I am 55 years old and I am, in equal parts, nostalgic and cynical. I watched the Field of Dreams game last night hoping that it would resonate with the former, only to find that it mostly hit the latter.
Don't get me wrong, as hokey as it is, I love the movie. I view it as a spiritual journey allegory, The main character goes through a series of intellectual crises that lead to him making leaps of faith, with the end result of him reconciling with his father (or, perhaps his Father.) I am trained as an engineer and, constitutionally, am inclined to analyze any decision as rationally as possible. So, the character represents something I wish I could be and, to the extent we are dealing with idealization, I want the experience to be through the gauzy focus of nostalgia. The movie achieves that.
The game did not. At least not for me.
The root of my objections are twofold. First, MLB leaned too hard into sentimentality and it came off as contrived and antiseptic. Second, the field itself was over engineered. They basically dropped a brand new A ball stadium into a corn field. So, what specifically annoyed me?
It wasn't even the real field!
I would have preferred there was no outfield barrier, just corn marking the confines of the playing field, although...
I did the think the rough wood fencing was a reasonable compromise...until I realized that it wasn't even wood but a fabric covering a chain link fence
Advertisements on screens behind home plate
The White Sox at least made an attempt to have their uniforms reference the movie. The Yankees just wore their normal road uniform.
The opening with Kevin Costner walking across the field with soundtrack music seemed to be specifically set up to elicit an emotional response.
Overall, it was just too corporate. I mean, I get it. Baseball is a business, but they didn't need to make it that obvious.
Anyways, that is my take. If you enjoyed the game, I won't judge. It just wasn't for me.
What I am listening to: One Million Miles by Heart
A lot of 61 signed 1963 Fleer cards is being auctioned off right now at Heritage Auctions and it includes a signed Roberto Clemente. For anyone reading this who isn't familiar with what I collect, I have been working on a signed 1963 Fleer set for over 9 years and have autographed versions of 65 out of 66 cards. What is the one missing? Roberto Clemente.
So, to answer the question that is likely on your mind; no, I will not be bidding on this, The current high bid is nearly $3,500 (with the buyers premium) and the auction has three weeks until it closes. My guess is that this will go for between $6,000 and $7,000. That is so far beyond my means that I wouldn't bid even if I wasn't facing a job search in the future. However, the person who helped me get the 64th and 65th cards for my set also needed Clemente. So, I sent him the link to the auction in case he hadn't seen it. He had and has already bid. So, because he helped me out when he didn't have to, I am hoping he wins.
Speaking of the job search, I don't have any firm date on when I will be leaving this job. It is supposed to be 6 months after the acquisition closes, but no one knows when that will be. It could be as soon as mid-September, but is more likely to be in the fourth quarter. So, with a steady paycheck into the April/May timeframe and the ability to get through an extended job search, I've decided I can loosen up and dip a toe or two into the hobby waters. So far, that decisions hasn't turned into much action. Though I have one recent acquisition to post about in the next few days.
What I am listening to: Highway to Hell by Tom Morello, Eddie Vedder, and Bruce Springsteen
Yes, I am on a hobby hiatus. Sort of. Mostly anyways.
My job situation has cleared up and changes are in my future. It is too difficult to explain concisely, and that isn't why you are here anyways. So, suffice it to say, I've decided my tenure in the job will be coming to an end sometime before the end of the year. I'm at the point in my life that I don't feel compelled to hang on to a job at all costs. I have enough solid experience that I can find another job and have the ability to weather an extended search. And, surprisingly, making that decision has introduced a significant feeling of peace into my life.
I am still mostly on a hiatus, but I have been selling off stuff that doesn't really fit in my collection with the intent to use the proceeds to go a show or two and try to work on some of the sets I am close to finishing.
So, last weekend with about $350 in my pocket, I wandered up to the OKC show with the more specific goal of knocking off some of the star cards I needed for my 1960 and 1965 sets. How did I do? Well, see for yourself...
I bought about a dozen 1972-1973 Topps basketball commons for that set, but this 1955 Willie Mays was my only other purchase. There was exactly one vintage seller at the show and he only had two of the '60 and '65 star cards I needed and they were at a price I wasn't willing to pay,. But, this Mays was. It took pretty much all the money in my pocket, but it was mine. And less than an hour after arriving at the show, I was on my way back home.
To be perfectly honest, I am somewhat ambivalent about finishing the 1955 set. I am only 14 cards from completion, but that Clemente rookie is still out there and I just don't see it ever getting into my price range. And, to be fair, the Jackie Robinson card in the set is selling well above my comfort level also. I will undoubtedly still pick up needs here and there, but I may just have to find a reprint or a modern shiny to fill the Clemente spot in the binder.
What I am Listening to: The Color of a Cloudy Day by Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires
I've had a lot come at me this last few weeks. It was announced that my employer is being acquired by a larger company and I am staring into the teeth of a major transition. Then my 84 year old mother had to have emergency surgery a bit over a week ago. I was up there last week, though I mainly was dog sitting, since I wasn't allowed in the hospital. She did come home about a day before I left. So, I will be going up again next week to help her recover. With the job uncertainty and the extra travel expenses, I am going to take a hobby hiatus. So, this post will likely be my last hurrah for a little while. It isn't like I was all that prolific to begin with, so no one probably would have noticed anyways.
Before all this came up, I was watching a number of signed 1961 Fleer cards on an auction site. There were seven I was watching, but five sold for way more than I was willing to pay. But, I did win two!
