotten that single who knows how the Series might have turned out.

Mack Jones was second only to Rusty Staub in popularity with the expansion Expos in 1969. I'm a sucker for Braves cards that feature that cap prominently.

Wrapping up with three more '71s. I picked these up strictly for the uniforms that are showcased. Jim Gosger had a long career as a spare outfielder who occasionally was able to grab a starting spot and hold it for awhile. He had an eventful 1969 season. He began it with the Seattle Pilots and his time with them was immortalized in Jim Bouton's Ball Four. Gosger had a great line in the book which I won't spend any time on here.

He was dealt to the Mets that September and played a bit for the Series-bound club down the stretch. He was not eligible to play in the Series but the Mets voted him a share of their winnings amounting to $100.

I believe that the first non-Orioles cap I ever bought was a replica of the iconic Expos one that Gosger is wearing. BTW...I found out thru some googling that Gosger has an interesting Facebook feed. I looked at it briefly and saw that the guy really likes 70's music. For whatever that's worth.

These last two 71's are here simply for the awesome green and gold A's ensemble.

I don't remember how I felt about these uniforms back then. I probably hated them. But now I find them to be very sweet. Sal Bando certainly wears it well.

The Dick Green card is seriously miscut. And scanned at a slight angle. But I'm posting it anyway.

One more collection of card show vintage coming up later this week.

Random Vintage Being Random Pt 1

I spent a few hours on Saturday at the monthly hotel show just north of Houston. I shot the breeze with Daryl, the promoter who also mans a table of nice vintage stuff. I usually spend my money with him but on Saturday I checked out another regular dealer's cards. That guy had a nice box of vintage marked fifty cants a card or three for a buck. I think I spent $8. Here is some of what I came home with. 

1952 Bowman Gene Bearden. That old Brownies' gear is pretty sweet.  This copy is just a bit less than a perfect 10 but hey, for 33 cents I'll take it. BTW... Bearden survived the sinking of his ship, the cruiser USS Helena by the Japanese during WWII. 168 of his 900 shipmates didn't.

1969 All Star 'Sudden' Sam McDowell. I got an up-close look at McDowell's impressive arm one day at Yankee Stadium in the summer of 1970 by sitting behind the Indian's dugout with a friend. We knew a friendly usher who always found us unused seats at mid-week games. We were dutifully impressed with how hard McDowell threw.

Here is the first of a couple of 1957's. I enjoyed discovering Harry 'Suitcase' Simpson when I researched his 1959 Topps card. That's when I learned that he didn't get that nickname from his many team-to-team moves through the years.

I grab any cheap '57 Dodger that shows Ebbets Field in the background. Even one like this that was on the receiving end of some creative editing somewhere along the way. Sal Maglie's nickname was 'The Barber', earned for his habit of moving hitters off the plate with high and inside pitches.

Maglie is the only guy to pitch for the Giants, Dodgers and Yankees when they were all New York franchises.

Next up are a pair of Jim 'Mudcat' Grant cards. Three cool nicknames in a row is just a coincidence. Grant was an interesting guy and an underrated pitcher. He was known for his musical chops and Topps frequently referred to them on the back of his cards.

I remember watching Game Six of the 1965 World Series on the TV in my 8th grade classroom in Nutley, NJ. The nuns at St. Mary's always had us watch the Series on the black and white TVs each classroom had on a tall, wheeled cart. In that Game Six Grant pitched brilliantly and homered to boot. The Dodgers were my NL team back them so I was disappointed but most of the kids I knew were AL fans (thanks, Yankees). Grant's SABR bio is well worth the 10 minute read.

Speaking of the Yankees....

I'm sure I had both of these cards back in the day but I don't remember either one. I'm also sure I saw both of these guys pitch multiple times. I really like the '63 Sheldon. Unusual picture makes it a neat card.

Little known facts about the little known Duke Maas....He was once involved in a trade for Suitcase Simpson...his given name was Duane...he was taken by the Angels in the 1960 expansion draft but was traded back to the Yankees and he died at the age of 47 due to complications of arthritis.

Willie 'The Wisp' Galimore of the Bears died along with a teammate in a one car accident during training camp in July of 1964. Nobody ever talks about Galimore and his numbers won't make your eyes pop but his talent sure did.

This 1960 Topps Galimore was the only non-baseball card I bought Saturday. It's the first Galimore I've had since I was a kid. If I was an NFL runningback I'd want as cool a name as 'Willie Galimore'.

Check out this brief NFL Films feature on Willie the Wisp.

Everyone's doing it, doing it

I bought two 30-card packs of '17 Heritage today. I'm not gonna collect this but I'm sure I'll need at least some of the guys I got for my fantasy baseball binder this year so it's not really a waste of money. 

And I got an autographed card. No, it's not a star card but a signed card out of a pack is good nonetheless. This is only the second time I remember getting a signed card through a pack purchase. The other was an Eric Davis card from 2015 Stadium Club. In that instance I had bought a box in the misguided belief I'd try to collect that set. I think a signed card was guaranteed in that box purchase so this Bobby Locke is my first random auto 'pull'.

