Son of the 6 for $5 Bin
February 7th, 2010 by slangon

Well, Super Bowl is upon us. Today we will not only find out who the best team in the NFL is, but we’ll find out where Cy Seymour is going to spend the next month. But in the meantime, we got some baseball cards to post. Here’s “Pack 3” from the 6-for-5 bin.

1979 Topps #417 Nolan Ryan / Walter Johnson All-Time Record Holders

Poor unsuspecting Walter. Little does he know that in a few years, that youngster sitting next to him on this card would also break the record that landed Walter on this card. Actually, as of today, Walter has tumbled all the way from first in career strikeouts to ninth. That’s rough, Big Train. Also, I’m not sure why, but I never remember Nolan Ryan actually smiling on any of his baseball cards. Because of that, I also imagine him talking like Clint Eastwood.

1974 Topps #460 Boog Powell

I wasn’t nearly alive back in 1969, when the Mets beat the Orioles in the World Series, but my dad was, and I clearly remember him telling me all about that series. I also remember being particularly fascinated with Boog Powell because, well, because his name is Boog, and what 6 or 7 year old wouldn’t be fascinated with a grown man named Boog? In a full-circle-of-life sort of way, these days I’m more fascinated with the fact that Boog’s given name is John Wesley. I can’t help but wonder if he was intentionally named after the notorious outlaw.

1977 Topps Cloth Stickers #42 Tom Seaver

I’ve been noticing that out of all these forays into the 6-for-5 bin, very few cards from my favorite team have been surfacing. Of course, when you look at the cards I have been getting out of there, it’s pretty obvious that they’re mostly Hall of Famers. Considering the number of Mets in the Hall, it shouldn’t surprise me that there’s not a lot of Mets in there. I do sort of remember the box having way more Cincinnati era Seavers than Mets era Seavers. I wonder what’s up with that.

1967 Topps #210 Bob Gibson

You know that little breathless feeling you get when you’re opening a pack of cards and you realize that you’ve got some sort of hit on your hands? That excitment you feel before you realize it’s just a plain white jersey swatch of Angel Berroa? Well, I felt something similar, but better ,when I was thumbing through the rows of cards and came across this one. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I think this is one of the most visually pleasing cards that I own.

1970 Topps #579 Detroit Tigers Team Card

As I’ve mentioned many times on the blog in the past, I’m a big fan of team cards. I will further mention that I especially like old team cards just for the fact that they usually include some guys in suits. I find it kind of funny that these over-weight, very non-athletic looking gentlemen elbow their way onto a baseball card alongside of these young, athletic guys.

1969 Topps #12 N.L. Strikeout Leaders

This is the second League Leader card from ’69 that I got featuring Bob Gibson. Unlike the all-Bob version, this one also features fellow Hall of Famer, Fergie Jenkins. One of the things I love about League Leader cards is when you have guys who are pretty much no-brainers to be on the card, as is the case with Gibson and Jenkins, but then have some guy that’s kind of out of left field, like Bill Singer. I mean, no offense to Mr. Singer, but before I laid eyes on this card I had no idea of his existance. But now I see that for at least on year, Bill had more strikeouts than the likes of Juan Marichal, Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Don Drysdale and Nolan Ryan. Good for you, Bill.

Well, that’s another $5 in the pocket of the local card shop owner and another 6 sweet vintage cards in my pocket.

Enjoy the Super Bowl everybody, and I’ll post the winner of the Cy Seymour giveaway either tomorrow or Tuesday.

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