Social Distancing Diary with Baseball Cards - World Series Vintage Subsets!

Aloha, everyone, 

In today's edition of Social Distancing Diary, we check out a World Series vintage subset, and a couple of Al Kaline cards, on his RIP day. 

Enjoy and aloha!

Two Bloggers Walk Into A Card Show...

WOW! The Dodgers absolutely clobbered dem tomahawk choppin' Braves tonight. At one point, the Dodger Stadium crowd even began a mocking version of the chop chant. LOL.

After a rough, and I mean ROUGH start by Hyun-Jin Ryu, the Dodger bats stepped up and said, "We got this."  And they proceeded to thump and thump and thump.  Nice.  I'll sleep well tonight.

Now for Part Two of my report from the Culver City Card Show.  Yesterday's post featured the Dodgers cardboard I picked up, tonight will be a look at my loot from the other teams.  But first, a shot of Patrick, our favorite dealer at the card show.

Patrick is very friendly, loves to talk cards, has a good variety of stuff with fair prices (he even has actor cards, actors from the 20's!), and he shares his doritos.  Here's to a great guy!

OK...cards.....

Leading off is 1958 Topps and some love for the other guys in the playoffs.  Sure, it's creased, but it doesn't really detract from the card.  It is a bit off-center, but it's not trimmed, that was my scan job.  How about that baby faced Kaline.

Ana Lu - here comes some dust from the original Pudge.  This is a great action shot of the original Pudge playing the game the only way he knew how.

 I love me some Killebrew cardboard.   Action shot, a home run, triple photo, and a sweet caption.  This one is awesome.

 Did I mention I love them cards from the Killer?  How about this one, psychadelic Topps, featuring Killabrew's weapon of choice.  And a lurking number 8.

Here's a great 1952 Bowman.  Horizontal, sweet imagery, that 1950's TV advert, and the man with the name that noone dares say.

1959 Topps.  I've wanted this one for a long time.  Two Yankee legends on one great card.  The man who tossed a perfect game in the World Series, and the man who showed him how, the ol' perfessor.

How about more Yankees.  Yeah, I know, lots of Dodger fans hate the Yankees.  I don't really have that in me, and I can respect that legacy.  Speaking of legacy, every collector with his (or her) mettle has gotta have a Mantle.   Yes, it's chewy, yes, it's wobbly, yes, the Mick has a bat jammed into a sensitive area, but I finally land my first Mickey Mantle card from his playing days!!

Speaking of cards that capture players in their heydays, this is a very nice shot of the Hit King strolling up to the plate, with that shite eating grin that says, "Base hit, coming up!"

I can take or leave Frank Robinson.  I hadda have this card because of Roberto Clemente.

Finally, we close with a card that somebody apparently folded into quarters.  Was that to fit neatly into a kid-sized wallet?   This is what people mean when they talk about vintage with character.  I've always enjoyed collecting Colavito just because of his name, but I know Tribe fans dig him for much more than that.

That's almost all of my card show haul.  Greg had a goodie bag waiting for me full of Dodgers.  We'll see those next time.

Although my next one may very well be a YAHOO, DODGERS WIN! post.  

Go Dodgers!!!

ATBATT's All-Time All-Stars Right Field

Hey everybody,

when we last visited the All-Timers, we completed the infield and one outfield position. Here's the line up to this point:

C: Johnny Bench
1st: Lou Gerhig
2nd: Jackie Robinson
SS: Ozzie Smith
3rd: Brooks Robinson
LF: Rickey Henderson

This time we get my pick for the best right fielder of all time - with the opportunity to check out a few cool baseball cards.  Not bad for some free Saturday evening entertainment. 

Several of the positions for my all-stars have been difficult choices, and this one was pretty tough as well.  There are several first-ballot players.

I, for one, would usually take Reggie's 563 homers and ability to come up big in the Fall Classic.

While Reggie's a solid choice...what about Roberto Clemente?  He only had 3,000 hits, 12 all-star games, and was regularly bringing fear to N.L. base runners with his cannon for an arm before his life and career were tragically cut short.

Clemente was actually my first choice, but then I remembered this guy...
 

Sure, Hammerin' Hank would be the natural first choice choice for lots of us.  That is, until we remember this next ballplayer, who held down right field before any of 'em.  There's just no way I choose somebody else before I choose this guy.

This is the man that caused the building of the original Yankee Stadium (RIP).  They called it "the house that Ruth built" for good reason.  He led the Yankees to 7 A.L. pennants, 4 World Series championships and rewrote Yankee and baseball record books along the way.

 I once read somewhere that foul poles were invented because the Bambino regularly hit the ball so far the umpires needed help.

Of course I'm gonna pick the guy who practically played with a hot dog in one pocket and a beer in the other, all the while hitting the ball out of the park.  The best part of all, he did it steroid free.

THANKS for reading, everybody.  Time for me to go back to watching the Dodger game. 

Binder Page Heroes - Baseball Thrills Edition

Hey everybody !

How's it going out there?  I haven't posted for a while, but once a week or so, I've been checking in and reading everyone's blogs.  Tonight I was reading and I noticed ATBATT listed in someone's blog roll.  Then I noticed I haven't posted in 3 weeks !!! YIKES !  That's the longest I've gone without a post since launching ATBATT, so it's definitely time to stop that slide....

Reviving the Binder Page Heroes series, here comes a page featuring a subset I've been chasing since I started collecting.  It's the Baseball Thrills subset from 1959 Topps.  These cards are beauties and they commemorate some big moments in MLB history.  They cost a pretty penny when they're in good condition, so I'm far from completing the set.  That means there are a couple of modern reprints, and a lurker on the binder page, who certainly hold their own.  Let's check 'em out....

How about these cards?  Beautiful colorization, action-packed photos, and simple but powerful designs.  I feel those thrills just looking at the cards!

Leading off is Hammerin' Hank, the Home Run King, hitting exactly as you would expect from him in the Fall Classic.  Aaron helped lead the Braves to a 7-game win over the Yankees.  Along the way, he batted nearly .400 and punched 3 homers.

BOOOOOOOOOO !!!

Reprint Alert - This comes from 2001 Topps.  This will have to do until I get my hands on the real mccoy.

Reprints or not, I just can't resist these cards.  They just scream Old Time Baseball.

Leave it to the Dodgers to play 26 innings and only score one run.  Luckily, they held the Red Sox to one run also, and played the longest game ever in baseball history.  Why didn't they finish?  No, bud selig's grandfather was not the commish, the game was stopped on account of...darkness.

I picked this one up from a trade with a fellow blogger.  One step closer to completion!  THANKS, trading partners!

The Duke brings in the next highlight.  I love this one because of the early use of consecutive action shots on one card.  It really captures the THRILL of the play.   How about that guy in the stands ? I've often wondered if that was his strange posturing to try and catch the ball if it went up into the seats. 

This set just drips baseball history.  Tiger Kaline finds his way into the set, and we get a bonus view of old time umpire gear. 

Another Tiger and another consecutive photo action shot. COOOOOL !

Finally, one of my vintage faves.  '52 Bowman rocking an absolute work of baseball art on cardboard.

THANKS for reading, everybody ~