Sprinking In Some Sigs

 I recently picked up a small group of signed cards form the Topps 1959 and 1960 sets. I'm not an autograph guy particularly but adding a few to my sets is a nice bit of 'gravy'. What's more, these were in really nice condition so most served as upgrades as well. 

The '59s...

Walt 'Moose' Moryn, whose '59 card blog post is here, was a fun-loving guy and a popular teammate. I included this from his SABR bio in that '59 blog post and seems worthy of being re-printed:

Among those who remembered Moose was Cardwell, whose no-hitter was nearly overshadowed by the drama of the game-saving catch. “He made me famous,” Cardwell told Jerome Holtzman for an obituary in the Chicago Tribune. “After I threw the pitch, I was leaning down with him and saying, ‘C’mon, Moose, make the catch.’“He was a good man, a ballplayer’s ballplayer. After the game I told him, ‘Moose, I owe you a beer.’ And he said ‘I’ll take you up on it.’ He enjoyed life. And he enjoyed people. He always drew the biggest crowd.”Another Cubs teammate was fellow St. Paul native Jerry Kindall, who was just 21 when he first arrived in Chicago fresh from the University of Minnesota. Kindall told Holtzman about his first encounter with the Moose. “I walked into the clubhouse and there was Walt,” Kindall said. “He was wonderful to me. He shepherded me around. He gave the appearance of a very gruff guy, but if you were a teammate, you saw through that in a hurry. He was really a tender-hearted guy.”

It's going on 10 years since I posted this card over on that set blog. Seeing a Ryne Duren card always reminds me of games at Yankee Stadium with my father. May they both RIP.

Johnny Klippstein began his pro career in 1944. Since I remember seeing him pitch I'm feeling pretty old right now. I included his first and last cards on the '59 set blog. Seafoam green card with a pic taken at the LA Coliseum...what's not to like.

The 60s...

Klippstein again and I'd bet this photo was taken at the same time as the one above. His cap sits the same way on his head. Pretty consistent signature through the years for sure.

 

Duren again. Lovely day at the ol 'ballyard as Red Barber used to say.

An old ESPN online story on baseball's hardest throwers had this entry for him:

He was perhaps the first truly frightening "power reliever." Famous for wearing "Coke-bottle glasses" and throwing his first warm-up pitch to the backstop, Duren threw as hard as anybody in the game. In 1958, his first full season with the Yankees, Duren struck out 87 hitters in 76 innings and led the American League with 20 saves. In his second season with the Yankees, Duren struck out 96 hitters in 77 innings.

How hard did Duren throw? Nobody used radar guns in those days, but Duren once told interviewer Dom Forker, "Anyway, I don't know how fast I threw, but I do know that Mantle told me I was the fastest he ever saw. And Tony Kubek said I threw harder than Nolan Ryan."

The alcoholism that hampered his career became others' salvation as Duren became a counselor later in life. 

There was also a 1994(?) Topps Archives faux '54 signed Klippstein in the mix but I didn't scan it. If anyone happens  to be collecting that set signed get in touch.

1960 Union Oil Patti Waggin's Husband

Sidebar......We here in the Houston area got very lucky when Hurricane Laura moved east before landfall. It came in just below Cat 5. Bad news. But here on the far east side of the county we had hardly a hint of wind all night. Wish I could say the same for the folks nearer the state line and in Louisiana. I have several college friends living in Lake Charles and I believe they all got out of harm's way yesterday.

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Ok, so it's a Don Rudolph card. But you wouldn't have even clicked in your reading list had I used that as the post's title, right?

A little background is in order.

Sorry, not THAT sort of background.

This is what I meant....

When I came across Don Rufolph's card for my 1959 blog I flipped it over and saw that this was the cartoon.

THAT got my attention. I dug around and found that Don had married burlesque star Patti Waggin. That's her that is referenced as a 'professional dancer' in the cartoon. Down the rabbit hole I went and found that Miss Waggin (born Patricia Artae Hardwick) was a Baltimore star and, by all accounts, a peach of a lady.

Here's a bio I dug up on IMDB:

Patti was born in 1926 and was married three times. A second marriage to championship motorcycle racer Bill Brownell took place in Chico, California. She attended Chico State majoring in dance and acting. She was athletically gifted and played sports in college.

After her divorce in 1950, she took the stage name of Patti Waggin, given to her by then manager Lillian Hunt. She continued performing until 1960. She married baseball pitcher Don Rudolph in 1955 and stayed with him until his death in a truck accident in 1968. They had one child, a girl.

Patti incorporated athleticism into her act and was considered one of the friendliest girls on the burlesque circuit. She was alternately billed as The Educated Torso, The Sex Oomph Girl, and the Fresh Faced Girl Next Door. She answered all of her own fan mail and kept the letters. These were incorporated into a book, "Fan Letters To A Stripper: A Patti Waggin Tale."

She died in 1992 from an intestinal disorder.

