Sadaharu Oh playing card, circa 1969

Until I'm able to afford a true Sadaharu Oh card I'll have to let this one serve as the one example in my collection. This is a playing card issued in Japan during Oh's career. It came out of a deck of 52 and they had different Japanese players. It only cost a couple of bucks. A true Sadaharu Oh Menko card goes for hundreds. 

The reverse shows it was just a run-of-the-mill playing card. But it's an "Oh" card and it was issued when he was still active so it's fine by me.

Sandy is here

All in one piece and taking his rightful place on the Shelf of Heroes after first arriving the in a rather dismaying state last week.

I know that's the news you've been waiting to hear.

The Drysdale Dilemma

Flipping through my vintage cards I found I had three 1969 Don Drysdale cards. I probably have a hundred of so vintage cards that I've kept from my youth. How I still have three Drysdales is a mystery. I don't remember being that much of a fan of his back then. Late 60s/early 70s was high school and college time. I didn't exactly collect cards religiously as I had prior to that. Plus, I was 101% focused on the Orioles then.

As for the cards themselves, they are all in about equal states of what most of us call 'well loved' condition. I think I'll keep one and flip the others. 

T51 Murad Cigarette GWU Rowing

Cards this beaten up are kind of like 'cave paintings'. They are not nearly as nice as they were when they were created but you can still appreciate them today. This is from the circa-1910 series of Murad cards issues as premiums with cigarette purchases. I find them unique in that they cover such a wide range of both schools and sports. I mean how many college rowing cards from a century ago are there? These smaller cards, cataloged as T51, have a larger sibling which carries the T6 designation. 

But I bought this one in particular because my Dad was a loyal George Washington University alum, Class of 1951. He attended on the G.I. bill, joined Delta Tau Delta fraternity and was called 'Pops' by his fraternity brothers because he was four years older than most of them since he had been in the service. 

After I bought the card I was looking over the checklist (this card is part of the third series, 51-75) I saw that one of the schools listed on the back is Juniata College in Pennsylvania. My mother grew up just a few miles from the campus. Just a bonus that added to the card's appeal for me.

I doubt I'll collect others from this set although there are some pretty nice ones available. The bigger name schools' cards are costlier than I'd be willing to pay. But as a cool card representing my father's school, I sure like this one.

Bill Bradley pin and cards

I don't like the nastiness of politics but I am fascinated by politicians, particularly those that run for President. That's what's behind my collection of campaign pins and Presidential biographies. The Bill Bradley pin is part of a big haul I pulled in recently. 

Bradley ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in 2000. He served as U.S. Senator from New Jersey for three terms. He's an author, Air Force Reserve veteran, Rhodes scholar, radio host, Starbucks board member and investment bank partner. Busy guy. 

But this post ties into sports directly because Bill Bradley is also a former Princeton hoops star, NBA player with the NY Knicks, Basketball Hall of Famer, and timely because he was an Olympic basketball Gold Medal winner at the 1964 Summer Games in Tokyo.

I have maybe a dozen Bradley basketball cards total. Here are two. The first one is a 1973 Topps. 

This one is from the 1983 Greatest Olympians set. Bradley looks very much like a young Johnny Carson in this one. 

1960 Topps Mike Cuellar

I know that sometimes this seems like the "Mike Cuellar Blog" but it's just that I have a lot of his memorabilia on hand. I've mentioned several times how much of a favorite he was.

Cuellar was on my mind again just just this past Friday because one of my favorite bloggers, William from Foul Bunt, featured an Cuellar autographed ball he picked up at the National.

I've also mentioned how much I enjoy the 1960 Topps set so the Cuellar card would naturally be one I'd cherish. Ignoring for a moment the fact that Topps used the same picture twice on the front of the card, check out the cartoon. They show a pitcher wearing a Castro-like beard and refer to Cuellar being discovered while pitching for the Cuban Army team. I guess they were trying to be timely as Fidel Castro had taken over Cuba on New Year's day of 1959.

And it looks like Topps had one, and only one, Cuellar photo in their files. The '60 card repeats the same picture  (twice) that first appeared on the '59 Cuellar 'Rookie'.

Over on my Topps '59 blog I related a story of how i came to be sitting next to Mike Cuellar at a game in the Astrodome. And somewhere in my boxes of 'stuff' is a ball he tossed to my brothers and I in the old Arlington Stadium. We were seated in the first row of the outfield stands and Cuellar was doing some warning track laps during batting practice. My two younger brothers would shout "Mike, throw me a ball!!" every time he passed under us. Eventually he did.

Oh no!! Don't look at this, Night Owl!!

I was so damn excited. I scored a Sandy Koufax bobblehead off eBay and it came to my door in just a couple of days. Unfortunately, just like my Frank Robinson bobble, Sandy showed up broken. Dammit.

I've contacted the seller. Now I'll wait and see. The seller has a 'doesn't accept returns' notation on his listing but what about broken items? How have you/would you handle something like this?

Anyway, here is poor hand-less Sandy. No matter how this comes out I've learned my lesson. No more bobbleheads through the mail.

UPDATE... tonite I was contacted by the seller and he's sending a replacement on Monday. I hope he packs that one better.