Some Snow Day Cards
February 9th, 2013 by slangon

I don’t know what it’s like where you live, but at the moment I’m sitting under roughly a foot of snow. That’s a slightly annoying amount, but after the way everyone around here and in the media was freaking out over the last few days, it seems like a coating. Anyway, what better way to celebrate the fact that I’m not buried under 15 feet of snow (and to procrastinate shoveling) than to show some cards I recently got from the old Sportlots Quarter Bin. Yes. That’s right. I actually bought some baseball cards this year. What of it?

Let’s start things off with a trio of 1969 Topps cards.

1969 Topps Gene Brabender

1969 Topps Dave Leonhard

1969 Topps Larry Dierker

I’ve noticed that I’ve got a bit of a love / hate thing going on with ’69 Topps. I don’t particularly like the design. I find the images generally boring. It’s the only Mets team set from the 60’s that I’ve actually finished so there’s not too many cards from that year that I actually need. But they’re always so damn cheap I can’t help but picking up a few here and there. Although I do like that Larry Dierker card. I’d like to believe that if I ever found myself lucky enough to be on a baseball card, I’d have a smile like that, too.

I was also able to chip away a bit at my manager and team card collection.

1972 Topps Eddie Kasko

1974 Topps Dodgers Staff

1971 Fleer World Series John McGraw

1960 Topps Cincinnati Red Team Card

1959 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Card

It’s always a good feeling to chip away at this collection, but I particularly like this batch of cards. The cast of characters on that ’74 Dodgers card is just awesome and you’ve got to be happy any time you can snag a 50’s team card like that Cubbies one. By the by, that Fleer World Series card is from 1971. You can tell because it’s got a back black rather than a blue back. Well, I guess I should say I can tell since I was too lazy to scan and post the back so that you could tell. Just trust me.

After the managers and team cards comes the Hall of Famers.

1975 Topps World Series Highlights Reggie Jackson

Like any other good American, I love Reggie Jackson, but I would love him so much more if he was never a Yankee.

1974 Topps Ron Santo

At the time I was buying this, I knew for a fact that I already had this card, but for 18¢, I just couldn’t leave it.

1974 Topps Orlando Cepeda

There’s something really fascinating about cards of great players from really late in their careers. They oftentimes wind up in very unfamiliar uniforms and end up with very strange positions, like “Catcher/Coach” or “Des. Hitter”.

1971 Topps Catfish Hunter

Speaking of unfamiliar and strange, didn’t anyone tell Catfish that the Oakland A’s were also known as the Mustache Gang?

1972 Kellogg's All-Time Greats Cy Young

This here’s a 1972 Kellogg’s All-Time Great card of Denton True Young, it’s all it’s crackly glory. I’d heard tell that these early Kellogg’s cards were prone to this sort of aging due to the type of plastic they used to coat them. Seeing as I own 1 early 70’s Kellogg’s card and it’s all cracked up, I think that it 100% true all of the time. That’s how scientific process works, isn’t it?

I didn’t forget my favorite team, no matter how forgettable they’ve been lately.

1972 Topps Tom Seaver Boyhood Photos of the Stars

Like the Ron Santo card above, I knew for a fact that I had this card, but again, for 18¢ there’s no way that I can leave this card behind, Boyhood Photos of the Stars or no Boyhood Photos of the Stars.

2012 Topps 1987 Topps Mini R.A. Dickey

This card makes me happy and sad at the same time. Happy because, although I don’t love the ’87 design so much aesthetically, I was in full blown collecting mode at the time so it reminds me of some good times. Plus it’s R.A. Dickey. Sad because he won’t be pumping his fist while wearing a Mets uniform any more.

2012 Gypsy Queen Glove Stories Endy Chavez Mini

I don’t believe that I need to get into why this card is so awesome, but I will say kudos to Topps for making this set. I think crazy defensive plays are awesome so it’s nice to see someone making cards paying homage to that.