As noted in that bio she had previously been married to a motorcycle racer and I just found this bike site that has an article and some photos (some locked except for members apparently) of Patti in her riding days.

But back to the reason for this post. As I got more familiar with Don Rudolph I picked up the rest of his Topps cards. He had cards in '58 and '59 as well as '62 through '64. The first three issued all used the same photo.

He also had several food/retail cards from his days with the Seattle Rainiers of the PCL in '59/'60. Some are quite pricey so they are off the table for me but this Union Oil issue, from a 1960 set of nine, had a small pinhole and came cheap.

Neat little reference to Don's marriage on the reverse as well. Look below for a bigger image.

 Just for reference, here is the Union Oil card scanned with his '59 Topps.

All his cards are here on the Trading Card Database site. And there is more info and plenty of pics in my post of that '59 Topps card.

That's One Ugly Whale!

Yup, it's pretty ugly, but I was happy to land a 1959 Topps Venezuelan Ace Hurlers card. It puts me just that much closer to finishing off my Billy Pierce collection want list.

These are very difficult to come by and I long ago decided I'd grab one in whatever condition I could get. Other copies that were sold recently were not in much different condition than this one. It's fairly typical of cards from the Venezuelan release of the '59 set. I don't think the fact that he shares the card with Hall of Famer Robin Roberts made this one any more difficult than it would have been otherwise. These '59s are just tough.

I got lucky on this one. It sort of slid in under the radar because two others were up for bids at about the same time. Those two drew off the few other people who chase this stuff and I was able to win this fairly cheaply.

Pierce had a card in two other Topps Venezuelan sets, both were base cards. Those two, the 1960 and 1964 are much more attainable.

I haven't tried yet but I may attempt to clean some of the surface dirt on the front of this card. I don't believe in trimming cards, restoring corners or other restoration techniques, but I have no issue with someone (me in this case) doing some cleaning on vintage cards. I've used a clean, soft cloth to take off gum residue before.

With this one in the fold, I'm down to one card on my Billy Pierce 'target' list, the 1959 Bazooka SP. That one is a tough find and impossible at a cheap price. I haven't given up hope though.

1959 Minnie Minoso

As you know by now Minnie Minoso died Sunday at the age of 90 (or thereabouts). He has this wonderful 1959 Topps card and I posted it in March of 2012 for my '59 Topps blog. He was a pretty amazing guy and if you were not familiar with his story you should be now with all the tributes that have cropped up since the word of his death came out.

Here is part of my blog post for that card.

Minnie Minoso was born 'Saturnino Orestes Armas Miñoso Arrieta' in Havana, Cuba in 1925. That's one name for each decade he played in the majors. Yes, Minoso played big league ball in the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's. Or at least he made appearances in those decades. The 'playing' he did in 1976 and 1980 with the White Sox was really just PR, a couple of 'cup of coffee' whirls that got headlines when they happened. And add to this time spent in the independent Northern League in the following two decades makes Minoso the only guy to have played professionally in seven decades! (I played intramural softball in four decades at the University of Houston but that's a different discussion.) 
The five (or seven) decade hype kind of overshadows a pretty accomplished major league career put together by Minoso. Following a run as a Negro League player in the late forties Minoso debuted with the Indians in 1949. For the next dozen years, covering two separate tours with both the White Sox and Indians, Minoso led the AL at least once in triples, doubles, hits, stolen bases, total bases and hit-by-pitches. He made seven All Star squads and routinely garnered MVP votes. Three Gold Gloves line his mantel as well. 
His days as a regular player ended with stints with the Cardinals and Senators in the early 60's. But Minoso wasn't through as he played several seasons in Mexico after that. Then came the publicity tours with the Sox and  independent ball. Crazy.

He played in the first game MLB I ever saw in person. He had a single and scored a run to help Billy Pierce beat the Yankees.

I have a couple of other Minoso cards. The '61 is one of my favorites.

I also have this stadium cup from Comiskey Park that had Minoso on one side along with Billy Pierce and Sherm Lollar.

Minnie Minoso was up for election to the Hall of Fame again this past year by the Veterans Committee but his vote total fell short. If you are like me and believe that the Hall of Fame should be more than about numbers you can still have hope that the electors will see it that way as well someday and put him in the Hall.

Ernie Banks

By now everyone knows that Ernie Banks passed away on Friday at the age of 83. I just thought I'd post a couple of cards and pics from my 1959 Topps blog. When I did a search on his name on that blog about ten posts came up. He was just that big a part of baseball. Has anyone anywhere ever uttered one negative word about him? I doubt it.

His '59 card is among the best cards of the set, maybe among the best cards of the decade. A bright day at a ballpark, a youthful looking Ernie Banks with his glove up and ready, as if he was playing catch, the sun on his face. Pretty much perfect.

The Baseball Thrills card commemorates his 1958 MVP award. He won that playing on a fifth place club.

Here is the original photo (from 1957) that was used for this card.

