So, I haven't exactly shut down all hobby spending, but it is the absolute bare minimum. For $12 delivered, I added a new card to my Paul Blair player collection; one that I have been watching for over the last several years.
A 1968 Topps Venezuelan. This is, to my knowledge, the last of the Venezuelan issues I needed for this collection. I logged into my TCDB account and added this to my collection and, flush with excitement, looked to see how complete I was on my Blair PC only to discover a number of new entries that weren't there before. So, I am only sitting at 62% complete according to TCDB. I'm still the #1 Blair collector, but 62% seems kinda low. Well, it's the chase that counts, right?
Anyways, in the days ahead, I'll update my want list and see what is out there to be had.
What I am Listening to: Dog by The Bottle Rockets.
We got home yesterday after a week and a half away. It was a nice trip, though nothing fancy. We went back to Ohio and visited with our families. The first weekend, my nephew got married in downtown Cleveland the same day as the Rolling Stones concert. I've seen the Stones three times in my life, though not since 2003. I'm not much for nostalgia acts, so I have no interest in seeing them again. It was a little disconcerting seeing folks walking with canes wearing Stones t-shirts, but I guess it should be expected since Mick Jagger is 81.
Anyways, after the wedding we had a good time touring the William J Mather steamship, spent a day at Cedar Point, and did a behind the scenes tour of the Ohio Reformatory where the Shawshank Redemption was filmed. My wife collects midcentury modern barware so we hit a bunch of antique stores while we were there. And, as luck would have it, there was actually a midcentury barware show in Lancaster, Ohio this past weekend. It took place over three days, but we were only there for Saturday. If it is held again, we'll probably stay for the whole thing.
So, as you might expect, the car was stuffed with all sorts of barware for the drive home. My hobby spending has been non-existent for the last month in anticipation of the trip and will continue to be so through the summer since I need to buy hay for this coming winter. But I did manage to find one thing I had to have while we were going through antique stores.
A 2007 CC Sabathia bobblehead! I have no idea what the story is behind this, but for $5 I couldn't leave it behind. I see that later this summer, CC will be inducted into the Guardians Hall of Fame.
The biggest news in the sports world while I was out of town was the passing of Willie Mays. I was reading Night Owl's reaction to Mays' death and his notice of the remaining greats of the past. The second card he showed was Rocky Colavito, which brought to mind this item that I acquired just before I shut down my hobby spending in May.
This Sport magazine from September 1960 is signed by both Mays and Colavito and came with a JSA certification. Apparently, signed magazines aren't in much demand in the hobby as this only cost me $100. Not a small sum, to be sure, but it seems worth it to have the autograph of one of the all-time greats.
What I am listening to: Feel it Still by Portugal. The Man.
There is an interesting new blog bat around about posting the last card from a major issue for your favorite player. Since I have two favorite players, I thought I would show them both.
It is an odd card, isn't it? Paul Blair spent most of his career with the Baltimore Orioles, then several years with the Bronx Zoo Yankees. So, to see him in a Cincinnato uniform is a bit disorienting. However, he didn't end his career in Ohio. After appearing in 5 games for the Yankees at the start of the 1979 season, he was released and, around month later signed with the Reds. He finished out the season with Cincinnati batting at anemic .150 in 155 plate appearances over the course of the 1979 season. A free agent after the 1979 season ended, he didn't catch on with another team until late May of 1980 when he signed with the Yankees again. After 12 games as a late game pinch runner/defensive replacement, he was granted a release on July 1 and brought his playing career to a close.
I really did a lousy job of scanning straight didn't I? I could have fixed the alignment in Photoshop, but I have a busy day ahead of me. We are leaving for a 12 day vacation in a week and a half and I have much to do around the farm before then. So, my apologies for phoning this one in.
