Binder Page Heroes - Strictly Vintage

Aloha, everybody, 

Welcome to another installment of Binder Page Heroes, the ATBATT series where I pull a random page from the binders to share with you. Today it's a Vintage Edition. 

Leading off is 1954 Bowman...

I chose "The Barber" to lead off in honor of Arpsmith. I just sent a PWE to his California address, but it turns out he's moved to Kansas. 

I'm hoping he'll see this Giants card, click on my post, and read this note: Keep an eye out for a forwarded PWE, and send me your new address! What am I gonna do with all my unwanted Giants cards? 

Back to The Barber. Maglie earned his nickname from his brush back pitches which were close enough to give you a  shave. He's the only pitcher to have played for all three of the golden age New York clubs (Yankees, Giants and Dodgers). 

As a Dodger he pitched a no-hitter at Ebbits Field and was the Dodgers' pitcher when Don Larsen pitched his perfect game in the World Series. 

Bonus: Maglie has a stadium in Niagara Falls, NY named after him! 

Enough with the Giants. Moving on to 1952 Bowman...

Great art and the cardboard's in great shape. Yes, I still love you when you're 64. (There's a Beatles reference for Defgav.) 


Here's a '62 Topps that shows those Angels have been claiming LA for a long, long time...

I keep this '65 Topps card around because of the large Senators pennant. Gotta have at least one of these in my collection. I just wish I had one from a better Senators player. 

How about a Cub who went on to be a World Series Hero for the Dodgers, and then returned to the Cubs...

Johnson, an ex-Kansas City Monarch, hit two home runs in Game 7 of the 1965 World Series to clinch the championship for the Dodgers over the Twins. Topps gave him his own card for this feat, which is also in my collection. 

Sweet Lou is still around and frequently participates in pre-game ceremonies at Dodger Stadium with former players. I saw him once in the stands and he signed a baseball for me. He even signed "Sweet Lou Johnson". 

1957 Topps...

7x All-Star and 2x AL Batting champ, but he's a Red Sox.

Here's another Washington Senator, this time on 1959 Topps...

Since Fidel's been in the news lately, it's worth a mention that Pedro hailed from Cuba. 

Here's card #1 from 1960 Topps...

One of the great AL pitchers in the 50's, Wynn is another ex-Senator. 

Last up is a card from the Milwaukee Braves. 

From the back of the card: Red won the 1950 All-Star game with a home run in the 14th inning. 

It seems collecting cards from defunct teams is another facet of my collecting that I never properly realized until this post. I've happily just added hundreds more cards to my collecting goals. 

Aloha! 

Binder Page Heroes - Vintage New York Yankees Edition

Aloha, everybody, 

I'm home sick today, battling a very annoying head cold. Most annoying, perhaps, was this condition forced the cancellation of tonight's poker game. 

Now that I'm home sick, with nothing to do and nowhere to go, I figure I'll make myself useful and get a blog post up. 

As a Dodger fan, I certainly don't have much love for the damn Yankees, but as a collector, I've got plenty of love for timeless players captured on cardboard.  

Presenting more Binder Page Heroes, led off by my very small PC of Yankees legend, Thurman Munson. 

I love vintage "in action" shots. There's something about that old-time film processing vs today's digital shots that grabs a different part of my collecting heart.

 The tools of ignorance in full splendor, with optional New Yawk style sideburns. 


Coming up, one of the best baseball cards, ever...
 

 Once again, it's the grittiness of the photo that delivers the impact on these old slices of cardboard. The past becomes an almost tangible element of the card as well. 

How about an oddball Yank?

 This here is a 1984 Fun Foods pin of a very young Don Mattingly. Speaking of the quality of photography, this image looks like it was lifted from videotape. 

Some might not consider the medium, but the player to be the oddball...

But how can you not love good ol' Dock, the holder of a baseball accomplishment that will most likely never, ever be repeated?

Nor should those shark sideburns fading into the fu-man-chu style mustache ever be repeated either. 
 

I love it when two classic players share such a great looking card. 

The following Yankee single-handedly stopped almost every single Dodger rally in the 1978 World Series. At least, it felt like it at the time. I hate the guy, but his awesome World Series play earned my respect and a place in my collection...
 

