Fun baseball cards link

Just turning you on to a really cool baseball cards page. It's full of fun stuff! Introducing: Heartbreaking Cards

It'll make you smile like this guy:

Favorite Sports Cards

Birthday Boy!

Who knew that old Monte Irvin was still around to enjoy my birthday shout out to him for his 95th?!

A bit of trivia now. Who led the league in RBI in Willie Mays' rookie year 1951? Monte Irvin did.

The card is a 1953 Bowman color.

Roam home

A happy birthday, to mighty Willie McCovey, old "Stretch" himself. He nailed down first base for the San Francisco Giants for years and nabbed Comeback Player of the year later for the Padres.

I had his 1960 Topps rookie card (yes, one of those awful horizontal 1960s Topps), but it didn't auction for much because, on the back, taking up nearly all the surface, some dunce had scrawled "1960" in thick marks a lot. Boohoo.

Card shown is a 1970 Topps All Star card.

Roam home (and don't forget to slide)

Save? Closure? Quick kick?

"Closers" are to baseball what Hungarian-born, soccer-style field goal kickers were to football. In other words, not much.

Just let one of today's bullpen guys try to explain to Old Hoss Radbourn (above) about their one-inning "heroics" and closures. Hoss would turn over in his grave and probably have a nice puke while he was at it.

And there's no need for the one-inning guy to show off his gold chain to Old Hoss, either, because Hoss would likely just pulverize it into a lipful of snuff. And don't even get me and Hoss started on these starting "pitchers" who can't even get through nine innings, due to a chipped nail or a run in their hose . . .

As for field goal kickers, why not just go ahead and punt the damn thing? Better yet, why not quick kick as old Bud Wilkinson would have ordered way down yonder at OU? Points for a field goal? Are you kidding Old Hoss? No more points for field goals. No more field goals period.

Now go and explore Old Hoss Radbourn's career figures for complete games.

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70's Chicago Cubs Topps team pictures

What was with the 1970s Cubs team photo cards with the floating heads? Did those guys refuse to stand side by side in rows like all the other teams did? Have always wondered . . . Bet it had something to do with Leo the Lip or Joltin' Joe Pepitone.

Bunt happy in Cincy

The Cincinnati Reds are said to have gone bunt loco last night. This might lead to speculation about the best bunter of all time. (Hmm ... spell checker assuring me "bunter" is not a word.)

I submit for your approval Hall of Famer Nellie Fox. I make this selection just due to stats, because I never saw the old devil play. I got to see him while he was a coach for the Texas Rangers. He always had a serious chaw of tobacco in his jaw. Dang! he always looked about 106, but he died at the young age of 47. Don't let his deer in the headlights expression in the card above fool you; Nelson Fox could really lay one down on you. And you better stay out of the line of fire of his tobacco juice!

I leave you with one of the greatest lines from literature: "Terwilliger bunts one." (Annie Dillard?)

The card is a 1961 Topps

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Houston Astros rookie pulls HUGE boner!

Houston Astros rookie Max Stassi fell victim to one of the oldest tricks in the book: the old hidden ball trick, & this was right after collecting his first major league hit. Veteran 2nd-sacker Ian Kinsler orchestrated it all. (View it here.)

I'm just having some fun with the young man. After all, he banged out 2 base hits & could retire today with a .667 batting average. Good job, Stassi!

Pic shows 1972 Topps Texas Rangers team card, & what a sorry lot they were.

Rico Carty - "The Beeg Boy"

Rico Carty was one of the great personalities of the game. He did some time with my Texas Rangers in 1973 when I was eleven. Hopes were high because he had hit an astounding .366 to lead the league with Atlanta just a couple years previous.

I recall an interview of him, either on TV or in print, in which he was asked about his mediocre start that year for Texas. He assured the reporter that there was no need to fear because, "When the weather gets hot, the 'Beeg Boy' will get hot too," he always did . . . Hmm.

