Nicest pin ever? Or was I screwed?

Harry Truman ran shoestring presidential campaigns and as a result his pins are pretty scarce and can be costly. I've passed up quite a few on eBay and elsewhere because I thought the pin was too expensive or the dealer wasn't sharp enough to know if he actually had an original.

A week before Christmas I found one on eBay that looked pretty nice, was not too expensive (about $24 IIRC), claimed to be original and came from a dealer with near perfect feedback (lots of it).
The pin arrived the other day, I pulled it out and it looked like this:

The scan doesn't do it justice. It's shiny and just perfect. Flawless celluloid surface. I thought it was the nicest 40's era pin I'd ever owned. And then I turned it over. Again, flawless. And that's the problem.

I've been collecting these pins for a long time. I can't remember ever seeing a supposedly 60+ year old pin with a perfect back side and pin. Never. These babies were made with the cheapest possible alloy and they stain and tarnish over the years no matter now well they are kept.

So now I have a question in to the seller. He seems like a very nice guy, emailing me about sending the pin out after Christmas if it wasn't something I needed for a gift. And his feedback is almost perfect. I asked him if he was certain that the pin was an original and not a reproduction. And I was very polite about it. So I'll be interested in hearing what he has to say.

UPDATE:
I was contacted by the seller today (Monday) and he provided me with enough info and a backstory on his pins that I'm pretty sure the pin is original. Looks like I made a pretty good deal.

Or Do They?

I was waxing nostalgic the other day on the merits of the Philly Gum football sets. I went back to find more in my mish-mash box of football cardboard and came across a couple of 'modern' cards I thought were blog worthy.

These are from the 1997 Upper Deck Legends set. For my $$ the Y.A. Tittle card is about as close to 'art' as a football card can get. I mean just look at it. That cliche which says a picture is worth a thousand words? This card embodies that.

Late in a tough game at Yankee Stadium, probably in mid-December, probably against the Packers. It's been dark since halftime and now it's pushing 6 p.m. Tittle comes off the field after a TD toss for the lead to Joe Morrison or maybe Del Shofner. He goes to the bench to warm his hands while Bart Starr takes over and tries to put the Pack back on top. Nobody goes over to talk to Tittle who is lost in thought as the Yankee Stadium lights shine off his helmet. Up in the booth Ray Scott, the best football broadcaster ever, calls the Packer drive as only he could. "Starr..." long pause while the ball travels downfield... "...this is Dowler.....touchdown".

Great card from a really cool set. I have two others, one the John Unitas card below. But I went looking at others online and decided I wanted the set, at least the base set. I don't need the autographed cards or any special inserts, I don't care about any of that. I think the photography of the base cards make it one of the best football sets ever.

I found the base set at a decent price so it's on the way. Meanwhile here is the Johnny U. It's another card that sparks a lot of good memories: the gorgeous Colt unis...Memorial Stadium...those high top shoes... the baseball infield dirt. I can't wait for the whole set to arrive.

They Don't Make 'Em Like This Anymore

For my money the Philadelphia Gum football sets of the mid 60s are among the best cards ever printed. Lots of collectors have described them as 'dull' but I don't agree at all. I have a sort of open ended goal to collect one of these sets some day. I'll likely wait until after I've got most of my Topps '59 baseball set blogged so I can concentrate on the Philly Gum set. 

I never knew anything about the company. My friends and I had the strange idea that it was just a brand name used by Topps which was doing AFL cards back then. We came to believe this because of the 'fine print' copyright line on the back of the cards which to used seemed to be a near duplicate of the size and type font Topps used. 

Wikipedia schooled me on the company:

The company was established in 1948 in Havertown, Pennsylvania, by Edward P. Fenimore (a longtime chewing gum expert who was with Bowman Gum). His son Edward L. Fenimore, served as president of the company and for a period, as the Chairman of the National Association of Chewing Gum Manufacturers. His sons, Edward P. II & Richard L., later joined him on the management team, making the company a third generation family owned and operated business. All products, many of which were sold under the Swell brand name, were manufactured in a 200,000-square-foot (19,000 m2) factory just west of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Anyway here are a few of my favorites, several of which I've posted previously. I have more of the '64 set than any of the others so that may be the one I end up chasing.