Did I mention my love for timeless baseball figures captured on vintage cardboard?

 1959 Topps Casey Stengel and Don "Perfect WS Game" Larsen.

I don't know about Larsen, but had I pitched a perfect game in the World Series, I would have worn a permanent smile on my face for the rest of my life - even while sleeping. 

Aloha!

Past Gypsy Queen Binder Page Heroes

Welcome to another edition of Binder Page Heroes. 

Since the HOF recently inducted some new members, today ATBATT presents a binder page featuring some of the giants of the game - men who long ago earned plaques on those hallowed walls. 

The other reason I put this page together is I love Gypsy Queen cards. More than that, I love their inserts, and yet even more, I treasure those that have come to me in trades from all of you. 

Most of these cards came to me through trades, so you may recognize one you sent to me in the past.  Even if you didn't send one of these to me, you may recognize a great player from the past for your favorite team. 

Leading off is one of my all-time favorite players, and my vote for the best catcher ever...

 The extra bonus on this card is it features two members of The Big Red Machine (Bench and Davey Concepcion), but more than that, BOTH players on this card had their numbers retired by the Reds. 

 Tris Speaker is one of my favorites because he's got a name that was destined for baseball greatness, and he's got one of those cool old-time baseball sayings - his outfield position was "where triples go to die". 

And now a New York double headuh...

 How's this for a classic Yogism: "I really didn't say all those things I said." 

Another one of the greatest ever...

Continuing the domination of this page by east coast teams...
 

  
Sure DiMaggio was a great player, but he also married the woman that most American males over the age of 13 dreamed about.

 Aint these Hallmark Heroes absolutely beautiful cards? 

We started with Bench, so let's close out with Johnny B launching another one....

Aloha, ball! 

Wallet Card Bonus:
 Ex-Dodgers closer Eric Gagne celebrated his birthday this past week. Wallet Card took to twitter and my old "Game Over" t-shirt to wish Gagne a Happy Birthday:

Binder Page Heroes - Nolan Ryan

Aloha readers and trade partners,

I was recently privileged to be profiled by Nachos Grande in his most excellent series Better Know A Blogger. In the profile I mentioned the favorite articles in my collection to be my main baseball card binders - one for the Dodgers and one for players from all the other teams. 

The cards in those binders are my current favorites, which means they are updated and reorganized whenever new favorites join my collection. 

Answering that profile question reminded me of a series that's been dormant here on ATBATT for a while now, Binder Page Heroes. In the series I show off a random binder page and the cards currently residing there. 

I figure it's time to revisit that series, so let's begin with my Nolan Ryan page. 

Leading off is a miiiiiiinnnnnnnnniiiiii Express...

When I restarted my collecting back around 1994, Ryan was one of the first players that I collected. His legend was still pretty fresh to baseball fans, and we share the same birthday, which I felt connected us somehow...
 

 I've gotta give Ryan extra credit for pitching so well in such an ugly uniform. 

Gotta love the old (now gone) Houston Astrodome in the logo. My only personal memory of the Astrodome is driving past it once and marveling at it from the freeway.

 Seven no-hitters. Simply amazing. 

  
As you can see, I'm a sucker for these "No hitter" tribute cards. 

 And now, a Ryan card with a lurking Dodger Stadium...

 Some folks liked to take Ryan down a notch and say it's inevitable that he's attained all those no-hitter and strike out stats "just because he pitched forever".  

Well, you don't get to pitch forever if you're not any good. 

Remember when pretty much everyone's mitts were made by Rawlings?

Finally, a card where Ryan shares the spotlight with another couple of pitching legends...

Aloha!

Binder Page Heroes - Vintage Calling!

Here we go again with another page pulled from my PC binders. Here comes a mix of old-timers from Topps base, subsets, and even an Upper Deck oddball.

These first cards were inserts before there were inserts.  They come from 1973 Topps and featured the All-Time stat leaders (up to that point) for a variety of baseball accomplishments.

