Odd Man Out...T206 Harry Steinfeldt

The famous poem from 1912 entitled Baseball's Sad Lexicon was penned by Franklin_P._Adams and extolled the on-field virtues of the Cubs' double-play combo of the day...Tinker, Evers, and Chance. I have the three players on their T206 cards and wrote a post on them a few years ago.

Of course, infields have four players and while I knew the name of the overlooked third-baseman, Harry Steinfeldt, I never thought about him having a card in that set, much less tracking it down. A Net54 member had one up for sale not long ago so I bought it. Makes a nice companion for the other three.

Steinfeldt had a long career that began with a couple of years in Texas playing minor league ball in 1885 in Texas...Houston, Fort Worth and Galveston specifically. His days with Galveston predate the horrific Galveston Hurricane of 1900 which remains the worst natural disaster to ever hit the United States.

He began his big league career with Cincinnati in 1898 and came to the Cubs in 1906. He helped them get to the World Series that season by leading the NL in hits and RBIs. The Cubs lost to the White Sox in the Series that year but came back the next two to beat the Tigers for the crown twice. They played in a fourth Series, losing to the Athletics, in 1910. that was Steinfeldt's last hurrah with the Cubs.

Manager Frank Chance sold him to the St' Paul club who traded him that summer to Boston in the NL. He finished that season with the Braves, spent 1912 with Louisville and then left the game. He died two years later of an undisclosed illness at the age of 38.

Here is the poem and what Wikipedia has to say about it:

The poem was first published in the New York Evening Mail on July 12, 1910, under the title "That Double Play Again." The day before, the Cubs had defeated the Giants, 4–2, in Chicago, having squelched a late-inning Giants rally with a double play from Tinker to Evers to Chance.

These are the saddest of possible words: "Tinker to Evers to Chance." Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds, Tinker and Evers and Chance. Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble, Making a Giant hit into a double– Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble: "Tinker to Evers to Chance."

The poem, soon renamed "Baseball's Sad Lexicon," became popular across the country among sportswriters, Grantland Rice among them, who wrote their own verses along the same vein. The poem only enhanced the reputations of Tinker, Evers, and Chance over the succeeding decades as the phrase became a synonymous with a feat of smooth and ruthless efficiency. It has been credited with their elections to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946.

 And finally I'll repost my T206 cards of the 'stars' of F.P.A.'s work:

 

 

Baseball’s Sad Lexicon

Baseball’s Sad Lexicon

BY FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS

These are the saddest of possible words: 

      “Tinker to Evers to Chance.” 

Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds, 

      Tinker and Evers and Chance. 

Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble, 

      Making a Giant hit into a double— 

Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble: 

      “Tinker to Evers to Chance.”

OK, until this morning those were 'the saddest of all possible words.' But today I figured we were close enough to the season opener that I should check the Orioles' website for news of their 2018 publications. Every year for the past several they have started selling the O's yearbook, media guide and magazine right about Opening Day. Easy as pie..order, wait, enjoy. I have every Orioles' media guide except the very first one, from 1954. I have every yearbook (they skipped a few years here and there) and at least one scorecard from every Orioles season and postseason series since '54. 

Publications..from the Orioles, Baltimore Colts, New York Rangers and others... are my very favorite collectible. I'd give up every card I have before I'd sacrifice my pub collection. Which is why I was very disappointed when the Orioles publication page showed me this:

In case you can't read it the gist of it is no more media guides will be available to the fans in paper form. Oh sure, we can download a file version but that's not the same thing. I can't hold a file in my hand. I realize that everything in the media guide is available somewhere online but grabbing that big, fat usually orange book off the shelf to find Adam Jones's career homer totals against the Tigers was very satisfying. 

I also realize that last year's guide has everything I need except last year's numbers but that's not the point. My guides are lined up in two shelves of my hobby room. Not having a 2018 guide is going to annoy me. The fact that media guys get one makes it even worse. Guides will be out there and I want one dammit!

Joe Shlabotnik pointed out via Twitter the fact that there were years that the guide wasn't readily available and I was still able to land one. That's true but that doesn't mean the 2018s will show up on eBay anytime soon. I may have to wait years for some reporter's widow to sell off the guy's hoard. It's depressing.

For the record, I was given many of the guides from the Orioles' early years by my uncle who had connections to the team back then. In the late 70s/early 80s I would call or write the club's pr department and beg for one. One lady actually remembered me from year to year as 'that fan in Texas'. Some years they sold them along with the usual pennants and team postcards via mailorder. I've saved a bunch of the forms I got back from my calls and letters. The rest, mostly the expensive ones I was missing from the mid-50s, I bought on eBay.

