Modern Day Benders

This post has been stuck in my drafts folder for so long I can't remember starting it.

Now, as we prepare for what may be a sizeable hurricane mid-week, I figured this may be the last chance to post for a while. No time to do any scanning.

This is a mix of Charles Bender 'art cards', legit issues, and nonsense I've picked up over the last few years.

These Helmar 'art stamps' pay homage to the original cigarette premiums smokers were collecting in 1911. The 'modern' versions are nicely done and look a lot like the vintage ones but differ in that these are not as wide.

Next up is a strip panel from the artist known as Gypsy Oak. I've picked up a few things from him in the past. We communicated when I was on Twitter buy he subsequently blocked me. Politics most likely. (ง •̀_•́)ง

The Topps Bazooka Chief Bender below comes from 1963. It's interesting in that it uses a photo of Bender from his coaching days. This set was unlike many of the candy/food issues in that it was not part of the box but rather a bonus that was inside the box. The checklist counts 41 players/personalities and were done in either silver (scarce) or gold tone. More info here.

Another modern piece done in throwback style. This 'Turkey Red' Bender isn't in front of me right now so I can't do much more than posting the scan. The real Bender Turkey Red has a different pose and is just a bit more costly.

Up last is a Panini 'postcard' that shows Bender's Hall of Fame plaque. I think I added this to my last SportsLots order. It's standard card size.

That's it for now. I hope anyone in the path of these two storms in the Gulf stays safe. See ya on the flip side.

Art Cards...by Edward Vela

I went a little crazy a few weeks back and picked up a pile of Edward Vela's cards from his website. I think he's about as good as there is when it comes to stuff like this. I'm not going to delve into them deeply, just post a few today and over the next week.

I'm posting a handful of football cards first since this is the first day of NFL play (for me...I ignore most Thursday night action).

The Johnny Unitas up top is one of two in the post. Next, my current favorite QB, Pat mahomes. He's fun to watch.

I like this Unitas even more than the first one.

Tommy McDonald. He was a childhood favorite. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Vela had done a card of him. He's not exactly a household name.

Now for some baseball cards. Mr. Charles Bender kicks it off.

Eddie Murray. Nice, right?

Brooks Robinson. Vela was working off a picture we've all seen many times.

Dick Allen. Is that Tiger Stadium?

Spahnnie...I picked up a couple different. I'm a sucker for Spahn cards.

Same for Koufax. I now have several different Vela Koufax cards.

And a couple others...hoops and Ali.

That's The Stilt, of course. And below Ali tries to knock some sense into Joe Frazier.

Vela has changed up the backs of his cards as he has gone along. Here are some random backs.

These are prints, not original sketch cards like those I collect for my non-sports sets. But wonderful nonetheless. More to come. I just remembered that I added a Billy Pierce card not long ago. I don't have it scanned though.

Artsy Fartsy Billy P

With only two items* on my Billy Pierce 'wish list', and both of them being costly/hard-to-find, I haven't really done much to bolster my Pierce collection lately.

I added a couple of 'art cards' which fall into the 'I'll add them if they are reasonable' category. They weren't 'must-haves' but they are attractive pieces that I was happy to pick up.

Almost all my Batman art cards are original sketches. I rarely give a second glance to prints, no matter how limited. When it comes to sports art cards I'm not as fussy. I really like Edward Vela's style. He's done a handful of Pierce cards previously. I have bought and posted two others. This one is the best of the bunch. It's based on a photo that I've seen used multiple times on cards.

That card back is signed which is unique among the Vela Pierce cards I own. The fact that it has "#4" after Pierce's name means there is one more I might eventually track down. I bought a stack of his cards a few months ago and still haven't scanned them. I'll get to that soon enough.

The other addition is a Gypsy Oak 'faux' vintage postcard. I believe it's a woodcut and it's done on old cardboard. This came from a third party seller on eBay. I purchased a few items from the artist directly some years back and I see some of his work on Twitter. Earlier today I tried to locate his home page by looking at his Twitter profile and found that he has blocked me. 👀😏😄 This could be due to the fact that I declined his offer to sell me a large Pierce commissioned piece. (too costly and I couldn't display it anyway) or, and this is more likely, due to my left-leaning, socialist (LOL) Twitter posts and re-tweets. Sigh.

Nonetheless, it's a nice piece and it'll go into the Pierce binder postcard pages. I hold no grudges. Besides, I think I blocked him first. ᕦ(ツ)ᕤ

LATE ADDITION:

Today's afternoon mail brought something that fits this post perfectly. A postal cachet featuring BP with the Giants canceled in NYC in 1985. I don't think the date has any significance at all. One reason I liked it is the fact that it mentions his duels with Whitey Ford. I saw a couple of those at Yankee Stadium with my father.

But it's another oddball Pierce item. 

*= they are the '59 Bazooka Short Print and the 1959 Topps Venezuelan Ace Hurlers #156 with Robin Roberts

The Andrews Boys Part 1

I had an idea in the back of my mind for a long time and recently decided to finally act on it. I thought it would be fun to collect a card from the careers of every major league players who shared my last name.