Well, the weather got hot--after all, this is Texas, but Rico, the Old Beeg Boy himself, never really did, managing only three home runs & the lowest batting average of his career up to that point, a paltry .232.

Maybe it just hadn't gotten hot enough for Rico, for he was sold to the Cubs by August 13, so there were still a couple good months of Texas heat awaiting him. Oh, well, you never know; you never know what might have been . . .

Funny what an eleven-year-old remembers. And don't get me wrong. Rico Carty is one of my all-time faves. And wouldn't you know it, the old devil went on to have some more great years . . . out of this miserable Texas heat.

Card is a 1973 Topps

Favorite Sports Cards

Hey, who was that guy?

My suggestion on how to increase interest during a baseball game is to, between pitches, have the announcers give the old base coaches a big send-up by telling a little about them.

Back when I started watching games, I always enjoyed identifying who the old coaches were, often recalling them from old baseball cards or my Dad's memories of them.

Since I watch the Texas Rangers games, color man Tom Grieve might say, for instance, how former catcher, Jocko Backstop, who is now loitering in the first base box for the opposing team, could really peg them out at second base back in the day. That would be interesting to learn instead of thinking that old guy's just standing around, counting the crowd while wishing he was thirty years younger when he sees a pretty girl in the stands.

So come on, guys, tell us a little something about those old base coaches . . .

Favorite Sports Cards

Biggest baseball card fall-off one year to the next

So, what's the biggest fall-off from year to year as to the appearance of Topps baseball cards issued in the 1960's? In my opinion, it would have to be 1965 to 1966 Topps.

The 1965 Topps set was so primo and beautiful, an explosion of color. On the other hand were the 1966 Topps cards, with their pennants making a diagonal slash across the top corner, denoting the team. I was tempted to choose 1968 as the ugly duckling, what with its awful brown-yellow hatching that looked like hay scattered in a chicken coop, but there's something extra awful about these 1966 Topps that I'm having trouble putting my finger on. . . .

Maybe it's how some of the players are sopping wet with sweat, or maybe the way so many of them look like they just got out of rehab. It must be a combination of those two. I always try to put a positive spin on things, so I'll try to think of 1966 Topps baseball cards as a celebration of bad baseball card design.

1965 Topps Baseball (the good)

1966 Topps Baseball (the ugly)

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My Current Baseball Cards Auctions

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Sexy Mitzi Gaynor shrine

Does the World Series Mean It's all about over?

It's always sad when the baseball season is about to come to an end, but kids like me who never grew up realized a long time ago that the season never ends when you collect baseball cards.

No telling what I have on my auctions

Babe Ruth

An old babe Ruth card I have up on eBay:

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Also see: Vintage sexy movie posters

Huh?

Moose & Rocky probably can't believe there are major league baseball players named Taylor Teagarden & Buster Posey. Maybe they dreamed it over a couple tobacco plugs.

Favorite Sports cards

Revisit your youth: Vintage Marx Toys

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My First Exposure to Baseball Card Collecting

In my garage when I was a kid was this wooden toy truck my grandfather (a really handy guy!) made for my brothers and sisters and me. It was about 4 feet long and 1.5 feet high, and the back lifted up so as to "dump" stuff out of it. (Really, it was so big, we kids could ride in the back!)

Anyhow, one hot summer day, I was playing in there and found in the back of the truck a couple 1970 Topps baseball cards which I suppose my older brother must have bought and stored there in the truck. The only card I recall specifically was a nondescript portrait card of Chicago Cubs outfielder Al Spangler, who had had a few fair years earlier in his career w/ the old Houston Colt 45s. (See old pal Al's stellar career stats here.) Oh, some dudes have it up in their ebay stores here.

Well, I admired that nothing card, turned it over and found the blurb and stats on the back, and I was hooked. I went to the 7/11 and bought my first cards. The cards had been in that toy truck for a while, so the first cards I bought were now the 1971 Topps baseball cards w/ the tough black borders. I was off and running!

Favorite Sports Cards

The Naughtiest Baseball Card of All Time?

