1974 Memorial Stadium Giveaway

The Orioles loved to publish stuff like this back in the late 60s and into the mid 70s. There were all sorts of over-sized team pictures, commemorative publications, etc. This is a four pager given out in 1974 to mark the 20th anniversary of the first home game in franchise history. 

It features pictures from Mort Tadder, box score of that first game (a 3-1 O's win!!) and short blurbs about some of the players, coaches and staff of the '54 team. The team photo takes up the back.

I have several item in this vein, mostly over-sized team photos and promotional items. I used to buy any paper Orioles related item I could find. 

Game Day 2012

I've got big expectations for the Texans this year. I've poured a lot of money, time and emotion into this team as a fan and season ticket holder. It started to pay off last year. Ready for more.

I'm on the way to Reliant for a tailgate breakfast and hopefully a win today. Arian Foster is iffy for the game. No matter.

Next man up!!

Orioles 1977 Burger Chef Fun Tray

I seem to recall there being a Burger Chef not far from the house we moved into in Houston in the mid-60s. I wouldn't bet my life on it. Anyway, Burger Chef was at one time the second leading fast food franchise in the U.S. behind McDonalds. One thing I am sure of... there were no McDonalds in the Houston market until about 1973 or so. The rights to that name were owned by a local burger franchise. When the legal shenanigans were finally overcome the first McDonalds opened to great fanfare.

All of that local history lesson has nada to do with this fairly charmless item I pulled out while looking for other stuff. Apparently Burger Chef distributed these as part of a kids meal promotion in 1977. There were twenty four different teams included in the promotion. I found this 2009 entry on the Things Done To Cards blog which lists the teams and checklists them all.

Each team set had nine different player discs as part of the box. They were die-cut and had some Burger Chef characters on the reverse. Apparently these were supposed to be used as part of a baseball game. The rules and directions were printed on the box. I bet the game was never attempted.

The discs themselves were another MLB Player endorsed item and no team logos are seen. The Al Bumbry disc is shown at the top in 'blown up' form. No stats, just the vitals of each player were printed.

These are readily available on eBay pretty cheaply. I can't remember where mine came from or if I'm the one that did such a crappy job of trimming it off the box.

1984 English's Orioles Discs

I think English's is/was a fried chicken chain that has/had outlets in the Maryland Eastern Shore area as well as down in Ocean City. May or may not be one still in OC.

Anyway they used these discs (lids) as part of their chicken bucket packaging in 1984. The discs came in two sizes (at least) and featured 13 Orioles. The Singleton above is about 7 1/4 inches across while the Murray is just under 8 1/2" in diameter. As with all MLB Players liscenced issues they don't have the team logo on the caps or anywhere else. The player's 1983 stats and a tiny bio blurb flank the photo. I have a complete set that is divided up across both of the different sizes.

These are fairly common on eBay but I found next to nothing as far as background info about these online. Not even one pic turns up in a Google photo search. I did find the checklist and that was how I found that the set is complete at 13.

1 Mike Boddicker
2 Rich Dauer
3 Storm Davis
4 Rick Dempsey
5 Mike Flanagan
6 John Lowenstein
7 Tippy Martinez
8 Scott McGregor
9 Eddie Murray
10 Jim Palmer
11 Cal Ripken
12 Gary Roenicke
13 Ken Singleton

The backs are blank and have a waxy surface. And obviously my scanner hates them.

Pulp Fiction

I used to read a lot of sports related publications back in the day. Most notably Sport Magazine and The Sporting News. Every spring I had a copy of Street and Smith's Baseball, too. But my friends and I would also pick up the occasional cheap baseball rag. I have been looking to pick up one on eBay for awhile now. I wanted any of the ones that I remembered having when it was published.

I finally found one, Baseball in Action from 1965.

I had cut out that cover picture of Brooks Robinson and pinned it to the cork-board over my desk. And I cut out and saved the Wally Bunker feature. He was a real favorite of mine. Finding a copy of it on eBay was pretty neat.