 1966 Philly Gum Lenny Moore

1964 Philly Gum Del Shofner

 This Shofner card is typical of many in that set as it used a shot taken with an empty grandstand behind him. My Dad loved the "New York Football Giants" as he called them. I listened to a lot of games of theirs broadcast by Marty Glickman and Al DeRogatis. 

1964 Philly Gum John Mackey

1964 Philly Gum John Unitas

1964 Philly Gum Jim Martin

1964 Morrall & Scholtz

 1965 Philly Gum John Unitas

1967 Philly Gum Sonny Jurgenson

Murray Christmas!!

Hope yours is a good one!

Big Day at Reliant Stadium

It wasn't all that long ago I spent my Sundays hoping that the Texans would escape embarrassment on the football field. Sitting up in Section 641 or watching from the couch (when I could stand to watch) I always said I just wanted to get to a point where the Texans were playing meaningful games in December.

Well those days finally arrived last season and now we are at a point where a win today clinches home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Standing (or rather running) in the way is the remarkable Adrian Peterson and his Vikings. They've got playoff intentions themselves and may have even more than the Texans to play for.

I'm letting my sons go to the game. My Nebraska grad hasn't been to a game since last season and he and his brother should have some fun. I'm missing my second consecutive home game. I never thought that would happen but I'm glad my guys will get a chance to be together at a game.

I sure hope they get to see a Texans win!

I'm Through (With the NHL... for this year)

Yup, when it comes to the NHL I'm wearing a mask just like Jacques Plante and Eddie Giacomin cuz I can't see myself giving a damn now. I got my refund for the terrific rink-side tickets I had for the Rangers game in Dallas on January 4. It was going to be a great family holiday adventure. Now the game and our fun are cancelled.

It took me more than a decade to get back to giving a crap about baseball after the strike that cancelled the World Series. And I'm still only a half ass fan these days. Who knows how I'll feel about hockey after this since it's likely the second cancelled season in recent years.

 I may still go to an Aeros game or two this season because I love the sport but the NHL is officially dead to me.

Back Home from Nebraska

I've been off with my family watching the graduation of my son from the University of Nebraska. He's the third and final of my kids for finish college and I'm proud of all of them.

They take their Huskers very seriously up there. The football team has sold out Memorial Stadium for over three hundred consecutive games and the womens volleyball team tickets disappear within minutes of going on sale.

On my son's first visit to Lincoln to check it out we sat down at an IHOP for coffee and the 60-ish waitress asked us if we were "in town for the game?" Being that it was a Wednesday in April we were a little puzzled and it showed because she gave us a funny look and remarked that we must not be softball fans. On that same trip we stopped at one of the college bookstores in town and I noticed a display of Husker Spring Game DVDs on the counter. I picked one up to see if it really was what it proported to be and the cashier warned me that they were in short supply because they sell out fast. A DVD of the spring game. Hmmm.

Anyway here are a few of my favorite Nebraska related cards. The one up top is from the 1955 Topps All-American football set which featured notable college players and legends of years past. Bob Reynolds is the only Husker representative.

This one is a 2007 Zak Taylor Press Pass. We met Taylor on that same trip at a reception and he seemed like nice level headed kid. My son fell in love with Lincoln and UNL on that trip and chose to go there over offers from Arizona State, Oklahoma State and others. I think he made the right choice.

Dewey Defeats Truman

                                               

That's one of the most famous headlines of the 20th Century. In the 1948 Presidential election the Chicago Tribune prematurely published a special edition of their paper declaring Republican Thomas Dewey of New York the winner over Missouri Democrat Harry S Truman who had run as FDR's Veep and succeeded him after his death. Of course the Trib was wrong and Truman got a lot of mileage out of the picture of him holding the paper and smiling.

1948 marked Dewey's second run at the Presidency  He had fallen short in 1944 against Roosevelt although his 44% of the popular vote was higher than any other man to run against FDR. In 1948 he was the prohibitive favorite against a splintered Democratic Party but his timid, middle of the road campaign left him vulnerable to an upset and Truman won the election. 

