1961 Fleer Autograph Project - Part 49

 I am back!   I was back in Ohio for a while to help my mother out while my sister was on vacation and I'm going back in a few weeks to help her move into an assisted living apartment.  I am finally seeing daylight ahead as I work past some of the issues that plagued me year to date.  I still have to make some repairs to my farm truck and put up some hay for winter, so I don't expect to actually go to a card show until October, but it is nice to be able to put a marker on the calendar.

                                              

Next up in this series is Hall of Famer Carl Hubbell.  Hubbell, who died in 1988, was a prolific signer and his signed cards are one of the more affordable ones in 1961 Fleer.  My version is not the most attractive and probably could stand to be upgraded, but it isn't a priority.  So, what do we know about Carl:

• He was born in Carthage, MO but grew up in Meeker, OK (about a 45-minute drive from my home) on a pecan farm. Although he passed away in Arizona, he returned to Meeker for his final resting place.
• Coming out of high school he started work at oil company and playing in the Oklahoma State League for the Cushing Refiners.  The league was considered Class D but doesn't appear to have been part of affiliated ball as there is no record of it at Baseball Reference. 
•  B-R shows Hubbell's minor league career starting in 1924 with 2 appearances each with the Class C Bartlesville/Ardmore Bearcats and the Class A Oklahoma City Indians.
• After a 17-13 season with OKC in 1925 his contract was purchased by the Detroit Tigers.
• His career almost derailed during the 1926 training camp when Detroit manager Ty Cobb told to stop throwing a reverse curve screwball for fear of a serious arm injury.  Carl was generally ineffective after giving up his signature pitch.  Despite creditable year with Decatur in 1927, he was sold to the Texas Leagues Beaumont Exporters.  
• The Beaumont manager allowed Hubbell to start throwing the screwball again and after putting up a 12-9, 2.97 record in 21 starts for the Exporters his contract was purchased midseason by John McGraw and he reported to the NY Giants.  He finished out the season with a 10-6, 2.83 record.
• This started a 16-year major league career, all with the Giants. While he was a great pitcher under McGraw, Hubbell blossomed underneath Bill Terry (subject of entry 31 in this series) who took over the Giants during the 1932 season.
• Hubbell ripped off 5 consecutive 20-win seasons from 1933 to 1937, which saw him winning the NL MVP in both 1933 (23-12, 1.66) and 1936 (26-6, 2.31)
• The 1933 season saw the Giants defeat the Washington Nationals in the World Series. In the series, Hubbell pitched two complete game victories in which he gave up no earned runs.
• In 1934, Hubbell surely gave one of the all-time great pitching performances in first inning of the All-Star Game by striking out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Jimmie Foxx on 11 pitches.
• Subsequent World Series appearances in 1936 and 1937 saw Carl throw an additional 4 complete games, though the Giants lost in both years to their crosstown rival Yankees.
• Starting in 1938 the strain of the screwball on Hubbell's arm began to take its toll and while still a workmanlike starter, he was only slightly better than a .500 pitcher.
• Following his playing career, Hubbell was the Giants farm director from 1944 through 1977 and a scout for an additional 11 years until his death as a result of a car accident.

Coming up: a series of 7 more Hall of Fame members.

What I am listening to: Glory Box by Portishead

Pet Collection Yet Again

 It has been a bit of a year here with our animal family.  We lost our 18-year-old cat Squeak (not unexpectedly) and my formerly feral cat Chester (quite unexpectedly) We have also been fighting a case of EPM (Equine Protozoal Myoencephalitis) with our senior horse Clyde.  We have not been able to resolve it but have determined that a continual treatment with anti-protozoals keeps the symptoms at bay  As it is, he is happy and active, so we'll just ride it out until infirmity wins out. 

It is a bit of a bummer, but having lived in the country for nearly 25 years, I have created a rule known as the Law of Conservation of Cats which states that the loss of a cat will invariably lead to another showing up in short order.  And so, recently, a small Manx cat showed up.

Meet Stubbs. He is still a kitten and is very friendly. So friendly that we think he may have been dumped out here.  After some initial upset, he has paired up with our other barn cat, Stripe.

I am working on the next installment of the Fleer Autograph Project, but it is taking time.  After months of regular rain, the weather has finally turned continuously sunny, and I am trying to catch up on my yardwork and pasture management.  But it is coming!

What I am listening to: I Never Cared for You by Tami Neilson

RIP - Cobra

 I just heard that Dave Parker died today at the age of 74, a month short of his Cooperstown induction.  His death came a bit over 13 years after being diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.