Johnny Antonelli's career also ended on a less than deserved note. Antonelli had invested wisely during his career and owned Firestone tire stores in his (and my) hometown of Rochester, NY. He preferred playing close to home as to attend to his business interests. The Giants move to San Francisco obviously put a crimp in that and, not surprisingly, he wasn't particularly happy in the Bay Area. After two successful and one middling season in San Francisco he was traded to Cleveland after the 1960 season. After 11 wholly ineffective appearances, he was purchased by the Milwaukee Braves, where he turned in 9 more mediocre relief appearances before the season ended. In the time between the 1961 and 1962 seasons, he was selected by the expansion NY Mets, but chose to retire instead.
I've really struggled to get this one out. Since my last post in this series, I've added two more signed 1961 Fleer cards, bringing my total to 72. I started this quest in January of 2017. The first card was Burleigh Grimes and, at the time, I commented "If I had to guess, I would think it would be fairly difficult to get more than 50-60 such cards for this set." It is a bit mind-boggling that I have exceeded that level and I have been blessed to acquire a number of cards I would have considered out of reach 7 years ago.
But, let's move on to the next signed 1961 Fleer card: #119 Joe Kuhel. I think my inertia in working on this post is the fact that I had no idea who the subject was prior to starting the research for this post. He was just a common card when I was building the set originally. At the time, I was more focused on card numbers than names and biographies. Shame on me.
Let's learn a bit more about Joe Kuhel:
On June 11, 1939 in the first game of a home twin bill between his Chicago White Sox and the Boston Red cox, Kuhel went 3 for 4 off Hall of Fame pitcher Lefty Grove including a walk-off 2 run home run in the bottom of the ninth.
He was adopted.
After a single year in high school, he started an apprenticeship as a leather cutter. He continued as such until his fine sandlot play got him some playing time with the Class B Flint Vehicles of the Michigan-Ontario League at the end of the 1924 season.
From there his career was a steady, but slow, upward trajectory to his major league debut on July 31, 1930.
His minor league career included 3 years with the Kansas City Blues where he hit, respectively, .325, .327, and .372. He was purchased by the Washington Senators and ended up replacing Joe Judge as the permanent first baseman in May of '31 when the elder Judge went down with appendicitis.
After his playing days, he worked for 20 years as a sales manager for the Roper Sales Corporation in Kansas City. I've not had much luck looking for that company. Mostly I just get western wear store selling roper boots.
He was a member of the American Society of Amateur Magicians
What I am listening to: Hold On by The Alabama Shakes
This is the last card I needed to complete the 1958 Topps baseball set.
And this is the last card I needed to complete the 1973 Topps football base set. I still need two more unnumbered team checklists but I've been working on this for over 4 years and I feel like this is an accomplishment. I'll probably just scope out eBay in the next few days and knock those two checklists off.
Now my focus will be on three sets:
1972-73 Topps basketball - I only need 23 cards to finish and none of them are all that expensive. I've been working on this since late 2018, so 5 1/2 years. Time to put it to bed.
1970 Topps Football - I am a little short of 70% complete on this, but have pretty much all of the valuable cards. The only star card left is the Jan Stenerud rookie card. Everything else is commons with a few minor stars sprinkled in.
1967 Topps Baseball - Ugh. I am making some progress on this set and am almost 75% complete. However, 2/3 of the remaining cards are in the sixth and seventh series, so this will be slow. I expect it will probably be another 2 years at a minimum.
It is supposed to rain tomorrow, so I may try to knock out another signed 1961 Fleet post.
What I am listening to: Things Change by Dwight Yoakam
Two updates in one post? What is up with that? Am I trying to make up for being such an infrequent poster that doubling up is the only way I'll make an appreciable progress?
No.
I am particularly excited about my 17th signed 1960 Fleer card and, as luck would have it, I have already posted about the subject of the 16th card, albeit in my series of posts about the 1961 set. See?
If you missed my post about my signed 1961 Fleer card of Warren Giles, you can find it here.
So, let's get on to number 17.