Ernie had an All Star card in the '59 set as well.

Finally here are my sons at Wrigley Field a couple of winters ago. I made sure we got some shots with the Banks statue.

R.I.P. Ernie. I feel honored to have watched you play.

40 Years Ago Today

On September 24, 1974 one of my favorite non-Orioles players reached a milestone in a way that showed great symmetry (or great something).

Baltimore native and Hall of Famer Al Kaline got his 3,000th hit that night in Baltimore Memorial Stadium off Orioles starter Dave McNally. It was a double into the right field corner for Kaline, the first of two hits he got that night while serving as the Tigers' DH.

The Orioles won the game 5-4 with a bottom of the eight 2-run rally. Reliever Bob Reynolds got the win with two and a third innings of one hit ball. The O's finished the night a half game ahead of the Yankees and won the Eastern Division that year by two games and then lost the AL title to the A's.

Kaline has four cards in the 1959 Topps set. His base card is my favorite:

He is featured on one of the Baseball Thrills subset cards:

A hideously ugly pink and red combo card with Yankee killer and my Dad's least favorite player, Charlie Maxwell:

And a The Sporting News All Star Selection card.

This post is both a tribute to one of the greats of the game and one final plug for $30 a Week Habit's 'best set' tournament. It's a close contest at the moment with this '59 set slightly ahead of the '74 in the finals so your vote may tip the scales one way or another.

In another bit of symmetry here is my 1974 Topps Dave McNally.

Go vote!

Al Capone Sez.......

I thought I'd throw in a plug for $30 a Week Habit's Topps set tournament which has reached the finals. The last two sets standing are two of my very favorites, the 1974 and the 1959.

I love the fact that the color scheme of the '74 Orioles cards matches the teams' colors. That's not true for all the teams in the set but the O's are the only one I care about. In binder sheets the O's team set looks very sweet. 

I have a few '74 Orioles scanned from other posts and here they are:

It's really a great design with some fine photo choices. If it wins I'm not going to complain.

But the other contender, the Topps 1959 set, is very close to my heart. I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears, not to mention coin, into building and blogging it over the course of several years. I've mentioned several times previously that the 1958 Topps cards are the first ones I can remember seeing in person. A kid (a girl!) in my neighborhood had a stack of them that summer and all the rest of us little knuckleheads were mesmerized by them. The 1960 is the first set I tried to collect for myself although I had to rely on the generosity of my parents and grandparents for pack purchases so I never came close to finishing it. For sentimental reasons it's still my favorite Topps set.

But 1959 Topps baseball cards were the first ones I ever held in my hand and could say they were mine. And the set is about as fun as a set can be. I discovered so many great stories while researching my posts and I really came to love so many of the cards. Here are a few of my favorites:

Bob Shaw's card reminds me of spending Sunday afternoons with my Dad watching Yankee doubleheaders.

Not only is Willard Schmidt's card just plain gorgeous with the color combo and the black frame but when I posted it I came in contact with several of his family members, one of which, his nephew, has become a friend.

Then there the superstar cards that I value a lot:

The Mickey Mantle, a key to the set obviously. I was happy to get it for $100. I bet I bid on 25 of these while trying to get a decent example within my budget before I won this one.

The Bob Gibson rookie card which is one of, if not the only, '59 Topps that has survived from coming straight out of a pack into my grubby hands in 1959. And it looks it.

So get on over to Robert's blog and cast your vote for your preference. He's going to put together the set that wins. I won't try to influence you either way other than to note that I can give him a nice boost if the '59 wins. Just sayin'.

Well, how about that?

I've been having fun with Robert's little competition over at his $30 a WEEK Habit blog. I was very much surprised to see last night that the '59 Topps set edged out the '65 Topps in the quarterfinals. I like both sets but I really expected the '65 to win. It's very popular and Kevin did a fantastic job of showcasing it on his blog, The Great 1965 Topps Project. His was the very first blog I read and it was the one that inspired me to tackle the 1959 set. Here is how green I was.... I remember having to ask him what a 'blaster' was!

But anyway, the '59 set moves on. I'm anxious to see which other sets do the same and I'll be following (and voting) as the match-ups evolve. Have a great time at the national, Robert. Go ahead and spend $30 a day, heck, spend $30 an hour...it's the National!!

1959 Topps Campaign Headquarters!!

Robert at $30 A Week Habit has been running a Topps vintage set tournament over the last month or more to try and determine the blog community's favorite set. (Actually, it will determine which set he will build) Starting with 16 sets the contest in now entering the quarter finals, eight sets remain. The 1959 set of which I am a great fan is pitted against the very outstanding 1965 set. With Vegas giving the edge to 1965 I thought it was incumbent on me to do what I could to drum up support for the '59.

Just look at Willard Schmidt's card at the top. Isn't that terrific? And if you need further proof of the '59 set's greatness just scroll through these: 

So what are you waiting for? As they have always said in Chicago...

You say you're a '65 guy? C'mon man!