                                        

Dewey was one of those interesting New York bred moderate Republicans of a breed that seemed to die out with Nelson Rockefeller. He served several terms as governor after making a name for himself as an anti-Mafia 'gangbuster' while serving as a federal prosecutor and Manhattan District Attorney. He became a multi-millionaire as a very successful lawyer. 

Late in life he became discouraged by the direction of his party and essentially left it when he refused to attend the coronation of Barry Goldwater as the GOP's 1964 candidate.

The pin at the top is from his 1948 campaign that he ran alongside his VP candidate Earl Warren then Governor of California. The one below comes from either that campaign or the previous one in 1944. The slogan "Clean House with Dewey" is likely a play on his reputation as a crime fighting prosecutor. 

The one up top and the one on with the flaws below are from my collection. It looks a lot rougher in my blown up scan than it does in person. I found a nicer example of that one on the web and posted it for clarity.

The Go-To Guy

Yes, my Texans are getting killed. So it's time to make myself feel better by pulling out a couple of cards of Eddie Murray. Eddie always gets me out of my funk.

We see here a thick, shiny gold Eddie Murray with a piece of his uniform inserted. Or so says Upper Deck. I always wondered how reliable these things are. It's kind of a nice card either way. The pic is from his later days with the Birds. He's wearing the mid '90s style duds. The sideburns are by now out of style.

But here is the real deal, a Topps 1981 Murray from his days as a serious bad ass. Eddie poses in the Memorial Stadium home dugout, gazing up at the crowd with an expression that says "You people could never be as cool as I am."

Long live Eddie Murray!!!!

Heisman Day

Some kid, a redshirt freshman from up the road, will probably take home the top individual honor in college football today.

Here is a look at one of my favorite cards featuring college football players. It's a 2007 Press Pass featuring the only University of Houston Heisman winner Andre Ware and current Arizona Cardinal Kevin Kolb.

Both made huge contributions to the Houston program and both had (or in Kolb's case is still having) mixed results in the pros. Ware currently does radio for the Texans and he's very good. Well spoken and not a homer. I listen to a lot of NFL games via Sirius radio. And I've found that coherent unbiased commentary is pretty rare.

2003 Upper Deck Pride of New York Art Ditmar

I like Art Ditmar. I collect his cards. But to include him in a set titled 'Pride of New York' seems a little over the top.

Neat card though. The design is pretty sweet and the sig is front and center. What I like most about it is that the picture could have easily been taken on a Sunday afternoon in a sun-drenched Yankee Stadium with me and my Dad in attendence. Maybe a 1961 doubleheader against the White Sox or A's.

No way to know for sure but it's fun to speculate and it brings back some nice memories.

1957 Topps Art Ditmar

The '57 Topps set is just so great. I'm partial to it to a large extent because it contains the rookie card of Brooks Robinson. But so many of the cards are nice. The Koufax, the flipped negative Hank Aaron, The Ted Williams. Take a stroll over here and see if you don't agree. I bet you have forgotten how cool the '57 set is.

I like that Art Ditmar is wearing white undersleeves for his shot. I think those are against the rules nowadays. Might have been then, too. Ditmar may just have been wearing them before the game on a day he wasn't pitching.

The coloring on this card almost makes it look like a 'night card' but I doubt it is. Probably just how the flash illuminated Ditmar or maybe it was recolored. Hard to say. And Topps included an unusual 'Traded' line on the back. Instead of the standard dry 'Traded to Yankees in April' they fleshed it out with "As this card went to press..." and they used red ink to set it off.

Ditmar is pictured in his A's uni with the Yankees listed as his club. Interestingly one of the players he was traded for, Tom Morgan has been airbrushed into an A's cap. Morgan's Yankee pinstripes are still visible.

1961 Topps Art Ditmar

Here is Part 2 of this blog's look at 50s/60s pitcher Art Ditmar. The 1961 Topps set is fairly plain, not ugly, just plain. The green and black backs though is one of my least favorite Topps cardback color combos.

