You know that feeling you get when you pull your winter jacket out of the closet for the first time? You know, you put on this jacket that you haven’t worn in about 9 months, stick you hand in the pocket and pull out a $20 bill? That’s a pretty awesome feeling, right? Well, now pretend that instead of pulling out your winter coat you’re cleaning your desk. And pretend that instead of your winter coat, you find a manilla envelope that you totally forgot about. And now pretend that instead of $20, it’s a stack of old baseball cards that you forgot that you ordered.

Apparently that’s what happened to me. It’s not that I don’t remember ordering these cards, because now that I see them I totally do. I guess what happened is that I ended up getting them in mid-December, right around the same time that I was receiving a lot of packages because I try to do as much Christmas shopping online as I possibly can. Because most of those Christmas packages are for my wife or my kids, I usually end up needing to grab them off the porch and squirrel them away quickly before people start asking too many questions. I reckon this envelope full of cards got caught up in that madness and ended up being forgotten about until a few days ago when I was straightening up my office.

On one hand I feel kind of like a dope for letting that happen, but on the other hand it was pretty awesome coming across a bunch of cool cards that I forgot that I had. It’s kind of like playing a bunch of songs on a jukebox at a crowded bar. By the time your songs actually come on, you pretty much forgot what you played, but you know you’re going to like it. Let’s see what we got, shall we?

The “newest” cards in the bunch were a couple of 1962′s.

1962 Topps #292 Jerry Kindall

Although I pretty love any old baseball card, these super tight close-up, no hat, bleh looking cards disappoint me sorely. That’s not to say I’d ever stop hoarding them. There is something visually interesting though about the contrast of Jerry’s super flat flat-top and the angle of the grandstand, or whatever that is behind him. According to his Wikipedia page: “No one since 1920 with at least 2000 at-bats has a lower career batting average than Kindall’s .213.” At least he’s always got that going for him.

1962 Topps #12 Harry Craft

It’s a little hard to tell through the fog of scratches and scuffs on this card, but it’s another borderline boring close-up of a guy who you can’t tell what team he’s affiliated with. The one saving grace for this one is that I love the look on Harry’s face. It’s exactly the same look my 3 year son has when he realizes he just did something wrong and is trying to figure out if anyone noticed. Before he started to manage, Harry had a short, unspectacular playing career with the Reds from 1937-1942. One interesting highlight to his playing days was that he caught the final out in Johnny Vander Meer’s second consecutive no-hitter (a pop fly off of the bat of fellow future manager Leo “The Lip” Durocher).

1962 Topps #196 Terry Fox

This is more like it as far as posed cards. Pretty much full body shot. Check. You can tell what team he’s on. Check. Semi-nice view of the stands behind him. Check. This card is one of the many cards in the 1962 set that had a green tint variation. Looking at the 2 versions on Check Out My Cards, though, I’ll be damned if I can tell the difference. Considering this sucker ran me a whole 2 bits, I’s be inclined to think it’s not the green tint. Then again, both versions of this particular card have the same exact book value, so who the hell knows.

1962 Topps #229 Jesus McFarlane

I love this dude’s name. It’s so disjointed. Like Juan Epstein. His full name is even better. Orlando de Jesus Quesada McFarlane. A really suspicious line from the back of his card: “One of the most consistent hitters in the Pirate’s chain during the past four years, Jesus suddenly started hitting with power at Ashville in 1961.” Hmmm. Suddenly started hitting with power, eh? What is this? 1995?

Now lets head on into the Way-Back Machine™ and head to Chicago, 1958.

1958 Topps #138 Earl Torgeson

Some people don’t seem to be huge fans of the 1958 set, and I guess thinking about it I can see why. It’s a little unexciting coming off of that incredible run of designs from 1953-1956. It doesn’t even have the innovativeness of 1957 Topps with its color photography. I like it though. Maybe it all goes back to the fact that the first really “old” card that I ever got as a10 or 11 year old kid was from this set. To me it just looks like a 50′s baseball card. That being said, apparently I failed to check my master list when purchasing these cards because I already had a copy of this one sitting in my 50′s binder. If anyone is interested in a slightly loved 1958 Earl Torgeson card, throw me an offer.

