christmas cards?

i didn't really want to post that 2001 pacific vladimir guerrero ornament card again, but i struggled to find some cards appropriate for today.  then i thought about red and green - those are christmas colors! so, this 1963 topps john roseboro card must be a christmas card, right?

 plus, it's the 25th, so that means a tommy john card makes sense, like this 1994 ted williams card

that shows (most of) his jersey number.  plus, the number is in red!

and then there's rickey henderson, who just happens to have been born on december 25th (happy 56th, rickey!).  unfortunately, i only have cards showing the man of steal as an oakland athletic scanned and heretofore unseen on this blog, so an a's card will have to suffice.  here's a 1991 topps stadium club charter member card

plus rickey's 1998 fleer ultra card

which is ridiculously colorful enough to have been an ornament card from pacific.  so there you go - full circle with the ornament cards.

merry christmas, everybody.

big o from big d

so, here's my 1960 topps don drysdale all-star high number card

it's a bit of a diamond cut, but that's ok.  it was one of the last cards i needed to complete my 1960 topps team set, but i've had it for a while now and figured it was worth posting.  the back of the card is fantastic

to see 'moider' in print outside of, say, old mad magazines is great.  too bad there is no mention of 'fershlugginer' or 'potrzebie'.  drysdale's slugging prowess again gets the cartoon treatment on the back of his 1963 topps card

which is kind of crazy because he won the cy young award in 1962.  you'd think topps would have a cartoon with that as the subject.

in all, big d hit 29 homers and drove in 113 runs in his career.  he matched the 7 homers he hit in 1958 with another 7 in 1965, and he even hit .300 that year.  he also hit two homers off of warren spahn that season - one when spahn was with the mets, and the other when spahn was pitching for the giants.  oddly enough, drysdale was 0 for 3 with 2 k's in all-star games, and 0 for 10 with 7 strikeouts in world series play.  so, if there's one fault that drysdale had, it's that he couldn't hit american league pitching.

who knows...

…whether or not this is real.

it sits in my 1960's binder next to a couple similar 1963 topps rookie cards and plays the part of a ken mcmullen rookie quite well.  after i bought it, i compared it to my other 63's and it didn't seem any different in cardstock or weight or coloring.  it also lacks the tell-tale signs of known fakes, but i really don't know for sure.

it's a shame that a card that should be a highlight of my collection sits under such a cloud of suspicion.

card show recap, part one. with a contest!

over the course of a few posts,  i am going to recap the card show i went to last saturday.  at the end, i will list all the cards i purchased and ask for guesses as to how much i spent.  i am comfortable with what i spent, i am just curious as to what you all think.  the closest guess will win some cards from a team of their choice.  i will also ask for guesses on each post.  again, the closest will get some cards from a team of their choice.  these will all be pre-1980 cards, unless you are a fan of the rockies, marlins, rays, or diamondbacks.

let's start with the first dealer i went to.  this was the guy that sold me the koufax rookie last year.  he had a bunch of stuff that he picked up at the national on his vintage bargain table.  plus, he offered to buy folks a hot dog and soda.  you see, he sends out emails prior to the shows he attends locally, and noted at the bottom of his most recent (and lengthy) email that he would treat those who actually read the whole thing to a hot dog and soda.  i mentioned it after we settled up on cards, but declined the offer since it was only about 9:30 in the morning.

here's what i took from his loose vintage bargain table

1956 topps johnny temple

1956 topps eddie o'brien

because they are double play cards.  that temple card is sharp.  at first, i was certain that i already had the o'brien card.  then i realized that it looked familiar because bob lemke used it to create the 1956 topps bill mazeroski card that should have been.

1959 topps frank torre

maybe for a trade?

1963 topps tommy davis

1963 topps dave stenhouse
1963 topps chuck cottier
1963 topps bud zipfel
1966 topps mike brumley
1966 topps dp combo - schofield and lanier
1966 topps jim lefebvre

1966 topps don mossi

1966 topps don mcmahon

1966 topps clete boyer
1966 topps gene mauch
1966 topps howie koplitz

most of those cards are for patp.  the tommy davis might be an upgrade for me, and i just can't leave a 1966 topps jim lefebvre card on a bargain table (although i did leave about 5 others there in the stack).  and the don mossi, well, it's the ears!