Yes, I'm probably overreacting to all this but it sure feels like a big piece of my hobby enjoyment is over. Yup, my gonfalon bubble has been pricked. Oh well.

Since I hate publishing a post without some sort of memorabilia here are my T206s of the "Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds, Tinker and Evers and Chance".  

Sweet cards, yes?

T206 Charles Bender with trees!

Not much to say about this one except it gives me 2 of the 3 Bender T206 cards and it's not long for this case.

My knowledge of the T206 set is limited but I do know it's called the 'Monster' and it's the most iconic baseball card set in history. Lot's of collectors have insights into the variations, back varieties and such but I'm not sure anyone knows much about the artists responsible for these beauties.

Looking at my new card above with the trees in the background and my other one (below) without the trees I can take a guess that two different artists used the same photo as a model.

The third T206 Charles Bender is a beauty as well. Here is an image of it from the net:

I've exhausted my hobby budget for the month (year? LOL) but there are a couple of these on eBay right now that my my left index finger itching to click the BIN button. Lord give me strength!

Project Post inspired by Night Owl

A week ago Night Owl posted about his various hobby projects and that post spurred quite a few other bloggers to do the same. I'm kind of late to the party as usual. I had a very similar post in the works for awhile so NO's entry got me to dust it off and revise it for posting today.

My MO is to be working on a 'primary' project (likely a vintage set) while having others churning in the background. Those secondary ones are usually just my long term PC searches. That's pretty much where I am at the moment. Truth be told though I'm spending most of my time on a project that isn't directly hobby related but certainly will effect my collecting. More about that at the bottom. First things first.

Here is my primary project right now:

1970/71 Topps Basketball

I'm enjoying the ride on this one. It's challenging without being impossible. I'm in need of 32 cards to complete the 175 card set. Plus I'd like to nab the Checklist Two variation. I've got the biggest names knocked off, at least in terms of their regular cards. I need a few All Star cards and some second tier stars. The rest of what I lack are mostly short-printed common players.

I was happy to pick up a very nice Wilt Chamberlain last week. It was significantly less expensive than other examples in similar shape. Patience pays off.

In the same transaction I grabbed these two. The Championship Series cards which land at the end of the checklist command a premium about equal to a semi-star card. May be because NY and LA stars appear on the fronts.

My secondary, ongoing projects:

T206 Baltimore Players

Here's a word to the wise: If you get your checklists from the 1977 edition of the Sports Collector's Bible you are likely going to end up disappointed.  Trust me on this. Years ago I wrote down six cards from Bert Sugar's book into my wantlist thinking they were the Baltimore Orioles represented in the iconic T206 set. Over the course of a few years after I began looking I was able to acquire all six. Turns out that there were nine! I only found this out recently. Luckily none of the three Orioles I was missing were stars or otherwise hard to find.

This card of Sammy Strang is one of the 'missing' three. I picked it up not long ago on eBay. Strang had played 10 major league seasons, mostly with the Giants. He played on their championship 1905 squad and got one at bat in the World series against the Athletics. He led the NL in On Base Percentage in 1906. He finished his career with three seasons in Baltimore with the Eastern League Orioles. He played both the infield and outfield. After his playing days Strang, whose father was a baseball executive, served during World War I and later was a minor league manager and coached baseball at West Point and Georgia Tech.

I hope to complete this small group of cigarette cards in the next few months.

Player Collections

I always look to add to my player collections. I have too many of them for sure and only a few are really being actively pursued but I get a lot of satisfaction from building them. 

My Billy Pierce collection is at a point where the last pieces are going to take some time. There are only a couple of vintage pieces open on my checklist. One is his 1959 Topps Venezuelan #156 Ace Hurlers card that he shares with Robin Roberts. The other is his 1959 Bazooka card. It's an SP and doesn't show up often and when it does it is out of my price range. The other things I look for are 'one offs' and oddballs like ballpark pins and team issued postcards. These things are difficult to checklist and may not even exist. I find press photos all the time but I just don't buy every one that comes along. Outside of those two cards I mentioned I figure my Pierce collection is complete. Of course there are also cards issued post career by Topps and other companies. I collect them as well but do so without a lot of effort or zeal. The ones from Topps use the same photo over and over (sound familiar to you Koufax collectors?) and the differences are just silly in my eyes.

This card, the 2011 Topps 1952 Black Diamond Pierce autograph card, is an example of that sort of thing. It's probably the most costly of the lot and I shouldn't have picked it up but whatcha gonna do? I don't know how collectors who chase some of the more popular players deal with stuff like this. 