You know you had a cheap baseball mag when you saw the cover story teasers that sounded like the stories your mom read on the mags in line at the checkout stand. Sandy Koufax: As good as new? Whatever. And the paper stock would already be turning yellow by the time your dad borrowed it to read on the train (or in the bathroom).

They were entertaining though. Lots of black and white pics to take up space and stories that promised controversy but delivered platitudes.

And one of the best parts was reading the ads. Here is a blowup of the ads on the page above.

The one touting a way to hear 'whispered secret conversations ... though solid walls' is a classic that seemed to run in every cheap baseball mag. The ad soliciting 'New Story Ideas' is one I don't remember. I wonder how many ideas Leslie Goodwins got?

These Strat-O-Matic ads were everywhere in the mid-to-late 60s. There was a smaller version in every single issue of The Sporting News back then. I was always fascinated by a friend's APBA board game but the Strat ads just made it sound better. I finally saved enough to buy the game in 1967.

Charles Atlas usually advertised his muscle building methods in these mags. If he wasn't there you could count on his less famous competitor, Mike Marvel.

"Yes! The girls laugh at you now when you take off your shirt--they'll be breaking down the doors...blah blah blah." Just $1.98!! And a Free! 'Secrets Of Attracting Girls'!  

Oh wow. classic stuff. Sadly the mag, which came in nice condition other than being yellowed, fell apart in the process of scanning. No matter, I got my moneys worth in nostalgia.

Guys On The Phone

Over the past few weeks Bob Lemke has been featuring cards from niche collections he created from the huge cache of mostly 1990's cards he acquired through his work at Krause Publications. I made a comment on one of his posts and mentioned that I had collected a few off beat collections as well. One of those was cards featuring athletes 'on the phone'... players using sideline and dugout phones and headsets.

Bob replied that he had a very similar collection scheduled for a post on September 2 so I thought it would be fun to dig my 'phone guys' out and present them here on the same day. And here we are.

Most of the 40 or so cards in this little collection of mine are of NFL players shown on 1990 era Pro Set and Topps cards. But there are quite a few more off-the-wall cards included. I'd forgotten about some of them.

Some of the cards show Hall-of-Famers possibly talking to their brokers. Cal Ripken for example, on a big ass early cell phone. I remember being amazed at these contraptions. They were (to me) the second generation cell phones as they followed the 'phone in a bag' things that I remember a buddy carrying around the golf course.

A few more HOF guys using electronic stuff during games.  Brett was still years away from sexting pix of his well, junk to female reporters. He quite possibly was engaged in an intimate conversation with Phyllis George.

More football players including Dan Pastorini likely scrounging up a date with a runway model. He was cool that way.

And a couple more 49ers. Maybe communication was the key to their glory days.

The NBA Hoops set featured all the draft picks on the phone. They were either taking 'the call' from the team that drafted them of dialing mom with the good news.

And I somehow had added a few oddball cards along the way. I have no idea where I came across this card of boxer Bill Castillo. But I would be willing to bet he didn't 'dial' that call!

And finally we have Michaelangelo calling in a pizza order. I know this card was originally in my kids' binder. They loved the TMNTs.

Back when I was doing this I had many of these cards displayed in my school's gym, clipped to a long, coiled old-fashioned handset cord. My kids would occasionally bring me cards that they came across for the collection. Fun times.

Back Home Again

Back in 1998 I drafted Peyton Manning in our fantasy football draft and stashed him away while he took his rookie lumps. I rode that arm for awhile and then traded him off.

Wednesday night I ended up facing a decision as the quarterbacks slid away in this years draft. It came down going back to Ben Roethlisberger who I've had for a couple of years, gambling on rookie Robert Griffin III or taking creaky old Peyton.

I took Manning and later backed him up with up-and-comer Jake Locker and Matt Cassel who has quite a few weapons this year. I hope I don't need either of those guys.