Taking One (or two) For The Team...plus St. Louis

I really don't like buying stadium giveaways but sometimes you just have to hold your nose (with one hand) and pull the trigger with the other. Case in point:

The Orioles had a Brooks Robinson bobblehead giveaway recently and my son Brooks, while not a collector, does have a few Brooks related items that he displays in his office at work. Since the giveaway almost fell on his (and his brother's) birthday I figured one of these would make a neat gift.

Of course, I needed one for myself as well 😇 so I pulled the trigger twice. They both arrived within a couple of days of the July 19th giveaway and mine is now displayed here.

I mentioned in my last post that we had traveled to St. Louis to help my best friend celebrate a milestone birthday. We had last visited a few summers back as we passed thru on our way to Chicago but this time we had five days to enjoy one of my favorite cities.

Here are another couple of pix of the vintage baseball game that was in progress under the Gateway Arch on Saturday morning. One of the younger players spotted my wife's Astros shirt and came over to talk. He was a Houstonian working in the area.

STL is a great town for food and a trip isn't complete without a stop (or two) at some of the wonderful Italian spots on The Hill.

We took in a lot of the sights during our stay but I'll (mostly) stick with the baseball highlights for this post. I do need to mention that I can testify to St. Louis being home to some nice brewpubs. We hit our share.

My first time in St. Louis had come in 1974. I dug up the photos I had from that trip and here is a bit of now-and-then that span exactly 45 years.

Took the above pic from the steps of the Old Courthouse near the Arch last week. Below is a shot from nearly the same spot in July of 1974.

It was a bit misty on Monday thanks to the outskirts of TS Barry but the trip to the top of the Arch was fun anyway. One of our group bailed out when he saw the size of the elevator 'cars' that get you to the top. I will admit I wasn't so sure about going up either. I hadn't remembered that claustrophobic ride from 1974.

The view in 2019:

Almost the same view in 1974:

After a couple of near misses thru the last few years, I was determined to get to a game in Busch Stadium. The weather was fickle and I had my doubts but it turned out fine. Sam and I 36 years, one month after he was the best man at our wedding. Oh, and Gibson.

Yes, I'm wearing a Cardinals cap. The things you do for friends, amiright?.

Busch is a really sweet stadium. The upper deck seems waaaay up there. The pics don't convey that as clearly as being there. I think they went 'up' rather that 'back' to gain enough seating given the smallish footprint they had to work with. In any case, it's a great place to enjoy a game. The mist stopped and the sies cleared after a couple of innings and the night turned out great.

My only quibble might be that the scoreboards are a bit much. Lots of stuff up there.

My wife and I had some really great seats.

But mid-game we headed out to join all the rest of the group in the bleachers. Postgame fireworks for a nifty Cardinals win.

If you've never visited St. Louis you're missing out on one of America's great cities. I'm looking forward to returning.

Catching Up

I've been 'offline' for a bit. No posting and almost no reading so I have to get up to speed here. I have a couple of way overdue thank yous to send out to bloggers/friends who gifted me with cards over the last month.

First up is a 'foodie' variation, an Utz version of the Topps 2019 Trey Mancini card that came from 'friend of the blog' and Twitter mainstay, Mark Hoyle. Utz Potato Chips is an east coast brand that put packs of these (4 to a pack?) into chip bags or multi-packs. I read that there were 100 Utz-branded cards. It struck me that if someone didn't want to deal with collecting the whole Topps flagship set and the extraneous stuff that comes with it that nabbing the Utz cards would be a neat alternative.  All riff, no raff.

Here's Trey:

Thanks, Mark. In my neverending effort to have as much variety as possible in my fantasy league binder this one will make a great addition.

Another bunch of cards came from Night Owl. As is usually the case with envelopes I get from Greg, it contained a wide assortment of stuff. All of it fits into one of my collections or another.

First up..a '57 Don Newcombe. Now Greg stuck a Post-It to this one noting that Newk had 'issues' and might be a filler. No, Newk has taken his spot in the '57 set binder and there he will stay. One thing I don't remember mentioning since I was doing my '59 blog...'gifted' cards get an automatic 'grade' boost. Getting a card from a friend or fellow blogger, especially one for a set build or special collection, means a lot to me. They go in the binder with a little label over on the inside edge of the nine pocket sheet and the sender's name. I've missed a few here and there but for the most part, I can go through my sets and tell who sent me what.

And then there is this...

...Elizabeth Taylor from the 1953 Topps Who-Z-At movie star set. Yikes. And to think that once upon a time I wondered what the big deal was with Liz Taylor. LOL, Yes, I'm a donkey.

I have about a half dozen of the 80 cards in this set. With some luck and legwork, I could put it together without a lot of expense. I previously posted a few of these. The beautiful duo of Greer Garson and Cyd Charisse are in this post. And Eve Arden is here in this one.