1958 Topps #11 Jim Rivera

This card I did need. “Jungle” Jim Rivera was Earls teammate on a pretty good ’58 Pale Hose team that finished 2nd in the A.L. with a 82-72 record. Of course, they finished 10 games out of 1st behind the World Series Champion Yankees. Like the ’62 Terry Fox card above, this is one of 2 variations of this card. On this one, the team name is in white letters but there is also a version where the team name is in all yellow letters. Of course, this is the more common, thus less valuable of the two.

I didn’t land anything from the yawn inducing ’57 set or the ass kicking ’56 set, but I did score a few 55′s.

1955 Topps #170 Jim Pearce

James Madison Pearce sounds like he was our 8th President. Our maybe the bastard Frankenstein child of out 4th and 14th Presidents.

1955 Topps #173 Bob Kline

I’ve long admired the “colorized” photo look of the mid-50′s, pre-color photo Topps cards. This Bob Kline card looks much more like an actual painting than a colorized photograph, though. Both the head shot and the posed action shot. Trivia question: On October 1, 1933, Babe Ruth made the final pitching appearance of his career against the Red Sox. He pitched 9 innings, giving up 5 runs, but still picking up the win. Who was the losing pitcher in that game? (Hint: It’s Bob Kline.)

I also scored 5 more ’54 Topps cards. That makes 16 cards from this set for me and everyone is beat to high heaven, just like I like ‘em.

1954 Topps #31 Johnny Klippstein

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I think the period of 1954-1956 is one of the most interesting in all the years of Topps design, just because I find it fascinating to the the progression from one year to the next. I can’t really think of too many other eras in Topps’ history where one years design so blatantly piggy-backs the previous years. I’m also sure I’ve mentioned this before, but team logos were so much cooler back in olden times.

1954 Topps #78 Ted Kazanski

Every time I look at this card, or think of Ted Kazanski’s name, in my head I keep saying Ted Kaczynski. An interesting note about this Ted is that he was the first teenager to hit an inside the park home run in the Major’s. He did it on September 2, 1953 as a 19 year old. He hit it off of Vinegar Bend Mizell. He was the only person under 20 to have done that until Ken Griffey Jr. did it on May 21, 1989, also as a 19 year old.

1954 Topps #123 Bobby Adams

Bobby Adams is not necessarily a household name. Not by a long shot. Maybe it’s because of the rather generic sounding name. Maybe it’s the .269 career average or 37 career homers (over the course of 14 years). Maybe because he never player for a team that finished higher than third place. He’s one of those kind of players that I always thought were cool, though, just for one thing. When he took his grandkids to the Baseball Hall of Fame, he could stop in front of Robin Roberts plaque and say “Kids, you see this guy here? On May 13, 1954, I hit a lead off home run off of him. He went on to retire the next 27 batters. He never pitched a no hitter in his career and I had something to do with that.” I always thought that if I couldn’t be a Hall of Fame caliber Major Leaguer, I’d like to be that guy.

1954 Topps #131 Reno Bertoia

I’ve heard of plenty of Italian-American ball players, but an Italian-Canadian ball player? Preposterous.

1954 Topps #149 Jim Robertson

This is by far the best condition of all the cards that I got in this particular haul. There’s a bit of corner rounding and that one little crease on the right side on level with Jim’s adams apple. Other than that, I think I can safely call this card my nicest 1954 Topps card. Oddly enough, I didn’t order it. I actually ordered 1955 Topps #149 which is Ray Crone.

Finally, I scored a lone ’53.

1953 Topps #98 Cal Abrams

I think I had that same look on my face when I found this envelope. It’s a funny thing. It seems like 1953 Topps and 1956 Topps are constantly battling for my favorite set of the 50′s. And it also always seems like whatever one I got last takes the title. Until I pick up another 1956 Topps card, 1953 Topps is officially my favorite set of the 50′s.

There you go. See what happens when you clean your room, kids?

Tags: 1953 Topps, 1954 Topps, 1955 Topps, 1958 Topps, 1962 Topps, Bob Kline, Bobby Adams, Cal Abrams, Earl Torgeson, Harry Craft, Jerry Kindall, Jesus McFarlane, Jim Pearce, Jim Rivera, Jim Robertson, Johnny Klippstein, manager card, Reno Bertoia, Ted Kazanski, Terry Fox
Filed Under: Some Cards by slangon
1 Comment »

This series of posts is dedicated to examining the numerous design details from the Topps art department that leave me scratching my head. They’re the types of things that could just be one time instances that are the result of someone overlooking them, or they could have been a conscious decision on the part of Topps designers. It’s always kind of hard to tell. They always make me wish that I could sit down with someone who was involved with the creative process and ask them “What were you thinking?” In the mean time, I’ll just sit here pointing out weird little things that I notice and coming up with my own theories, or more likely just pointing them out and not coming up with any answers at all. Who knows? Maybe someone out there who is smarter and better versed in the ways of the hobby will know the answer to some of these queries. Or maybe they’ll just go down in history as some weird thing that Topps did way back when.

