1962 Post Cereal

As my '67 Topps chase reached the point where I was looking at only needing the high number SPs, I figured I could take up an oddball-ish set just for grins. I happened upon a Net54 member looking to dump a nice, big starter set of 1962 Post Cereal cards at a bargain price. Right up my alley.

I had a lot of these back in the day. In '62 my siblings were just about the age where they would want cereal for breakfast and I, as a pre-teen, loved the stuff. (Honey Comb and Alpha bits were my favored Post offerings) Add in the fact that there was a family down the street with about six boys junior high age and younger, and there were plenty of these floating around my block.

My goal here is just to collect the cards. I don't care at all whether or not they were cut straight, folded, or have kids' names written in the blank backs. These were trimmed from box backs with blunt, dull scissors for the most part and I think that adds to their charm.

The lot I bought was mostly American Leaguers. And there were plenty of stars in it.

I also found quite a few more at a card seller's store online and grabbed more cheap ones. That bunch got me this mantle.

I had a Pierce in my BP collection but I needed one for this binder so for a buck I grabbed this one. 

I also found some of the last inexpensive '67s that I needed and those will get posted soon. 

Charley Maxwell, aka Paw Paw...aka The Yankee Killer. He sure resembles some TV personality but I can't quite figure out who it is.

Anyway, I'll have a wantlist up and if you have any of these that are collecting dust, I'd be happy to swap for 'em.

Mickey, A Day Late

OK, so yesterday was supposedly Labor Day. Honestly, ever since I retired, every day is a holiday. But to the point of this post....

 

...growning up in North Jersey Labor Day marked the last day of summer. School was going to start the next day. More often than not there was a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium and my father and I were there. That usually meant seeing Mickey Mantle. But with his injuries, you couldn't count on it. Lots of great memories from those times.

I'm slowly meandering my way through the 1967 Topps set. I'm not in a hurry for several reasons, not the least of which is that my main supplier of 60's Topps cards has been my friend Darryl who runs the hotel card shows. Of course, those shows.

Not having those shows meant that every card I picked up probably cost me more than I would have spent on nicer cards from Darryl's boxes. That's all about to end as the hotel shows are returning this month. There are going to be the expected precautions in place, and I'm going to have my work cut out for me convincing my wife that going to a show is a good idea.

But I'll get there. I usually just get a box from Darryl and go sit in the lobby and pull cards anyway. One card I won't need to look for is the Mantle. That one up above arrived not long ago. Perfect for my needs. It is in reasonably nice condition and didn't cost an arm and a leg. Even better I used an eBay coupon for $25 off and I had been gifted with some cash in my PayPal account from the guys in my fantasy league. With the uncertainty of the season being played all the way through I had decided not to charge the usual small fees that cover the league hosting site. draft night groceries (no in-person draft!) and a trophy. But my guys sent some money my way anyway. More than I usually collect.

That made the Mantle nearly free. And free is good. Especially since the '67 set has so many high dollar, high number cards. 

That's a lot of words for just one picture so here's the back:

Those are phone pics, my scanner hates slabbed cards more than I do. Mickey will be able to breath very soon. 

BTW..this is my first time dealing with the 'new' Blogger. It sucks, but it doesn't suck as bad as I thought it'd suck. Thank goodness for small favors.

Finally, here's a gift. Seven minutes of the late, great Mitch Hedberg.

Happy late Labor Day.

A Fun Exercise

A few weeks back someone on Net54 started a thread asking folks to name the best player they saw in person.... 1) in the first game they attended and 2) ever (in a game you attended). High school and college games were OK. 'Best player in the first game' meant 'best guy on the field', not necessarily the one who had the best game that day. You were supposed to answer for the Big Four sports but, as is usually the case with internet things, not everyone followed directions. And some replies stated they had never seen a game in a certain sport in person, etc. A few dolts, like me for instance, tossed in an extra sport or two.

I thought it was interesting and it wasn't as easy as it sounded at first.  There were certainly no wrong answers. I was entertained by some of the responses and I also immediately thought it would make a fun blog post if I could find cards of each player I named. Turns out I could. So here it goes.

Best player, first game attended, baseball.

