After the big 1963 Fleer Mays pickup, I have been sleeping off the hobby hangover that came with it. I have had one post in my drafts folder for an auction I won prior to the 1963fest:
I won this for a bit over $18 delivered. Allie Reynolds is a native Oklahoman. He was born in Bethany, which is now an OKC suburb (not sure if it was back in 1917 when Reynolds was born.) He died in OKC 77 years later. He had a 13 year career between 1942 and 1954, with the first five years in Cleveland and the final eight with the Yankees. In those 8 years with the Bombers, he played on six winning World Series teams.
He retired after the 1954, in which we was still effective turning in a 13-4 record with a 3.32 ERA and a better than league average ERA+ of 105. After his playing career, he was active in the oil and gas business in Oklahoma, becoming the owner and President of the Atlas Mud Company which appears to be still extant 23 years after his death from complications of lymphoma and diabetes.
Before I get to the 62nd autographed 1963 Fleer card, I'm going to build a little suspense and take you through the other cards I bid on but didn't win. And I am going to hide the pickup below the fold, so you have to cheat to see it. Don't cheat.
So, here are my losses:
Vada Pinson - this one surprised me. I figured it would sell for around $50, so I set my bid limit comfortably above that at $75. However, I was wrong and consequently lost the auction. My habit is to wait until there are about 10 seconds left, then enter my bid. Normally, it works fine for me. I get my bid in but don't leave enough time to have someone outbid me. But, in this case, someone else had taken a similar approach, but with a higher max bid, and I didn't have time to place a followup. I would have liked to get it, but the final price of $82 was probably a bit steep. Particularly since this was the first auction I was bidding on and was trying to not overbid early and shoot through my budget before the end.
Dick Farrell - I'm kicking myself on this one. I though the auctions were spaced out enough that I could finish bidding on one and move to the next, but for some reason when I flipped over to the Farrell auction there was just a few seconds left and I didn't have time to get a bid in before it closed. The auction closed at $78, considerably less than the $132 a similar card sold for some weeks back. Who knows if I would have gotten it anyways, but I would have rather bid and lost fairly than to miss bidding altogether, like I did.
Ken Boyer - I really wanted this one. Ken Boyer died young in 1982, so I have seen very few of these. In fact, this was only the second one I have ever seen. The other one was a few years ago and I can't remember how much it sold for. So, I was willing to go up to $100 for this. It ended up going for $163. Crazy. Whomever got it for that price deserves it. Tip of my hat.
Now, you may have figured out what the third auction I won was. But, in case you haven't put the effort in to looking back at my previous posts where I list the cards I was till missing (and I hope you have enough life that you didn't), I am going to hide the card below the fold.
Jumping ahead to the new additions to my autographed 1963 Fleer set, ere is the 61st signed card:
I ended up snagging this one for $43, which I think was a good deal. Power (nee Pellot) lived out his retirement in his native Puerto Rico, where he passed away in 2005. He had a 12 year MLB career, between 1954 and 1965, playing with 5 teams (Philadelphia/KC Athletics, Cleveland, Minnesota, California Angels, and the Philadelphia Phillies.) He was considered a solid first baseman, winning 7 consecutive Golden Gloves and pioneering the one handed fielding style that is common today, but considered flashy at the time.
Coming tomorrow: the second, and best, of the new additions.
What I am listening to: We're a Happy Family by the Ramones (note the shirt at 1:10)
A few weeks back, a high quality autographed 1963 Fleer set came up for auction at a legit auction house. This set had 65 out of 66 cards signed and authenticated; missing only Roberto Clemente. I kept my eye on the auction, but it was quickly bid up past my means and eventually sold for $2900 (before buyers premium!) I thought nothing more of it until about a week and half ago when the same set showed up on EBay being auctioned off individually. Having just received my annual bonus at work, I decided to bid on 7 cards; 5 I still needed and 2 that would upgrade my current version.