Bill Terry played his entire MLB career with the New York Giants (1923 to 1936), mostly as a first baseman. He was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1954 and is still the last player to hit over .400 in the National League. He did that in his stellar 1930 season where he hit for a .401/.452/.619 slash line and tolled up 254 hits, which is still tied for 3rd in the single season records for all of MLB, tied with Lefty O'Doul and behind only George Sisler and Ichiro Suzuki. From his age 33 season (1932) through the end of his playing career, he was also the Giants manager and he continued in that role for 5 more years after his days in the field ended. In his second year as player manager (1933) he guided the Giants to a World Series championship.
As you might expect, there is a wonderful SABR biography.
Joe Dugan is an unlikely player to show up in a baseball greats set, like 1961 Fleer. If such statistics are to be believed, he was effectively a replacement level player, racking up 9.4 total WAR over a 14 year career spent mostly with the NY Yankees and Philadelphia Athletics. Therein lies a clue though. Dugan was the Yankees starting third baseman from 1922 through the middle of 1928. In that role, he appeared in five World Series, three of which the Yankees won. He hit a 3 run inside the park home run in Game 5 of the 1923 series. Thankfully, for your reading pleasure there is a SABR biography.
And now, one of the crown jewels of my signed 1961 Fleer project. Coming in second only to Ted Williams, is this Joe "Ducky" Medwick. At that Dallas show I went to a month or so back, there was a dealer in autographs. And not just high end autographs. He had half a dozen 5000 count boxes filled with signed cards (mostly modern, but also vintage) that could be had for less than $10 each. Last year, I had become acquainted with a person who builds signed vintage sets and had signed Fleer cards I needed for my project. Unfortunately, I never had much luck finding anything he needed other than a couple of my duplicate 1963 Fleer commons.
It was the end of the day in Dallas and my back was starting to seize up (you young 'uns will understand when you cross over to the wrong side of 50,) so I only got through half of the 5000 count boxes. But I found about 8 cards he needed. I also took a look at the star cards he had in a display box and found another card my friend needed. And with those cards, we started to work out a trade. At first, I thought I might go for a volume, and trade for a number of the lower value needs. But, those cards are lower value because the subject players were prolific signers. Why trade for something I could pick up off of eBay for less than $30? So, I ended up trading for this Medwick. Medwick died in 1975, so there isn't many of these out there. In fact, I think I have only seen one other.
I think I may have an attention problem. My collecting goes in phases. I'll go whole hog on one part of my collection and then, later, drop it and move on to something else. At the end of 2020 and in January, I was working on my 1960 and 1965 sets. I even went to a really large show down in Dallas with the intent of moving them much closer to completion. In a sense, I did. I picked up a fair number of commons, along with a few minor stars for those sets. But, I still lack a fair number of major cards for both sets and the prices that were being asked for those cards were well beyond what I consider reasonable.
Now, I get that the market has moved over the last year and perhaps my criteria needs to be updated. But, even though I have been saying this for quite a while, I do think we are in a bubble, albeit one with some staying power. I am 32 cards from finishing 1960 and 44 from finishing 1965. Of those, 8 and 12 are major star cards, respectively. So, those two sets may soon join 1968 on the "not quite complete, but waiting for the bubble to pop" shelf.
In the mean time, after I snagged one of the last signed 1963 Fleer cards I needed at Clean Sweep Auctions, I noticed that there was a huge lot of signed 1961 Fleer cards up for auction. I am talking about a 46 card lot, with 20 cards I still needed. So, I figured out what those 20 needs would have set me back at eBay market rates and decided to bid up to that level. It would have been my largest single hobby purchase. Except, I misread the auction closing rules and couldn't bid. It would take a while to explain the bidding rules, but suffice it to say this is the only auction where I have ever seen those rules.
Anyways, the lot finished right at where my maximum bid was. Which means I probably would have lost anyways. But, it did get me to start looking beyond eBay. As luck would have it, a 5 card lot of signed 1961 Fleers was up for auction at Heritage. I only needed 3 of the 5, so I determined what the market rate was for only the three I needed and set that as my maximum bid. This time I made sure to understand the auction rules and placed my bid. And I won. Here are the three I needed for my signed 1961 Fleer project.
Babe Herman, a native of Buffalo NY, had a 13 year major league career, most with the Brooklyn Robins. The bulk of his MLB career was between 1926 and 1937, with a short stint back in Brooklyn in 1945. The interregnum was spent playing with the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League, then considered something of a West Coast quasi-major league. As always, SABR has a biography of Babe that does justice to the man. Read it. He is a fascinating character. I learned from it that he was actually the scout that originally signed my favorite player, Paul Blair, to a professional contract.
Bibb Falk played a 12 year career, 9 with the Chicago White Sox and 3 with Cleveland. He was a prime beneficiary of the Black Sox Scandal, as the ensuing suspensions opened up the opportunity for him to start his major league career in 1921 as Joe Jackson's replacement in left field. He was a solid, if not powerful contact hitter, with a .314 career average and no single season lower than .285. In a typical 162 game season, he would strike out only 33 times. Once again, there is a great SABR biography.
Finally, the only Hall of Famer in the group. After a 5 game cup of coffee with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1912, he kicked of a 13 year run in the majors in 1916. He was a spitballer that was able to continue throwing the pitch after it was outlawed in 1920. In what may have been his finest year, his 1918 season comes in at 9.9 Wins Above Replacement, only slightly behind the great Walter Johnson (10.4). No position player exceeded 6.8 in the season (George Sisler.) He was voted into Cooperstown by the Veteran's Committee in 1969. And, saving you from my tortured prose, you can find his biography at SABR.
What I am listening to: The Rumble by Chick Corea and Steve Vai