Today’s What Were They Thinking post was pretty goddamn exhausting. It started off with me thinking that I had totally figured out why the Topps designers had done something weird, only to have that confidence completely stripped away thanks to one piece of contrary evidence. Then as I was wrapping up the post, consigned to failure (as most of these What Were They Thinks posts do), I was hit with an epiphany and thought I had figured it out again. Then doubt began to creep back in my mind although there really didn’t seem to be any basis for that doubt. Exhausting.

Let’s just dive in.

I’m not sure why, but recently a post that The Cardboard Junkie wrote many moons ago about 1954 Topps cards popped back into my head. Specifically, he was writing about the backs of 1954 Topps cards. Even specifically-er, he was writing about why the backs of 1954 Topps cards can drive you mad.

To illustrate, Here is a full page of 1954 Topps cards (click to embiggen).

As you can see, everyone is nice and regimented and all facing the same way like good little baseball cards should. And now, here’s the back.

Although all the cards are oriented the same way when viewed from the front, when you’re checking out their backside, Ken Raffensberger and Fred Haney are standing on their heads.

As dayf pointed out, when you’re flipping through a binder, that can be quite jarring to the eyes.

I’m sure most people who read this blog are at least semi-familiar with The Topps Archives blog. If not, you should be. As someone who not only loves baseball cards but also works as a graphic designer, I find many of the articles he writes pretty fascinating because they often touch on the actual design and production aspect of  Topps cards. Recently I happened to have been strolling around through the archives of The Topps Archives and came across a post about the Topps non-sport set World on Wheels, which was released in 1953 and 1954.

In the post, he points out that the World on Wheels cards utilize a full bleed color block as part of the design. He further points out that within the set there are 8 cards that share the same block of color. When you’re looking at the full sheet, it looks like one big block of color, but once the cards are cut down to their final size, that one block of color becomes 8 smaller blocks that bleed all the way to the edge of the card.

Topps also utilized full-bleed color blocks on their 1953 and 1954 baseball cards. The ’53 design has a full-bleed color block on the bottom that houses the players info. Sometimes it is on the right side of the card.

Sometimes it’s on the left.

In order to achieve that full bleed, the cards would need to be oriented bottom to bottom on the full sheet. I’ve taken the liberty to cobble together what it might’ve looked like.

Pretty crappy cobbling, I know, but I think it gets the point across. Similarly, the 1954 set has a bleed, albeit only on the top. That in itself is a weird little design quirk that probably warrants it’s own “What Were They Thinking” post, except for that fact that I can’t even begin to come up with any theories to explain that one. This is how the ’54 cards would’ve looked on a full sheet, brought to you once again by my amazing cobbling skills.

If that doesn’t do it for you, just go look at the full 1953 and 1954 sheets on Topps Archives. As you can see, in order to achieve that partial full bleed, half of the cards were printed upside down. Initially, I figured that when they were putting together the printing plates, they flipped the fronts accordingly to get the full bleed, but just oriented all of the backs in the same direction. Once the cards were cut, half of them had backs that went one way and half of them had backs that went the other way.

At this point I was 100% positive that I had the explanation for the upside-down backs on 1954 Topps baseball cards. So positive that I wrote almost this entire post thinking that I wrapped things up quite nicely. When I was nearing the end of writing it, though, I though, let me just take a quick spin around the interwebs and see if I can find an image of the back of an uncut 1954 sheet, just to prove once and for all what an awesome investigative blogger I am. The I came across this old auction listing on the Legendary Auctions site. (I am lifting the images from that page. I hope they don’t mind. Please don’t SOPA me.)

The auction was for a 1954 Topps salesman sample, which according to the item description was a strip of 3 cards that were isolated from an uncut sheet to be used as a handout to distributors.