A couple of years ago I read Chief Bender's biography and found him to be a fascinating baseball figure. Since then I've tried to collect his cards. Obviously many of them are very pricey and will never find their way into my collection but combing through eBay for bargains is fun. Right now I have about a half dozen vintage Bender cards. This 1940 Play Ball was issued after his career was over obviously but it's still a great card.

Other player collections...Elston Howard, Johnny Callison, Bob Moose, Juan Pizzaro, Connie Hawkins, numerous Orioles and Baltimore Colts players and several more are all checklisted to one extent or another. I poke around at card shows and online and add things that I come across but none are complete nor am I confident that my checklists are even accurate. That's a long term project.

After ignoring many of these collections for awhile I checked a few of my eBay saved searches recently and found this Bob Moose ARCO collectible. It's an 8x10 photo and I like that the back mentions his no-hitter that I witnessed at Shea Stadium in 1969.

The Baltimore Colts

As with Billy Pierce I don't have much in the way of vintage mainstream cards to find for my ongoing Colts collection. Just a few of the Fleer Super Bowl cards and a Topps premium/insert or two remain. In the meantime I pick up the stray modern card of Baltimore Colt players and oddball pieces that turn up here and there. I had this this on the front bumper of my '64  Malibu SS back when I was tooling around campus back in the 70s. That is until a cop stopped me and informed me that I needed to put my state-issued plate back on or get a ticket. I since lost the Colts plate but found came across it in my garage a year or two ago. It now sits proudly on my office wall.

Non-Sports Sketch cards

I've set this aside for the time being. Every few weeks I check eBay for Batman and Mars Attacks sketch cards but not much has surfaced that looks nice (and affordable enough) to go after. I won't call these 'complete' but I am satisfied with what I currently have. The same can be said for my pins and postcards. I'm in a holding pattern at the moment. 

Publications

I've finished my goals for the most part. I have a straight run of Orioles yearbooks and media guides from 1954 through today with the exception of the '54 and '56 guides. I collect game programs but have never worried about having one from each year. Maybe one day I'll see if I'm close to a full run. I'm pretty sure I am. My Baltimore Colts media guide collection is complete. As with the Orioles I dabble in game programs but don't have very many. I have spent some time working on my New York Rangers publications lately. I have about half of their Blue Book/media guide run that they began in the early 60s. I'll never finish it but filling in the gaps in my 80s and 90s shelves is cheap enough.

Fantasy Sports Collection

I have been running a fantasy football league for college friends and some new arrivals since 1980. I've been playing fantasy baseball in multiple leagues for about the last seven years. Every player I've ever 'owned' on all those teams is represented in my fantasy baseball or football binders. Sometimes I've had to make my own custom cards, sometimes I've bought custom ones on the net. But the vast majority are actual cards and my goal is to have as many different sets represented as possible.

The only current cards I seek out are those of my players. This '18 Heritage card of Alex Colome came in my only pack of this year's Topps I've bought. It will push out his '17 Topps card since I have a bunch of those in my baseball binder.

Over on the football side I'm always looking for cards of players who are now represented by those custom cards. A real card, even a throwback always bumps a custom. But I doubt I'll see Elton Veals or Kyle Mackey for example in a Donruss or Score set anytime soon.

With this year's baseball draft coming up in a couple of weeks I'll be back in the market for singles of my players. I wish I had the internal fortitude to wait until the season was over and nab each one in a single transaction on COMC. Not happening I'm afraid. I'm too anal. I need a card of the guy I picked up on waivers NOW! The good thing is I've stockpiled a 400 count box of current players so hopefully that'll cover most of my players.

My next project:

1962 Topps(?)

I told myself I wouldn't take on another vintage Topps baseball chase after I finished the 1970 set. And I'm not sure I really will. But the itch is still there. I recently picked up a small '62 Topps lot. through a collector I know via an online forum. The cards are in 'collectible' condition (for me that's VG or better) and came pretty cheaply.

Even in my weaker moments when I was thinking about a new project I hadn't really considered the '62 set as a goal. It's not terribly popular (but that might make it more easily obtainable). Plus I was leaning towards 'bookending' my '59-'60 run with either the '57 or '61 set if and when I did give in to my urge. I also considered doing the '1966 set to commemorate the Orioles first title.

If I do take on the '62 set I have a decent head-start. I have the Orioles of course, some stars and dupes of guys in my PCs. Plus I have the starter lot now. Darrell at the hotel card show has plenty of these in his bargain bins and always cuts me a good deal. My secret weapon though might be my friend Bobby who has a boatload of all the early '60s sets and could probably be persuaded to sell me some dupes. His cards are in remarkable condition.

