Some Colts signed cards

It's been awhile since I added anything to my Baltimore Colts binder so finding these 1999 Fleer/SI Greats of the Game cards on COMC was cool. I think I had seen some before but hadn't paid much attention at the time. I was too busy chasing down the vintage Colts cards for my project.

I haven't check to see if there are others I'm missing but these four will do for now. Nice that these are on-card sigs. The folks in charge of this used actual covers or really nice SI-type pics.

Here are the front and back of the John Mackey card. BTW...if you are still wondering why Andrew Luck could walk away from the NFL while he could still function, look up John Mackey.  Or watch the video below the cardback.

All the card backs were the same as this only name and logo changed.

Mackey defined the tight end position, invented it really. And was kept out of the Hall of Fame for many years because his work on behalf of the Players Association. Total bullshit. Like John Unitas, he finished his playing with the Chargers.

OK, no more down notes. Enjoy the other three cards....

Earl Morrall. He had an underrated career.

The amazing Lenny Moore!!! My picks for the top five most fun-to-watch players...Earl Campbell, Jim Brown, Gale Sayers, Barry Sanders and Lenny Moore. Oh, and you want more reason feel Luck did the right thing? Look at what Earl Campbell is fighting these days.

Finally, Bert Jones, The Ruston Rifle. Does anyone remember his final year, the one he spent with the Rams? Didn't think so. I'm not sure why all great Colts players ended up in California to finish their career.

New Year, New Stuff (From Joe Shlabotnik)

OK, so technically this padded envelope from Joe S came near the end of 2018 but I really didn't get to process it until January 1. So I'm calling this my first 2019 trade package. Joe had peeked over at my 1976 and 1975 Topps wantlists and the cards he sent put a healthy dent in said lists.

First of all, let's talk about the '76 Traded cards. When I bought the starter lot that launched me into the chase for the '76 set I didn't give those extra 44 cards much thought. I've seen them through the years but in 1976 I wasn't actively collecting anything (except maybe hangovers, overdraft notices, and failed relationships). It wasn't until Joe asked me which ones I had that I looked closer and figured "44 cards, why not?"

Back to the envelope...Joe filled part of the Traded set void and along with those he included base set needs for 1976 and 1975 which is another current project. I only scanned some representative examples. I was anxious to get them all into the binders. Damn, mid-70s Topps cards sure were colorful!

And sometimes fantastic. Like this one:

Between the wonderful 'fro, the terrible airbrush job and the punny 'headline' this baby is one remarkable piece of cardboard!

Red, pink, orange, green, blue. Rick Waits' card touches all the color bases.

This Jim Sundberg card was a dupe but it was also an upgrade! When I made my frequent trips to Arlington to see the Rangers (and usually the Orioles) two things were sure to happen... Jim Sundberg would be the catcher and huge dark storm clouds would pass over or near Arlington Stadium. Never failed.

I put this Luis Tiant card in the post because I like it.

It wouldn't be a Shlabotnik gift pack if it didn't contain off-the-beaten-track Orioles cards, both old and new. Like this Leaf Eddie Murray.

Or this Chrome Brian Roberts which my scanner choked on. Funny thing about Roberts. His career fits very neatly into my time away from baseball. I'm still amazed that the Orioles had a guy that once led the league in stolen bases.

Here's an Eric Davis card with one of those peel-y plastic sheets on it. I look at pulling them off as being akin to removing the label from mattresses. You know it's OK but something lurks in the back of your mind whispering 'Nooooo!'

Joe dropped a few Texans on me as well. One reason I'm hurrying through these is that I'm busy doing stuff I'd normally be taking care of tomorrow when I'll be at the Texans-Colts playoff game.

Keshawn Martin will go into my fantasy player binder since my old one of him uses a training camp pic with him wearing "00". I hate those.

Modern Brooks Robinson cards. I wonder what Hall of Famer has the most cards in modern sets. Ruth? Jackie Robinson? Mantle? I'm sure Brooksie is fairly high on the list.

I scanned this Rodrigo Lopez because I like the Fleer logo. I'm normally in favor of simple card designs but the auto under the name doesn't work.

Insert Ripken above. Jaunty cap angle Ripken below.

This Fleer set might be the only 1990s set I'd ever consider putting in a binder. It's very Stadium Club-ish. Joe included most of the Orioles team set in the envelope. If nothing else I might just finish that. Here's Moose.

Tony Tarasco looking badass.

When I did my Spring Training tour a few years ago Tarasco was coaching with the Nationals. My goal was to get him to sign a ball with an inscription reading "I had it all the way!". (Bonus points for getting the reference) When I was able to meet him after one of the games in Viera he had a lot of family and friends around so I settled for just a quick hello and a signed ball.