I've mostly been focusing on signed 1961 cards, but progress has slowed of late. Recently, a large group of signed 1960 Fleer cards came up for auction on EBay. There were plenty of really rare cards in the group; cards that I have never seen before and likely will never see again. The cards were auctioned off over two nights.
The first night contained a number of cards that were rare, but do come up on EBay 2 or 3 times a year. I wasn't going to bid on them just because I will have other chances. The first group also contained impossibly rare cards of Mickey Cochrane and Frank "Home Run" Baker. I knew I would never be able to afford them, so I decided to sit on my wallet and focus on the second set a few nights later. It was the right choice. The Cochrane sold for $743 and the Baker for an eye-popping $2,431. Even the more available cards sold for a premium. Last year, I got a signed 1961 Heinie Manush for $175. The 1960 in this auction went for $281. A Lefty Grove went for $338 where, in contrast, I got my 1961 Grove for $43. Just crazy.
The second grouping was similarly divided between cards that come up infrequently and cards that only have come in this auction. It included Branch Rickey and Bobo Newsom (who died in 1962) I decided to focus on two cards that were really rare, but still within my budget. Since the auctions weren't staggered, but closed all at the exact same time, I had to have my bids in on both concurrently. Given the strong prices I decided to bid on both to increase my chances of landing one. Frankly, I was scared that I would win both, but was honestly expecting to get neither, given the strong prices the first night. I did manage to win one, so let's take a look.
It has been a rough few weeks here. My senior Great Pyrenees had to be euthanized. He had been undergoing treatment for cancer since before Christmas, but it was ineffective. His health took a turn for the worse and we made the choice to end his suffering. On top of that, I have had cascading plumbing issues associated with my barn mostly due to the half-assed work prior owners did. Some repairs I did myself, but others required more specialized skills. I won't bore you with the details but suffice it to say I am about done with country living and wouldn't mine moving back into town where I don't have to deal with fixing someone else's work. I've lived here 20 years. You would think I would have found it all by now.
Not a lot of hobby activity, although I did manage to get 3 of the remaining 4 cards I needed to complete my 1958 set. The only remaining card is #310 - Ernie Banks. The card is of sufficient cost that I probably will hold off on chasing after it until my life and checkbook return to something resembling normalcy.
Anyways, onward. Here we have Roger Peckinpaugh, another noteworthy, but not all time great, player. He was something the opposite of our previous subject, Riggs Stephenson. Where Stephenson was a good bat attached to a weak fielder, Peckingpaugh was considered one of the best shortstops in the Dead Ball Era, while generally packing a below average offensive punch at the plate.
Some interesting facts about Peckinpaugh:
He was the youngest manager ever in MLB history when he took over the New York Yankees on an interim basis for the last 20 games of the 1914 season. He was 23 years old.
Born and raised in Ohio, he started his major league career with Cleveland when the team was known as the Naps.
In a case of be careful what you ask for, he was traded from the Yankees to the Washington Senators after the 1921 season when Babe Ruth, while complaining about skipper Miller Huggins, suggested Peck would be a better choice for manager.
While with the Washington Senators, he was part of a formidable double play combo with player-manager Bucky Harris and acted as an unofficial assistant manager. They won the World Series in 1924 and the AL pennant the following year.
Despite what amounted to league average hitting, Peck's fielding and leadership led to him being the 1925 AL MVP. When sorted by the modern WAR metric, he would have been in 20th place among all the players recieving MVP votes that year.
He returned to Cleveland as a manager twice. First from 1928 through the first 51 games of the 1933 season and again for the 1941 season. He was succeeded in 1942 by 24 year old player manager Lou Boudreau, who I've featured here previously.
After leaving baseball, he became a manufacturer's rep for Cleveland Oak Belting. a company that appears to still be in business. One of their current product lines is conveyor idlers, a component that my employer uses in their quarries.
What I am listening to but probably shouldn't: Maggie's Song by Chris Stapleton