Parker was a giant to me. He was at the top of his game at the time I was closely following the baseball season as a teenager.  He was MVP in the magical (to me) 1978 season that saw an early glimpse of the "We are Family" Pirates. In 1978, the Pirates didn't hit my radar. I was engrossed in the AL East, that saw transcendent seasons from Boston's Jim Rice and my Yankees Ron Guidry.  A race that culminated on the first Monday in October as Bucky "Fucking" Dent and my Yankees dispatched the Bosox in a one game playoff.  The Pirates didn't really occupy any space in my brain until the following year, with the Pirates seven game World Series victory over the Orioles.

This passing has given me a pause since my father had Parkinson's Disease. It is a cruel disease, slowly robbing the person of their coordination and, in the later stages, of their memories.  My family has never been particularly warm and close.  And living half a continent away, I didn't get to experience my father's slow decline. Since I didn't get back to visit but a couple times a year, the progression of the disease was more jarring to me. And, in the end, robbed us of a proper goodbye as he knew he had a son that lived in Oklahoma but he didn't recognize me for being that son.

I don't offer this looking for sympathy. What is done is done and I have made my peace.  I offer it only to say I am pleased that Parker was lucid enough to see his election into Cooperstown, even if he didn't make it to the induction ceremony. Certainly, not being able to attend the ceremony is a loss for him and the world. But, when I think of deserving inductees (specifically but not exclusively Ron Santo) that never even got to experience the joy of knowing they were elected, I take solace in knowing Parker was able to hear and understand the honor bestowed to him.

What I am listening to: Temporary Nature (of any Precious Thing) by Lucinda Williams

1961 Fleer Autograph Project - Part 48

Has it really been two months since I posted?  Yes, it has. Does it seem like I always start a post that way? Yes, it does.   I haven't done anything hobby-wise in over three months and probably won't for at least as long going forward.  Do you ever have one of those years where it seems like you have one problem after another?  That has been 2025 for me. A lot has gone wrong in 2025. Nothing existential, but expensive. But all y'all have your own lives and struggles and aren't here to listen to me whine. So, let's get on with it.

This is the 48th signed 1961 Fleer card in my collection. I have a total of 72 and of the 24 I haven't yet posted, 18 are in the Hall of Fame, including today's subject, Redlegs great Ernie Lombardi.  

So, what random, interesting things did I learn about him:

1. Lombardi had a 17-year career - 10 with Cincinnati, 5 with the NY Giants, and 1 each with the Brooklyn Robins and Boston Braves
2. Between 1928 and 1930, he hit .370 while playing for the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League.
3. He caught Johnny VanderMeer's back-to-back no-hitters, which we covered briefly in Part 39 of this series.
4. In 1938, he was the NL MVP. That season, he hit .342 with 19 homeruns and 95 RBIs. Modern statistics give his MVP season a total 4.8 WAR, far less than Bill Lee, Arky Vaughn and Mel Ott, all of who had greater than 8.0 WAR. 
5. Considered one of the slowest ballplayers, he also led the league by grounding into 30 double plays that year, an NL league record that stood for 70 years until 2008 when it was broken by Miguel Tejada.
6. Inducted into the Cincinnati Reds HOF in 1958, he was consistently overlooked by Cooperstown.  Indeed, he vowed to not attend the ceremony if ever elected. His eventual induction, championed by Birdie Tibbets, came in 1986, 9 years after his death.
7. He did not believe in signing autographs. It wasn’t until a youngster asked if he was illiterate that Lombardi, to dispute the point, signed the scrap of paper.
8. There is a picture of Lombardi holding seven baseballs in one hand. 
9. Lombardi struggled to find his place after his career ended and even attempted suicide in 1953.
10.  In 2004 a full-size bronze statue of Ernie was dedicated outside Great American Ballpark, joining those of Frank Robinson, Joe Nuxhall, and Ted Kluszewski at the entrance to the ballpark.

What I am listening to:  John Moreland

Revisiting an Old Friend

 Despite primarily being a vintage collector, I do have several modern sets that I dearly love.   2004 Fleer Greats of the Game is one. The Tristar Obak sets, issued between 2009 and 2011, are three more. Tristar played the variation game in these sets, including cards with different geometric shapes around the card number. But, I don't play that game, so I mainly collected the base set and the T212 mini parallels to a subset of the base cards.  I managed to complete both the 2010 and 2011 sets. But the high number short prints in the 2009 set were elusive.  They were rarely available and unreasonably expensive when they were.  Progress ground to a halt and, eventually, I forgot about the set. I can't even remember the last time I added one of these cards.  It could have been as long as 10 years ago, but I really don't know.

Recently, as I have had to curtail my hobby spending due to necessary adult obligations I decided to see if I could cheaply complete off a few side projects that captured my attention for a while, then fell of the radar.  I didn't complete 2009 Obak, but I did find three reasonably priced short prints of the seven I need.

