Lindy McDaniel TTM

Lindy McDaniel was involved in two of the best games I've ever seen, one of which I blogged about a few weeks back. When I came across his website I decided to send him a card and ask him if he had any memories of these games.

I'd grabbed the waaaay miscut '72 Topps at a show last month. He's got a nice sig. I was happy that it came back signed, anything else I got was going to be gravy.

Here is the note I included and Lindy was nice enough to take the time to answer my questions. I noticed how 'long-winded' I was when I got the letter back. I hope he didn't fall asleep reading it!

He included two more signed items, the first is a custom photocard listing his teams and stats.

The other was a signed sheet listing his Hall of Fame teammates and other notable players he shared a field with. I loved this but my scanner didn't. LOL 

Lindy asks a $5 donation for items sent but in my case he went beyond what I was expecting. His website is online here. His reference to Pitching for the Master in his answer to my second question is a plug for his blog (I had first thought it was a book). It's a baseball/religion blog which may not be to everyone's taste but I'll leave it at that. 

All in all I'd count this as a rousing success. I'm not a TTM sig seeker. This, and one I have out to Billy Pierce, are the first I've sent off in many years. Getting the envelope back (it was waiting for me when I got back home from Florida) was a big kick. I'm thinking about doing a few more, 

Post-ing Memories

Back in the days when these Post cards were issued on cereal boxes I had a routine. Most evenings while my Mom was busy in the kitchen I'd wait on our front steps to see my father walking down the block as he made his way home from the bus stop (#32 DeCamp Lines bus out of the Port Authority). He's have a late afternoon edition of one of the New York papers, usually the Daily News. I'd grab it and read as much as I could before supper was served. In those days there was more day baseball and sometimes if the Yanks were at home and had played in the afternoon there would already be a game report in the paper.

While we ate we'd have the radio on (no TV allowed during meals!) and more often than not we would catch the nightly 15 minute sports report done by Stan Lomax on WOR. His is one of the voices of my youth. He'd been a sportswriter who had entered the world of radio very early doing all manner of play-by-play and had one of the longest running daily shows in broadcasting history by the time he retired.

I found (and cherish) one .mp3 sample of his work. It's not typical because it's a drop-in segment from a gig he did with the talk/comedy show duo of Bob and Ray. And it is from late in his career (1976) when clearly his best days were behind him. But it certainly displays his unique cadence and inflection. 

I especially enjoyed his show during baseball season. He would give recaps of day games played or in progress and he's give the batteries for the upcoming night contests. I'd listen intently as Lomax would click off homers and starting pitchers for the Orioles and Phillies (yes, I followed the Phils for a bit back then). 

Lomax also spent a lot of time on boxing and college basketball, two sports I followed as a kid (almost entirely due to him) but which barely register with me now.

Here is the minute and a half audio clip of Stan Lomax which I posted to YouTube:

All of this is a roundabout way of getting to the three 1962 Post cards up top. Frank Malzone just seems to typify baseball of the early 1960s era. Good bat, good glove and a member of the hated (by me) Red Sox. His was a card I didn't seek out but I did appreciate. Much more so that that of Albie Pearson. Whenever I heard his name mentioned the only thing I thought of was how small he was.

Now Art Ditmar...he's a Stan Lomax-type guy in that I associate him with weeknight games at Yankee Stadium. Whitey Ford always seemed to pitch on Sunday but Ditmar was the guy we would catch when we made a game on a Tuesday night. He was also the guy my friends and I mocked for reasons I can't really remember. He was my 'Dooley Womack' before I actually had Dooley Womack to make fun of. I have previously shown off my Art Ditmar collection. 

The '62 Post above and '61 that follows are the latest additions. 

It's Art F'ing Ditmar Week!!