I'm chasing this bunch, so I'd appreciate if anybody out there who has some of these lying around would send 'em my way - in a trade of course.  Just check my "Sets I'm Chasing" page to see what I have and what I need.

Before Pete Rose was The Hit King, there stood The Georgia Peach. 

 This card of Walter Johnson has yet another WJ card creeping up into him. We'll see that lower card again in a sec.

 Here's good ol' Walter once again, leading his second category in the set: Most K's.

Coming up - down below - is that long rectangular card that was creeping into WJ's "Shutout Leader" card.  This is from 1993 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes....

These are patterned after the T-202 Hassan Triple Folders cards. There's 165 cards in the set and I have 3 or 4.  Not chasing.

The cards immediately above and below come from a set I'm sloooowly chasing, 1963 Fleer.

About a week ago the Dodgers tied, and then broke the franchise road game-winning streak record.   It was previously held by the 1924 Brooklyn Robins.

What most sports writers or bloggers didn't tell us was the fact that back in those early days in Brooklyn, the ballclub was called by a slew o' nicknames, depending upon who was doing the slewing.

They were called, for example, the Superbas (which I always read as the Super-Bras), the Grays, the Grooms, and the Robins.

It's said Manager Wilbert Robinson, affectionately known as "Uncle Robbie", was the reason they were called the Robins.  Baseball history will record this as the last time any manager was affectionately called anything.

Here's the Dodgers' All-time Hit King.  Way to rock that hip-hop cap waaaay before anybody, Sir Z to the Ack. 

The final three in the line up come from vintage Topps...

I'm a big fan of knuckleballers.  Here's a prime example of old-timer knuckler Phil Niekro, with old-time Dodger Stadium lurking in the background.

1962 Topps brings us one of those great shared cards featuring former Dodger and Yanks skipper, Joe Torre and his amazin' eyebrows. 

Finally tonight, another knuckler showing us how to grip it.  Contrary to the pitch's name, you don't really use your knuckles at all. Just another tricky facet of that dang tricky pitch.

Binder Page Heroes - The Big Hurt

Greetings, dear readers and trade partners.  It's been a while since I posted, and it's been a really long while since I posted something from my binders.

I have two personal binders of cards that are near and dear to me.  Binder No.1 is all Dodgers, and No.2 is comprised of everyone else.  As new cards come to me through purchases or trades, they're added to the pages.  The binders have now grown so full, that I know the next step will be to add Binder No. 3, which of course, won't be a bad thing at all.

The other day Nick, from that awesome blog, Dime Boxes, posted about finding a great looking Frank Thomas card at the National.  Seeing as how that particular card has always been a fave of mine, I'm using it as the inspiration for tonight's post.

Frank Thomas, aka The Big Hurt - next to Mickey Mantle - was the biggest name in baseball cards when I first started getting deep into the collecting game.  Thomas was a heck of a player besides, so I actively sought out his cards, and to this day I still love to add great looking Big Hurt cardboard to my binders whenever I can.

Frank looks kinda sweaty in this photo.  I wonder how comfortable it was to smile after a brisk workout?  But he manages to make it all look natural and genuine. Whataguy!

Here's a curious card.  I like the action shot and the little tag mentioning his status as a Number One Draft pick.  The photo feels kinda offbeat though, as Big Frank seems troubled about something.  And who is that running?  Is that Dee Gordon? 

Love this one. Dime box pick up. 

This one is a great example of 90's shininess. As Nick would agree, Pinnacle at that time was at the top of the cardboard game.

I was always disappointed that the final year number is blocked out on this one.  : (

Some of you out there have mentioned not liking this Leaf design, but I think it perfectly fits the photo and the White Sox team colors.

As usual with scanning photos, subtleties are lost once again.  This is from Upper Deck's Electric Diamonds, in which the lettering shimmers with a diamond effect.  Quite nice.  The card also seems to be from a Battle of Chicago Sox and Cubs matchup at Wrigley.

 Another card whose beauty is lost in the scan.  This is a Fleer 2001 Future Characteristics insert.  I dig the kanji characters, but I have no idea why they exist.  ???

 This is the card that Nick picked up at the National.  It looks like Frank's about to crush those guys at first base.

Thanks for reading!