1963 Fleer Warren Spahn (and friends)

With Spahnie it's all about the angles. Smile tilted one way, nose bent another way, cap brim cocked to a different angle altogether. Add in the terrific Milwaukee Braves gear and the result is almost always one fine baseball card.

I'm now at 56 60 of 66 in my pursuit of the 1963 Fleer set. Spahn was the first 'star' card I picked up once I knocked off almost every common. To get those commons I set myself a goal of collecting them in decent shape and priced at $2 or less. I couldn't quite pull that off but I wasn't much over in most cases. I don't have all 60 in hand yet but with the group I nabbed off COMC last week in route it won't be long.

It may not appear so in the scan but the card of Glen Hobbie shown below is the worst of the 'commons' in terms of condition. That visible crease on the lower right is much longer and more pronounced in hand. But for a dollar card I'm good with it.

Sometimes my friends and I would be captivated by a player due solely to his name. Bill Monbouquette was one such player. We'd like to imitate Red Barber describing a Monbo outing against the Yankees. I can still hear that in my head.

With what I know of Turk Farrell I'm guessing he was a real blast to have as a teammate.

I dabbled with the Phillies as a NL team to follow way back when and Demeter was a favorite of mine. The crease on his card is pretty ugly. This one may some day get upgraded.

Dick Howser on a card that includes a bat rack and the iconic old Yankee Stadium facade and lights. Bonus points for the cool Athletics sleeveless tops. One of my favorite cards in the set. RIP Dick Howser. A baseball 'lifer' whose life ended much too short.

Bob Purkey in the Polo Grounds.

That's old Griffith Stadium behind Tom Chaney. I have no memories of those caps. This is another creased card. Since I bought this one I've seen others in better shape for $2 or less. Sometimes my impatience costs me.

I've posted my remaining needs for this set over near the top of the right side column. I have no illusions of someone discovering that they have a spare Joe Adcock and dropping it on me but, hey you never know.

Billy Pierce Sketch Card

I bought this on a lark. While I usually like oddball issues (and I have lots of Pierce oddballs) a 'sketch card' seemed kind of...I dunno...'out there' I guess. But I've bought some here and there and I liked this one and for the price I figured "why not?"

The artist has a lot of more limited types of cards on eBay but this is an 'unlimited' edition, whatever that means...probably that he made a bunch of them. I put in a bid for a numbered Johnny Unitas sketch card as well. That will be ending soon. It's rather nice and I'd like to win it. In fact the artist does some pretty good work. I've seen a lot of sports art and some of it is pretty awful but this Edward Vela has talent.

Anyway this is the first addition I've made to my Billy Pierce PC since his passing back on the 31st of July. It'll fit in nicely.

I guess I collect Frank Thomas (the old one)

I picked up this '58 card of 50's/60's slugger Frank Thomas a couple of weeks ago for a handful of change. I've debated collecting the '58 set for the longest time. Back when I first joined eBay I began finding and buying random cards '58s. I have noted before that this is the first set I remember seeing as a kid.

It's garish and has too many head shots for sure. Despite it's flaws it holds a great deal of appeal for me. I can't see myself collecting and blogging another vintage set any time soon, but who knows?

But back to Big Frank. His 1960 card was on my 1960 Topps blog in May. I wrote a long post about his when I featured his card on my 1959 Topps blog. You can read that post by clicking here. But here are the highlights if you'd rather not click thru here are a couple of notes of interest:

-He was traded by the Phillies to Houston in 1965 for starting a fight with teammate Dick Allen on the field. Now considering that Thomas supposedly earned his nickname because of his lousy people skills a fight with the charisma impaired Dick Allen was probably a hot wager in the Phillie clubhouse.

-Bill James's win shares (of which I am clueless), sez he was the worst fielding third baseman ever among those among the top 300 in innings played at third.

I never cared much for the abbreviated stat format on the backs of some Topps issues but it does leave room for a lot of other issues and some classic cartoon art.

Not a bad card for fifty cents. 

