gcrl : vintage :: evita : argentina

it's been nice to see so many bloggers make a point to focus on vintage cards this year.  i enjoy seeing older cards get some attention over the newer and shinier and more gimmicky cards, even though i still have some of those, too.  my 'no new pack' pledge has worked pretty well over the last couple of years, although i have bought some here and there, with the biggest splurge coming on gimmicky blasters of 2012 topps update.

anyway, like many of you, i never left vintage.  just like evita never left argentina.  even in my wild years. in fact, in the four and a half years (almost) that i have been running this blog, i have probably focused more on vintage (to me, those are cards that came out before i was born, so pre-1970) than at any time previously in my collection.  a lot of it probably has to do with the accessibility of vintage bargain bins and ebay, but i attribute much of it to the vintage that i have seen on the blogs over that time.

at any rate, i am more than pleased to announce that i have completed the topps dodger team sets from 1957 on.  in fact, the only cards preventing me from saying that i have all the topps dodger base cards from 1957 through 2012, including traded and update sets are those four red sox turned dodger players that got the ssp's in last year's update set.  boo/hiss on topps.

the last card that i needed for the 1957 topps team set?  none other than roy campanella.

here are some of the others that i picked up over the past few months to complete the team set.

don elston

kind of off centered, but not too bad.  elston's dodger career consisted of one scoreless inning of work in one game.  he was acquired from the cubs after the 1955 season, and found his way to the big leagues in 1957.  he came in to finish the game against the milwaukee braves on cinco de mayo, pitching to campanella.  less than three weeks later, elston was traded back to the cubs.  here's the guy he relieved in his lone appearance as a dodger, sandy koufax

this may well be the worst conditioned koufax in my collection, but i'll still count it.  in fact, i only need sandy's 1956 card to have all of his topps cards.  that is mind boggling to me.

here's another regular from the brooklyn days - gil hodges

i've always thought that it was nice that hodges got a shout-out in 'field of dreams'.

i picked up the team card around the same time that i got the campanella

so, that puts a wrap on the final year in brooklyn.

i finished up the team set for the first year in los angeles a while back, but there are a few cards that i had scanned that hadn't been showcased yet.  like gil hodges

and don drysdale

carl erskine

and john roseboro

and al walker

also known as 'rube'.  the card above was an upgrade that i picked up at a show last summer.  here is the walker card that was in my topps dodger team binder previously

it's been a blast digging through vintage bargain bins and finding vintage deals online the last few years, and really for most of my 35 years of collecting (except for the online part).  i kept my promise. vintage, don't keep your distance.