The rest of Night Owl's manila envelope contained Orioles of various types. Here is Tony Batista alongside a swatch of his uni. His career fell completely within my baseball 'black hole' period.

Brooksie from the Heritage set of 2019. Topps did capture that 70s' feel.

When I posted these on Twitter N.O. chimed in with a mention of Kyle Hudson being a product of Mattoon High in Illinois. I have to admit I missed the significance of that fact. Lil help? He's also a former Dodger farmhand, signed this card (sort of) and has his position listed twice on the front.

Now that I've finished my '75 set I've begun to organize the minis I gathered along the way. Ross Grimsley here is a buyback. The pic is from the days before he wore a huge perm. At this point, he still looked like half my high school friends.

1969 Dave May. Yankee Stadium batting cage in the background. I've tried really hard to figure out who that is in the cage taking his hacks but I'm stumped. My first thought was Paul Blair based on the body language but when I blew the scan up it doesn't look like him.

Jeff Conine, dressed as a Marlin, credited as an Oriole. Here is something I probably shouldn't admit: when I looked at Conine's BR page I saw the Fla-NYY World Series line and I thought "how did two AL teams play in the Series?" It was interesting to see that he went back and forth between the O's and Marlins a couple of times.

And what do we have here?

It's Trey Mancini...same card, different version. Greg included the Opening Day Topps Mancini. If you look closely at the cards side-by-side you can see the slightly different cropping.

The OD version has somewhat richer (printing term?) colors. Other than the numbers the backs are the same.

Thanks again to Mark and Greg for the surprise packages. Both were very much appreciated. One last thing... one of the reasons I was out-of-pocket for a few weeks was a trip to St. Louis to help my best friend celebrate a milestone birthday. There was baseball involved.

Here is what we found under the Gateway Arch on the day we arrived...

Vintage baseball is played there regularly. I failed to get a pic of the guy in the period suit and top hat who manned an info table and was happy to talk about it all. He gave us the rundown on the teams including the fact that the 1890s version of the Perfectos went on to become the Cardinals.

We also made it out to Busch Stadium and watched a Cardinals victory over the Pirates. I was impressed by the place. I'll post a few pics in some future posts.

The Acting Bug

I picked up this small group of Exhibit cards recently. Exhibits are a fun collectible and usually very affordable. Sometimes it's hard to date these things but based on what I've seen these were printed in the 1950s.

I've been ignoring what I've come to call my 'show biz' binder recently but these and a nice addition that came as part of a gift package have gotten me back to searching the nooks and crannies of eBay once again. I'll get to the gift package(s) I've received in an upcoming post.

I'll let the cards (all at blank-backed) speak for themselves for the most part. The three actors need no introduction. 

If I was pushed to a wall and asked to name my favorite actor I'm not sure I could do it quickly. I have quite a few who I'd consider. Humphrey Bogart would be right there at or near the top (with Paul Newman).

Favorite Bogart movie: Casablanca. Close behind, however, is The Caine Mutiny

Clark Gable was a heartthrob back in his day, at least he was according to my mother. He's best known for his role as Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind in 1939. 

Favorite Gable movie: Run Silent, Run Deep. It's among his last features. It's hard to beat a great submarine movie.

Gregory Peck was a talented guy who played a wide variety of roles in his long career. He's got a defining career role in To Kill A Mockingbird, of course.

Favorite Gregory Peck movie: Twelve O'Clock High

The beautiful Eva Marie Saint was a 1950s sensation who did more television than movie work over her career which stretched over seven decades. Her most famous role was opposite Marlon Brando in On The Waterfront. She won an Oscar for that one.

Favorite Eva Marie Saint movie: Hitchcock's North by Northwest with the always terrific Cary Grant.

These take up one four pocket page in my Hollywood binder. A welcome addition for sure.

A Fun Exercise

A few weeks back someone on Net54 started a thread asking folks to name the best player they saw in person.... 1) in the first game they attended and 2) ever (in a game you attended). High school and college games were OK. 'Best player in the first game' meant 'best guy on the field', not necessarily the one who had the best game that day. You were supposed to answer for the Big Four sports but, as is usually the case with internet things, not everyone followed directions. And some replies stated they had never seen a game in a certain sport in person, etc. A few dolts, like me for instance, tossed in an extra sport or two.

I thought it was interesting and it wasn't as easy as it sounded at first.  There were certainly no wrong answers. I was entertained by some of the responses and I also immediately thought it would make a fun blog post if I could find cards of each player I named. Turns out I could. So here it goes.

Best player, first game attended, baseball.

July of 1960 at Yankee Stadium, Yanks vs White Sox. Mickey Mantle

It was a doubleheader and Mantle batted fifth. He whiffed, doubled and singled off Billy Pierce and hit a sac fly in the ninth off Frank Bauman in a 6-3 Sox win. The Yanks were loaded, of course, and the Sox had some big-name stars but Mickey obviously wins as 'best guy to play' in that game. He'd be close to being the best player I saw live, ever. But after some internal debate I have to go with this guy:

Best player, ever seen live, baseball.

