five. five dollar. five dollar rookie.

i had been looking for a 1963 topps dave mcnally rookie card for a while, thanks to the presence of dodger ken rowe in the lower right.

come on, topps.  can't we even get an airbrushed logo for our troubles?  

the card is, of course, a high number (562) and tough to come by.  i was watching a couple of auctions on ebay, and the most recent one carried a bin of $40.  well, last saturday i told the vintage bargain bin guy i was looking for the card, and he scrambled for a couple of minutes and produced the one you see there up top.  he glanced at it for a short time and tossed it my way.  '5 bucks' is what he said.  'done' is what i said.  and so, for the price of a footlong sandwich, dave mcnally and the rowe brothers were mine.

it turns out that the rowes weren't related after all.  and, i am guessing the photo topps used for rowe featured a brooklyn cap as he was in the dodger system from 1955 until september of 1964.  the dodger rowe made his big league debut in 1963 and pitched in 14 games.  he was 1-1 with a 'save' and a tidy era of 2.93.  he was back in the minors for the 1964 season, and was traded to baltimore that september.  he appeared in a few games for the orioles in 1964 and 1965 where he was relieved by mcnally on at least one occasion.

now i'm down to just a couple of cards left for my 1963 topps dodger set.  my want list shows i need a koufax, but i am pretty sure i have that one in with my koufax binder - i just need to move it over.  welcome to the collection, mr. rowe!