Yeah, I'm being lazy by scanning all three at once and not editing to show them individually.  But, it is a beautiful day and I've got yardwork to do.

Of these three players, only Tony Sanchez made it to the majors, appearing in 52 games over the course of 4 seasons.  Donavan Tate made it as far as A+ and Matt Hobgood to AA.

What I am listening to: I am a Man by Spencer Davis Group

Close Enough, Part 2

 For the few of you that have been long-term readers of my modest little blog, you may be wondering when I did "Close Enough, Part 1." I didn't, at least not so named.  The title refers to sets that are not complete but, due to the cost needed to complete them, will never be.  My first "close enough" set is my signed 1963 Fleer set, for which I have 65 of 66 cards, only lacking the Roberto Clemente (on an unrelated note I was recently offered an ugly but authenticated signed '63 Fleer Clemente. As you might expect there was a significant gap between what I could afford and what the seller wanted. I expected that outcome, so there is no disappointment here.)  65 is close enough for me.

I am on the verge of my second "close enough" set, though this one is a non-sports set.

I believe I have mentioned previously, I really love Star Trek and Deep Space 9 is my favorite series. Last year, I bought a hobby box of DS9: Memories of the Future.  Each box comes with one autographed card. My box contained Aron Eisenberg, who played the young Ferengi, Nog.  Some time subsequent, I got it in my mind to get the autographed card of Louise Fletcher, who played Kai Winn, a character I consider one of the all-time great TV villains. That got me on the quest to finish the 20 card autographed subset.  Over the last year, I've added them here and there.  The above two represent numbers 17 and 18.

Majel Barrett, of course, is Star Trek royalty having been married to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. She has also appeared in every series as the voice of the computer, but also making live action appearances occasionally.  Nana Visitor is one of the central characters in DS9 and, I am not ashamed to admit, my celebrity crush.

So, why close enough?  There are two cards left:  Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax) and Rick Berman (series producer)  As it stands, the only Farrells currently available are overpriced.  But, they are plentiful enough that I will get one at my price point soon enough.  The Berman is another matter and is the reason I will stop at 19 out of 20. I have only ever seen 2 Bermans come up on eBay and both are fixed price listings with the BIN prices between $550 and $600. No thank you. Not for someone who didn't appear on screen.

As you might have surmised, I am home from the National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association Academy and trade show. I had a great time and learned a lot.  I realize this is probably of interest to exactly none of you, but I am a giant nerd and have to show my absolute favorite exhibit.  Feel free to skip past it.

That is a Deere 904 large wheel loader posed as if it is loading rock into a Kleeman MR100 mobile crusher.  My company doesn't use Deere, opting instead for equivalent Caterpillar and Komatsu loaders.  But we do have Kleeman's at our two small quarries, though ours are the larger MR170s.  I've always been fascinated by how things get done.  After 10 years in the energy industry, moving over to mining has re-ignited my desire to learn.  Even though I could retire in 6 years, I cannot imagine not working as long as I get the opportunity to learn new industries.

What I am listening to: Mississippi Queen by Mountain.

The Longest Journey

 I am going to try and post more. Mainly out of a need to distract myself from...well...everything.  I am heading out on Monday to attend this year's National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association's AGG1 Academy and Trade Show (My wife always laughs when I say that and, honestly, I can't blame her)  So, I am going to try and knock out a quick post and work on my next in my hotel room at night as opposed to trying to match some of my co-workers ability to consume alcoholic beverages.

I started collecting in late 2010, by starting on my Paul Blair player collection. Early in 2011, I started building sets. The first vintage set I built was 1978 Topps followed closely by 1974.  Both were completed during the year.  At some point subsequent (I don't remember exactly when) I decided to complete the 1974 master set and I managed to mostly do so.  I finished the 44 card Traded set, the Washington Nat'l League variations, The Jesus Alou No Position, and Apodaco/Apodaca.  The one I never completed was card 599, which came in three variations: Washington, San Diego large print, and San Diego small print. I never got the latter of the three.  Occasionally, over the years, I would remember that was still out there and look to see if I could complete it.  Alas, that last variation was always selling for over $30.  Now, I can certainly afford it, but I always chafed at dropping that kind of coin on a common.  

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when I was talking to a friend that collects signed sets.  I am not sure how we got on 1974 Topps, but I mentioned that I was one card short of the master set.  He pulled out his duplicates and this is what he found:

Demonstrating generosity (a virtue seemingly in short supply these days) he sent it to me no strings attached. So, after 14 years, I have finally finished my 1974 master set.  And here are the three variations together.

Take care and stay safe.

What I am listening to: Slip Away by Clarence Carter