The left panel of the cartoon on this Ditmar card gave me pause. I had to go check the numbers and sure enough Ditmar's 15 wins led the Yankee staff in 1960. I would have bet on Whitey Ford, or even Ralph Terry.

Ditmar was treated pretty rudely by the Pirates in the 1960 Series. He started twice, getting KO'd in the first inning of Game One and the second inning of Game Five. Yikes.

It's Art F'ing Ditmar Week!!

Yes, Art Ditmar. For no other reason than I think I have more vintage cards of him than any non-Oriole other than Sandy Koufax. I wrote about my being a fan of the guy when his card was featured on my 1959 Topps blog. I explained it like this:

True confession time... I've always had a 'thing' for Art Ditmar. No, no... not in the same way I've always had a 'thing' for Jennifer Beals..... but a 'thing' nonetheless. I've got several of his cards. It began when I was a kid and the joke among my many Yankee fan friends was "Oh oh, you're screwed, here comes Art F'ing Ditmar!!"  Yes, most of my friends had precious little comedy talent. but that's another post. It was one of those inside jokes and we all became fans of the guy, even those of us who didn't root for the Yanks.

The '58 Topps set doesn't get a lot of love generally. At least it seems that way to me. It's pretty colorful but I think the 'no-background' pics, many of which are just head shots, leave something to be desired. No matter this pink Ditmar card is pretty sweet. The backs had a lot of 'stuff' crammed into the small space. Here Ditmar's card contains a short write-up, his vitals and a 'double' cartoon with some fun artwork. The standard (thru '58) year/life stat lines cover the bottom.

I'll be putting up more Art Ditmar cards throughout the upcoming week. Try and curb your enthusiasm, will you? I'm sure I'm putting my 'Oriole Fan Membership Card' at risk but that's OK. I'm secure in my Oriole-ness.

'56 Topps Pee Wee Reese

I've started adding some '56s to my collection. Nothing special, mostly commons in f/g condition. Saying I like the set is like saying I like ice cream, hell everyone does. I also have a vague goal of completing a Hall of Fame collection. I'll never finish it unless I hit the Powerball lotto. Years ago I got started by picking up some of those 1961 Fleer All Time Great cards of some of the real old timers, guys like Grover Cleveland Alexander and Hughie Jennings. Guys I figured I'd never get a 'real' card of.

But as time has gone by I've been able to afford 'real' cards of Babe Ruth, John McGraw, Frank Chance, Chief Bender and several others. So I am again going to pursue Hall of Famers. When I came across this Pee Wee Reese in an online auction I saw a chance to get a '56 and add a H-o-F player whose card I lacked. I'm sorta, kinda, in a way a half-ass Dodger fan (mostly because of my long standing Sandy Koufax man-crush and the fact I once lived in Brooklyn) so the '56 Reese had special appeal. Plus, he's finishing off a dp in the background pic. Nice.

The price was right and the card looked pretty nice so I grabbed it. I scanned it before I pried it out of the PSA grade slab so the scan isn't as sharp as the card looks in hand. But you get the idea.

And I learned something in the process. According to the cartoon on the back Harold Henry Reese got his nickname by winning the national Pee Wee Marbles Tournament as a kid. I'd bet there isn't a kid in America that has any idea what a marble was used for back in the day.

NHL on suicide watch

Last week the NHL cancelled all games through December 14 and the All Star Game as well. They supposedly think that the Board of Governors meeting on December 5th will lead to a settlement and a December 15 start to the season can result in a 58/60 game schedule.

Frankly my dear, at this point, I don't give a damn. I actually hope they ditch the games through January so I can get a refund on my Rangers/Stars tickets and use the cash for Christmas stuff.

But just because I'm nostalgic for good ol' shinny I dug out some of my 1994(?) Parkhurst Tall Boy reprints. I love this set as it features players from my days as a serious hockey fan. These posted cards are those of the Rangers 'Goal-A-Game' aka GAG line of the late 60's. (No Ranger choking remarks, please.) Vic Hatfield, Jean Ratelle and Rod Gilbert were a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

Note the Northland branded sticks. Quite visible particularly on Rod Gilbert's card. I used one of those on the ponds and parking lots of New Jersey as a kid. I still have one that I did some repairs on. I cut off the well worn blade and replaced it with a street hockey blade and I still mess with it from time to time.