And this was the last card I picked up.1955 Bowman Granny Hamner

For a quarter. Granny. Unbelievable.

Well, that does it for this manilla envelope full of cards. Judging by the way I’ve been posting so far in 2013, I’ll see you guys in about a month.

Another Batman Card
January 29th, 2013 by slangon

Here’s another card from that lot of 1966 Topps Batman Black Bat cards that I got a while back. This one features one of the coolest cars to ever appear on television – The Batmobile.

1966 Topps Batman Batmobile

 

It’s a little unfortunate that this particular card doesn’t have a full shot of the car, especially since judging from the bit that we can see, it’s looks a lot cooler than the version that ended up on the show. Here’s the back.

1966 Topps Batman Batmobile backAs you can see, the back features copy that continues the story that is told throughout the 55 card set. Since I don’t have the cards that came before #8, I don’t know for sure what happened, but it seems as if someone tried to booby trap the Batmobile to dispose of the Dynamic Duo. The set was also broken down into “mini adventures” and you can see down at the bottom that the first 11 cards (or more accurately, the first 11 after cards #1 and #2, which were just Batman and Robin) cover Batman’s dealings with the Joker, who presumably is the one that tried to blow up the Batmobile.

Incidentally, what reminded me to post this card was that I recently read that the original car from the 60’s TV series recently sold for almost $5 million. And while we’re tossing up Batmobile related links, I thought this was pretty cool as well.

 

Happy New Card Year!
January 18th, 2013 by slangon

Yes. I realize that it’s already the 18th day of the new year and I’m only making my second post.

And I’m okay with that. I’ve come to the conclusion that in the past I’ve often fell victim to the urge to post just because I felt like “I had to” and that led to a dearth of posts that were, shall we say, bordering on the unnecessary. So I’m just going to post when I feel as if I really have something I want to share and if that means I only post thrice a month then so be it.

Just be glad I finally took down my Christmas decorations.

Anyway, the whole purpose of this particular post is that I would like to share with the first cards to enter the hallowed halls of my collection in the year 2013. I guess if you consider my new found resolution to only post when when I have something pertinent to say and combine that with the fact that it’s halfway through January and I’m just now getting to new (to me) cards, it’s safe to say that my collecting has slowed down a bit, but again, I’m okay with that. Much like the way that I started to fall into a vortex of posting just for the sake of posting, I feel as if I was also starting to fall into a pattern of buying cards just because I wanted some new cards and not necessarily because they filled a void in my collection or I really loved them. I say there’s nothing wrong with being a bit more persnickety in my cardboard purchasing habits.

So, once again, anyway, the whole purpose of this particular post is that I would like to share with the first cards to enter the hallowed halls of my collection in the year 2013.

Shortly after New Year’s Day, I was trolling the eBay in search for a couple of cards that have been eluding me for a while. One of them in particular happens to be a copy of card #514 from the 1964 Topps set. That would be Mr. James Hickman, which also happens to be the last card that I need to complete my 1964 Topps Mets team set. I happen to find a pretty good one that was going off fairly cheap with free shipping and there was only a day or two left on the auction so I placed my bid. Of course, in line with my usual eBay shopping protocol, I looked into the seller’s other auctions to see if they had anything else that I needed or just anything else that was cool. That’s where my first new cards of the new year come in.

Although I got outbid at the last second on the Hickman card (curse you, damn snipers), I did end up winning a lot of a certain non-sport set featuring non other than everyone’s favorite caped crusader.

1966 Topps Batman Batman

 

They’re from a set of Batman cards that Topps released in 1966. Here’s the back.

1966 Topps Batman Batman back

Apparently, Topps must’ve gotten a really good deal on that orange/pink/gross ink sometime during the mid-60’s because they used it at least their ’64, ’66 and ’69 baseball sets. I’m not sure if there were others, but who cares. No matter how many sets they used it on, it’s still pretty nauseating.