1961 topps harry bright
1961 post jim gilliam

my first 1961 post card.  not the only one i picked up that day, however.

1970 topps bill mazeroski
1971 topps tim mccarver

the maz might be an upgrade for my set, and the mccarver is for my 1971 topps set which i need to re-focus on.  plus i can consider this my 'good riddance' post to the retiring mccarver.

so.  what do you think those 19 cards cost me?  place a guess in the comments.  the second post will be up later tonight.

i was a craigslist genius

remember those great posts over at bad wax about the people advertising on craigslist who wanted thousands of dollars for some 91 donruss cards?  good times.  earlier this year, i was able to parlay some junk wax stuff into this - a 1956 topps sandy koufax card.

i was visiting my parents and needed to clear out my old closet.  i had left mostly complete sets behind, and it certainly wasn't worth shipping a 1989 topps set, or any of these other sets, back to myself.

i did bring a couple of sets back with me, plus some loose cards that i had forgotten about, and i also scavenged some cards from my 1981 fleer set, 1991 upper deck set, and a couple others before posting the above photo on craigslist. in addition to those partial sets, there was a 1989 topps set, 1990 topps set, 1991 topps set, 1990 donruss set, 1994 topps set, 1992 topps set, 1993 topps set, a score set from 1991 i think, and a few others too.  i asked for $50 with same day pick up for the lot.

 

i received two bites.  the first guy wanted the cards.  the second guy wanted to know if $50 was for the whole lot.  i met up with the first guy in a nearby grocery store parking lot.  he got out of his truck and walked towards me holding a beckett. 

 

turns out he was mostly concerned with the derek jeter cards in the 92 and 93 topps sets.  we opened the sets, but the cards were out of order (thanks topps).  i assured him that i had not taken cards out of those sets (except for the throw-in gold parallels topps put in the factory sets back then) and he handed over $50.

 

so where does sanford koufax fit in, you ask?  i have mentioned before that my dad collected cards for a couple of years as a way to spend time with me.  while i went for post-1970 dodger topps team sets and steve garvey, he went for stars and earlier dodgers.  now he was looking to sell his collection.  i offered him $50 for the koufax (he had a complete run of sandy's cards, but this was the only one i needed).  i also said i would take the fam out to dinner.  sold.

 

he also threw in a 1954 topps card that i needed, clem labine  

i left behind a full run of nolan ryan cards (didn't even ask how much for the 68 rookie), tom seaver, mike schmidt, george brett, carlton fisk, etc. 

 

i did, however, get him to add one more card to my collection, a signed 1963 topps jim gilliam

that is super sweet!  i now have cards signed by all the dodger retired numbers except for jackie and campy.

some may wonder why i had to pay at all for the cards. well, they aren't mine and i have never assumed that they would just be given to me. i am sure that my dad would have given them to me if i had asked for them, but i didn't.  i was pleased to find out, however, that the prospective buyer of his collection fell through, so the rest of the cards are still there.

so that's how i turned a few junk sets into a 1956 topps koufax (and more).  for the record, i borrowed $5 from my dad later in the trip, so the cards just cost me $45 plus a dinner.

what if they held the biggest card show of the year and i didn't show up?

this weekend is the biggest card show of the year in the twin cities (outside of twinsfest).  it attracts vendors from all over the region and beyond (plus mr. mint at least once).  it's the show where one dealer had boxes of 1975 topps minis and there were vintage bargain bins all over the place.

i had planned to go tonight and pick up a 1956 topps duke snider card to complete my '56 dodgers team set.  that's because earlier in the week i picked up this beauty of a card:

a 1956 topps roy campanella card.  it is a really nice looking card - one i have wanted for a long time.

as far as the show goes, i don't think i will be able to swing it.  the past two years i have gone on friday night when it opens, and i know i can't be there tonight.  tomorrow, the likes of frank robinson, pete rose, cal ripken jr, johnny bench, and eddie murray are signing autographs, but i won't be able to be there then, either.  on sunday, there is a slim chance that i could get there shortly before the thing closes at 4, so i guess i will go with the same refrain that dodger fans used back during the early part of campy's career - wait 'til next year.

so instead of that duke snider card, i'll show some other vintage cards.  these are some of the cards that i've picked up over the last couple of years but haven't figured out how to fit into a post.  problem solved.