What's the naughtiest baseball card of all time? My choice would have to be the 1972 Topps Billy Martin card, in which Billy is casually shooting the finger as he grips the knob of the bat.

I'm sure he's not intending that finger for you and me because, by the look on his face and in his eyes, he had probably worked up a big-time irritation for the photographer, just like he did way back when with his own pitcher Dave Boswell ... or with Reggie Jackson ... or with Jim Brewer ... or with Clint Courtney, just to name four guys he tusselled with.

See the card here.

Are you aware of any other naughty cards? Leave a comment below.

Homebase

My Favorite Baseball Card

I have been pondering on what is my favorite baseball card of all time . . .

Well, it's the same as it has always been since I first laid eyes on it: the 1971 Topps #77 card of Mike Compton, who was an obscure catcher for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Why do I like that particular card? Let me count the ways. First would be that the colors are great, with the green grass & the red of his Phillies uniform & the orange of the old catcher's mitt with the deep pocket from which it seemed no ball could ever escape. I also like the squinting, just-awakened eyes of the catcher, & how he looks like he should probably be out plowing the back forty instead of being backstop for a big-league club.

Do you have a favorite card? Let us know in the comments.

Here's that little jewel of a card right now . . .

Peek over my shoulder & spy


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People have been bery, bery good to me with their trading cards

I have been lucky in my collecting in that people have always been generous with me about giving me cards. For instance, a couple of my older brother's friends gave me some good stuff when I was a kid: 1969 Topps football cards (though Charlie C. liked to draw mustaches & beards on some of his cards); an inch-thick stack of 1964 Topps Giants cards loaded with Hall of Famers, many in duplicate, even quadruplicate; and a nice 1968 Topps Nolan Ryan rookie card, upon which Jerry Koosman plays eternal second fiddle to Nolan (sorry, Jerry!).

My real score was when a colleague of my dad's at my dad's office learned that I collected baseball & football cards. He gave my dad to give to me a stack of about 200 cards from the 1950, 1951, 1952 & 1953 Bowman baseball sets. Among these were Ted Williams & Stan Musial (the fate of which can be read in earlier blogs), a Whitey Ford rookie card, two 1950 Roy Campanella & many other superstars. I still have the vast majority of these cards.

Yes, I need to thank those people for their generosity. So, thank you - but you can't have your cards back!

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Old Baseball Card Nightmare #2

It was at an old-timers game in the mid-1970's at Arlington Stadium, then home of the hapless Texas Rangers. The old-timer teams were to be the old St. Louis Cardinals VS. old American League stars.

Before the game, many of the old-timers signed autographs. My family were seated some rows behind the first base dugout, so I had a good chance to get some signatures because guys were signing just below us.

I had seen a roster in the newspaper of the players who would be involved, so I had had the foresight to bring along some of my best cards, and had crammed them in a rigid plastic container.

Oh, there's Stan Musial! I hurried down to where Stan stood signing, lots of kids reaching over the rail to him w/ their programs, etc. I reached into my plastic container & pulled out my boffo 1953 Bowman color card of Stan & eagerly held it out to him.

Reaching past my card to snag some other kid's lousy 3x5 index card to sign, Stan wrecked my card with a clumsy elbow, leaving a permanent wrinkle. "CURSES!," I thought, as I reeled back my arm and examined the card . . . which never got signed; nor was Stan ever aware of what he had so carelessly done.

Well, the evening wasn't a total loss. Though I got none of my cards signed, for I was then shy of exposing any more of them to clumsy baseballers, I got many signatures on my program of old Cardinals & ALers. Also, Billy Martin, who may have been managing the Rangers at the time, took ground balls at second base and would, with tremendous coordination for a man his age, skim his glove up in the air and knock down line drives that were out of his reach, which I thought was quite cool.

Anyhow, I don't hold any real, nagging grudge against Stan the Man; but I will say he sure had a funny way of wagging his rear end when he was at bat . . .

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