The auctions closed this past Sunday, and I was poised on line for the final bidding. I managed to snag 3 cards total. One was an upgrade and the other two filled in holes. I'm pretty excited that I am now up to 62 of 66 cards autographed. I think you'll see why. But, I'm going to make you wait and break this up into 3 posts.
As I mentioned on the previous post, I targetted and won 4 autographed cards from the 1960 and 1961 Fleer sets. Having previously shown the two 1960s, here are the 1961s. These are the third and fourth autographed cards I have from that set.
From my calculations it is theoretically possible to get 94 of these
cards in autographed versions (subject died in 1962 or later). So, I
have a ways to go.
Dolph Camilli had a 12 year career, broken up by military service during WWII. He had a solid 7 year run between 1936 and 1942, the first two years of that stretch with the Philadelphia Phillies followed by 5 years with the Brooklyn Dodgers. During that time he racked up between 4 and 7 WAR each year. His best year was 1941 when he hit .285/.507/.556 with 34 home runs and 120 RBIs, and won the NL MVP. The MVP race that year was a Brooklyn affair, with the second and third places going to team mates Pete Reiser, and Whit Wyatt. That said, Brooklyn still lost the World Series to the Yankees in 5 games. In his only post season series, Camilli went 3 for 18 with 1 RBI.
Rick Ferrell had an 18 year career as a catcher with the St Louis Browns, Boston Red Sox, and Washington Senators between 1929 and 1947. He was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veteran's Comittee in 1984. I was actually surprised that he was in Cooperstown, since he doesn't stack up statistically to contemporaries like Mickey Cohcrane, Bill Dickey, Gabby Hartnett, or Ernie Lombardi. And certainly modern sabermetrics don't do him any favors. But he was a solid player for a long period of time, making 6 all star games, including 4 straight between 1934 and 1937. Interestingly, in 1944 and 1945, while with the Washington Senators, his pitching staff included 4 knuckleballers (Roger Wolff, Dutch Leonard, Mickey Haefner and Johnny Niggeling.)
Coming up: Another 1961 and a return to 1963.
What I am listening to: Keep on Rollin' by Elvin Bishop
A group of autographed 1960 and 1961 Fleer cards came up recently on EBay. I targeted, and won, four of them, two from each year. Here are the 1960s.
Lou Boudreau is an interesting guy. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame, as a player, in 1970. Over the course of a 15 year career (1938-1952), he had a respectable triple slash line of .295/.380/.415 while playing premier level defense as a shortstop. 13 of those years were in Cleveland, with the final two in Boston. In that final season, he only appeared in 4 games mid-season. He won a batting title in 1944 and was the AL MVP in 1948, when he hit .355/.453/.534 with 18 HRs and 106 RBIs. The second and third place finishers in the MVP ballot that year was no less than Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams.
What is interesting about Boudreau is that, for 10 of those years he was a player/manager. Starting in 1942, and through 1950, he managed the Indians, including during their World Series Championship season of 1948. Get this: his first year as a player manager in 1942? He he was 24 years old. Crazy huh?
Johnny Mize is also a Hall of Fame inductee (1981). He enjoyed a 15 year career (with 3 years missed during WWII) with the St Louis Cardinals (6 years), NY Giants (6 years), and tghe NY Yankees (5 years). He put up a .312/.397/.562 triple slash over the course of that career, knocking in 2011 hits and 359 home runs. He managed to be on 5 world championship teams, all with the Yankees at the end of his career. By the time he played with the Bombers, he was mainly a role player. What I know today as a fourth outfielder. However, at the age of 39, in the 1952 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers, he went 6 for 15 with 3 home runs and 6 RBIs. This included a pinch hit home run off Preacher Roe in the bottom of the 9th in game 3, which was won by the Dodgers; a solo home run in the Yankees 4th game victory, and a 3 run dinger of Carl Erskine in game 5 (won by the Dodgers.)
What I am listening to: Jump Around by House of Pain (don't judge)