As you can see, the strip consists of Granny Hamner, Richie Ashburn and Johnny Schmitz. We already know that on the uncut sheet, there would’ve been 3 “upside down” cards that also had white backgrounds above these 3 sharing the top border. Things completely fall apart once you flip this guy over, though.

According to my theory, although Topps flipped the fronts according to which cards needed to share a border, they put all the backs in the same direction. As you can plainly see here, the back of the Ashburn card is upside down compared to the Granny Hamner card. You can even see through the salesman sticker that the Schmitz card is also upside down compared to the Ashburn, giving us alternating back orientations. I’d say this is pretty conclusive evidence that Topps didn’t orient all the backs in the same direction, but what the frig is going on then?

Then it hit me. In addition to sporting a full bleed on the top of the front of the 1954 cards, the backs of the cards also have a full bleed along the sides and bottom of the back, which you can see in this cut down card.

In order to achieve that full bleed, they had to place the cards bottom to bottom on the back, while still keeping them top to top on the front. Add to that the fact that the fronts are all portrait (meaning they’re taller than they are wide) and all the backs are landscape (meaning they’re wider than they are tall) and you have one big old mess of backs and fronts and this way and that.

This also solved another thing that was kind of bothering me about my initial theory, namely that if they put all the backs in the same direction regardless of how the fronts were oriented, then the 1953 card backs should’ve had some weird upside down action going on too, but they don’t, even though they do have full bleed on the back.

So why don’t the 1953 cards have weird upside down backs? It all comes down to the fact that both the fronts and backs of the cards are portrait so they could just flip the backs according to how the front was facing.

I hope that clears things up. If not too bad. I need to stop writing this before I confuse myself any further.

Tags: 1953 Topps, 1954 Topps, Bill Taylor, Bob Young, Bud Podbielan, Clem Koshorek, Dick Groat, Ed Bailey, Fred Haney, Ken Raffensberger, Luke Easter, manager card, Paul Minner, Pete Runnels
Filed Under: What Were They Thinking by slangon
2 Comments »

So a few hours from now, Big Blue and the Niners will be flipping a coin to see who kicks off in the NFC Championship game.

A few hours after that, I’ll either be deliriously happy that the Giants are heading to the Super Bowl again or I’m going to be some form of pissed / sad / disappointed / frustrated / drunk. Well, that last one will probably happen either way. Let’s go Big Blue.

By the way, I’ve mentioned on this blog in the past my theory regarding Topps designers recycling designs and reusing them for other sports, right? Well, take a good gander at these 2 1960 Topps Football cards. Now take a look at this. I think I might be on to something.

Tags: 1960 Topps Football, Bob Schnelker, Mel Triplett
Filed Under: Football by slangon
1 Comment »

I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but for the last few months I’ve taken to taking the day off from blogging on Saturdays. It’s not a big deal. It’s just a habit that I’ve fallen into and grown sort of comfortable with. Recently, however, 2 things have entered my little world that have made me rethink how I can use this day of blogging rest.

First off, I recently discovered an email newsletter that I signed up for that is pretty awesome. Normally I’m not the type of person to go around signing up for email newsletters, but this one is really interesting and has reduced the boringness of my daily commute greatly. It’s called Now I Know and it’s run by a feller named Dan Lewis. Basically, every weekday you get an email containing a article about some random subject. The articles are relatively short, being able to be read in about 5 minutes, but they’re also pretty in depth. The subjects he chooses are also right up my alley. They’re usually some bizarre or kind of macabre subject, or if they’re not he’ll put a weird spin on them. After the fact, I also found out that Dan Lewis is a big Mets fan, which made him that much cooler in my book. Anyway, if you like inane trivia, you should think about signing up for that newsletter.

The second, and probably more important thing that inspired me to do something with these lost Saturdays is I won a big old lot of old British cigarette cards on the old eBay.

