More Odds & Ends

More random stuff I grabbed from my 'to-be-sorted' boxes recently. Just going to toss in a few words on each as I await my Amazon delivery of a case of white binders. Once those arrive I've got some work to do!

First up, a George Brace photo of Billy Pierce.

There is nothing on the back except for Brace's ID of Billy P. in his usual manner.

Paul Richards' '51 Bowman is just so damn odd that long ago I had to go grab one. It's nothing like the painted photos that make up the rest of the set. There have been a few discussions on various card forums as to why Bowman went with a caricature instead of the standard photo but nothing has ever been decided as far as I can tell.

One of our usual haunts for cheap dinners out with the kids was a burger place near us that had a big selection of vending machines and video games. My boys took their loose change and always spent it all on sports team stickers and gumball helmets. I'm sure that's where this Bears sticker came from.

Dormand postcards are one of the great overlooked collectible of the 50s. Allie Reynolds, as I've mentioned several times, was my father's favorite pitcher. I'd have bought this even if that wasn't the case.

I found a stack of Dexter Press 5x7s in a box of photos. I have no idea where I got them from but it included Yaz, Al Kaline, Joe Pepitone(!) and this creased Willie Davis. Another under-appreciated issue.

It's about to be hockey season and I am pumped! I'm excited to watch the rebuild my Rangers are in the middle of. I already bought tickets for their game in Dallas in March. And for the first time in years I signed up for the Rangers package on NHL.TV! I have had MLB.TV for years and I realized that over the last two seasons I probably hadn't spent more than a couple of hours with it. I found the place where they buried their opt-out for auto-renewal and cut the cord.

Bailing on the Orioles for awhile might cause me to be viewed as a shitty fan but honestly I can't see pouring money into a 100 loss hole anymore.

This Topps Ripken medallion card weighs more than any card I've ever held in my hand. If I was 'Commish For A Day' one of the things I'd do was take Landis' name off this MVP award. I'd do that right after I decreed that the majors would no longer use 'superballs'.

I met Vince Young at the Roger Clemens charity softball game a few years ago. He just walked up to my wife and I and introduced himself. He's had a difficult time post-NFL. I hope things are good for him these days.

Lastly, a Ted Williams Company item. It's hard to tell from the picture but these are die cut faux-milk bottle caps. If you look at this cropped image you can see what is supposed to be the 'pull tab'.

When I was little we had milk delivered to our homes on Long Island and later in New Jersey. The bottles had these sort of caps on them under a paper shield that covered the top of the bottle. They've been reissued as 'pogs' and in various other forms over the years. Slurpee disks are sort of the same thing. Here is a picture of an original milk cap I found on the 'net. These are the type I remember and collected.

That's it for today's randomness. I think I heard my binders being dropped off!

I'm been Browns-centric

I recently received this neat package of cards and such from P-Town Tom of the Waiting 'til Next Year blog. Without intending to he hit my latest collecting interest, the St. Louis Browns. Ever since our July trip to the Orioles' former home I've been picking up small, inexpensive items like Browns' pins and Bowman commons (is every Browns card a common?). I've also gotten into the one Bill Veeck book I had missed, The Hustler's Handbook.

Probably the sweetest item Tom sent was this Exhibit card of Browns' (and Yankees) first baseman George McQuinn. McQuinn's story is an interesting one and his SABR bio is worth the time. He had back issues that kept him out of WWII but also limited his career as a ballplayer. But he did have a late career resurgence with the '47 Yankees and helped them to the pennant that season.

As for Exhibits...I'm about to the point where I need to have a dedicated binder for them.

I received a much-loved 1950 Bowman of Les Moss. I knew him as the Astros' pitching coach in the 1980s when he worked with some of the games best, Nolan Ryan, Mike Scott, and so on. He was a baseball 'lifer' who was involved in the game into his 80s.

Tom included some neat Topps insert items. This is a 1966 Topps Rub Off of Milt Pappas. If you know anything about these you know that finding one that is even close to being 'centered' is difficult. This SCD story hits on that very point. I hadn't realized that there were 100 different players included in this insert set (plus the pennants). This Pappas joins Brooks Robinson as the only Orioles I own.

More inserts...Topps Deckle Edges of Brooks and Boog Powell. I'm actually collecting this set. There are always a few in the oddball box at the hotel card show and I always grab them. I don't even have a checklist/wantlist put together but I will at some point. With the addition of these two Birds I can keep the ones I own in my Orioles player collections and add these to the set collection.

Here is a 1956 Topps Thomas Jefferson. Topps updated/revived the set a few times in 1972, it's always been a classic. This TJ is a bit the worse for wear, but he's just fine in my Presidential card binder. My goal is to complete the run of presidents in a kind of Frankenset way.

Fleer action stickers may not seem too exciting but these things bring back memories. My sons loved decorating a file cabinet we had in the garage with these babies. AL teams went on one side, NL on the other. The cabinet and many of its stickers, is still there. Tom sent me a few and these are going on the spines of Orioles binders.

Thanks again, Tom. I always enjoy reading your blog. And I got to witness your guy, Dan Vogelbach hit a seriously impressive homer a few weeks ago against the Astros. I immediately thought of you.

Closeted Stuff

My wife is off performing 'nursing' duties for my father-in-law who is having some health issues. I'm home watching movies and listing to music and doing a consolidation of boxes and a culling of 'stuff'. Here are some random items I've come across in the last few days. Just because.

