Blog Bat Around - Last Card

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.

What I am listening to: Crazy by Gnarls Barkley

June Card Show Haul

There was a show at the end of June I attended. My hope was to make progress on my 1975 and 1979 Topps sets. I made no progress on either, but I consider it a success anyways, as I made progress on several other sets I am working on. I got to the show and headed over to say hello to the two sellers I get most of my cards from and to take a quick scan of their tables. I didn't see anything that immediately grabbed my attention, so I decided to walk around the room and see what else was there. Imagine my surprise when, after almost completing the circuit of the room that I came across Roger Neufeldt of Sports Memories of Oklahoma. Roger is the best source for high quality vintage around here, but he hasn't done a local show in well over a year. He mostly does shows in MLB cities and the National. However, the local show is now being organized by a new group and he decided to give it another shot. So, I ended up spending most of my money with him. So, what did I get?

One card from the 1959 Fleer Ted Williams set. This is the 39th card I have from that 80 card set.  Interestingly, one of the other sellers told me that he recently sold a PSA 7 version of card 68 from the set for $1000. That is the one card that I think I may never acquire from this set.  Card 68, titled "Ted Signs for 1959" was pulled out of distribution very early in production since it featured a picture of Ted Williams signing a contract next to Boston GM Bucky Harris who was under contract with rival Topps.  Consequently, few made it into the wild.  Even mid grade versions sell for over $400.  I may just end up filling in my set with a reprint, which do seem generally available.

I added a total of 21 cards to my 1961 Fleer set, leaving me with only 23 cards to go to complete the 154 card set.  Among those remaining 23, though, are the Babe Ruth and Ted Williams cards which have book values of $120.   I am going to set a budget of $25 to $30 each, but it will probably take some time and luck to make that happen.

Additionally, I also picked up additional copies of the two Waner brothers cards from this set for my PC.

Finally, I managed to locate another 11 modestly priced cards for my 1956 set, bring me to a total of 219 cards from this 340 card set.

I've got a few other things brewing for future posts, including a call out to the blogging community to find me the single card I need to complete a set.  I was also hoping to have a new addition to my 1963 Fleer autograph project, but the consigner I sent a card to has apparently lost it and is not responding to my requests for information. Hopefully that will resolve itself shortly.

What I am listening to: A Feather's Not a Bird bu Rosanne Cash

August Card Show - Vintage Stars!

I started off the show with a specific mission in mind. Namely, to make some progress on my 1971 set. With that accomplished, I slid into hunter-gatherer mode and hit a couple of the vintage dealers looking for deals. One fellow had a box of well-loved cards for 10% of book. I sorted through there and found a couple, but most were well-loved AND commons.  I also hit another dealer that had a lot of good condition vintage including stars and I found some there, as well. Not that I am have to stick with stars, but when going through discount boxes, the main thing is for the card to capture my imagination.

So, let's take a tour through my imagination, shall we?

1953 Monte Irvin.  Despite the fact that it looks like he is posing in a subdivision backyard, I really like this card. Indeed, 1953 is slowly moving up the list of my favorite sets.  I would put it in the top 3 along with 1955 and 1956.  The order changes from day to day.

 1960 Casey Stengel. I think this card cost me a whole dollar.

 1960 Whitey Ford.  I don't remember how much I paid for this but it was definitely under $10.

1961 Phil Rizzuto MVP. This is my first vintage Scooter card.  I know now that he had a reputation for malapropisms when he was an announcer for the Yankees, but I don't care. Growing up listening to Phil, Bill White, and Fran Healy call the Yankees games is one of the fond memories of my childhood. I can still hear their voices in my head........uhh.....that didn't sound right.  I mean that I can recall what it sounded and felt like to listen to them. I didn't mean they are talking to me and telling me to do things.

One of my goals for the June card show was to get a Bob Uecker card. I failed then, but found this little gem from 1966 at the August show.  Best part of this card? Free!  The dealer threw it in the deal for the following three cards.

1968 Bob Gibson.  Great shape and only $5.

1960 Roberto (Bob) Clemente. The guy was dealing. This only set me back $25.  This was the most I spent on a single card at the show.  But, given that it books at $200, and a card of equivalent condition has a price of $48 over at COMC, I am most pleased with this deal.  It wasn't, however, my favorite pickup of the show.  That is reserved for this card:

1948 Bowman Allie Reynolds.  This is in fantastic condition for a card of it's age. I would put it in the EX range.  Set me back $20.  The neat thing about this is the fact that Allie Reynolds was born in Bethany, Oklahoma.  At the time he was born, 1917, it was likely a farming town. Today, it is a near suburb of Oklahoma City.  And not too far from where the card show was actually held.

I have periodically toyed with the idea of starting a collection of cards from players who were born in Oklahoma.  There are a total of 240 players that fit that criteria, including 41 who were actually born before Oklahoma became a state.  The big reason I might not do this?  Mickey Mantle, born up in coal country (Spavinaw) in the northeast part of the state.  He is the biggest name of the 5 Hall of Famers from here. The others being the Waner brothers, Johnny Bench, and Willie Stargell.  Although, cards of the Waner brothers from during their career would probably be pricey, they wouldn't be Mickey Mantle pricey.

So, that is a wrap of last weekends card show. I had a great time and hope it won't be February before I can hit another.

Back in the Saddle

So, with the news that I was going to be getting a job offer, I headed out to a local card shop to pickup where I left off last December, when I was notified of my coming layoff. Where I left off was working on the 1976 set. I ended up getting around 200 cards for my set.




A couple of teammates from the great A's teams of the early '70s.




A couple of teammates from the great Orioles teams from 1969 to 1971.


I always show Bucky Dent, just to tweek the Red Sox fans out there. 1978, baby? Do ya remember? I do. I was watching that game in the basement and went absolutely nuts when he hit that home run, even though a few minutes earlier I was cursing Bob Lemon for not pinch hitting for him.


I always show Fergie, too. We have something in common. We both come from the area around Lake Ontario (though different sides) and both fell in love with the red dirt of Oklahoma and make our home here.

Now we come to the great nickname section of the post.


Bull.


Kitty.


Spaceman.

Now we conclude the great nickname section and move on to the great given name section of the post:


You know I would have to show Dick Pole because, to quote the scene from Intolerable Cruelty shown below: "They never grow up, they just get tubby." While I am convinced most men are still really just 9 year olds playing at being grown up, I think it is even more true for us. Seriously, we collect baseball cards.What other proof is needed?


If I am going to show Dick Pole, I have to show Pete LaCock, amirite?


I always wanted to show Bill Stein because the friend I used to trade cards and play Topps with as a kid was named Bill Stein.

And now we get to my one big ticket splurge:


I'm not a huge fan of the 1961 design, but this card is in fantastic condition. It could have come out of a pack 5 minutes ago, as nice at it is. Obviously, the centering isn't perfect, but I am not a stickler for centering. As long as there is visible border all the way around the card, I'm happy. And, it is Mr. Cub himself.

I ended up going to a second local card shop yesterday and picked up another stack of 1976 cards to get myself within striking distance of finishing the set. More on that tomorrow.