There’s 74 cards in that rather unruly pile. I won them in 2 lots, both of which ran $6 with free shipping. That’s a little over $0.16 per card. All 74 cards are from the W.D. & H.O. Wills Tobacco Company of Bristol. The company was started by Henry Overton Wills in 1786 and by the time the 20th century rolled around, they were one of the leading manufacturers of tobacco based products in the world. In response to James Duke’s formation of the American Tobacco Company, which was basically a monopoly of American tobacco firms, Wills joined John Player, Lambert & Butler, William Clarke & Son, Franklyn Davey, Edwards Ringer, J&F Bell, F&J Smith and a couple of other British cigarette companies to form Imperial Tobacco in 1901. As if those 2 monopolies weren’t bad enough, a year after forming, the British monopoly joined with the American monopoly to form the British-American Tobacco Company Ltd. which is still around today. As a matter of fact, it is the second largest tobacco company in the world behind Phillip Morris. Anyway, the same way American tobacco companies used cards to sell their wares, the Brits inserted little pieces of printed cardboard in their product to help attract customer. Whereas in the States that practice stopped in the early teens or so, the English companies continued to put cards in packs of smokes.

The 2 lots that I won were both from series’ called “Do You Know”, which Wills released in 4 different series of 50 cards each between 1922 and 1933. The first lot I got was from the initial series which was released in September of 1922 and the next lot was from Series 2, which was released in May of 1924. If you’re wondering, Series 3 came out in February, 1926 and the final series dropped in July of 1933. As you can tell from the title, each of these cards has an explanation for something that apparently every British smoker of the 20′s was dying to know. I actually had a surprising amount of trouble trying to find any blogs or sites that had info on these cards or even British cigarette cards in general. There were plenty of sites selling the cards, but very little information. All the info I just spouted came from a pretty cool book I picked up used with some Christmas Barnes & Noble gift cards called The Complete Catalogue of British Cigarette Cards put out by The London Cigarette Card Company. It has a brief history of British Cigarette cards (maybe 5-6 pages), lots of pictures and a listing of sets (number of cards, date of issue, size of cards, what company put it out, etc.).

Anyway, between reading Dan’s Now I Know newsletter and getting my mitts on all these Do You Know cards and having all these empty Saturdays, I figured I would just show 1 card every Saturday, just to teach all you whippersnappers a thing or 2 that everyone should know. You know, things like why a Scotsman wears a Sporran or what yeast is. Enjoy.

1922 W.D. & H.O. Wills Do You Know, A Series of 50 #1

Tags: 1922 Wills's Do You Know, non-sport
Filed Under: Bonus Fact of the Week by slangon
3 Comments »

Sadly, Gary Carter’s battle with brain tumors has taken a turn for the worse. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family, Kid.

Tags: 1976 Topps, Gary Carter
Filed Under: Baseball News by slangon
2 Comments »

I recently completed a trade with fellow Mets fan and Jerseyite Paul from Paul’s Random Baseball Stuff. I always enjoy a good trade in general, but there’s something especially nice about pulling on off with another fan of your favorite team. If nothing else, it helps to clear out some of the massive piles of Mets doubles that you’ve built up. I was able to hit one or two cards that Paul needed for his vintage Mets sets, along with some other goodies I was able to scrounge up. For his part, Paul sent me a stack of late 90′s/2000′s cards that I had been in dire need of. Getting vintage cards is always awesome, but it’s also nice to be able to cross off a bunch of newer cards. At least in my collecting odyssey, those always seems to get overlooked.

Anyway, here’s a quick glance at some of my favorites of the bunch.

1997 Topps #180 Rey Ordonez

I could probably count on 2 hands how many cards I have from this set, but I’ve got to say, it’s sort of growing on me. As far as I’ve seen, and remember I said I could count on 2 hands how many of these I own, the photography is pretty awesome and even the weird fading, semi transparent frame has sort of grown on me. I also dig Rey-O. The first time I ever played fantasy baseball, I picked him as my shortstop. Needless to say that didn’t work out so well for me.

2002 Topps #378 Jay Payton

Jay Payton is another old Met that I have fond memories of, even if those memories are solely based in my head and not in reality. I think it all stems from the fact that for some reason during the 2000 World Series, I was obsessed with the fact that the Mets starting outfield (Timo Perez, Jay Payton and Benny Agbayani) made a combined total of like half a million dollars on the season as opposed to the Yankees starting outfield (Dave Justice, Bernie Williams and Paul O’Neil) who made a combined total of over $27,000,000 on the season.

2003 Topps #60 Roberto Alomar

For some reason, I don’t have too many recollections of Robby Alomar playing for the Mets. I wonder why that is.

2005 Topps #13 Tom Glavine

I know a lot of Mets fans have a sour taste in their mouth about Tom Glavine. I guess between having pitched (very well) for the Braves for so long and being a big part of the notorious Mets collapse in 2007, it’s kind of understandable. I more look at the good times. I just wish he hadn’t forgotten how to pitch that day.