Like A Hole In My Head

I really should know better than to take on a new project right about now. I am barely posting as it is and I just got caught up on scanned cards over at my 1960 Topps blog. But the 1963 Fleer set jumped into my line of sight at the local card show a couple of weekends back and I couldn't look away.

I recall how my buddies and I loved this one when it hit the stores in New Jersey back in the day. We were amazed that someone other than Topps had put out baseball cards in packs...and with a cookie no less!! I mean we had plenty of Post cereal and Jello cards but these came IN PACKS!

It wasn't that these cards were especially attractive, they are fine as far as that goes, but it was the fact that 1) they weren't Topps and 2) well, they weren't Topps, that held our fascination.

In the back of my mind I've always thought I might one day chase this thing down. I've had the four Orioles cards forever and I have picked up a couple others including the Koufax along the way. Hitting that local show clinched the deal.

I rarely get too far past the very first table at the show. That's the promoter's table and he always has boxes of vintage that he sells cheap. Dime, quarter, dollar boxes, etc. One box he had at the latest show was marked $2 and I dove in. Immediately I found a nice cache of these Fleer cards and heard my wallet screaming to be opened.

I culled out the half dozen dupes and the Orioles in the stack and ended up with 22 cards....one third of the set exactly if you don't count the elusive checklist.

They were in really nice condition for $2 cards. Not mint certainly but they were not 'filler' cards either and none will require upgrading. They were mostly commons with a couple of minor stars like Jim Kaat and Vern Law sprinkled in.

The Leon Wagner up top is among my favorites (we loved his 'Daddy Wags' nickname) and here is a look at the back.

Nothing special about the backs. As usual you could easily mistake them for a Topps product based on the typography Fleer used. But, whatever.

I randomly scanned a few of the others. I think I'll wait until I knock off some of the stars before I post all that I have. I'll post my want list over on the right side column when I get the chance.

Jerry Lumpe in one of the few drab unis in the otherwise colorful Athletics' history.

Lots of Yankee Stadium shots in the set. Here is Jim Landis.

Al Spangler in the Polo Grounds. The Colt .45s  always seemed sort of, I dunno, exotic or something in that era.

Elroy Face in another Polo Grounds setting. I saw maybe two games there as a kid, Mets games not Giants. I hardly remember being there.

Clay Dalrymple at Wrigley. Are his pants split or in that some sort of elastic insert to keep them from splitting?

Awesome Yankee Stadium shot of Tito Francona.

Gene Freese at the Polo Grounds. WABC was the local radio home of the Mets' broadcasts back then. That was also THE station to listen to for rock'n'roll in the 60's. Unless you were a WMCA ("The Good Guys") or WINS ("Murray The K and his Swingin' Soiree") guy.

And finally a very young Jim Kaat.

I've got some snipes in on small lots of cards from this set. I won one last night and was able to pick up five cards (four new) for about $3 a card including the shipping. I'll get there but I'm in no hurry.

Non Sports from the Card Show

I've taken time off from posting but after picking up these non-sports cards at the local card show a week ago I'm inspired to get back into the swing of things.

These first two come from Topps 1956 Roundup set. There were 80 cards total. Eight Old West legends were included, each getting ten cards. 

There is some great artwork on the, front and back. 

The backs form a running bio of the subject. Note the "See Card No. 32" on the back of the Wyatt Earp.

Her's Wild Bill Hickok. This is the #1 card in the set. I didn't realize until now that I have the 'front' card of each of these gentlemen. The rest of each grouping of ten shows more action, not a portrait.

Others in the set are Kit Carson, Daniel Boone, Calamity Jane, Buffalo Bill, Jesse James and Geronimo. Speaking of Geronimo.....

I have a handful of 1930's Goudy baseball cards but this is my first one from the 'Indians' set. There are 260 in this 1933 issue. I'd love to see them all together in a binder. The back is pretty hard to read.....

....and there is no way that write-up would fly today. Interesting stuff to be sure.

The final card is from the 'Flags of the World' set, another Topps issue from 1956. I collect the cards that reflect my family's convoluted heritage and the Italy flag joins Germany, Portugal, Great Britain and France in the binder. Once I pick up the Mexico card I'll be done.

