My Kind Of Town

The neighborhood mailwoman delivered a big white envelope last week. It was from Jedi Jeff of 2x3 Heroes. Jeff is almost as sporatic as I am when it comes to posting lately but at least he's had an excuse...he's a grandfather again!. (I'm jealous..my kids and their spouses only add pets to their households). 

Jeff's gift was Chicaco and Baltimore-centric. It led off this this gem:

That 8x10 beauty immediately earned a place above my desk. I had a signed Billy Pierce photo there already but this is an upgrade. The old one wasn't nearly as clear or bright a photo. This one made and inmmediate improvement to my Wall of Fame....

Before:

After:
 

 

Better, right? I think so. 

Jeff included a couple of nine-pocket shhets filled with Orioles, some shiny, some special, most I've not seen before. Here are the two sheets but I hadn't realized until I scanned them that most of the pockets had two cards so double this goodness.

BTW...here's Earl's quote from the front of that Upper Deck card:

I bet he never admitted that theory to Jim Palmer.

That Ben McDonald is the legit version of his rookie card. The logoless ::cough:: 'error' ::cough:: is the card that made me give up on cards back then. The Schoop and Jones cards are unique enough to have bumped cards from my fantasy baseball binder.

Jeff included some signed 4x5s of White Sox guys, two that have a connection in the 1960 set. Gary Peters and J.C. Martin have their photos swapped on their '60 Topps cards.
 

That's the old Comiskey. I really regret that I never got to a game there.

 There also signed photos of guys with Sox-Orioles histories, like Greg Walker

Good stuff all the way around. And doubly appreciated in these times when adding new stuff without card shows is a challenge. To say nothing of our cancelled trip to visit our daughter in Chicagoland.

Thanks, again Jeff. Enjoy that new granddaughter. She's a cutie.

Some Sort Of Photographic Harmonic Convergence

So yesterday morning I post some circa 1975 B&W spring training snapshots taken of Orioles stars of the time. Obviously I love off-the-wall stuff. It's kind of nice having things that not many other collectors have. (The fact that very few folks would ever want some circa 1975 B&W spring training snapshots taken of Orioles stars of the time is besides the point).

But within a few hours of the post hitting the net I find an envelope in my mailbox from Mike McKay, a Chicago area collector and blog reader, who has sent me some really neat and unique items in the past year or so. And in the package are some terrific shots that Mike took last July when the O's went through Chicago.

A couple of things are obvious. First of all Mike routinely gets much better seats than I normally do. And he has a better camera/better eye for pics. I only wish I had some skill at making homemade cards like so many other bloggers do. These pics would make some really nice ones!

Mike took the shots on July 2 of last year, a game the Sox won 5-2. That's my man Manny Machado up top. He flied out and singled in the game among his four at bats, this looks like the fly out.

Next we see Nick Markakis. He had three singles that night, two to left field. This looks like a single to left.

Chris Davis hit 50 something dingers last year. But he got the collar in this game.

Adam Jones went 1 for 4.

Matt Weiters went 0 for 4. But he looked good doing it, didn't he?

And finally starter Jason Hammel. He didn't pitch well in this one, nine hits in seven innings and he wlaked off the field with an ERA over 5 for the season. The Cubs signed him as a FA and he was pitching pretty well it seems and then was part of the big Jeff Whateverhisnameis trade. In two starts with the A's... well, it has not been pretty. The Orioles rocked him last Saturday.

Thanks once again, Mike. Great stuff.

My Kind of Town (Chicago Is)

I've been to Chicago before but not during baseball season so our vacation last week gave us the chance to visit the 'Friendly Confines' and take in a game. The fact that the Astros were in town was just a happy coincidence enjoyed by my Houston-born sons. 

This is a bit off my usual style of post but I'm going to show a few pics from our stay in the Windy City. First stop out of Midway was a great little family-owned hot dog stand in the shadows of Comiskey Park U.S. Cellular Field.

On Sunday our little group took the 'L' to the Addison St. station and watched the Astros put on one of the worst exhibitions of baseball I've seen since my tee-ball coaching days. Below are my twin boys, Brooks Robinson Andrews and James Palmer Andrews (who came in from Lincoln, NE for the fun). 

Brooks' better half Ashley was making her second trip to Wrigley. They had visited last July.

Here is the merry band of Astro fans in our seats in Section 216. Just out of sight are an Orioles fan husband/wife pairing that were sitting in the row in front of us, a lone Oriole cap-wearing fan in the next section and a couple of O's fans sitting a few rows in front of us that we noticed when the crowd thinned late in the game. Sadly the Orioles were getting crushed by the Jays that afternoon so my family had little to cheer about. But we had a great time anyway.

Pregame panorama. I learned how to take those about 10 seconds prior to this attempt.

I loved seeing the rooftop bleachers. They were packed. And it was a beautiful day.

Joe Torre (that's him leaning on the rail) traversed the catwalk behind the suites just above us several times. Every time I saw him it was too late for a good picture. 

We stayed to the bitter end of the Cubs' stomping of the bumbling 'Stros. You really can't leave until they sing that song and raise the "W" flag above the scoreboard.

So much for the travelog. Here is my only souvenir, the game program. Pretty routine as far as programs go. The usual selected player blurbs, previews of opponents coming in on the current homestand and lots of ads.

But contained in the centerfold was a good old fashioned heavy stock scorecard. What was really cool was that the 30-something (and very attractive) gal in front of us was keeping score on hers! I haven't seen anyone keeping score at a ballgame in ages. 

We were in town when Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals was going on at the United Center but we were at a wedding and had to track the game on smartphones during the reception. It was really fun to see the city decked out in Hawks flags. They were all over the place downtown.

We've seen the Blackhawks at the United Center (a great experience!) and when I was growing up the Bruins were my Rangers' major rival (always fighting for 5th/6th places behind the playoff bound Hawks, Wings, Leafs and Habs). Somewhere along the line that animosity seemed to fade a bit but it never left me so, given all that, I was pulling hard for Chicago. I sprung for the $5 to be able to watch the big 6th Game on Monday night's flight out of Midway. Lots of fun. Here is my only card of a current Blackhawk.