Paul also sent me a big chunk of the cards that I needed for my 2006 team set. Those were really some of my favorites because I happen to really like the 2006 design and the 2006 Mets team is one of my favorite squads in recent memory.

2006 Topps #69 Braden Looper

See my comments regarding Roberto Alomar.

2006 Topps Update #41 Shawn Green

Shawn Green was a Met for a brief second, but I really liked him while he was here. I’ll always remember the first game of the 2006 NLDS when he fired a BB to Jose Valentine who fired a BB to Paul LoDuca who gunned down not 1 but 2 Dodgers at home plate. I don’t remember if Shawn Greens hat fell off or not, though.

2006 Topps Update #126 Endy Chavez

I got so excited earlier this off-season because I heard grumblings that the Mets might bring Endy back. Unfortunately the Orioles snatched him up. Oh well. We’ll always October 19, 2006, which I hereby declare to be Endy Chavez day.

2006 Topps Update #228 Carlos Beltran All-Star

Beltran is another of those guys that I sometimes get the impression that a lot of Mets fans didn’t like. I just don’t understand that at all. I thought he was incredible during his time as a Met and lived up to his giant contract as well as anyone could’ve expected. I was legitimately sad to see him go, but I understand why it had to be.

2006 Topps #431 Julio Franco

I absolutely love the fact that during Julio Franco’s tenure with the Mets, he broke pretty much every single “Oldest Player to…” record there is. On top of all that, he was the last active player in the Majors to have appeared in R.B.I. Baseball on the NES, which came out in 1987.

2006 Topps #102 Xavier Nady

I was really bummed out about what happened to Xavier Nady during his time with the Mets. Right field had been pretty much a revolving door position for the Metropolitans since that patch of grass was patrolled by Darryl Strawberry and it finally seemed like they found a nice player in Nady. Then Duaner Sanchez had to go and blow out his shoulder because he wanted a snack and the Mets needed to trade Nady for Roberto Hernandez. What makes that worse is they got Ollie Perez as a throw in.

2006 Topps Update #188 Carlos Delgado Postseason Highlights

Sometimes I forget how awesome that 2006 team was, and this guy certainly had a lot to do with that. I remember that year constantly hearing about how Delgado had played in the most games without having played in the post season out of all active players at the time. Well, he sure as hell made up for it in a hurry. His very first game he went 2-4 with a home run and 2 RBIs. In total that year, he put up a .351/.442/.757 line with 4 homers, 3 doubles and 11 runs batted in. I guess when you have to wait 14 years to play in the post season, you have a lot of pent up energy.

By the way, I mentioned above that the 2006 Topps set was one of my favorites. One of the things that I love about it is that it is a non-retro set that actually had cartoons on the back, such as this one from the flip side of Xavier Nady’s card.

Oh, the things you can learn from baseball card cartoons. I wonder how many guys he’s ahead of.

Tags: 1997 Topps, 2002 Topps, 2003 Topps, 2005 Topps, 2006 Topps, 2006 Topps Update, All-Star, Braden Looper, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Endy Chavez, Jay Payton, Julio Franco, Rey Ordonez, Roberto Alomar, Shawn Green, Tom Glavine, Xavier Nady
Filed Under: Trade by slangon
1 Comment »

Before I get into it, I just want to say way to go to the New York Football Giants on beating the Packers and moving onto the next round of the playoffs. Obviously I was really hoping they would do it, but I don’t think I (or many others for that matter) really thought they would do it. It was a well played game by the offense, defense and special teams though, and they deserve it. I guess there’s really something to be said about getting hot at just the right time. I also guess this proves that we’re at least as good as the Kansas City Chiefs.

But enough about that. Onto some cards.

We’re about 2 weeks into the New Year and I’ve already shown a couple of recent additions to my collection. Everything that has been showcased thus far was actually gotten during the waning days of 2011, however. Today I would like to share with you the first 2 cards that I got in 2012, and they’re some pretty cool ones, if’n I do say so meself.

Both cards come from the 1910 T218 set, which was put out by the American Tobacco Company under their Mecca, Hassan and Tolstoi brands.