July of 1960 at Yankee Stadium, Yanks vs White Sox. Mickey Mantle

It was a doubleheader and Mantle batted fifth. He whiffed, doubled and singled off Billy Pierce and hit a sac fly in the ninth off Frank Bauman in a 6-3 Sox win. The Yanks were loaded, of course, and the Sox had some big-name stars but Mickey obviously wins as 'best guy to play' in that game. He'd be close to being the best player I saw live, ever. But after some internal debate I have to go with this guy:

Best player, ever seen live, baseball.

Willie Mays

I considered Roberto Clemente, Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, and some others but Willie was Willie. There wasn't anything he couldn't do on a ballfield. I was fortunate enough to have seen him while he was still in his prime in the early 60s. Interestingly one of the responders had these same two guys but in the opposite category. I know there are no 'wrong' answers here but ...whatever.


Best player, first game attended, football.

Circa 1961 Nutley N.J. High School games. Ben Hawkins

My original answer was Keith Lincoln. I was thinking of pro sports exclusively at first and he was likely the best player in the first pro game I saw, an Oilers-Chargers affair in 1967.

Then I remembered that I had seen plenty of football in the Nutley Park Oval growing up. I can't specifically recall seeing him but Ben Hawkins was the star at Nutley High in those days. He went on to glory at Arizona Stae and had some great days in the NFL with the Eagles. He led the NFL in yards in 1967.

Best player, ever seen live, football.

John Unitas

I wouldn't even venture a guess as to how many football games I've witnessed. From high school (even disregarding coaching), University of Houston games since 1970, Giants game with my Dad, Oilers, and Texans as a season ticket holder, etc.. I've seen plenty. I never saw Jim Brown play in person but I have seen about everyone else in the modern game, Brady, Gale Sayers, Manning, Marino, Lawrence Taylor, Earl Campbell and so on. None of them tops Johnny Unitas. I don't care how many rings any of them wear. Unitas is the best I've ever seen at imposing his will on a game. Are there better quarterbacks? Maybe. Better FOOTBALL PLAYERS? Nope.

Best player, first game attended, basketball.

Circa 1965 NBA doubleheader, old Madison Square Garden at 49th and 8th. Wilt Chamberlain

 My uncle, the Secaucus pharmacist, used to get tickets to everything through his connections. But he wasn't a sports fan at all and those tickets got passed to my father and so I saw plenty of games I ordinarily wouldn't have. Lots of Knicks games, for example. They used to have NBA doubleheaders at the Garden in the early/mid-60s. You'd see Pistons-Sixers and then the Knicks and Hawks or someone.

I wouldn't want to guess what year I saw the game but I remember Wilt and his Philadelphia crew playing in that old, dank' dingy Garden.

Best player, ever seen live, basketball.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Here's why: "Abdul-Jabbar was Rookie of the Year, a member of six NBA championship teams, a six-time NBA MVP, a two-time NBA Finals MVP, a 19-time All-Star, a two-time scoring champion and a member of the NBA 35th and 50th Anniversary All-Time Teams."

That's not even considering that he was clearly the best high school player and best college player prior to his pro career. His skyhook was unstoppable. You want Jordan? I'll take Jabbar.

Best player, first game attended, hockey.

1959-60/1960-61 Leafs-Rangers at the old MSG. Dave Keon

I'm not sure which Leafs-Rangers game I attended. I remember the Rangers lost. Davey Keon was a Leafs legend. I looked at the rosters for both teams during those seasons. Keon was no doubt the best player on either team.

Best player, ever seen live, hockey.

Gordie Howe.

Saw him with the Wings and Aeros. He's Mr. Hockey. I could have put Bobby Orr here, he was astounding and changed the game. I never saw Gretzky live. But no matter...it's Gordie.

Best player, first game attended, soccer. 

At Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands w/the Cosmos circa 1975/76. Pele

I can't pin down which game it was I attended with my father and uncle but I remember that it rained a bit and Pele was a huge deal. LOL

Best player, ever seen live, soccer.

Pele.

Like Gordie Howe, he's the all-time face of his sport, at least IMHO. I've seen Lionel Messi play, he's a magician on the pitch and maybe one day I will put him in this spot. But not yet.

That was kind of fun to put together. I dug up some fun memories for myself.

Project '57

Close to two years ago I bought a nice lot of 1957 Topps baseball with the intention of building the set. But some other builds and projects kept getting in the way. Now that my 1971 set is complete and my '74 attempt got sidetracked (more on those soon)  I have the time to work on this beauty.