A hockey stick from 1966 and a baseball glove from 1965. You get the feeling I have a hard time letting some things go?

Let's watch TV

Digging through some shoe boxes (yes I do keep cards in shoe boxes) I turned up this '55 Bowman of Oriole outfielder Gil Coan. It's seen it's better days but it is certainly within my collectible range. Someone sent this along in a trade or as a break throw-in last year. It's a dupe, I have one in my Oriole base collection but you can never have too many '55 Bowman Orioles now can you?

Coan was a long time Senator and was a regular for about six seasons prior to being traded to the second year Orioles for 1955. He was waived and signed by the White Sox that July and finished his career with the Giants in 1956.

Coan hit .303 in both 1950 and 1951, easily his best seasons. He even got some scattered MVP votes in 1950. He had a career average of .254. The back of the card references his speed and it's shown in the fact that he was second in the AL with 23 steals in 1948.

This is his last major issue baseball card not counting reprints and reissues. The '55 Bowmans are pretty unique of course with the 'TV' motif. I see these and am reminded that while our family was one of the last ones in America to own a color set, my grandfather in Brooklyn had one of the first. And he had a window unit A/C as well. Damn I loved visiting my grandparents!

Speaking of speed this picture turned up in a google image search. It's from The Sporting News archives and shows Coan (on the right) and Cleveland's George Case at the line for a 'race'. It is dated from 1946.

Hair today, Gone Tomorrow

The NFL had 'playboys' players before Joe Willie Namath came along (Paul Hornung and Frank Gifford come to mind) but Namath changed the way Americans looked at it's heroes. He was, as they say, brash and irreverent. He had the audacity to spit in the eye of the established NFL and with his Super Bowl III backed up his words. As a Baltimore Colt fan I was certainly no admirer of Namath, hell I hated him after that game but in retrospect he had a fine career. He's a Hall of Famer and, while his numbers don't bowl you over, he certainly had the 'celebrity' and charisma that made it impossible to keep him out.

I own two Namath cards with this 1972 being my favorite. The 1972 set is pretty mundane to my way of thinking but this card of Namath, with his hair, sideburns and far away gaze, is pretty cool. On this day of giving thanks..... Broadway Joe, I forgive you.

To restore the cosmic balance of the universe, however, I need to post a card of the greatest football player ever, John Constantine Unitas. It's a "Monarch Corona" card that someone sent my way a long time ago. I had no idea what it was until I googled that name this morning. Turns out that is a brand of privately printed cards that are manufactured and sold by a guy named Allen Miller. I'd be astounded to learn that any entity or athlete has actually authorized these cards so if you want to find out more you can google it yourself. I check out his website and I will say he does some nice work.

Anyway here is the 'anti-Namath', my hero, the great Johnny U.

William Howard Taft Campaign(?) Pin

I picked this one up for $12 last month. It was just different enough to catch my eye and the price for a century old pin was right. The stain doesn't detract much from the unique gold eagle design. I've seen this pin elsewhere being described as being issued for the 1912 campaign but I have no way to be sure. It just might be an inauguration souvenir.

William Howard Taft was president from 1909 through 1913. He was trounced in his re-election bid. He received just 8 electoral votes in what was the worst defeat of a seated president in history. That 1912 election was contested by Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt (who Taft had served under a a cabinet member) and Taft. Wilson won with just 41% of the popular vote.

Taft was the first President to throw out the baseball season's traditional first pitch. He served a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after his days in the White House.

I Give Up...

... on the NHL season. I don't know who deserves the blame, and I don't care. I just know that last season was a fun one and I thought the NHL had some momentum. Now, hell, I've lost interest.

I just hope that after the January games are officially cancelled I can get my money back on the tickets I bought through Stub Hub to the Rangers-Stars game in January.

Good Ol' Gump Worsley seems to share my feelings, yes?

That's a 1970 O-Pee-Chee card, btw. One of my few non-Ranger vintage hockey cards.