1965 Orioles Scorecard

Publications are my first collecting love, Orioles publications more than any others. I like pulling out a few programs from time to time. This 1965 game 'score book' is a perfect example of why I enjoy them. I'm sure I got this one in one of my many 'blind' buys of Oriole publications I used to do. People advertised in the old hobby magazines and when I found a guy dumping a pile of oriole publications I'd jump on it. That's how I've ended up with twelve 1966 scorecards and four 1984 yearbooks. 

Big Boog on the cover of this one. The O's wore that fairly plain home uni before returning to a more ornate set in 1966. I always thought they were too much like the Giants' unis. The program itself was used to score the May 17th 1965 Orioles-Yankees game at Memorial Stadium. The date of the game is written in pencil above Boog's back shoulder but it's nearly impossible to read.

The ads are always fun and a whole bunch of the 26 pages are ads. Check out the Buick spread in the page above. They used 'floating heads' of opposing players in the ad. I can't imagine that a local car dealer was paying those guys for their endorsement. The Oriole 'floating heads' in the ad for the pizza place below on this next page are not actually part of the ad itself. The team stuck these wherever there was an open spot in the scorecard. 

The team was still celebrating the MVP season that Brooks Robinson enjoyed in 1964. They ran a nice feature on him. After all he was the team's first ever MVP winner! There were several other smaller player bios scattered around the program, one for manager Hank Bauer, too.

The centerfold, like most every scorecard/program ever published, contained the score sheets, rosters and an ump roster for the game. This one was scored VERY neatly in pencil by someone.

As for the game itself, Milt Pappas out pitched Whitey Ford and the O's won 9-2. Boog batted 7th in the lineup. Brooks Robinson was still 10 days or so away from returning from a broken knuckle he had suffered early in May. Bob Johnson took advantage of his start at third and had four hits in five trips. The 'heart' of the Oriole order that night, Jackie Brandt, Johnson and John Orsino had ten hits among them. 

Check out the 1965 concession and souvenir prices on the page below. Esskay Red Hots were 30 cents. You could get a 'jumbo' for an extra dime. Brews went for 40 cents. You could order a fitted twill O's cap for a buck, A fitted wool one went for 2 dollars. But my favorite Memorial Stadium treat was a Brill's Crab Cake. I thought they were delicious. And only 40 cents. I'll take two! And with a 15 cent Coke I could have a nice ballpark meal for under a buck.

And of course no Orioles publication would be complete without the back page Natty Boh ad!

Topps Museum Collection Eddie Murray

I dare you to try and find an uncool Eddie Murray card. Well there IS something uncool about this one. read the copy on the back. "...before changing teams six teams." I guess the editor was napping.

Question for the group....

Which of these lasted the longest?
A) Jamie Moyer's career
B) The Crusades
C) Fuji's Contest

Well, if you answered "C" you are wrong but you still have a shot because it's not over yet, baby!

Be that as it may, The Great Fuj has tossed this out there... "What are your three most prized possession(s) in your collection?"

I spent an inordinate amount of time last evening mulling this over. Really, I did. It was men's gymnastic night on NBC so I could safely ignore the Olympics. I sat in my den/office/memorabilia room and tried to decide what three items I'd stash in a drawer if my wife suddenly decided she needed a sewing room and my crap had to go. (And don't think for a minute that's beyond the range of possibility).

I weighed my Brooks Robinson Rookie card against my Johnny Unitas Rookie Card. I contemplated which of my Oriole, New York Ranger and Colt yearbooks or media guides I cherish the most. I stared at my shelves of bobbleheads and display items and tried to pick out my favorite.

After two cups of decaf and a banana nut muffin I'd squared it away in my head. Later in bed I spent an hour second guessing myself, changing my mind and forming a clever post in my head.

Then I got up this morning, scrolled thru my daily reads while the Keurig warmed up and was stopped in mid-read. One responder to the Fuji Challenge had CHEATED! I won't say Whooo it is, but his post is up for all to see.