Bobby Locke played in parts of nine seasons from 1959 thru 1968. And I do mean 'parts'. Looking at his Baseball Reference page I noticed how often he bounced from the minors to the bigs and back.

Anyway he had cards several Topps during the 60s beginning with the 1960 set. His '68 card, which of course is replicated for this Heritage set, was his last one. The photo was the same one Topps used in 1962.

He won 16 games in his career against 15 losses. While with the Indians early in his career he was a part time starter. He pitched a couple of shutouts in 1960.

Other than the Locke autograph I received nothing of note. I will say Topps did a nice job of replicating a few of the little details of the '68 set including the variation in the 'burlap' pattern.

I don't know what cards are short prints and don't care either. I looked at the backs of these and didn't see any gum stains. I got one of those in one of these Topps non-flagship sets a couple of years ago. Not this time.

This 'game' card is a nice touch. I liked the original insert set. These are bigger though.

One thing I didn't like is that of 60 cards not one was an Oriole. Not one. I got four White Sox guys though. These packs were misdirected I guess. They were meant for Jedi Jeff.

So all in all I liked the cards and I hope to get some use out of them. One weird card though is this one of Matt Holliday. He just looks creepy. Like a toy or movie character I've seen but can't put my finger on. I guess he's photoshopped into a Yankee uni, too.

And I got five team cards. I like Photo Day shots of guys standing on bleachers a lot more than team 'action' shots. Now get the hell off my lawn.

Five Card Stud

Robert of $30 A Week Habit sent folks five cards. All we had to do is write a 100 word post about them. Here goes....

'59 style Topps Bill Russell. Love Russell. Love pink cards. Love '59 Topps. Fun card!

'75 Dan Dierdorf. Vintage football cards are cool things. That helmet logo bites though. LOL

Arian Foster. Shiny chromified 2011 card. Cool card, odd guy. Goes in my Texans binder.

Rod Gilbert. My first hockey hero! Great skater, wicked shot. The GAG Line, Goal A Game. Gilbert, Nevin, Ratelle. They were awesome!

100 words, on the nose. Thanks so much, Robert!

1909 Abe Lincoln Postcards

I've been trying to sort and organize my Presidential cards, buttons and other memorabilia recently. I posted a few cards last week on Presidents Day. That same day Mark 'Friend of Every Blog' Hoyle threw a few pics up on Twitter featuring some postcards of presidents based on paintings by Morris Katz.

I had been unaware of those postcards but intrigued enough that I figured I'd try to find a few for my targeted presidents, Johnson, Teddy Roosevelt, etc on eBay. While doing that I found a 72 card Presidential postcard lot at a low starting bid. I threw in the minimum ($15) and was lucky enough to win. So for a quarter apiece I landed 72 pieces of Presidential ephemera including some Katz postcards and a whole lot more.

Some of the 72 are either mundane or really cheesy but the majority are very cool. These two Lincoln cards were postmarked in 1909. These two cards are obviously related but the details vary. Both come from the Lincoln Centennial year (1909). The one below is marked with that year on the front (barely visible, top right)

I assume they were part of a series of cards. There is a lot more info on the celebration of Lincoln's Centennial on this webpage.

Here is the back of one of the cards with the one cent stamp and 1909 postmark. 

As I mentioned the 72 card lot did indeed contain some of the Morris Katz painting cards. I have not had a chance to go through and sort them out. These two Lincoln cards posted here are the only ones I had a chance to scan out of the whole batch. I'm not going to bore anyone with 70 more presidential postcard scans but I think I can get a couple of interesting posts out of this eBay buy.

BTW...here is one of Mark's Twitter photos showing the Zatz cards. The cards of the earliest Presidents are the most interesting, at least to me. Thanks for setting me off on this path, Mark.

2017 Legends Inserts

Last week I was buying a Civil War News card on COMC. It was in great shape and very cheap and upgraded a terrible one in my binder. But the $4.00 shipping made me want to get a bit more into my cart to make it more palatable. I hate paying as much for shipping as I do for a card so I dug up a few 2017's.

I haven't read many (any?) positive comments about this '17 Topps subset. But I like them. I think they are sharp looking. Sure there is some wasted space but at least there isn't any 'fog' or ESPN-esque graphics. I know there are several different categories within this group of cards...Legends... Mother's Day.. Jackie Robinson Day, etc. but I'm not interested enough to investigate.

I'd seen the Frank Robinson Legends card on another blog. I don't have many cards of him with the Indians and I always sort of liked the 'caveman' feel the Indians' wordmark at that time. It's just ugly enough to be cool.

Koufax. Dude worked his ass off on the mound.

Jim Palmer. I've seen this photo before. He and...

...Brooksie are my go-to guys when it comes to buying 'pieces' of sets. That's what happens when you name your sons after ballplayers. When you find a card set you like you go look for Brooks and Palmer in it.

That's it, nothing earth-shattering today. Posting cards, finishing the workday and heading off to watch some college baseball.