Social Distancing Diary - With Baseball Cards #5

Aloha, everybody,

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

Enjoy and aloha!

Rockin' my Fridge with Vintage Custom Magnets

Aloha, everybody, 

I was one of the lucky Christmas recipients of a custom mini-magnet from Baseball Card Breakdown. Here's the magnet Gavin created...

That Jackie Robinson has joined the other custom magnets on my fridge, and I thought it would be cool to show off the rest of my now vintage, magnet collection. 

Back in the early 90's I was a regular at the Frank and Sons card show, which is where I ran into a vendor who created custom magnets. I figured if my boys' macaroni artwork could grace the door of the refrigerator, so could the legends of baseball.  

Back in those days, before chasing prospects and rookies was a thing, Mickey Mantle was the king of cardboard. 

Mantle cards were the holy grail. I wanted them, the magnet guy made a lot of them, and that was about the only way I was going to see Mantle in my collection, so I bought a few. 

Unfortunately, time has faded the colors, and some of the edges have been bent, but that's what happens to our cards over time as well. 

Here's one of my favorite Babe Ruth tribute cards on a magnet...

Of course, these aren't actual cards. The guy told me he cut pictures out of Beckett magazine to use as his images. 

Here's the Mick with friends...

They weren't all Mantles...

Finally, the biggest rookie card of the day...

Enough time has passed that these custom magnets can now be considered vintage. The macaroni art is gone, but my magnet collection is still going strong. Thanks to Gavin, it just grew by one more. 

Aloha! 

Cardboard Breakdown Of A Great Trade

So Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown posted up some 2014 Gypsy Queen extras and I jumped forward to claim a few.   After a couple of emails we settled on a trade.  

That's par for the course, but what took this from the level of your basic trade and elevated it to "Great" level, was the fact that Gavin was generous and tossed in some cool extras.  

I first had my eye on a select few of the Dodger cards that he offered up, but when I opened the package he sent over, it was packed with just about the entire Dodger team set. Since I haven't bought a single pack of GQ yet, this was a most unexpected and excellent bonus.  Hence, greatness. 

Most of us love the cards that show our team's big boppers at the plate blasting a home run, but I also dig cards showing them play defense.  Here's El Jaguar taking care of business quietly and confidently, which is pretty much the way he approaches all aspects of his game.  That's why I apply the "Jaguar" moniker to A-Gon. 

Speaking of my favorite Dodgers, here's Hyun-Jin Ryu, insert-style...

 Bringing on yet even more pitching greatness is Kid K (these Dealing Aces inserts were what I originally asked for in the trade)...

Here come a couple of Dodger Glove Story Inserts...

How cool would it be to be clearly portrayed in the background of a baseball card?

 Below is another one of my favorite Dodgers.  Dre continues to get a bad rap as an underachiever that I don't think is deserved.  His name is always floating around in trade rumors, and I think if he is traded, he's going to be solid for his next team.  

Matt Kemp has lower RBI's, strikes out twice as much, can't throw anybody out (beyond second base) any more, places himself above the team ("I'm not a platoon player, I'm a staaaaaarterrrrrrr"), and yet he gets all the LA love.  Go figure.

Finally, these very cool inserts, the N174's.  These are based on a set from 1888...

I can't have too many Yogi cards.

THANKS for the great trade, Gavin!  Looking forward to the next one. 

One Man's Dime Box Cards Are My Treasure

Hey everybody,

Spring Training is well underway and Opening Day is right around the corner.  What a great time of year!

Something else that's great is making trades with fellow bloggers and ATBATT's readers.  Today I'm covering a trade with one of the top bloggers in the game today, Good 'ol Nick, from the venerable Dime Boxes blog. 

This time Nick included a note expressing regret that he was low on Dodgers and how he hoped the inclusion of some other HOFers would make up for that.  Are you kidding, Nick?  Your trade packages are ALWAYS chock full of fantastic cardboard, and this time was no exception.

As usual, Nick sent so many cool cards I had a difficult time just to separate out nine cards to fit on my scanner for this post. That said, let's check the top nine I chose:

One can never go wrong sending Dodger vintage to me. 3-Dog was one of my earliest favorite Dodgers.  I was just a kid, but I quickly latched onto Davis because he was a southpaw just like me!

 I dig this psychadelic 70's card of Maury Wills and his well-used mitt.  It's said that the groundskeepers for the evil Giants over at Candlestick Park used to saturate the area around first base with water in the hopes of slowing down the speedy Wills. Ha! Good luck with that.

Now for one of today's Boys in Blue...

 RYYYYYYUUUUUUU !!  Now that Zack Grienke is not going on that ridiculous opening weekend trip to Australia, Manager Mattingly has declared Ryu will take the mound for Game Two of the season. 

 I love Ryu's game face when he pitches. Intense, baby! Come git some....

 How about this crazy card of Roger the Dodger?  Just what the heck is going on here?  I'm guessing this photo was snapped during the laid back days of Spring Training. I wouldn't be surprised if the camera were pointing backward, thus unintentionally creating the first selfie ever.

Nick also sent over some cool cardboard from other teams...

 The Catfish!  I'm presuming someone may have sent this card to Nick because of his "Grips" collection. If so, thanks for parting with this awesome card, Nick.

Another great card of a great pitcher.  Although pictured here with his first team, the Indians, I'll always remember him as an Oakland A.  Hey Ecks, can you hear it?  "High fly ball into right field....SHE IS GOOOOOOOOONE !!!!!"

These Cooperstown Collection cards are beautiful.  I only have a handful, and now I can add the Georgia Peach to that group.

Finally, this little foldout whose origins I don't know, but I am now proud to own.  I've mentioned before that I may not be a Yankees fan, but I can appreciate those Yankee greats from yesteryear.  Yogi Berra is certainly one of those Yankee players whom I admire and collect.

Yogi lost his wife of 65 years - 65 YEARS! - this past week.  What an epic love.  My deepest condolences, Yogi. 

And Nick, my THANKS for a great trade.  I'm already gathering a fistful of cards to send out to you  for our next trade.

Thanks for reading, everyone. 

Trade Me (Almost) Anything: Damn Yankees

Hey Everybody,

The Dodgers are playing a double header out in da Bronx today, so here's some Yanks up for trade.

I'm happy to say I just completed a first-ever trade with reader Zippy Zappy, living out in N.Y. right before this series, so he got first dibs on the Yankees I was planning to post here.  That said, here's hoping you're going to like this trade bait.  

BTW, Z.Z. is sending out some awesome Dodger cards that I've never seen before.  I can't wait to check 'em out and post 'em up for you all to see.

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Here's how it works:  In each post I'll offer cards from one particular ballclub.  I'm starting the offer at 9 cards, since 9 is what fits onto my scanner plate, and I can comfortably shoot 9 cards to you in a PWE. 

What do I want in return?  I'll accept whatever and however many cards you want to shoot back. It doesn't have to be 9 cards in return and they don't have to be all Dodgers.  My only request is you check out my "What I collect" or "Sets I'm chasing" pages here and use them as guides.

Once again, you don't have to match me for numbers of cards or perceived monetary value.  Say I send you 9 cards and you send me 1insert or vintage card.  Cool!

The intent here is simply to  TRADE, BABY, TRADE!
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First up is a guy who was backstop for both teams, and now plays for neither...

Hows about a couple of oldie but goodie Yanks...

Presenting Mr. Olden and Mr. Gooden

How's about even older and... goodier...

Here's Mickey Mantles' old drinkin' buddy.

Miiiiinnnnniiiii

 THANKS for reading, everybody!

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!