1960 topps bob aspromonte

this was one of the last few 1960 cards i needed.  it's numbered in the 500's (547) and usually goes for a few bucks.  i put it off for as long as i could.  i think i used some 'ebay bucks' to finally acquire it.

1961 topps frank howard 

that's the card of the reigning nl rookie of the year who was also a member of topps' all-rookie team, but hondo got jobbed out of his rookie cup (which was actually a trophy back in 1961).  teammate tommy davis has the trophy on his card, but for some reason, topps left it off of howard's.  i believe that he is the only member of the all-rookie team to not get the trophy on his card.

1962 topps duke snider

here's the silver fox on his final topps card as a dodger.  luckily for me, his 1963 topps card (which is a high number) lists him as a member of the mets so i don't 'have' to bother.  this is a nice card for duke to go out on - a pensive look from within the walls of the coliseum.

1963 topps johnny podres

i should be on the lookout for an upgrade here.  podres' card is one of the few (moose skowron's is another that comes to mind) dodger card from 1963 to have the blue bottom.  i like it better than the more prevalent green or red.

1965 topps john roseboro

roseboro's card has that weird blue border up top.  i've never seen one that was orange all the way around.  by the way, i am very excited for next year's heritage release.  very excited.

1966 topps willie davis

the 3-dog here is a high number (535), so it took me a while to track down at a price i was willing to pay.  the corners are a bit soft, but it fits in my collection nicely.  now if only i could find a photo of davis in an angels' uniform, i could get to making that final tribute card that he never got.

1970 topps maury wills

this card, of course, is wills' first official topps card as a dodger (he's on one of the 1959 world series recap cards in the 1960 set).  which reminds me - a while ago i posted all of the topps cards that should have been of the 1962 league mvp and asked if there were any similar cards folks wanted to see.  three people responded so i'll probably take a stab at making each of the cards that they requested.  they are:

a 1951 or 1952 card of artie wilson (padrographs)
a 1983 card of harold reynolds (mariner1)
a 1979 card of jim bouton (dayf)

but, since a 1968 topps deckle edge wills was at stake, i need to designate a winner.  random.org tells me that the card goes to...

...dayf.

i'll get something thrown together sometime soon.

maury wills gets his due and you could too

i spent a couple of hours this weekend finishing up a project that has been sitting idle for a couple of years.  i, like many dodger fans who collect baseball cards, have long been disgusted that this 1967 topps card is the first official wills card in the topps catalog.

it's a high number, and my copy is creased and worn since that's the only way i was able to purchase one.  will's second card is from the 1968 set, and is much easier to find.  sadly, he's still a pirate.

he's still wearing a pirate uniform on his 1969 topps card, too, although he is listed as an expo.  it wasn't until 1970 that topps had wills in dodger blue on a card, and that only lasted until 1972.

i am well aware of the 1960 topps card that features wills (i do not believe it to be charlie neal), and i am also aware of his 1963 fleer card.  i wrote about them (and his 1963 post card) in this post a while back.

i previously made a 1973 topps card for wills to serve as a final tribute (it was one of the first such 'cards that should have been' that i made) but it took me much longer to go back to the start of his career.  here goes.

wills debuted in 1959 on june 6th, playing behind and batting ahead of sandy koufax.  here's what a wills card might have looked like that year.

i 'artified' the image to try to make it look a little more like the other cards from the rookie subset, and used a bob lillis card as a base.  lillis and ron fairly are the only two dodgers in the subset that i can think of off hand, and both of them debuted in 1958.  i'm guessing that even if topps had offered wills a contract, he wouldn't have been part of the '59 set.

here's what a 1960 topps maury wills card might have looked like.

the photo comes from the topps archives, and was marked 1959 or 1960, so it fits for sure.  this one might be my favorite of the bunch.

on to 1961

wills is a bona fide star, now.  he led the league in steals in 1960 and 1961, and finished 9th in the league mvp voting following the '61 season.  he also won a gold glove at shortstop and appeared in his first all-star game that year.  that was nothing compared to his 1962 season, however.

for the 1962 topps card that should have been, i didn't mess with success.

topps created that card for their 1975 mvp subset, and it was used in the 1982 kmart mvp set, and in the 1987 topps turn back the clock subset.  it works nicely.