Raffy Palmeiro. I always think of my first visit to Camden Yards when I see him on an Orioles card. His suspension was big news since it occurred the day prior to my arrival. Sweet card though.

Finally, Joe included this Manny Machado Commemorative Players Weekend patch. It's thick and weighty. I dig the caps the Orioles wore for that season's Players' Weekend. Do these come inserted in regular packs? I've never gotten a 'thick' card like this from a pack that I recall. I suppose that's not surprising given how few packs I buy.

I know what the logo represents but whenever I see it I think of this:

Did I read this morning that Machado has a big offer from the White Sox? He's turned into a villain now but I'm still hoping he signs with an AL team so I can get to the ballpark and see him once or twice a year. Villian status be damned.

Anyway, that's just a portion of the cards I got from Joe. It's like the second or third one he's sent without a return from me. I need to do something about that. Oh, and I failed to mention earlier... his blog is among the best of the best. I mean that. I doubt anyone reading this is unaware but here is the link to The Shlabotnik Report. Did I spell that right? ;-)

The Mick

That's a 1998 Fleer Tradition Mickey Mantle. I'm not a Yankees fan and I don't collect Mantle but isn't it a gorgeous card? This came my way as a 'bonus' from an eBay dealer who botched an order. He made good on the cards I'd paid for and included a couple of extras which I appreciated. Nothing valuable but nice cards nonetheless.

I scanned this one and was saving it for when I had nothing else ready to go. I'm in the middle of a couple of projects and I'm behind in my scanning (the past weekend's TriStar show didn't help me catch up) so tonite is Mickey Mantle Night here at the ol' 5 Tool blog.

Fleer sure packed a lot of tiny type onto the back of this one.

1975 Fleer Pioneers

I bought this 28 card set at a card show a few months ago and had it sitting on my desk for awhile. I've tamed my scanner somewhat and figured I'd post a few of the cards. I had a couple of singles from the set that I bought way back when I began the first project of my second card collecting life. I was determined to have a card of every Hall of Fame player. Some of these were my 'placeholders' until I could get career contemporary cards. It didn't take me long to figure out that that project was going to be impossible both in cost and execution.

These cards were actually inserts in packs of a product I have no memory of, 'Baseball Patches'. In looking into these cards I found that Joe Shlabotnik and the Fleer Sticker Project have done the legwork previously. I'll defer to those two fine blogs. In fact it wasn't until I dug into the FSP blog the other day that my memory was jogged and I realized that I had several of the football versions of the patches in my Baltimore Colts collection. And I recognized the football version of this set as well.

Back to the cards at hand. As you'd expect the back has a write-up on the player.

These things are tall and narrow. Here is one scanned with a 2017 Topps for comparison.

Most, but not all, of the guys included in the checklist are Hall of Fame members.

Both the Cobb and Cy Young cards use familiar pics.

This one is my favorite.... Buck Ewing and the NY Giants' mascot. If the card's write-up is to be believed Buck always had the mascot spit on his bat when he went up to the plate. Well, OK.

A couple more.

I see that the set is available on eBay for between $15 and $18. Or you can go to Fritsch Cards and pay a bit more.

And finally the checklist:

1 Cap Anson
2 Harry Wright
3 Buck Ewing
4 A.G. Spalding
5 Hoss Radbourne
6 Dan Brouthers
7 Roger Bresnahan
8 Mike Kelly
9 Ned Hanlon
10 Ed Delahanty
11 Pud Galvin
12 Amos Rusie
13 Tommy McCarthy
14 Ty Cobb
15 John McGraw
16 Home Run Baker
17 Johnny Evers
18 Nap Lajoie
19 Cy Young
20 Eddie Collins
21 John Glasscock
22 Hal Chase
23 Mordecai Brown
24 Jake Daubert
25 Mike Donlin
26 John Clarkson
27 Buck Herzog
28 Art Nehf

Fleer Big Signs

Two of the items I became aware of during my Colts cards research are the 'Big Signs' issued by Fleer in the 1970s. The one at the top was put out in about 1972 (there is some debate on this) although it is referred to as a '1968' Big Sign due to the copyright date at the bottom. That is most likely the year the image was licensed.

The image was used on a 2' x 3' poster sold by Sports Illustrated in the late 60s. I had one of those on my dorm walls and later it decorated my apartment along side Eddie Giacomin and Frank Robinson posters I bought through the same magazine.

These Fleer versions are smaller, about 8" x 11".  they issued a second set of these a few years later. The Colts Big Sign featured their logo and a 'generic' quarterback. The QB might have been modeled on Johnny Unitas but that might be just my Colts-centric mind at work.

I picked these up for about 5 bucks each. They originally were sold individually wrapped for a dime each.