This was actually one of 5 Batman sets that Topps put out in 1966. This one is the first one issued  and is commonly referred to as the Black Bat set since the Bat on the front is black. They also released a set that had a red bat on the front, commonly called (surprise) the Red Bat set. This one is also referred to as the A Series because all of the card numbers are proceeded by the letter “a”. The third Batman series featured a blue bat that was called (wait for it) the Blue Bat set. Like the Red Bat/A Series, this one was also named the B Series for the same reasons as the A Series. Neither the Red Bat or Blue Bat sets utilized the same gross orange backs, which has led some to also call the inaugural series the “Orange Back” set.

All three of the above sets featured  awesome artwork done by none other than Norm Saunders, who was a prolific graphic artist who also worked on other Topps card sets of the era, most notably Wacky Packages and Mars Attacks! The other 2 Batman sets that they put out in 1966 featured color photographs from the old Adam West television show. As much as I loved that show as a kid (and still do, occasionally), I’ll take my Batman cards with comic book artwork, thank you very much.

The Batman card pictured above is naturally card #1 in the set, but what would he be without the Boy Wonder?

1966 Topps Batman Robin front

 

As cool as the Batman card is, I really love the Gotham City background on Robin’s card. Here’s the back.

1966 Topps Batman Robin back

 

It’s a little hard to tell, thanks to someone’s unsolicited edits to the artwork on the back, but Robin comprises card #2 in the set. Two down, 55 to go.

I scored the lot of 13 cards for $6.57 with free shipping. As you can tell by these 2, the condition of the cards might leave something to be desired, if you care for that kind of thing. But for just over 50¢ a pop, I’ll take it.

I’ll be posting the remainder of the cards in drips and drabs along with some other nuggets of information about the set in the coming days (Or maybe weeks. Who knows?).

By the way, it’s really killing me not to include some form of “Stay tuned. Same Bat Time. Same Bat Channel”. in this wrap up.

Congratulations to Mike Piazza on Your Well Deserved Hall of Fame Election
Way To Go BBWAA

January 9th, 2013 by slangon

So Mike Piazza has not been voted into the Hall of Fame, getting only 57% of the vote. Apparently though, he’s in good company as no one has been voted in.

Since I’ve already scanned them though, here’s some Mikey P. cards that I was going to show had he made the cut.

2002 Topps 206 Team 206 Mike Piazza

2002 Upper Deck Vintage Mike Piazza / Robin Ventura CL

2002 Upper Deck Vintage Mike Piazza

2002 Fleer Tradition Mike Piazza

2001 Fleer Platinum RC Mike Piazza TL

2001 Fleer Platinum Mike Piazza

Piazza (and Mets fans) should be used to hearing this, but there’s always next year.

(By the way, the look on Mikes face on that last card pretty much sums up my feelings right now.)

On The Twelfth Day of Christmas…
December 25th, 2012 by slangon

…my collection gave to me…

Twelve Vintage Met Cards,

1962 Topps Rookie Parade

1963 Topps Duke Snider

1964 Topps Larry Bearnarth

1971 O-Pee-Chee Dean Chance back

1976 Hostess Felix Millan

1978 TCMA Stars of the 60's Al Jackson

1975 Topps Mini Jerry Koosman

1973 Topps Jimmy Freeman / Charlie Hough / Hank Webb

1972 Topps Jim Fregosi Traded

1970 Topps Tom Seaver

1967 Topps Tom Reynolds

1965 Topps Tony Perez / Kevin Collins / Dave Ricketts

Eleven 1960’s,

Ten Non-Sports Cards,

Nine Crusty Skippers

Eight Team Portraits,

Seven Hall of Famers,

Six Vintage Oddballs,

Five Mini Mets,

Four Old Ass Cards,

Three Guys Named Johnny,

Two Keith Hernandez’s,

And a Vintage Moe Berg!

Merry Christmas, everyone.