These four cards set me back a total of $7. I'll make that deal all day, every day.

I Feel Guilty...but Grateful

I take a month or so long sabbatical from this blog and yet the card packages keep coming. A week or two ago I got a stack of Orioles from Shane at Shoebox Legends. He didn't 'owe' me anything but sent the Birds just because. 

And every one had a place to reside. The chrome-a-fied Adam Jones, Jim Johnson and Brian Roberts are now making my fantasy baseball player binder a bit more shiny. All three of these guys were represented by common cards. Not anymore.

Here are a couple of new-to-me Brooks Robinson cards. I will never tire of Brooks cards. I'm going to need a bigger binder for him soon.

Stadium Club Bud Norris. I thought I had all the Orioles in the SC set but I keep finding new ones. I liked Norris with the Astros and even more with the Orioles. I saw him chatting up a group of O's faces earlier this year in Houston at a time things were most definitely NOT going his way. I was impressed by that.  He's moved on to the Padres now. I hope things work out for him. He was a real mainstay for the O's in 2014.

An finally a couple of Chris Davis cards. He has a lot of 'following the flight of a long drive' pictures on cards. I hope the O's find a way to resign him.

Shane also sent along a Manny Machado card, the only card I already had. But my original one was in my fantasy binder, the new one goes into my Machado collection.

Thanks again Shane. The cards are much appreciated.

Prize Winnings

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to win a contest on The Raz Card Blog. The prize was a base set of these colorful and fun True Heart BBM Japanese lady wrestler cards. They are just quirky enough to be right in my wheelhouse.

Raz has already blogged much of the set so I'll just post a few that I like (and a couple I don't!).

What's up with the frying pan?

I think this is one of the Spice Girls. She's rather frightening.

The next one made me shudder. She bears a remarkable resemblance to a former principal at my school. The woman got her jollies by making everyone else's life miserable. But she hung on to her job because her divisive style of micro-management and intimidation somehow produced decent standardized test scores and in today's world of education that's really all that matters. Honestly, that's all that matters. She was moved to another school a couple of years ago and I'm considering sending her this card and asking her to sign it.

Raz didn't just send my winnings. He stuffed the box with what appears to be a full base set of Ignite NASCAR cards. I'm a gearhead and NASCAR is my favorite form of racing. I think it's changed over the last decade or so, and not necessarily for the better but I still follow it almost weekly. Hey, a race weekend at Talledega will make you love racing and weep for the future of humanity. Trust me on this.

The first part of the set consists of drivers. Tony Stewart is a three time champ but recent off the track issues have reduced his on the track performance, or so it appears to me. He remains my favorite current driver. I hope he can get back to being the 'Smoke' of old real soon. Danica Patrick has had more success as a personality than as a driver but I always hold out hope for a good finish for her.

Both Jeff Gordon and Bobby Labonte are long time favorites of mine. It's a sign of how old I am that I remember when both were up and coming drivers. Now Gordon is finishing his final season on the circuit and Labonte is rarely a factor as he fills a seat on one small potatoes race team or another. But both own championships.

Marcos Ambrose is Australian and currently drives in the V8 Supercar Series for the legendary Roger Penske. I miss his always entertaining interviews on Sirius NASCAR radio. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is another driver I pull for.

The second part of the set shows the car line-up. My father worked for Shell for over 45 years. The Shell car always jumps out at me from the pack.

There are a few special cards as well. Danica Patrick became the first female to win a pole when he qualified first at Daytona a few years back. It wasn't the turning point in her career that her fans had hoped it would be.

Overall it's a great set. Like the Japanese wrestlers it looks really neat sitting in sheets in a binder.

Bur Raz didn't stop with those two sets. Nope, he also added in a stack baseball cards including an awesome acetate Sandy Koufax and some super chromey, shiny Orioles including Eddie Murray and Dylan Bundy.

There is no such thing as an un-awesome Eddie Murray card.

Where do these cards come from? When I buy a pack of cards I get, well plain old cards. But these wild and crazy things exist out there because people always send them to me. Where do the come from? Inquiring minds want to know!