for the 1963 topps card, i used a photo featuring the recently opened dodger stadium

i love the fact that the three ladies (does anyone other than vin scully call them that?) are still bound at the top.  this would have been a nice card.

this year, topps included wills as part of the heritage autograph checklist.  in doing so, they created a nice card of him in the 1964 style.  so, i used the same photo and came up with a similar result.

one of the main differences is that i put wills at shortstop and third base, as he spent 33 games at the hot corner in 1963.  it was the first time that he had played there in his major league career.

i am really looking forward to 2014 topps heritage.  here's the 1965 topps installment for wills.

again with the 3b/ss positioning.  he only played 6 games there in 1964, but i chose not to delete it from his card.  i say delete because i used a john kennedy card as the base, and he had '3b-shortstop' on his card.

here's what i came up with for 1966.

wills is back in dodger stadium, and you can see one of the palm trees has opened up a bit.  this photo is probably from earlier than 1965 or 1966, but i still think it works.

it was after the 1966 season that wills was dealt to the pirates, but i still made a 1967 topps card featuring him in dodger blue

topps also created a 1967 topps card with wills as a dodger for one of the fan favorites sets (you can see it in this post).  they used the photo that i chose for the 1960 card.

well, i know i feel better with these cards that should have been filling in the holes in wills' career, and, i am pretty happy with the way these turned out.  so much so, in fact, that i feel like giving away some cards.

here's the deal.  leave a comment with the name of a player for whom you would like to see a card that should have been.  i know a lot of these have been done already by many different folks, so try to think of something other than a 1977 topps hank aaron or a 1978 topps brooks robinson.

i'll randomly select one on friday and do my best to do the request justice.  i'll also provide a 1969 topps deckle edge wills card to the winner.  and probably some other stuff, too. so get your comments in by noon on friday, and let me know what you think.

that's right neighborly

i'm a fan of david cross.  from his standup to his role on arrested development, i find him to be pretty darn funny.  i even accept his decision to do that alvin and the chipmunks movie because, well, sometimes you need to make the money grab.  anyway, he has a standup bit where he takes on the idea of the term 'friendly fire'.  that's what comes to mind when i see this 2012 topps heritage card featuring a giant and a dodger.

i'm sure this post has already been written by now, but i am compelled to do it anyway after finding some heritage in a dime box at one of the recent shows i attended.  i hadn't seen the cards until then.  obviously, i recognize that topps was emulating the 1963 set not just in design, but in content, and so they were recreating this card

however, the whole idea of duke snider and gil hodges being friendly foes was that they were teammates for a long time, and even won two championships together.  it's also interesting to note that snider and hodges were not actually foes in 1963, as the silver fox joined the ny metropolitans in time to  play alongside hodges in his final month as a player.

ethier and vogelsong, on the other hand, have never been teammates.  they are certainly foes, and they do look somewhat cordial on the card, but friendly?  well, maybe.  the oldtimers would have us think that all the ballplayers these days are too friendly with their opponents.  in ethier's case, he has a good reason, as he's hitting over .300 in his career against vogelsong.

the other dodger multi-player card from the 2012 heritage set is this one, featuring ethier, matt kemp, and clayton kershaw

the 1963 set featured all pitchers - johnny podres, don drysdale, and sandy koufax.

there's no arguing that topps chose the right 'big three' for 2012 - i don't think a card of ted lilly, chad billingsley, and kershaw would have been as nice.

as an aside, i am really not looking forward to the 'sealing tigers' doom' card in next year's heritage.  stupid giants.

and just think, in 45 years, topps will be due to recreate some other combo cards, like these two from 2008 topps update & highlights

ugh.  luckily, i'll have my nuclear powered thought glasses to help me ignore those cards.

recognizing roy

it was good to see former dodger and army sergeant roy gleason get some recognition from tristar last year.  here are a couple of cards from 2011 tristar obak that i picked up a while back

including a regular 

and a mini of gleason in his army uniform

here's a previous veteran's day post with links to roy's story, if you are not familiar.  i recently found some custom cards made by bobw, who has done some pretty fantastic work.  he made a couple of 1963 topps style cards like this  one

 as well as some 1969 cards

i have renewed my sponsorship of gleason's baseball reference page which is really a silly kind of way to recognize his service.  still, it helps me think of veterans like roy every day, not just on veteran's day.

to roy and to all vets - thank you for your service.