Through the years I've picked up some stars and such from the '57 set. I always have liked the Dodgers' cards with the photos from Ebbetts Field. I'd buy them never really intending to build the whole thing. But the starter lot I mentioned came available at a good price and it was more than I could pass up. So here we are.

I hit up the hotel card show on Saturday and added about 40 or so cards in really nice shape. My friend Darryl really hooked me up. All the cards in this post are from my purchases at the show. The mantle/Berra is obviously the priciest of the bunch but it's nice to get one of the big ones behind me. I have some stars already but not as many as I thought. LOL, The checklist is sort of daunting, to be honest.

Gotta love Spahnie! This was picked up from a different dealer. It was one of the rare times I hit up any other tables.

I hear folks rag on the '57 set as being dull, having lousy photographs, etc. And I don't see much of it on the blogs. All of which is encouraging to me because I don't need more people digging for bargains while I'm chasing it.

And while you're at it...tell me these next two are not wonderful cards.

The Al Cicotte and Brooks Lawrence cards are flatoutawesome. Love the old YS scoreboard and Lawrence's terrific Reds uni with the Polo Grounds behind him. Cardboard art.

Don Mossi is always great to see on a card. This whole set is pretty much a mix of portraits and posed action shots.

Dave Pope was in his second go-round with Cleveland. He had also played for the Orioles.

Mack Burk is at Connie Mack Stadium. He had 16 big league at-bats with one hit. He was a grad of Houston's Stephen F. Austin high school which is where my wife went to school. It's on Houston's near SE side, just a ground rule double away from the University of Houston..

Jim Lemon never had anything but a portrait card. Well, that's not true but that's what it seems like.

Another Phillie here. Jack Meyer was a Philadelphia native.

And finally a great card of Turk Lown of the Cubs. He led the NL in appearances in '57 and a few years later with the White Sox, he led the AL with 15 saves.

Topps packed a bunch of stuff onto the backs of these things. Most players got a blurb, a cartoon, full major league stats, vitals, and a big number inside that baseball.

I'm past the 150 card mark with this set now. I likely have a few more minor stars stuck in some binders I haven't dug through lately and that will help. If you're interested you can check my progress with my needs list over at the top of the sidebar.

It's Late, I'm Tired, Here's Mickey Mantle

Two Mickeys, in fact.

First up, a nice, creased, somewhat frazzled Mantle Exhibit card. It's a 1951 photo/issue (the AL 50th anniversary patch was worn that season) from the 1947-1966 checklist of Exhibits. It was a spur-of-the-moment purchase from a Net54 member. It was a package deal that included a Campy that turned out to be a reprint I'm afraid. I decided not to make a fuss over it since I like the Mantle.

This next one is actually more exciting to me.

 

I wanted to find a Mantle stamp for the Yankees page in my '61 Topps Stamp Album. But Mantle stamps are silly expensive (like a lot of Mantle stuff). I could see myself paying a ton for a little stamp. But this one, flawed as it is, was cheap and will do just fine. It already sits in the album and brings me one small step closer to finishing that project. You can see my wants over in the sidebar.

Sorry for the glare. When you take a picture at 2:30 a.m. you don't retake it because of a little glare. That's my man, Elston Howard, under the spotlight. 

Good night, all!

Project '61 Continues

I'm making steady progress in my quest to complete the 1961 Topps set. That'll slow to a crawl when I get to a certain point. That point being when I am down to the high numbers and especially those high number All-Star cards.

Meanwhile, I have knocked off some stars and semi-stars. I really wasn't planning to do updates here on my set build. That's why my Willie Mays card and Spahn All-Star are sitting in the binder unscanned.

But I snapped up a nice handful of cards off COMC a few weeks ago and when they showed up I was very impressed with the condition. These are beauties and my stupid scanner doesn't do them justice.  mostly it makes them look off-center by 'trimming' the borders. Oh, well, you will have to trust me on these.

Not much to say about them other than they are among the better cards in my binder now. The 61s I have are far nicer than my 71s. Oh, did I mention I'm working on that one? No want list just yet. I'll have a post coming soon though.

Good old underappreciated Richie Ashburn. 4-time NL hit leader, 4-time walk leader, 4-time OBP leader, and 5 times an All-Star. I'm guessing he'd have been a 'more time' All-Star if the NL hadn't been thigh deep in outfield superstars back then.

Whitey Ford. I posted his 1960 card over on that blog recently.