UPDATE:
The Fleer Sticker Project with more info on these. I should have checked there first.

Baltimore Colts' Card History Pt. 10...1982 & 1983 The Final Chapter

1982 Topps

The 1982 Topps set marks the beginning of the end of the once-proud franchise that was part of my very soul up to that point. With Frank Kush at the helm and a moronic drunk as owner the team stumbled to an 0-8-1 in a strike year that could have wiped out the whole season as far as I was concerned. They were coming off a 2-14 campaign that, as I recall, caused even my very religious aunt to take the Lord's name in vain.

Topps was celebrating their new-found ability to use NFL Logos and put the teams' helmet right there on the front of the card. In a set that numbered 528 cards the Colts got ten players and a team leader card. They were not given an In Action card for any of the included players nor did they have any All Pros. Like I said, it was a lousy time in Colts history.

The purple and yellow pennant containing the player name and position is at least a different color combo than what the Colts had been getting. Sideline and pregame shots dominated. The Bert Jones card is one of my favorites if I don't think too hard about the era it represents.

The card backs were fairly easy to read with the blue and gold motif. The players got stats, a fact blurb, and vital info. Some cards also had a team stat or record depending on whether or not the player stats allowed for the space.

The team leader card didn't have a checklist in the back this time. They listed the team's 1981 game-by-game results. Not pleasant reading for Colts' fans. On a positive note the Colts beat the Pats to open and close the season! The checklists were now back to being the traditional kind with the entire set listed on four cards which were the finals numbers in the set.

There was only one more year of Baltimore Colts' cards coming. Colt fans were beginning to hear rumblings of a possible move. Me? I was hoping the drunk jerk in charge would drive off a bridge.

1982 Fleer

Another year, another set of Fleer. By now everyone knows the drill....two cards showcasing the team, one for each of the Super Bowls they played in.

Fleer Stickers

There were a couple of different sticker inserts in the Fleer packs. I have a huge stack of Colts stickers but other than these with schedule backs it's hard to figure out which year they were distributed in. 

Topps Stickers

Topps produced another sticker set in '82. this one had yellow borders. Nothing out of the ordinary here.

Kelloggs' Poster

This is my favorite '82 Colts item. I wasn't aware of these until I began this project. The players are 'generic' but the artwork is pretty good. The poster unfolds to about 8x10 inches.

I've scanned and posted the back of the poster even though it's hard to read. There is a Super Bowl 'Sweepstakes' that takes up most of it. These posters were issued for all the NFL teams (I assume) and can be found for less than $10. Mine was very cheap because it has a stain. But from the front you really don't even notice it as it appears to be part of the artwork.

1983 Topps

The last set of Baltimore Colts as issued by Topps were simple and, at least to my eye, attractive. No more pennants or banners. Just the team name that didn't overwhelm the photo and a name/position box. Red and yellow returned as the Colts' accent color. There were just eleven Colts cards including the leaders card. Topps had cut the set back to less than 400 cards. No Colts were featured on league leaders or season highlights cards. The checklists were once again at the end of the set and were not team specific.

The backs were done in red/pink combo and all the text/stats were sumperimposed on a team helmet silhouette. The usual info was enhanced with a 'personal data' blurb that listed such things as hobbies, marital status, etc.

The team leader card took on a slightly different appearance in '83. One player was featured and the other category leaders were listed to the right. The backs again listed the previous season's scores.

1983 Fleer

Fleer issued the usual suspects, a pair of team cards and the Super Bowl cards. I think that as a kid I'd have gotten really tired of the same old thing year after year.

Fleer Stickers

Nothing new with their stickers either. Except the updated schedule. 

Topps Stickers

Standard stickers from Topps. No color borders or special stickers, at least as far as the Colts were concerned.

The End of the Line

The spring of 1983 had brought the John Elway draft fiasco to Colt fans and it cast a pall over the season. But Colt fans hadn't seen the worst of it. Not by a long shot. Fulfilling the rumors that had swirled through Baltimore for years, in the early morning of March 29, 1984 the Colts snuck off to Indianapolis in Mayflower vans packed by members of U of Maryland's Sigma Chi fraternity. The amazing story of that move is chronicled here. And thus ended the life of my revered Baltimore Colts. I was working nights at the now defunct Houston Post in those days. I'll always remember my wife waking me up to watch the story as it was being reported on the Today Show.

This Baltimore Colts' card history project was conceived as a two post 'epic'. I was going to show one card from each year's set and be done with it. But after picking up so many interesting cards, particularly from the 50s and 60s, I knew that I wanted to do more. And along the way I kept coming up with inserts and oddball issues that grabbed my attention. I included them even if no one else had much interest.

I'm not done quite yet. I have added quite a few additional items to my Baltimore Colts binder and I'll post them in the future.