Willie Mays

I considered Roberto Clemente, Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, and some others but Willie was Willie. There wasn't anything he couldn't do on a ballfield. I was fortunate enough to have seen him while he was still in his prime in the early 60s. Interestingly one of the responders had these same two guys but in the opposite category. I know there are no 'wrong' answers here but ...whatever.


Best player, first game attended, football.

Circa 1961 Nutley N.J. High School games. Ben Hawkins

My original answer was Keith Lincoln. I was thinking of pro sports exclusively at first and he was likely the best player in the first pro game I saw, an Oilers-Chargers affair in 1967.

Then I remembered that I had seen plenty of football in the Nutley Park Oval growing up. I can't specifically recall seeing him but Ben Hawkins was the star at Nutley High in those days. He went on to glory at Arizona Stae and had some great days in the NFL with the Eagles. He led the NFL in yards in 1967.

Best player, ever seen live, football.

John Unitas

I wouldn't even venture a guess as to how many football games I've witnessed. From high school (even disregarding coaching), University of Houston games since 1970, Giants game with my Dad, Oilers, and Texans as a season ticket holder, etc.. I've seen plenty. I never saw Jim Brown play in person but I have seen about everyone else in the modern game, Brady, Gale Sayers, Manning, Marino, Lawrence Taylor, Earl Campbell and so on. None of them tops Johnny Unitas. I don't care how many rings any of them wear. Unitas is the best I've ever seen at imposing his will on a game. Are there better quarterbacks? Maybe. Better FOOTBALL PLAYERS? Nope.

Best player, first game attended, basketball.

Circa 1965 NBA doubleheader, old Madison Square Garden at 49th and 8th. Wilt Chamberlain

 My uncle, the Secaucus pharmacist, used to get tickets to everything through his connections. But he wasn't a sports fan at all and those tickets got passed to my father and so I saw plenty of games I ordinarily wouldn't have. Lots of Knicks games, for example. They used to have NBA doubleheaders at the Garden in the early/mid-60s. You'd see Pistons-Sixers and then the Knicks and Hawks or someone.

I wouldn't want to guess what year I saw the game but I remember Wilt and his Philadelphia crew playing in that old, dank' dingy Garden.

Best player, ever seen live, basketball.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Here's why: "Abdul-Jabbar was Rookie of the Year, a member of six NBA championship teams, a six-time NBA MVP, a two-time NBA Finals MVP, a 19-time All-Star, a two-time scoring champion and a member of the NBA 35th and 50th Anniversary All-Time Teams."

That's not even considering that he was clearly the best high school player and best college player prior to his pro career. His skyhook was unstoppable. You want Jordan? I'll take Jabbar.

Best player, first game attended, hockey.

1959-60/1960-61 Leafs-Rangers at the old MSG. Dave Keon

I'm not sure which Leafs-Rangers game I attended. I remember the Rangers lost. Davey Keon was a Leafs legend. I looked at the rosters for both teams during those seasons. Keon was no doubt the best player on either team.

Best player, ever seen live, hockey.

Gordie Howe.

Saw him with the Wings and Aeros. He's Mr. Hockey. I could have put Bobby Orr here, he was astounding and changed the game. I never saw Gretzky live. But no matter...it's Gordie.

Best player, first game attended, soccer. 

At Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands w/the Cosmos circa 1975/76. Pele

I can't pin down which game it was I attended with my father and uncle but I remember that it rained a bit and Pele was a huge deal. LOL

Best player, ever seen live, soccer.

Pele.

Like Gordie Howe, he's the all-time face of his sport, at least IMHO. I've seen Lionel Messi play, he's a magician on the pitch and maybe one day I will put him in this spot. But not yet.

That was kind of fun to put together. I dug up some fun memories for myself.

Orioles Kangaroo Court Pic

This Topps Frank Robinson card that I posted a bit ago led to a question from Joe Shlabotnik about the picture. The shot comes from the Orioles' glory days (sigh) when they were having fun and winning pennants.

Frank had a 'kangaroo court' where he levied fines for various team infractions like leaving the bases loaded, getting caught stealing, etc.

EDIT, EDIT, OH DAMN, READ THIS!!

I went looking for other pics and saw this one for sale. I thought it would be a nice addition to my Frank Robinson collection.

IIRC they took the money at the end of the year and donated it to charity rather than the postseason party as the photo caption states.

The photo library tag is pretty much wrong. Dave Johnson does NOT call the court to order, FRobby does.

My other recent Frank Robinson-related purchase is the memorial patch the O's are wearing this year.

My wife promised to stitch it to my new 'lucky' shirt. I wore this to the only Orioles win in Houston this year. A rare occurrence (the win, not my wearing a shirt).