Two Braves, Mathews and Spahnnie. I'm trying to figure out what stadium that is on both cards. Wrigley?

I've said it a dozen times on this blog. Spahn cards are always fun. A series of oddly slanted elements, none at the same angle as any other. 

Clete Boyer. I have no recollection of him playing anywhere else besides third base.  But it looks like he played about a season's worth of shortstop early in his career.

Luis Aparicio. I absolutely love that Sox cap with the red bordered S-O-X logo. I have a couple.
 

Finally..here is the Cadillac of the '61 Topps cards. The highest dollar card I'll buy for the set. When I bust it out of the plastic prison I'll be extra careful not to ding it like I did my '62,Willie Mays. That was a hobby moment that nearly brought me to tears.

I figure that by the summer I'll be looking at tackling the last series of this thing. I've got quite a few other projects going in the meantime.

I took the plunge

I've been neglecting this little space for a bit but that doesn't mean I've been inactive hobby-wise. Quite the contrary.

At the September monthly card show, I saw a binder of 1961 commons my friend Darryl had behind his table that I hadn't noticed before. I poked through it and saw that there were about 240ish cards, a nice starter set. Darryl being Darryl said he'd give me a really good deal on it and soon I was headed home with my latest vintage chase project. One I had considered but hadn't really committed to until that morning.

Soon after that, I found a chunk of 61s on eBay for a 'can't pass this up' price and I grabbed them knowing that I'd end up with some dupes. On the flip side, the eBay cards looked (and indeed turned out to be) in really nice condition and many of the dupes were just fine as upgrades over those in the binder.

I hadn't really touched it until we returned from vacation late in October and then I dug in. It took me a couple of days to pull the cards from the sheets, sort and collate them and make a want list. I also pulled the '61s I had in my PCs. Unlike a lot of collectors, I don't duplicate cards across various collections except for a few special collections like Billy Pierce, Brooks Robinson, and a few others. It took me another day to track down the '61 Orioles cards I already had. That's a long story with interesting results that I'll save for a separate post.

Last Saturday I took my want list and killed off another 100 or so from my list plus some stars from a collection Darryl had recently picked up. I'm really happy with how this thing is coming along. I have some great memories of these cards. There are some sweet ones among the cards I have in the binder so far. Like the great Wally Moon card that I put up top. Here are a few more:

Roger Maris carries a pwemium, especially a '61 Maris. I have to balance cost and quality. This was a reasonable one that had flaws, but flaws I can live with. The scan makes the creases look worse than they do in the binder page. A low number common might be an upgrade candidate if it carried these scars, but not a Maris.

I dug Chuck Estrada back in his days as an Oriole and loved this card. That trophy!!

League Leader cards with mantle...ouch. Mantle and Maris BOTH? Yikes. I hate paying the price but whatcha gonna do? What I do is buy one with a crease through Rocco C.'s ear.

These next three come from PCs. I had already put the MVP subset together long ago. That took care of a bunch of stars. And I had a seperate Jensen so that one transferred over to this binder.

I had three of this Wes Covington card. This baby elevates the '61 set all by itself. One of the best cards Topps has done.

My Johnny Callison collection was somewhere south of complete so using this '61 in the set binder isn't a big deal. It's another great card though. Maybe not 'Covington great', but great. Nice look at Connie Mack Stadium here.

Roy Face in LA's Memorial Coliseum.

 Here's an oversized look at the back of Callison's card. Full stats (or what passed for full stats back then), three cartoons, a blurb on cards of players with not a lot of stats and, of course, the player's 'vitals'. Couldn't ask for more.

 The manager's cards more or less borrowed the color scheme from the 1960 rookie cards.

Another PC card on permanent loan. Mudcat!!

Another top hat trophy rookie. I had three copies of this Tommy Davis. I can't say why. He seems to show up in cheap vintage boxes and I always bite. At least now one will be put to good use. TD's off-centeredness is very typical of 1961s. Doesn't bother me in the slightest. The only time I even consider it is if I am choosing between two cards for a binder slot. If the corners are equal then I'll use the one with better centering.

Last time I checked I was over 80% complete with the set. If you happen to have any 61s in a box under your bed that you can spare check out my want list at this link or over on the right-hand sidebar.

This chase is going to slow waaaay down as I get into the high numbers. Those can be silly expensive. I'll need patience and lots of luck to finish this one out without killing off my entire hobby budget.