Cracking Perfection

Aloha, everybody, 

Yesterday I took a trip to the Frank and Sons card show to continue my work on The Perfect Game Project. 

As I've mentioned in the past, Frank and Sons, which was once the go-to weekly card show for anyone chasing baseball cardboard, is but a shell of the resource it once was. 

The industrial-sized building is still packed with vendors and collectors, but 95% of them are hawking and seeking comics, figurines, dolls, international video games, and nothing at all interesting to me. 

There are a few dealers with sports cards, but they specialize in ripping boxes of the latest product, only interested in pulling and immediately selling the hottest cards of the moment. Once again, a yawner for me. 

The baseball-centric card collector, looking to complete sets, or seeking any vintage that is not ridiculously priced and locked away under glass cases, is left with only two tables to choose from. All of that said, I was able to chip away and find a few ultimate cards (from the year of the perfect game) for my collection. 

Jim Bunning and Gus Triandos, 1964 Topps...

These 64's are in beautiful condition. The only flaw on the Bunning card was being slightly off-center, and a small amount of yellowing on the back. It's got sharp corners and good gloss on the surface. 

According to the dealer, the Triandos card is a short-print. 

Triandos is pictured in a Tigers uni, and checking the card back, he was traded to the Phillies the previous winter. 

I checked Bunning's card back and found he had also been traded from the Tigers. It seems they were packaged together and sent to Philadelphia, where they then combined for their perfect game. 

The same dealer filled out another battery for me. 1968 Topps, Jim (Catfish) Hunter and Jim Pagliaroni. 

Interestingly enough, Pagliaroni also caught a perfect game in his first season on a new team. Pagliaroni came out to Kansas City from Pittsburgh (as evidenced by the uni on his card)...

Catfish got his perfecto in his fourth year in the majors...

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to dig up any other perfect pitching duos, as nobody in the show had any cards from the 80's, 90's or 00's. At least, no cards that weren't high-priced autos. 

There's a big card show coming to the Long Beach Convention Center next month, so that will be my next best bet. I suppose I could find all of the others with a 20 minute search on the net, but call me an old-school collector, I just don't roll that way. For me, nothing beats flipping through those boxes and binders, cardboard in hand. 

Tune in next time to check out the other cards I grabbed from the show. 

Aloha! 

A JBF Tradeathon Leads to a Vintage-palooza

Aloha, everybody, 

Did you participate in JBF's recent Holiday Tradeathon? The creator of the Supertraders, the man who you never (but you really kinda do) wanna have a cardboard war with, is constantly finding new ways to spread his generosity around the blogosphere. 

This time it was a tradeathon. Wes offered up cards from different sports, autographs and well-loved vintage. The cards were offered to the first to call dibs, so one had to be vigilant to claim cards that were popular. 

I missed a couple of cards that I would have loved to claim, but there were plenty of others that caught my eye, and claim them, I did. 

Wes offered up a good amount of vintage and HOFers, both of which fit very well into my collecting wheelhouse, and here are the cards that I chose. 

A couple of posts ago, I decided to make a real go at collecting cards from defunct teams. Here's Frank Howard repping the Washington Senators from 1966 Topps...

 Howard, who broke into the bigs with the Dodgers, wasn't quite a HOFer, but he put up impressive enough stats: 
Rookie of the Year, 2-time AL home run leader, 4-time All Star, AL RBI leader, and a World Series champ. 
He'll slide into my collection just fine. 

Did I mention there was an offer of well-loved vintage? Who can resist 1954 Topps?
Bonus: Defunct team. 

Shantz was no slouch either: 3-time AS, AL MVP, 8 Gold Gloves, AL Wins leader, ML ERA leader, and WS champ! 
Bonus: Southpaw
Yeh, Mr. Shantz deserves a slot in my binder. 


In the three-hole, HOFer, Harmon Killebrew. I have a very modest PC of the Killer, and this card fit right in. 

This Killer card is an absolute beauty! Mirrory and refractory, it dazzles as it catches the light. 2014 Panini HOF Red Framed 08/50 

When I started collecting in the early 90's, Mickey Mantle cards were the bee's knees. I never lost my eye for Mantles. This one is an Upper Deck calling card commemorating the Mick's 500th homer. 
Bonus: Defunct Yankee Stadium 

The last of the cards I chose brings us back to 1966 Topps and another HOFer. This time it's one of the just 24 men to have pitched a perfect game... 

Bunning also pitched a no-hitter, was an 9-time AS, 3-time SO leader, and had his number retired by the Phillies, and he was a Dodger. Yup, I'll claim a Jim Bunning card. 

If those awesome picks weren't enough, good ol' Wes dropped in a bonus pack of 1995 Fleer. I pulled an abomination...

 And a second ex-Dodger, this time as a Met (I know, he's an ex-Giant, but we don't speak of such things in these parts), 

This card was the highlight of the pack. Gimme World Series Heroes every day of the week! 

Carter's WS heroic home run is forever implanted in my mind, so this was a great pull. 

Awesome cards from an awesome dude. THANKS, Wes! 

Aloha!