The certain someone had decided that if he had a fire at his house he could save a binder. A BINDER!!! Holy shit, that shed a whole new light on things! If had considered that I could keep binders I knew I'd been wasting my time last night. I could grab multiple items at once and still qualify for Fuji Points!

So, bottom line, the three most prized possessions in my collection, or in that other guy's terms, the stuff I would save from a fire.:

In no particular order order:

1) My Houston Texans Inaugural Game stuff. I've been a Texans ticket holder since the day they went on sale in the fall of 2001. I invited my Dad to the first game, the Monday night in '02 when the Texans beat the Cowboys. My Dad, who had taken me to countless great sports events as I was growing up, had the time of his life. As the clock wound down in the fourth quarter I expected him to do his usual "Let's beat the traffic" routine and want to head for the ramps. Nope, he wouldn't leave. He was thrilled with the game and caught up in the excitement there in Reliant Stadium that night. We stayed cheering until all the players had finally left the field and I think he STILL hated to go. I've never seen him that excited. I'll remember that forever. I was able to repay him in a tiny way for all the stuff he'd brought me to as a kid. I took him to more games but that Opening Night game in '02 was beyond special. I could replace the stuff if I had to I guess but it just wouldn't mean as much as having the tickets we actually used. Not at all.

2) My binder of football cards that represent every player I've owned in 32 seasons. I love my fantasy Football league. I've run it a long time and it is made up of college friends. We've all been together for ever it seems. I don't think I'll ever give it up. I've tracked down a card for every player I've owned and it's taken some effort. The mainstream cards were pretty easy. No problem grabbing one for Eric Dickerson or Joe Flacco....

.....but finding cards of some players proved hugely challenging and required a lot of footwork and research. I wonder how long it would take to replace them....

 ...and some guys never had a card issued (which makes me wonder why I ever drafted them) and forced me to be creative and make my own....

I doubt I could track down replacements for everything in that binder.I'd never find that picture of 1980 Bengal kicker Ian Sunter again.

3) My plastic box of my kids sportscards. How could I ever get these back? I love my '59 Topps set but I could have another one this afternoon. Wouldn't be nearly the fun as I had putting mine together card by card, but I could write a check and there it would be. But my kids' cards, especially since I did so much of the coaching.... no way could I lose these.

There you have it. My 'three things I can't ever lose' possessions from my collection.

Oh, if my wife gave me that ultimatum I'd dump these items into this banner to store them...

...and claim an Owl told me it was O.K to store them that way.

Conundrum on Ice

I recently participated in a fancy hockey card group break held by Matt from Cardboard Conundrum. I never have had much luck with those but I don't have many slick new hockey cards so I figured this would be a shot at Ranger cards, plus whatever fell my way.

Here's what I got:

Anisimov/Staal Panini swatch card.

Man, I love the alt sweaters the Rangers wore in 10-11 so this is pretty cool.

I got an autographed card of Craig Smith of Nashville. He was a rookie this past season straight out of U of Wisconsin.

I can say with 100% certainty that this is my only Nashville Predator card. Is that their alt sweater?

Then Matt was nice enough to send along some cards he had posted that I commented on. My favorite non-Ranger goalie is Patrick Roy. He is also the absolute favorite NHL'er of one on my sons. This is a nice Upper  Deck Retrospective card.

And then there is this....

I get all mushy remembering the one and only Cup title that Rangers have won in my lifetime. Classic 'Cup over my head' moment. Matt sent along one of Roy as a Hab doing the same thing...

..... and a card of a remarkably young looking Mark Messier with the Cup as an Oiler.

Thanks, Matt. I owe you. I'll be looking for something off your Want List.

40 Years Ago

On July 30 of 1972 I was in Baltimore for my pretty much annual summer trip up there. It was usually a week or two of cramming in as many O's games and crab feasts as humanly possible. When we had spare moments I'd go to Faidley's for crab cakes.