There is no urgency to this one. A vintage set chase is a big commitment in terms of cash and time. I still might back out. 

My over-riding and most urgent project

Organization and re-claiming space!!

I mentioned above that I've run a fantasy football league for almost four decades. This fall we will play our 39th season. For most of that time I printed and saved all sorts of statistical stuff. Sometimes it was for or five pages a week or more. That's not counting draft and transaction histories, rosters etc. And until about 2007 or so I produced, printed and mailed a weekly newsletter to all the owners. And I've kept every single scrap of it in binders. Those binders took up multiple shelves and I had more sitting in the top of my closet. I finally decided enough was enough.

A few weeks after I retired in December I began a long term project to get rid of it all. I pulled all the binders, culled out the multiple copies of some stat sheets I kept and began a huge scanning project. I'm turning the whole mess into digital format. I tried out different .pdf freeware programs and have settled on a good one. Each season's paperwork is going to become a single file. It's slow going but I'm making headway. I have ten seasons of paper scanned, saved digitally and then tossed in the recycling bin. I have other seasons through 2004 in manila folders under my desk and ready to scan. It's amazing what reducing a dozen 3" and 4'' binders to one thumb drive and one remaining binder will do for your shelf space.

That space and those binders will be put to good use. All my PCs and sets currently in boxes will be put in sheets and bindered. That is something that is long overdue. I also plan to combine the digital files that all this fantasy stuff has generated since we went fully online in 2008 into single .pdf files. My goal is to finish this all by the end of the year.

That's it for my hobby project update. Apologies if you fell asleep halfway through and hit your head on the keyboard.

#30DBCC Recap of Days 21-30 plus a bonus

Wrapping up with the final ten cards I posted on Twitter as part of the 30 Day Baseball Card Challenge. Thanks to Tony L who adapted a music challenge to something collectors could have fun with. Cards 1 thru 10 were posted here and the next group, 11 to 20, are here.

Day 21: The third segment kicked off with a "card of a rookie I thought I was 'investing' in". I really did very little of this. I didn't go out and buy cards of anyone hoping to cash in. What I did do was put away cards of promising rookies that came in the numerous wax packs I was ripping back in the Junk Wax Era. Mike Marshall (the outfielder, not the doctor/pitcher) came to mind.

Day 22: Card of a common player that eluded me. I had already posted the best example, my Mark Belanger '67 rookie, back on Day 7 as a card I bought in person w/ a story behind it. So I drove off the tracks on this one and went with a 'story' that eluded me. This '59 Colavito card led me down a long and winding path to find the shot it was based on. I finally did.

Day 23: A fave oddball from the 50s. 1954 Red Man Billy Pierce. BP had a card in each of the three red Man issues.

Day 24: A fave oddball from the 60s. I had lots of choices with Orioles team issued things, fool food related cards, etc. But I picked this Boog Powell from 1969's Atlantic Oil game series.

Day 25: A fave oddball from the 70s. (I mislabeled this as Day 24 on Twitter) It's one of many many MLBPA discs and similar items from that decade. From 1977 we have a Pepsi Jim Palmer.

Day 26: A fave oddball from the 80s. One of my favorite Eddie Murray cards is this Drakes Cakes from 1983. I even got a retweet by @Drakes__Cakes. LOL

Day 27: A fave oddball from the 90s or later  Gary Cieradkowski does some great work. His art graces this 2008 Wally Yonamine promo card for a Rob Fitts book. And he has a blog and his own books. Highly recommended.

Day 28: A favorite relic or manufactured relic card. Another category of cards I don't deal with much. I have a couple pages of relics in a binder but I haven't thought about them much. This Babe Ruth bat relic is the best of them although a Mel Ott jersey swatch card I have is cooler looking.

Day 29: A fave pre-1950 card. This was tough. I have some tobacco cards that I love and a few nice cards from the 30s and 40s but in the end my only career contemporary card of Babe Ruth won out. This is a German issued Sanella margarine card from 1932. It's worth posting the back, too.

Day 30: The last day of the challenge asked for your favorite card in your collection. This was the hardest one for me. I cycled through about a dozen cards. I eliminated those that I had been on an earlier day like the '78 Murray, 1961 Wes Covington and the 1960 Mantle All Star. It came down to my '57 Brooks Robinson rookie, my T206 Chief Bender, another card I'll discuss in a bit and this card....