On The Eleventh Day of Christmas…
December 24th, 2012 by slangon

…my collection gave to me…

Eleven 1960’s,

1960 Topps Jack Meyer

1960 Topps Gus Bell

1960 Topps Chicago Cubs Coaches

1960 Topps Jerry Staley

1960 Topps Earl Wilson

1960 Topps Tony Kubek

1960 Topps Rocky Nelson

1960 Topps Ray Monzant

1960 Topps Ron Samford

1960 Topps Duke Maas

1960 Topps Irv Noren

Ten Non-Sports Cards,

Nine Crusty Skippers

Eight Team Portraits,

Seven Hall of Famers,

Six Vintage Oddballs,

Five Mini Mets,

Four Old Ass Cards,

Three Guys Named Johnny,

Two Keith Hernandez’s,

And a Vintage Moe Berg!

On The Tenth Day of Christmas…
December 23rd, 2012 by slangon

…my collection gave to me…

Ten Non-Sports Cards,

1922 Wills's Do You Know Plimsol Mark

1922 Wills's Do You Know Sargasso Sea

1924 Wills's Do You Know Lighthouse Apparatus

1924 Wills's Do You Know Honeysuckle Flowers and Privet Hawk-Moth

1924 Wills's Do You Know Yeast

1936 Gallagher Dogs The Alsatain

1937 Player Motor Cards Ford V-8

2008 Allen & Ginter Ben Franklin Mini

2011 Allen & Ginter Floating Fortresses HMS Dreadnought

2011 Goodwin Champions Bonnie & Clyde

Nine Crusty Skippers

Eight Team Portraits,

Seven Hall of Famers,

Six Vintage Oddballs,

Five Mini Mets,

Four Old Ass Cards,

Three Guys Named Johnny,

Two Keith Hernandez’s,

And a Vintage Moe Berg!

On The Ninth Day of Christmas…
December 22nd, 2012 by slangon

…my collection gave to me…

Nine Crusty Skippers,

1983 Topps Traded Frank Howard

1975 Topps Walt Alston

1975 Topps Red Schoendienst

1961 Topps Jimmy Dykes

1971 Topps Charlie Fox

1973 Topps Chuck Tanner

1978 Topps Al Dark

1974 Topps Bobby Winkles

1969 Topps Harry Walker

Eight Team Portraits,

Seven Hall of Famers,

Six Vintage Oddballs,

Five Mini Mets,

Four Old Ass Cards,

Three Guys Named Johnny,

Two Keith Hernandez’s,

And a Vintage Moe Berg!

On The Eighth Day of Christmas…
December 21st, 2012 by slangon

…my collection gave to me…

Eight Team Portraits,

1960 Topps Cincinnati Reds Team Card

1978 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Card

1973 Topps Houston Astros Team Card

1972 Topps Atlanta Braves Team Card

1970 Topps Kansas City Royals Team Card

1966 Topps Venezuelan New York Mets Team Card

1972 Topps New York Yankees Team Card

1974 Topps Pittsburgh Pirates Team Card

Seven Hall of Famers,

Six Vintage Oddballs,

Five Mini Mets,

Four Old Ass Cards,

Three Guys Named Johnny,

Two Keith Hernandez’s,

And a Vintage Moe Berg!

On The Seventh Day of Christmas…
December 20th, 2012 by slangon

…my collection gave to me…

Seven Hall of Famers,

1936 National Chicle Fine Pens Earl Averill

1960 Topps Sandy Koufax

1963 Bazooka All-Time Greats Dazzy Vance

1964 Topps Billy Williams

1971 Topps Bill Mazeroski

1971 Topps Coins Fergie Jenkins

1973 Topps Frank Robinson

Six Vintage Oddballs,

Five Mini Mets,

Four Old Ass Cards,

Three Guys Named Johnny,

Two Keith Hernandez’s,

And a Vintage Moe Berg!