My Uncle would score tickets and we'd head for the Stadium using his 'shortcuts' and winding along beside Druid Hill Park. And he had 'out of the way' parking spots that never failed. That Sunday Mike Cuellar shutout the Yankees on three hits. Boog Powell homered and he and Brooks Robinson each had a pair of RBI's.

I seem to recall a Yankee batter getting tossed by an ump but I can't find any evidence of who it could have been. Maybe that was another game. :::edit.. maybe it was Ralph Houk?:::

My man Mike Cuellar passed away a couple of years ago. I just loved watching him pitch. There was just something special about the guy and how he worked on the mound.

Those were really good days.

Fuji asked again... (and again!)

...and this time the question that Fuji asked was:

"What are your all-time favorite products to collect in each sport?"

By 'products' I assume that he is looking for a 'card set' so I'll stick to that. That makes a difference because my favorite things to collect are not necessarily cards.

Anyway in baseball my favorite product would be the Topps 1960 set. I have mentioned that and did so just the other day in a comment on Fuji's blog:

I loved that 1960 set. It was very colorful and I really dug the rookie cards and the manager cards. There was something about the backs that drew me in, too. The gold and white color scheme and the 'Season Highlights' were fascinating to me. I'll NEVER forget a kid at school whose parents had bought him a whole box of packs of the 1960s. I couldn't get over how lucky he was.

 In football it would be the 1990 Pro Set. Easy to buy by the pack at my local grocery, cheap so the kids at my school could buy 'em as well. I put together the set a card at a time. Had a lot of fun doing it. Plus, they are nice looking, at least I think so. This set got me back into collecting football.

Hockey? I collect that, too. But I don't have many cards. Most are vintage Rangers I've sniped off eBay here and there. No hockey cards survived my childhood. The only ones I even remember having were late 60's post expansion Topps cards. I do have the 77-78 WHA set. It's pretty crappy but I was a huge Aeros fan back then and the set was fun to put together a few months ago. 

Here is the Frank Mahovlich card from the Topps OPC* 68/69 set. Most gawdawful thing, isn't it? They stuck his head on another player's body and hoped no one would notice. 

edit...Fuji's next question was "What is the ugliest set you've ever seen?"  This is it. The Topps 68/69 Hockey. Poorly cropped posed shots, generic sketched backgrounds. It's worse than the 1990 Topps baseball set (although not by much).

*=thanks for the correction 1967ers

A Pair of Franks, a feathered friend... and Don Drysdale

In the rush of craziness that was my month of July one trade package that came my way slipped past me. Chris a.k.a Nachos Grande sent me a Frank Robinson card from the 2011 Gypsy Queen set. It's a special one with a frame and looks pretty cool. The Gypsy Queen art (at least in my eye) is pretty special. I don't see as many "LOL" inducing cards as I do in Allen & Ginter (see Maris Sketch card).

There probably weren't more than a handful of guys as competitive as Frank Robinson. Ever. And I understand he's not everyone favorite guy. In fact I dropped a blog from my daily reading list because of some remarks he made. Petty? Maybe, but why bother with haters?

Here's the card from NG:

The scan just doesn't show how nice it is. Can't see the frame or the gold letters. Thanks a bunch Chris.

Wasn't long after I got that card that I was at a small flea market type sidewalk sale in Dallas and found a guy with a box of cards. Among the handful I picked for a total of $3 was a different GQ Robinson, this is a Homer Run Hero card and a couple of Oriole Bird Mascot cards from this year's Topps. 

This stuff is old news to most of you but I don't have much in he way of current cards so I appreciate having these.

I kept one of these Bird cards and the other is fixing to be mailed to someone who has it on their want list. 

I paid a little more for this 1957 card. It's a rare one in that the scan actually makes it look better than it is. The smiling, youthful Don Drysdale would morph into one of the most badass pitchers ever. I thought about the Robinson/Drysdale combo on the trip home. How'd you like to have been John Roseboro in the early 60's and had the chance to be right in the middle of many confrontations between Drysdale and Frank Robinson? I'll bet he heard some things, no?