Even though these particular cards are in less than perfect condition, these are are pretty damn awesome looking. The artwork is incredible and even after 102 years and a ton of abuse, the colors are beautiful.

The top card is of champion swimmer Leo Joseph “Budd” Goodwin. He represented the United States in the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis where he won gold medals in the Men’s 4×50 yard Freestyle Relay and water polo. He also won bronze in the Men’s Plunge for Distance diving competition. Four years later in the London Olympics, he won the bronze medal in the Men’s 4×200 meter Freestyle Relay. His swimming career was almost prematurely cut off (no pun intended) in 1906 when doctors thought they would have to amputate his left arm due to a severe case of blood poisoning. Thankfully for Budd, Dr. Dave Hennen, who was a swim enthusiast and fellow member of the New York Athletic Club, didn’t agree with his fellow sawbones and performed a intricate 80 minute operation during which he dissected the entire forearm and then re-assembled the veins, muscles and ligaments. The operation was so successful Budd was able to try out for the 1906 Intercalated Games, although he didn’t make the team that year.

The bottom card is of champion track and field athlete Lawson Robertson. He was also a member of the U.S. team in the 1904 and 1908 Olympics as well as the 1906 Intercalated Games. In 1904, he won the bronze for the Standing High Jump and in 1906 he won the silver for the Standing High Jump and the bronze for the Standing Long Jump. Much like Budd Goodwin, Robertson was a victim of a bizarre injury. In 1909, he was preparing a 42 pound shot which was to be used by Martin Sheridan and John Flanagan in the shoutput at the annual field day of the Second Regiment of the Irish Volunteers. Apparently, the shot was a little underweight so Lawson drilled a hole in it so he could add enough lead to bring it up to the required 42 pound mark. Somehow, some water fell into the molten lead causing it to explode right in Robertsons face. Although he had his eyes tightly shut at the time, thus avoiding any serious eye damage, the flesh around his face and neck was badly burned. After Robertson was rushed to a doctor, the Irish Whales of the Irish American Athletic Club proceeded with the competition, and Martin Sheridan set a world’s record with the very same weight, putting the shot 27 ft 0.5 in, three and half inches further than the long standing record of fellow Irishman James Mitchell.

As you can see from the backs, the name of this set is “Champion Athlete and Prize Fighter Series”, not to be confused with the T220 set, which is also called the “Champion Athlete and Prize Fighter Series” and was also put out under the Mecca Cigarettes brand.

Tags: 1910 Mecca Champion Athlete and Prize Fighter Series, Budd Goodwin, Lawson Robertson, T218
Filed Under: Some Cards by slangon
2 Comments »

Today’s going to be a rough one, so I’m pulling out the big guns.

Good luck boys. You’ll need it.

Tags: 1991 Fleer Football, Phil Simms
Filed Under: Football by slangon
No Comments »

One time top Mets prospect turned not-so-sure-what-to-think-about-him-being-claimed-off-of-waivers prospect Fernando Martinez has been claimed by the American League Houston Astros.

Quite honestly, typing out that sentence just kind of messed up my brain. Between that run-on adjective and the phrase “AMerican League Houston Astros”, I need a rest.

Ah, well. Good luck to you, Fernando. Although it would absolutely drive me crazy if this happened, I truly do hope you work out all of your injury business and just get down to playing ball. By the way, although I really like this F-Mart framed auto and I’m glad I bought it, in light of how things turned out, I’m also really glad I only paid like $2 for it.

Tags: 2009 Topps 206, Autographs, Fernando Martinez
Filed Under: Mets News by slangon
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Yesterday, I had showed off a 1969 Topps Deckle Edge card of Hall of Famer Ron Santo that I got from Reader Jim. Considering how easy it was for me to track down some other cards from that set, I was always a little surprised at how hard it was for me to finally acquire that particular card. Since getting that card, I was able to track down 2 more that I needed to finally polish this set off, kind of.

Since the Santo card had put me so close to the end, I decided to just troll eBay to try and put the final nails in this sets coffin and I found a very intriguing lot. I happened to have the last 2 numbers that I needed, plus 2 other that I already had. Normally, it kind of drives me nuts to buy cards that I already own, but the price of this lot was probably lower than what I would pay for the 2 that I needed individually, so I bit.

First the 2 cards that I did not need.

