David Clyde

This is the latest addition to my modest David Clyde collection. Much nicer then the last addition to it. Much better picture on this Fleer/SI 'Greats' of the Game card. Plus it's an on-card auto.

I discussed my connection to David Clyde on that post linked above so I won't go through it again here. But I will repeat that both my Dad and I saw him pitch and immediately thought of Sandy Koufax. 

Speaking of Koufax... I keep missing out on an autographed Koufax card with lowball bids. But I have patience. I kept on bidding on various '58 Mantle All Star cards until I hit one after years of bidding. I have no problem waiting.

And I found this picture while googling SK. That's a lot of baseball talent.

A $4 Hockey Hanger Re-pack

From time to time I pick up a hanging 100 card repack at Target. Sometimes I'm pretty happy with the results, thinking that if I had bought a new pack of something with that $4 I'd probably get seven cards I don't want. This isn't one of those times.

I went for the hockey repack the other day. I was suckered in by the Red Sullivan card that was among those showing. This is from something called In The Game with a 2005 copyright date. I love vintage hockey pictures. I wonder if when this was shot back around 1958 they just put up a screen across the ice and set up the photo shoot that way. Sullivan was about done when I was becoming a hockey fan in about 1960 and I have no memories of his playing days but I remember him as Ranger coach in the early '60s. The Rangers were pretty awful in those days, usually battling the Bruins to see which team would finish fifth, miss the playoffs, but relegate the other to sixth. Sullivan coached into the 1970 with Pittsburgh and Washington.

I bought this in the hopes of getting some Rangers and NHL stars knowing full well that they wouldn't be worth the cost of the cardboard they are printed on. I got a few of each. Wide variety of brands and years. When Brian Leetch was starring for the Rangers it wasn't as easy being a long distance fan as it is now. I had to rely on the Hockey News quite a bit.

Lemieux raising the Cup. Whoooopie.

Gretzky as a King.

Like the Gretzky O-Pee-Chee used a crap picture with a floating trophy for this Ray Borque card.

Mike Richter. One of my all time favorites. He was a big part of the Cup winning Rangers of 1995. I doubt I'll see another Cup in my lifetime.

Mike Gartner...

... and Dino Ciccerelli.

Here is an odd bunch of facts tying Gartner and Dino together:

According to Wikipedia...Despite his long impressive career, Gartner never won the Stanley Cup or played in the Cup Finals, never won an NHL award, and was never named to the postseason All-Star Team, being one of the few NHL players with this distinction to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Dino Ciccarelli has likewise never managed any of these accolades, although he made the Cup Finals in 1995.

One time Ranger back-up Corey Hirsch

James Patrick played for the Rangers for a long time. He's one of the best players ever to NOT make an NHL All Star Squad.

I was a goalie once upon a time. I like goalies.

Maaarrrty!! Maaarrty!!

When the Original Six became the Total 12 every kid I knew picked a Western team to root for when they were not playing the Rangers. Mine was the Minnesota North Stars. 

Some of the cards in the pack were nice just because they featured classic NHL team sweaters.

This is easily the ugliest card in the bunch. It hurt my eyes.

THE END

Thankful for Cards!!!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love most everything about it. I mean how can one not love turkey, family, football and maybe a trip to the movies. And I'm thankful for a lot of stuff not the least of which are the friendships I've made since I got into this silly world of blogging.

One such friend, Fuji who's The Chronicles of Fuji is among the best blogs on the net, sent me a totally unexpected manila envelope which arrived yesterday. As I told him last night when you go to the mailbox expecting a shipment of thyroid meds and you get instead a shipment including vintage Orioles and Baltimore Colts cards, well that's a hell of a day.

And it was an fantastic and wide ranging group of cards that emerged rom the package. These were the first things I saw.

These are Topps Archives representing some of the '54 Topps Orioles cards and each of them is autographed! Pretty astounding I'd say. Hard to pick a favorite but I'd say mine is the Bullet Bob Turley card above. The autograph really jumps off the card at you and that posed B & W action shot is classic 50's baseball photography.

Of course all of them have the wonderful Bird On A Ball logo. that has a lot of nostalgic value to me.

Next up, BALTIMORE Colts. That blue colored font is not a tribute to Fuji who loves to highlight his blogs with a rainbow of hues, but it's how I always try to reference the team I grew up worshiping from the one that was stolen in the night plays in Indy.

David Lee punted for the Colts for more than a decade.

It's The Rabbit, Billy Ray Smith on his '68 Topps card. He played for the Colts through the decade of the 70s and was a defensive captain. His son Billy Ray Jr. is a College Football Hall of Famer who played at Arkansas like his father.

Don McCauley is a College Football Hall of Famer who played for North Carolina and went on to become a Colt for the decade of the 70's. He was a starter for just a couple of seasons but stuck around because of his work ethic and willingness to do anything that was aksed of him.

It's David Lee again! Do punters get cards these days? 

The Rustin Rifle, Bert Jones. Here is how old I am... Bert is 62 years old but I actually had him on my first fantasy football team. That was in 1980. 

here is a smaple of the backs of the football cards Fuji sent. I chose these three because they have great cartoons.

Now for some vintage Orioles. All of these cards are in nice shape, btw. These two '61s will replace those I have in my Orioles team set from that season. Kevin at Orioles Card O' The Day just had a post that featured a card with the pitcher Mark Williamson displaying this pose. That was the first thing I thought of when I pulled this Gene Stephens out of the envelope. I hate to sound like an old 'Get off my lawn' grump but those Orioles caps sure look good, don't they? They are among the better ones worn in Baltimore.

Old Blue Eyes, Steve Barber. I saw him beat the Yanks in Yankee Stadium on the first day I ever saw the Orioles play in person.  He won the second game of a doubleheader. Whitey Ford, who by law I believe HAD to pitch every Sunday I went to the Stadium, beat my Orioles in the first game that day.
Roger Maris homered in that game.

Mike Cuellar, what a guy! Posing at the batting cage.  Great card.

Don Baylor, a Texas kid, played as hard as anyone in the game. I even rooted for him after he left the O's. Roric Harrison and the late Johnny Oates.

The eEarl of Baltimore and....

Pat Kelly who's card isn't as off center as my lousy scan makes it appear. I can't see a Pat Kelly reference without remembering the great story Kelly tells of the time he, a 'born again' carouser turned clubhouse evangelist, tried to 'save' Earl.

Kelly told him  "Earl, it's great to walk with the Lord, it's great to walk with Jesus." To which Weaver responded "Pat, I'd rather have you walk with the bases loaded."

A 1970 Bobby Floyd. He didn't hit enough to justify that batting glove. And I just noticed that his bat looks brand new and un-scarred. I bet it still looked just like that at the end of the season.

Ken Singleton. He was 'class' personified. A damn good hitter, too.

Here are a pair of shiny Albert Belle cards. This Topps subset sort of card has Hank Aaron featured more prominently than Belle.

This is one of those cards with a protective film. I wasn't collecting when this tecnique was first used by Topps and I never have figured out if it's better to take the film off or not. I'm going to pull this one because the card should shine more without it, Plus, it's pretty annoying.

Two card from this year. A mini Adam Jones flashing his Gold Glove skills and...

Chris Davis. he's a fun guy to watch when he's in a groove. This reddish border davis scans better than the regular white border new Topps I have. Topps likes these garish borders don't they? 

That's not nearly all of what my Thanksgiving gift from San Jose contained. But that's all I have time to do tonite.

I hope everyone gets to spend some family time today and do the kinds of things you enjoy on Thanksgiving.