Signed 3x7 Tadder photo of Elliott Maddox, a Oriole in 1977 between stints with the two New York teams.

Sandy Koufax oversized card from TCMA circa 1982. Oh, those windbreaker-under-the-jersey days!

1979 Topps Larry Hisle comic. I think these came with gum, not inserted into cards.  Why I have this I can't really say. But I'm going to put it in the back of my '79 binder.

I love this next card, even though I shouldn't. First year Donruss Reggie.  I like this set and I don't care who knows it.

Philly Gum King Hill. One of the best football names ever. He's holding 'The Duke'. We would have sold our grandmothers to the cannibals to own one of those back then.

I've been on a St. Louis Browns kick since our trip up there this past July. Here is Satchel Paige from a 1977 TCMA/Renata Gallaso set.

 

I have a bunch of Pokemon cards in a box for no reason. They came from my sons and from kids at my school who defied my rules about keeping 'toys' in their backpacks. Next time I'm out at my school I'm going to drop these off if i find out they are still a thing. I'll check the next time I'm at Target. They have all sorts of crappy stuff next to their sports cards. Maybe Pokemon is part of that.

Hey.. he's called 'Kadabra'...I get it now. If you pair him with 'Abra' you get 12 zillion Power Ups.

Upper Deck Football Legends set is awesome. I have the base set and some extras like this signed card on one of my favorite players, Tommy McDonald.
 

1990s Bagwell from something called Impact. This I'm sure came from the boxes of stuff my boys left behind.

This card of The Dream needs to go into my University of Houston binder. I also need to blog my 'buying fried chicken for Hakeem' story one of these days.

Lastly, and perhaps most randomly... a Gardner's 1984 Robin Yount. The back is the same as the '84 Topps, I think. From a very brief Google look it seems Gardner's sold out to Bimbo some time back and is now gone as a brand name. truth is I can't imagine where this came from.

That's it for now. You simply wouldn't believe the amount of odds and ends i have stashed around here. Time to clean it all up!

Signed by Legends

These two items were Net54 pickups. I don't collect many autographs but I've always wanted a Jim Brown signature and this was hard to pass up.

I used to regularly buy items from Gateway Stamp when they were in business back in the 80s and 90s. Their catalogs were amusing (and sometimes hard to decipher!). But they had cool stuff.

This was one of two available Johnny Unitas items. I didn't care much for the artwork on the other one, so I chose this one instead. I have a couple of Unitas signed items but when you get the chance to add something from your childhood hero, you do it.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to get caught up on packages I've received, cards to be sent, and slogging through my '74 Topps set build. All that to be updated soon.

Art Cards...by Edward Vela

I went a little crazy a few weeks back and picked up a pile of Edward Vela's cards from his website. I think he's about as good as there is when it comes to stuff like this. I'm not going to delve into them deeply, just post a few today and over the next week.

I'm posting a handful of football cards first since this is the first day of NFL play (for me...I ignore most Thursday night action).

The Johnny Unitas up top is one of two in the post. Next, my current favorite QB, Pat mahomes. He's fun to watch.

I like this Unitas even more than the first one.

Tommy McDonald. He was a childhood favorite. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Vela had done a card of him. He's not exactly a household name.

Now for some baseball cards. Mr. Charles Bender kicks it off.

Eddie Murray. Nice, right?

Brooks Robinson. Vela was working off a picture we've all seen many times.

Dick Allen. Is that Tiger Stadium?

Spahnnie...I picked up a couple different. I'm a sucker for Spahn cards.

Same for Koufax. I now have several different Vela Koufax cards.

And a couple others...hoops and Ali.

That's The Stilt, of course. And below Ali tries to knock some sense into Joe Frazier.

Vela has changed up the backs of his cards as he has gone along. Here are some random backs.

These are prints, not original sketch cards like those I collect for my non-sports sets. But wonderful nonetheless. More to come. I just remembered that I added a Billy Pierce card not long ago. I don't have it scanned though.

This Post Goes To Eleven

This Is Spinal Tap is one of my favorite movies. If you are unfamiliar with it (and I can't imagine anyone who would be) it a 'mockumentary' chronicling the North American tour of an awful '80s British rock band. It's freaking genius.

It was the brainchild of Rob Reiner who directed it and plays film director Marty DiBergi. This 36 card set was produced for the 2000 re-release of the movie. I bought this at a card show several years ago for a few dollars and stuck it in a box that I recently pulled from my closet.

This is card #1, the 'cover' card

The cards were still in the shrink-wrap. The glossy finish caused them to stick together somewhat, the same way some of the early glossy baseball sets did.

One of, if not THE iconic scene from the movie is the one where Christopher Guest as Nigel Tufnel is interviewed for the 'documentary' by Marty (Reiner). He shows off his guitar collection and the Marshall amp that "goes to 11". One louder indeed.

This card highlights that scene.

Here are some random cards from the set. Some of the pictures they used were a bit murky and not all were cropped well but the set is a lot of fun for a Spinal Tap fan.

Added comedy break...Spinal Tap getting set for their first post-Nigel gig, at a theme park.

June Chadwick was perfectly cast as the ultimate rock band girlfriend.

Clip of their on-stage 'showmanship'.

Fred Willard has a memorable role and in this clip he discusses it.

This is Spinal Tap is highly recommended!