Yes, Art Ditmar. For no other reason than I think I have more vintage cards of him than any non-Oriole other than Sandy Koufax. I wrote about my being a fan of the guy when his card was featured on my 1959 Topps blog. I explained it like this:

True confession time... I've always had a 'thing' for Art Ditmar. No, no... not in the same way I've always had a 'thing' for Jennifer Beals..... but a 'thing' nonetheless. I've got several of his cards. It began when I was a kid and the joke among my many Yankee fan friends was "Oh oh, you're screwed, here comes Art F'ing Ditmar!!"  Yes, most of my friends had precious little comedy talent. but that's another post. It was one of those inside jokes and we all became fans of the guy, even those of us who didn't root for the Yanks.

The '58 Topps set doesn't get a lot of love generally. At least it seems that way to me. It's pretty colorful but I think the 'no-background' pics, many of which are just head shots, leave something to be desired. No matter this pink Ditmar card is pretty sweet. The backs had a lot of 'stuff' crammed into the small space. Here Ditmar's card contains a short write-up, his vitals and a 'double' cartoon with some fun artwork. The standard (thru '58) year/life stat lines cover the bottom.

I'll be putting up more Art Ditmar cards throughout the upcoming week. Try and curb your enthusiasm, will you? I'm sure I'm putting my 'Oriole Fan Membership Card' at risk but that's OK. I'm secure in my Oriole-ness.

The Elusive 1958 All Star Mickey Mantle..... Finally

I've been after this card for a long time. I'd bet I put in eBay bids/offers on 40 different copies over the last few years. And I never was able to win. That's because for once I set a certain standard and price point and was determined to stick to it. I was finally able to pick this one up for a 'best offer' of $27 or so.

Chasing vintage cards to me is chasing childhood memories. Yankee fan or not (I was not) I watched many many of their games with my Yankee fan father growing up. And you couldn't watch that many games without developing an admiration for the sheer talent of Mickey Mantle.

Combine that with my affinity for the 1958 Topps All Star subset and you get a card that I've had on my want list since I've been back in collecting. It's not 'gradeable' but it doesn't have any creases or paper loss. The corners are soft but I'm not too fussy about corners, especially when the picture is clean and the back looks as good as this one does.

As I mentioned in my Ted Williams post last week the numbers versus each team makes a great card back for a numbers nut like me. Mickey hit less than .333 against only one club, the Tigers. I would have thought that Yankee killer Frank Lary was responsible for that but Mantle hit .357 against him in 1957. But Billy Hoeft and Paul Foytack gave him fits

I haven't decided on which of my 'Most Wanted' cards I'll pursue next. The '56 Koufax is tempting. It's the only one of his Topps cards I need.

Jim Bouton Upper Deck Game Worn

It's too bad they can't tell you which game(s) this jersey was worn in. I saw Jim Bouton pitch quite a few. I wouldn't have normally picked this up except it has a pinstripe on the material and I did see Bouton pitch. 

When I was playing Pony League baseball back in Nutley, New Jersey one of the guys on our team was Danny Bouton, who was either Jim's nephew or cousin. I don't remember much except he was good. And being related to a big leaguer didn't do anything to diminish his reputation. 

I'm in the middle of a trip back to New York City including a visit to my old hometown of Nutley. It was a great place to grow up in the 50s and 60s.

2011 Topps Gehrig Triple Threads Game Used

I picked up this card at the TriStar card show. It was more than I usually would pay for a card but, otoh, I paid a lot more for a few of my 1959 set.

When you buy something like this there is always a nagging feeling that it might not be legit. But I always look on the bright side of things and I figure that now I have a piece of history. Yankee or no Yankee, Gehrig was a special player. I'm excited to have this one.

The best part of the show was being able to upgrade about 30 of my 1959 set on the cheap. I found one dealer who had a bargain binder for most vintage Topps sets. I dug into the '59 binder and came away with cards in the dollar to a dollar and a half range that were substantially better than some I had.

I have a list of my '59 'upgradeables' that I have prioritized according to condition. #1 priority cards are the worst ones in my set and I look to replace those first. I was able to find 12 of my 15 #1 priority cards at the show.

At the other extreme I found another dealer who had some very nice ungraded '59s but he was asking nearly 'graded' prices for them. I bought one or two from him.