1969 Topps Deckle Edge #11 Hoyt Wilhelm

First up is the first relief pitcher ever inducted into the Hall of Fame and one of only 3 knuckleballers to achieve that honor. “Old Sarge” spent 21 years in the Majors, playing for the New York Giants, Cardinals, Indians, Orioles, White Sox, Angels, Braves, Cubs and Dodgers. He hit one home run in those 21 years, off of the unforgettable Dick Hoover.

1969 Topps Deckle Edge #32 Juan Marichal

Sticking with the Hall of Fame theme, this lot also included the Dominican Dandy, Juan Marichal. During a six year span form 1963-1968, he won 133. For you math whizzes out there, that’s an average of 22 wins per season. For 6 seasons. He won 25 or more games in 1963, 1966 and 1968, but never even sniffed a Cy Young Award thanks to the fact that each one of those years happened to coincide with an even more dominant performance by wither Sandy Koufax (’63 and ’66) or Bob Gibson (1968). The salt in the wound is that all three of those years, Sandy and Bob got 100% of the ballot, so Juan can’t even claim to have come in second in the voting. Oddly enough, this is the 3rd copy of this card that I’ve gotten.

As I mentioned, I already have both of those, so if anyone is interested in either on (or both) drop me a line.

Now onto the ones that I needed.

1969 Topps Deckle Edge #4 Carl Yastrzemski

I don’t know why I keep insisting on telling you about these guys. I kind of assume that if you need to be told about Yaz, you’re probably not reading a baseball card blog. Ahh, screw it. Let’s see if we can find something weird to say about old Carl. Less see. We all know the accolades that he racked up throughout his career. Let’s take a look at some of the, uh, more dubious records he holds. Apparently he hold the record for most hits in a career without ever getting 200 hits in a season. That seems a little backhanded. He has the lowest batting average of any Batting Champ. He won the A.L. Batting Title in 1968 with a measly .301 (although that was during what many consider the second dead-ball era). He twice lead the league in grounding into double plays (1962 & 1964). On top of all that, he’s been (half-jokingly) blamed for ruining the swing of thousands of New England boys who tried to emulate his unorthodox batting stance. Way to go, Carl.

And finally…

1969 Topps Deckle Edge #27 Roberto Clemente

This just in from the “Holy Crap! I Never Knew That” Department: Apprently Clemente was originally signed by the Dodgers in 1952 and let him get away in the 1954 Rule 5 Draft. Can you imagine that? Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Sandy Koufax, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella, Johnny Podres, Clem Labine, all on the same team. What’s even crazier is that according Buzzie Bavasi, who was the Dodgers GM at the time, the Dodgers had no room for him on the roster. They really just signed him to prevent the cross-town Giants from having Clemente and Mays in the same out field.

So now I have 33 different 1969 Topps Deckle Edge cards. And as you can see by the back of Willie Mays’ card, he’s the last one in the set, or “No. 33 of 33 Photos”.

So if I have 33 of these cards, why do I keep saying things like “I actually finished a vintage set, sort of” and “…polish this set off, kind of“? Well, there are in fact 33 different numbered cards in this set, but it turns out that there are 2 different versions of numbers 11 and 22. You can find either Hoyt Wilhelm or Jim Wynn parked in spot number 11, and either Rusty Staub or Joe Foy in number 22. The fact that I already have Rusty Staub and now 2 Hoyt Wilhelms, and I didn’t break the bank on either one, I’m going to guess that Jim Wynn and Joe Foy are some kind of short printed variation. Apparently partway through the baseball card season, Topps ditched Wilhelm and Staub in favor of Wynn and Foy, but because it happened closer to the end of the year, the Wynn and Foy cards are much harder to find. I’ve found a myriad of sources that point out the reasoning behind it. Even such a bastion of investigative card journalism as the Topps Archives seems to be unclear on the matter.

So now that begs the question: Do I consider my self done with this set, or do I go after the final 2 pieces of the puzzle? Normally I don’t drive myself nuts trying to track down every variation of every card I’m trying to collect. Hell, I even consider my 2008 Goudey set complete even though I only have like 3 cards about #200. In the case of this set though, I think I will carry on and try and find those last 2, no matter how short printed they are. I mean, after all, it is only 2 cards, right?

Tags: 1969 Topps Deckle Edge, Carl Yastrzemski, Hoyt Wilhelm, Juan Marichal, Roberto Clemente
Filed Under: Set Chase by slangon
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