This initiated with this guy (BTW...shout out to Joe Shlabotnik who sent me this card):

...with whom I share a first AND last name. That and the fact that we were born within a week of each other. Anyway, I checked with Baseball Reference and the search turned up 14 players in history with my last name. I'm not including Steve Andrade whose last name I could have carried through life had the folks at Ellis Island not 'American-ized' it when my grandfather's family first came to the US from the Azores in the early 1900s. (For more on that see this post).


The Andrews' are listed here in no particular order with dates of big league service and the teams they played for:

Mike Andrews (1966-1973)	Franchises: BOS,CHW,OAK
Shane Andrews (1995-2002)	Franchises: WSN,CHC,BOS
Rob Andrews (1975-1979)	Franchises: SFG,HOU
Ivy Andrews (1931-1938) aka Paul	Franchises: NYY,BAL,BOS
Nate Andrews (1937-1946)	Franchises: ATL,STL,CLE
Ed Andrews (1884-1891) aka George	Franchises: PHI,IND,CKK
Clayton Andrews (2000)	Franchises: TOR
Fred Andrews (1976-1977)	Franchises: PHI
Stan Andrews (1939-1945)	Franchises: LAD,ATL,PHI
Jim Andrews (1890)	Franchises: CHC
John Andrews (1973)	Franchises: STL
Hub Andrews (1947-1948)	Franchises: SFG
Wally Andrews (1884-1888)	Franchises: LOU
Elbert Andrews (1925) aka Devore	Franchises: OAK

Finding a 'card' of each of them turned out to be impossible for several reasons but I did manage to dig up something for each. I'm going to spread this out over a few posts to keep the length reasonable. Let's kick it off with the headliner. I will link each name to their BR page.

Rob Andrews.... my namesake and the one I saw play most often. I love that he was originally signed by the Orioles although he never played for them. After a fine year at AAA in '74 he was dealt to the Astros in the trade for Lee May. He spent two seasons here in Houston before moving on to the Giants. His brother Mike is on the list. In addition to the card at the top that Joe sent me I have a couple of others.

This SSPC came from Joe as well. I have another one in the set binder.

Hub Andrews... He pitched a total of 11.2 innings for the NY Giants in two brief stints in 1947/48. He didn't get any decisions. He worked in the insurance industry after his playing days. He has no known cards but I found this autographed index card on Net54.

Mike Andrews... Rob's older brother who played 8 seasons in the AL, mostly with the Red Sox. He was part of the Red Sox Impossible Dream club of 1967 and then won a Series ring with the Athletics in 1973. He had four hits in the '67 Series. He hit .293 and made the All-Star team in 1969. This card came from a card show cheap vintage box.

Stan Andrews...He got into 70 games over four seasons as a backup catcher for the Boston Braves, Dodgers, and Phils beginning in the late 30s. He had a long minor league career and some solid seasons there. He appeared in the 1941 Goudy set but I haven't found one that was in my price range although they are not especially costly. He has cards in some reprint and oddball sets. This one I own is an 'art card' from what is called the 2017 Carl Aldana San Francisco Seals World War II Commemorative set. I'm not sure of why he's included since he never played for San Francisco and only had one very average season in the PCL with the Hollywood Stars as far as I can tell. I'm not sure what I'm missing. Either way, I may try and do better in terms of a card for Ol' Stan.

Wally Andrews... He was a light-hitting first baseman in the 1880s for the Louisville franchise of the then-major American Association. He has cards in the N172 Old Judge set which was issued in the late 1880s. He earned them with a .400 season with Omaha in 1887. Needless to say, I doubt I'll ever have an actual one in my collection. The Trading Card Database has a card showing for him which is actually of Ed Andrews who will be seen here in another post.

These are supposedly copies of Wally Andrews' N172s. But I wouldn't count on them being authentic. In any case, I'm just going to assume they are legit and list them as his only cards. The top two are different scans I found of the same card.

That's the first batch of Andrews'. I know you can;t wait for the rest of them!

A Batman Sketch Card and Not-A-Batman Sketch Card

I added two cards to the 'page fulla Batman sketches' project last week. Or did I? 

First up is one I found on Etsy(?!?) done by artist Alyssa Torres for $12. First of all I don't think I knew about Etsy until I hit the shopping button on Google while doing a search for these things.

One of the best things about this little project is seeing the different takes that artists have on the same subject. Ms Torres (or Alyssa Sketch'd as she signs her work) had this on the page for this card:

The Bat. Looking over his city, plotting the best way to take down the scourge of of Gotham.
Batman is my favorite hero. Yeah, he's rich but he's super intelligent and incredibly clever. And he's always 15 steps ahead of everyone. Batman always wins.

As with a lot of these the ink or paint bleeds to the back.

This next card is done by David Lee (not the hoops David Lee nor the BALTIMORE Colts punter I'm assuming) and it's spectacular. Except it's a print, not a sketch card. A "Limited Edition Print" but a print none the less.

I knew it when I read the listing so I don't feel like I was misled. But I sure was disappointed when I read it because nabbing an original work that was this nice would have been pretty cool.

So only the first of these two will be going into the binder page although the Lee print card will have a spot in the Batman binder as well.

More Batman sketches popped up recently and I have one in transit, one mysteriously hung up at a postal facility somewhere in Houston and bids in on two others.

Running total...Five of nine batman sketch cards acquired, $39 dollars spent. I need to pick up four more with the $36 remaining under my 'cap' to hit my target. Gonna be close.