Musing about my five collecting interests: All things Orioles and BALTIMORE Colts, 50's Baseball, team publications, Japanese cards and even some football and hockey.
You might find some beautiful women, soccer stuff, presidential pins and life advice from time to time. I don't charge extra for any of those.
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!
My 1971 set build has been a 'stealthy' one. I don't think I've posted anything about it on here other than putting my want list over in the sidebar. Over the last month, I've been knocking down some of the base cards and dipping my toe in the high number water.
I wasn't collecting this set in '71. I had gotten my fill of commuting across Houston to college classes and I was a dorm resident at this point. I was working at the Houston Post and had a couple of part-time campus jobs that helped with room and board. I was still heavily involved in sports (I worked for the Athletic Department and I certainly followed my favorite teams), but life was coming at me pretty fast and collecting wasn't a focus anymore.
I think I remember seeing this set when it was on the shelves but I'm sure I never owned any. And that's too bad because I've come to really enjoy it. It's certainly unique. The colors and photos pop off the black cards. There are plenty of stars in the checklist and my Orioles were coming off their 1970 title so the whole thing is right in my wheelhouse. That's the good part.
The bad parts are pretty well known among vintage collectors. A high number series with SPs and even a semi-high number series make this thing a bit more costly than you'd expect. And there are 752 cards to collect. But the killer is the black borders and how hard it is to find really nice cards that are not chipped and dinged. The little flaws that are inherent in most raw vintage cards just jump out at you in the '71 set.
Which makes me glad I'm not very concerned about card condition. I have a target in mind when I buy these things and it splits the difference between these two gems:
The Ron Bryant card is about as good a card as I can find in the stack that currently sits on my desk. The Campaneris represents to the low side. These two came from either COMC, the TriStar show, eBay or the last three hotel shows. LOL, I can't remember. I've really ramped up my purchases lately and I grabbed these things from a lot of different places.
I'm at about 83% give or take. I have about 600 of the 725 with about 30 needs coming from the low series (1 thru 5) and the rest being semi-high or high numbers. I scanned some from this stack to show here:
I may take this Dierker to the next SABR meeting I attend. He's a semi-regular attendee. I sat across the table from him at my first meeting a few years ago. I always have a few signed cards in my sets and to get one signed in person is the best way. He's got what I first thought was a golf shirt on under his jersey. But I think it's just one of those windbreakers with cut off sleeves.
The odds are most definitely against it but I'd like to think this photo of Bobby Murcer was taken on the day my friend and I saw him hit four dingers in a doubleheader against the Indians. I know the Topps photographer was there because Vada Pinson's card photo was taken that day, the single most fun day I've ever experienced at a ballpark.
Murcer's card is a classic and the familiar Yankee Stadium background shows up again on Yaz' card.
My scanner did this Jackson card a favor. The edges are not as sweet as they look in the pic. But that A's gold and green uni is as cool as it gets.
John Bateman was playing as part of Eddie Feigner's The King and His Court four-man softball team when I saw them in the late 70s.
Pete Rose is just a bit off-center, but then again, aren't we all?
Roger Repoz was one in a long line of Yankee outfield prospects who was supposed to replace Mickey Mantle. Jack Reed, Ross Moschito, and Steve Whitaker were others.
This Ray Culp card shows him wearing that Red Sox jersey with the red outlined lettering. That always looks weird to me. This has to be a 1970 spring training shot since the 100 Year MLB patch that was worn in 1969 isn't on Culp's sleeve. Another windbreaker here, as well.
Speaking of Culp... he had some really good years for the Red Sox. they fleeced the Cubs when they traded for him. I think there's a chance the Cubs could have held off the Mets in '69 had they still had Culp in their rotation.
And here is Dick Billings because why the hell not?
And finally, The Major.
Another neat Yankee Stadium shot. My lasting memory of Ralph Houk and that place came from July of 1966. My mom put me on a train into NYC that afternoon and my father met me at Penn Station after he got off work. Off to the ballpark we went. Usually, we made it in time for the first pitch but this was a weekday doubleheader and we arrived in the middle of the first game.
Here's how it ended...
Of course, Houk, the fans, the Yankees (and me) went nuts. What I recall is that Houk came out to bring the lineup card to the umps for the second game and he was still arguing. So much so that he got tossed right there at the plate before the game even started. Good times!