....which in the end is the one card I'd keep if I had to offload my collection. Christy Mathewson is from Factoryville, Pa. I spent some summer vacations there staying with my Aunt Mary and Uncle Al. There isn't much in or around Factoryville. Mostly we sat on their front porch up on that hill and enjoyed the views of valleys and trees. At night my uncles and my Dad would go to the one bar in the area. They would take me and some of my cousins when we were teens and many intense bar shuffleboard games ensued. That's where I learned to appreciate pickled eggs from a jar and Hires root beer from a bottle.

My Uncle Al was probably the only other collector in my extended family. He had a few cards but mostly he collected baseball publications He loved books, guides and magazines. When he passed on some years ago my aunt sent me a box of his stuff. Nothing extraordinary but all of it priceless...to me.

I remember those summer days in the northeast Pennsylvania hills when I look at this card.

Day "31": I couldn't do a baseball card challenge without somehow including the 1959 Topps Bob Gibson I posted at the top. So I added a extra day to the challenge. Here's what I said about this card on my '59 Topps blog years ago:

This is by far the worst conditioned card in my 1959 set. But it's also the one that means the most and the reason I'm filling up a binder with this great group of cards. This Bob Gibson is the only '59 Topps that has survived from my childhood. Besides that, even given the condition it's in ("Poor" would be a generous grade) I love this one. Gibby looks happy to be posing for his rookie card and he's smiling out at us from an outrageously inappropriate pink setting. This is a 'high number' card, note the red and black on white reverse. One day I'll upgrade this card but I'm not in any hurry. This old warhorse of a card will anchor my set for the time being.

I don't remember how the tape got on the back but it doesn't detract from the card in my eyes. Neither do the creases or rounded corners. It had hidden in a copy of the first Beckett Price Guide as a bookmark and sat forgotten in a storage box in my closet. Sorting through the box a couple of summers ago brought Gibby's card back into my hands and the answer to the question I'd been asking myself for some time ("Which vintage set do I want to collect") was answered.

So there are the final cards in the 30 Day BB Card Challenge. I enjoyed posting the on Twitter (and here) and I enjoyed reading other fols' postings. Many are still going on. Tony, great job in putting this together! It forced me and others to dig into boxes and binders we hadn't gone through in awhile. And to think about and appreciate the cards we have in a different way.  It was great fun.

Cards for no reason

I haven't picked up any new cards other than Baltimore Colts cards in quite awhile. And I don't want to over do the football posts. So I'm going to post a few cards that I had scanned to my Picasa account for no other reason than they are (IMHO) awesome!

'57 Gil Hodges.... I'd like to see him elected to the Hall of Fame. But I don't think it's going to happen.

Leaf Luis Aparicio..... love the halo effect that these cards had. Great picture of Looie!

'62 Ralph Houk.... wearing a windbreaker under his jersey! Pretending to shout instructions! With Yogi Berra talking behind him!

T206 Rube Marquard... there is no such thing as a bad T206.

'58 All Star Mickey Mantle. This card is in contention for one of my favorites of all time.

A collection of awesome cards requires at least one Don Mossi card. It's a federal regulation I think.

O-R-I-O-L-E-S!!!!!!!! Game 5 (I guess I should call it Game 2)

Well it was a tough loss last night for the O's, exciting to be sure but tough to swallow. Looks like we will need EXTRA karma to get into the win column against the pesky Royals. I'm digging out the heavy artillery.

From perhaps the most iconic card set of all time and some of my most cherished cards.....T206 Baltimore Orioles!!!! These guys are looking down from the heavens and directing thunderbolts at Camden Yards. Go Birds!!

A T206 Reprise.....Chief Bender

I first posted this card a couple of years ago when I was writing mostly to myself. I love this card so much I thought I would post it again on the day before the 130th anniversary of the birth of Charles Albert “Chief” Bender in Crow Wing County, Minnesota.

"Chief' Bender is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating players to ever don a major league uniform. I read and enjoyed the Bender bio written by Tom Swift. From Bender's Hall of Fame biography:

Played For: Philadelphia A's (1903-14), Baltimore Terrapins (Federal League, 1915), Philadelphia Phillies (1916-17), Chicago White Sox (1925)
Elected to the Hall of Fame by Veterans Committee: 1953
Biography: Possessing a solid fastball, excellent curveball and outstanding control, Chief Bender also developed a slider to help him win 212 games during his 16-year Major League career. He led the American League in winning percentage three seasons, tossed a no-hitter in 1910 and retired from the game with 1,711 strikeouts. Bender also pitched in five World Series, going 6-4 with an ERA of 2.44. A member of the Chippewa tribe and a graduate of the Carlisle Indian School, Bender overcame subtle discrimination and a derisive nickname to become one of the top pitchers of his era.

Here is the only other Bender piece I own. His Perez-Steele H-O-F postcard: