Social Distancing Diary - With Baseball Cards #5

Aloha, everybody,

Today, let's check out some non-Dodgers vintage from 1961...

Enjoy and aloha!

So the Dodgers Passed on Giancarlo Stanton...

Aloha, everybody, 

Sure it's a bit late, especially on the east coast, where Giancarlo Stanton will apparently stay for the next decade. 

But it's not too late here on the western side of the country, where the wildfires are keeping us awake. 

I launched a quickie YouTube video with my thoughts on the Giancarlo Stanton/ Dodgers affair, and for good measure, I tossed in a beer review. It's IPA from Mad River Brewing, out of Humbold County, very northern California. 

Watch and enjoy, please. Don't forget to "Like" the video (if you happen to). Thanks and aloha! 

Live Blogging Blaster Pack 6

Oops, I mentioned in the previous post there were 2 packs to go, but there were actually three to go.

Pack 6...

It was only a matter of time...our first Yankee.

First miiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnniiiiiiii !! Can't go wrong with Schmidty

I'm starting to get the feeling we've seen enough Rays and Tigers, though. 

 Where's the Dodgers !!! Where's the awesome pulls????

Now, really, two packs to go...

Trade Bait-y Loot From Tribe Cards

Hey everybody,

Well, we can all agree on at least one reason that Cleveland fans are cool - and that big, huge, wonderful reason is David over at Tribe Cards.  Last season David ran a very cool contest in which he opened packs of cards every day and then sent the loot out to all of us, his fellow bloggers and readers.  He's doing the same type of thing again this season, so be sure to stop by his blog, enjoy the reading, and participate in the fun.

I received cards from the Yankees, Cardinals and Tigers in the contest - and a nice fistful, I might add.  Let's take a look at some of the loot, all of which his available for trade...

I got a nice bunch of these oversize Donruss All-Star cards.  They measure 4x6 and here's the lineup:

Lou Whitaker (never mind the lurking Pinnacle card on the left edge.)
Ozzie Smith Cards
Tommy Herr Cards
Willie McGee Cards
Jack Clark Cards BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !
Dan Petry Tigers
Willie Hernandez Tigers
Dan Petry Tigers
Checklist

Above are a couple of cool Ozzie Smith's.  It's also the first look at the next batch of cards. These are very attractive all-star stand-ups.  They measure about 3 x 6.  Line up:

Tommy Herr  Cards
Ozzie Smith Cards
Jack Morris Tigers
Dave Winfield Yanks
Rickey Henderson Yanks

Below are the card backs...(left - oversize, right - stand ups)

Did I get regular sized cardboard? Yup...

I got an assortment of cards from the Yanks, Tigers and Cardinals.  That Dwight Gooden is the card that was squeezing in on Lou Whitaker's left flank.  

Thanks for the fantastic contest, Dave!  I'm very much looking forward to the 2013 edition.

THANKS for reading, everybody!

Trading with 30-Year Old Cardboard and Lost Collectors

Hey everybody,

Here comes a short but sweet trade post about a coupla small...but very sweet trades.

First up is a trade with A.J. over at The Lost Collector.  A.J. posted some vintage, and lucky for me, he had a couple of 58 Dodgers for trade, Jim Gilliam and big bat Carl Furillo.  I already had the Gilliam,  but I needed that Furillo.  

Sure, it's a bit chewy, but this card got me to a count of 10 out of the 30 - yes, 30! - Dodger cards in 58 Topps. I'll post later about the 10 I have, with the hopes some of you out there might have some of the remaining Dodgers that I'm still missing.

What else did I get from A.J., you may ask?  Well, wonder no further, and behold the additional goodness that he sent my way...

It's more Dodger vintage!  Yes, he's listed as a damn Yankee, but he's wearing an L.A. cap, and the Yanks name seems to be kinda scuffed off.  In a weird way, I like that.

BTW - the other day GCRL posted about Bob Welch's extremely long arm and in looking at Williams' card, I notice he's got a super long arm also. Yikes! It's like that arm that creeps out of the crashed UFO at the end of  the 1953 movie version of The War Of The Worlds.

But that trade still wasn't finished - Check this out...

Yup - it's my first Hideo Nomo jersey card.  I know, I know, some of you guys have something like a thousand Nomo cards, swatches, relics and autos...but not my humble little collection.  A.J. helped me to lasso my first Nomo relic. This card is a well-designed and well-named little gem.

The other trade was really more of a gift, which makes it extra cool.  Brian over at 30-Year Old Cardboard  posted some 2013 Topps Dodgers and I requested this one...

Good ol' Paco here is an up and comer with the Boys in Blue. He debuted against the hated ones from the bay, and did his job, retiring the first batter he faced in the majors.

I wasn't able to find anything immediately in Brian's want lists, but being the great guy that he is, he went ahead and sent the card over to me anyway.

I'm planning on sending a surprise over to you in the coming days, so keep your eyes open, Brian.  I know you sent this card as a gift to me...and it's in that spirit that I'll be sending a little something over to you. 

All in all, Acouple of great trades.  THANKS Brian and A.J.!  I'm looking forward to our next trades.

THANKS also for reading, everybody. 

Sunday Night Trade Bait

Hey Everybody -

Last post I mentioned that I sprung for a few assorted packs.  I bought some 2013 Topps, cuz I dig those die-cuts and I'm still trying to pull one for myself.  In addition to those, I bought a few discounted 2010 and 2011 packs.  I got a whole mess of cards to add to various team piles, and no earth shattering hits, but I caught some subset cards that might be useful to those of you chasing them.  

Starting off with a coupla reprints...

In a week that featured the talk about Topps' scrubbing of Pete Rose, I managed to pull exactly one of the cards that was cited in the discussion.  Anybody out there chasing that History of Topps subset?

These cards are awesome. I'd chase this set myself, but I hardly see them around.

Anyone for a miiiiniiii Halladay or a Twins celebratory card?

 

Hey Arpsmith, you out there?  You interested in these cards of your boys?

How about some White Sox up and comers? 

 While I do like the Chasing History cards, I only like the shiny refractory ones.

 Anybody needs/want these miiiiiniiiiiiis?

And now a few of the Chasing History shinys....

These Dodger cards areawesome.

I'll close with a couple of shiny Yankees.  If you get tomorrow off, enjoy! 

Next Post:  ATBATT's 2nd Base All-Star

ATBATT'S All-Time All-Stars 1st Base

Hey everybody,

In my previous post I began the line-up of my All-Time All-Stars.  Today's post presents my choice for the best first baseman to play the game. 

I gotta tell ya, it was a tough decision.  Twins fans, I gave close consideration to Harmon Killebrew - and he almost won just because his name has "brew" in it - but I hadda go with Gehrig for a few extra reasons...

 First and foremost, he's "The Iron Horse".  Gehrig held what was once considered to be an unbreakable record of playing in 2,130 straight games.  You would be hard pressed to find somebody else as dependable as rock-solid Lou.  Actually, the only other guy in MLB history is Cal Ripken Jr., and sorry Cal, but I've already selected someone else at shortstop.

Gehrig is number one in baseball history with 23 grand slams.  Yes, A-PED is tied with him, but I'm personally refusing to acknowledge his phony drug enhanced numbers.  Who's the next closest to Lou? That would be Manny Ramirez with 21.  Did somebody just say 'drug enhanced numbers'?

Here's an intangible for you: Gehrig hit BEHIND Ruth.  One thing that helped the Babe get at least a few of his big bombs was the fact that pitchers noticed Gehrig over there on deck, and they couldn't simply pitch around the Bambino.  Now THAT'S respect. 

He averaged 139 runs and 148 RBI's for 13 friggin' seasons!

His teams won the Fall Classic six times.  Not too shabby.

86 Sportsflics Decade Greats Lou Gehrig

THANKS for reading everybody!

Next post: I made an impulse buy of a few packs at wallyworld today. Maybe I'll have some new trade bait for y'all! 

When A Trade Is Cards On Cards On More Cards

Hey, everybody.  Kerry from  Cards On Cards has been posting trade bait for the past couple of months.  I've been lucky enough to snag some of that cardboard awesomeness and generosity.  In my previous post, I included a Roy Campanella card from our latest trade.  Here are the remaining fruits from this great trade package...

Reggie is one of the great contradictions in my collection.  Although he was a dreaded Yankee during the great Dodger/Yankee wars of the 70's, and he accomplished one of his biggest WS accomplishments to cement him as Mr. October against my Dodgers, and although he cheated and stuck his hip out in order to knock a double play ball off-track and keep a Yankee rally alive, I still love collecting his cards.  Believe it or not, the card above is my first cloth sticker from that set.  Nice.

Reggie was one of baseball's biggest figures and I had the privilege of watching him play. I loved to hate him.  He was larger than life and he often backed it up.  However, one of my greatest memories of the Fall Classic was watching rookie Bob Welch come in and freakin' STRIKE OUT Reggie in a major world Series pressure situation.  This was also one of Tommy Lasorda's great moments of trusting his players.  Sometimes that bit us in the behind (Tom Neidenfuerer), but Tommy's hunches mostly played out in the positive for the Blue.

I really wish we had a baseball card of Welch's World Series heroics.  It was WS drama at its best.  Reggie vs. a rookie - game on the line - 9th inning and a slim lead to be protected - one of the WS biggest bats ever at the plate - you could cut the tension with a knife.

Welch threw absolute heat and dared Reggie to hit 'em.  Mr. October swung with ALL of his might.  I could feel the wind whooshing off of Reggie's bat and through my TV set!  The frustration on Reggie's face when Welch blows strike three past him is absolutely priceless.  Let's watch...

Back to the cards...

I can't resist cards featuring the K-Boys

I'm a big Eddie Murray fan.  I was glad when he was a Dodger.  I usually only want cards from guys in thier time with the Blue Crew, but I make an exception for Murray.  He's certainly more widely known as an Oriole.  

Kerry, being the cool trader he is, didn't stop with with the cards I requested.  He generously tossed in some extras: Dodgers and HOFers.  Check out some of my faves...

I didn't collect much heritage, and the packs I did buy yeilded very few Dodgers, so I'm very glad to get these.

 Unfortunately, I don't remember who posted earlier about this card capturing the magnificence of a day game at good 'ol Chavez Ravine.  The blue bullpen gates, the All-You -Can-Eat Gluttony Pavilion, the towering palm trees.  The card really is beautiful. 

Who don't like cards of the Bison?

This is a cool card that I didn't know existed till it was in my hands. 

Sooner or later I'm gonna have a binder page of Lou Gehrigs...and that's only going to be possible because you all helped me get there.  :)

 

Last up, Teddy Ballgame in classic form.  This is a great card from a great set!  Fantastic. 

THANKS for the awesome trade, Kerry.  Looking forward to the next one. 

Binder Page Heroes Vintage Ed. (+1) Part 2

Hey everybody,

Here comes Part 2 of this vintage card binder page.  Where the last post, Part 1 , featured a couple of Bowman '55s, this one will feature cardboard from the early 60's.

First up is this cool World Series action card with Roger Maris.  This is a great photo showing everything we love about baseball in the 60's.  It's got the powerhouse yanks, unis with stirrups, a catcher decked out in old-time gear, classic WS bunting, people wearing suits and ties in the stands, and the best part of all, the giants losing.  :) 

OK trivia fans: Who's that playing first for the giants?  (answer follows the back of the card)

That's Orlando Cepeda at first base.  BOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!

We've seen this guy before.  I think good ol' Night Owl featured him in a post about freaky dudes wearing freaky eye wear. 

    I snatched this card in the past topps giveaway contest. 

I noticed the card back mentions Brosnan wrote a book about baseball.  According to wikipedia, he wrote "The Long Season", which was considered the first behind-the-scenes look at baseball player's lives.   Apparently there were a number of players who were not too happy about that.  This was long before another Jim, by the name of Bouton,  wrote "Ball Four". 

Here's the +1 mentioned in the title.  While it's not an actual vintage card, I paired it in the binder page with Maris' WS Hero card.  I'm trying to build a small collection of Maris cards, but most of what I have are from releases after his playing days.

Here's a cool card that my old lady picked up for me at a yard sale.  :)

 Finally, below is a great pic of that classic Yank, Yogi Berra, posing at old Yankee Stadium.

How about that stat - by '61, Berra had played in 68 WS games! 68! Some guys never get to play in one.

THANKS for reading, everybody!