My '71 set chase will pick up once I'm done with the last dozen 1961's I'm looking for. I have some of the inserts that were included in packs that year. Those were the coins (which I love) and the Scratch-offs (which I don't). There are only a handful of known variations and none of them are particularly notable. I have no plans to grab any of them.
Oh, I almost forgot...Night Owl collected and blogged this baby over several years and he did a great job with it. If you haven't already checked it out you should go read some of his posts. Fun stuff.
Daniel, over on his It's Like Having My Own Card Shop blog, is having a contest to celebrate nine years of blogging. He has asked other bloggers to enter by concocting a nine card post, theme TBD. That sounded easy enough to complete and a post of cards I've scanned/blogged of players who wore the number 9 popped to mind. I haven't gone through the other entries so it's highly possible that this isn't the only such entry but so be it.
Anyway...here they are. (I wanted to hit the Big Four sports but a basketball entry eluded me. Outside of Bob Pettit (look him up, kids) I can't even think of a hoopster who wore that number much less find a scan of a card of one so I went with the other sports.) These are in no particular order other than this is how I came across them.
Roger Maris came to mind quickly and I was going to use the card from Topps' 1961 MVP subset but that scan was awful. I considered his 1959 card but he wore #3 with the Athletics so I went with my third choice. The 1960 All-Star cards have grown on me since I built the set.
In my mind the #9 in baseball means Ted Williams. His '58 All-Star card is likely the first career-era Teddy Ballgame card I owned as an adult collector.
Here is a Dexter Press postcard of my favorite #9 Orioles player, Don Buford. He was an underrated member of the great Orioles teams of 1969-71. These DP postcards (anything by Dexter Press actually) are things of beauty.
Reggie Jackson wore #9 in his brief Orioles stint. Here he is, my least favorite Oriole wearing their worst uni combo on a modern Topps card.
Jim McMahon on a Pro Set wearing a Chargers uniform. This looks wrong.
I'm a huge fan of Philly Gum football cards. This is the 1967 Sonny Jurgensen. If you don't know much about him you could do worse than spend some time checking out this NFL Films feature. He was a great one.
And now on to hockey for a pair of cards.
Adam Graves has his #9 in the Madison Square Garden rafters. We are currently working on plans for a fall trip to the East Coast and at least one Rangers game in on the agenda. I can't wait.
And finally Mr. Hockey. Nowadays you can't read a sports-related article in print or online without some clown throwing the 'G.O.A.T.' label on somebody. Just know this.....if someone uses it in reference to Gordie they are correct.
So there are my nine cards, all of players who wore that number. Congrats to Daniel on his milestone. Nine years of blogging is something to celebrate for sure.
And what better way to wrap up this contest entry than with my favorite John Lennon song. The same song that inspired the title of this post.
It occurred to me tonite that I had failed to scan and post this card that came from my '17 Archives blaster. Topps gets a big tip of the cap for using this Reggie Jackson photo. I've seen it on 'concept cards' before but not as a real release. Maybe I'm mis-remembering here.
But either way I really, really liked this one and wanted to give it it's due before I put these things to bed.
The 30 Day blog and /or Twitter Challenge has been both fun and thought provoking for me. I've gone through binders I hadn't looked at in a long time. At least twice I posted a card for a daily challenge and then later thought "that card would have work better for THIS one."
Anyway, here is the next installment, Days 11 through 20.
Day 11...a favorite card from the 70s. I went with the Jim Palmer Kellogg's card for a couple of reasons. I have plenty of them for one thing. And they are just plain neat cards. The 3D aspect was unique then and nobody has done it as well since.
I could have put the '78 Murray rookie here but that one would have fit in several other places. I already used it a a favorite rookie card.
Day 12. A favorite from the 80s. Rochester Cal Ripken. The only card I own that I ever considered paying to have graded. I have two of these, the other is on display on my shelves. That one isn't off-center.
Day 13. A favorite from the 90s. I was a David Clyde fan since I watched him as a high school phenom. He was a man playing against boys.
Day 14. A favorite from the 2000s. 2008 Topps Barack Obama. No comment other than I remember buying one pack of 2008 Topps cards at a Wal Mart and opening them in the parking lot. I remember being disappointed in the design.
Day 15. A favorite from the 2010s. I could have chosen any of about a hundred great Stadium Club cards from the last three years. This one is about as good as a card gets.
Day 16. A card of a guy I didn't like but admired. .My only decision was which Reggie to post. I chose a great one I picked up from the late Bob Lemke. RIP Bob
Day 17. A card from the first set I put together by hand. .I decided to use a card from my first major set blogging project, '59 Topps. I'm sure i put together several sets as a kid but I couldn't swear which the were. Probably '62 or '63. Those were school yard sets projects. Picking the '59 gave me the chance to post this great Frank Robinson card.
Day 18. A card of a player who went on to manage your fave team. Could have used a Frank Robinson card here as well. I scanned his rookie card but then decided to use a Bauer for variety. This one had just arrived as an upgrade for the '58 binder.
Day 19. A favorite from outside the USA. This one was right in my wheelhouse. I flipped thru my Japanese card collection and chose three different Sadaharu Oh menkos.
I'm in doubt about the legitimacy of this one:
I like this one .....
....but I like this one the most!!
And finally we get to Day 20: A parallel you like not for the player but the design. I pay next to no attention to parallels so I was at a disadvantage on this one. First one I found was this framed Brooks from an Upper Deck set. Winner by acclamation I guess.
I'm in the midst of pulling and scanning for the final leg of the challenge. They may be the most fun of them all. I hate to see the end of the 30 days coming at me.
When you are digging through a huge plastic tub of old cards trying to fill your hand with $5 worth of 20 centers you end up grabbing stuff for any old reason. I had no sets to fill and no goals to meet so I just grabbed what caught my eye. Here is a portion of the stuff I took home:
1962 Jim 'Mudcat' Grant. I mean, why not? Love this card of Grant which I'm guessing was taken pregame on a sunny Sunday at 'the big ballpark' as Red Barber used to call it. That means there is a fair chance i was there that day. I need more Mudcat Grant cards...hell, everyone does.
Marv Grissom doesn't look all that happy to have had the San Francisco Seals' logo painted onto his cap.
In the 1954 Series Grisson entered Game One in the Polo Grounds with the Giants and Indians tied 2-2 with one out and runners on the corners. You can be assured that the crowd was buzzing as he walking in from that far away Giants bullpen. Not because of Grissom mind you, but because that one out was the result of Willie Mays' storied over-the-shoulder catch that robbed Vic Wertz of an extra base hit.
Grisson retired the side after loading the bases with a walk to pinch hitter Dale Mitchell and then pitched two more innings until Dusty Rhodes' three run dinger won the game for him and the Giants in the bottom of the tenth. Looking at the play-by-play I noticed that Grissom gave up a double to Wertz to open the tenth. But Leo Durocher had faith and he kept Grissom in the game. I'd have to think that nowadays the manager would have been headed for the mound and tapping his arm before Wertz had even pulled up at second.
Maybe even more remarkable is that Grissom was allowed to lead off the bottom of the ninth in that World Series game! It's not like Durocher was out of pitchers, heck Grissom wasn't even the #1 bullpen option for the '54 Giants. That role was held by Hoyt Wilhelm. The basics of baseball have never changed but the philosophy of it sure has.
Wes Covington may have changed teams but with the Phillies, as with the Braves, he likes being photographed at the bat rack.
Like the Mudcat Grant, this '67 Topps Chuck Hinton holds a memory-invoking background view of Yankee Stadium. He was originally signed by the Orioles, btw. And he made the 1964 All Star squad as a member of the Senators. Now you have some trivia questions to ask at your next trip to the corner bar.
A .20 cent 1979 Yaz card. He was a ballplayer. And I need more cards of him. That cap though. The red cap with a blue brim they wore back then just looked wrong to me.
1981 Donruss Reggie. I have no idea why I picked this card, either to buy or scan. But here it is. Pop quiz time...Who's bat is Reggie holding? Answer at the bottom.
1970 Steve Barber. I was a big Steve Barber guy back when he pitched for my Orioles. I wasn't happy when he was traded to the Yankees. Here he is with the Seattle Pilots who took him in the expansion draft and for whom he won 4 games in 1970. By the time this card hit the stores in Topps '70 set he was gone from Seattle as were the Pilots. They were the Brewers and Barber was cut by Opening Day. His days as a front-line starter were behind him but being a lefty he was able to hang on through 1975.
Reggie is apparently holding Fred Stanley's bat. Stanley wore #11. He had 10 career homers, three two homer season. Jackson had 40 two homer games.
