Some More Sportlots
February 15th, 2010 by slangon
Since Topps is apparently taking its sweet-ass time activating the Million Card Giveaway, I thought I’d showcase some old cards that I got recently from Sportlots. Dollars to donuts they’re probably much cooler than anything I’m going to get from that giveaway anyways. I ended up with 39 cards for around $20 with shipping. Not a bad deal when you consider they all fall between the years of 1955 and 1969. I start with the “newer” cards and work my way back since the older cards are usually cooler and I like to save the cooler stuff for last.
First up is a bunch of cards from Topps from 1969.
#11 A.L. Strikeout Leaders Sam McDowell / Denny McLain / Luis Tiant
#193 Don Cardwell
#203 Dave Johnson
#230 Rusty Staub
#364 Tommie Agee
#662 Kansas City Royals Rookie Stars Dick Drago / George Spriggs / Bob Oliver
I was able to cross off a couple more Mets from the ’69 set as weel as pick up a few other cool cards. Davey Johnson is a bit of a legendary manager in Mets-land, so it’s always cool to get a card from his playing days, especially being from the year that Johnson and the Orioles lost the World Series to non other than the Mets. In fact, Davey mad the final out, flying out to Tommie Agee. I’m also really excited about that Rusty Staub card. He was always one of my favorites as a kid, even though by that time his role on the Mets was mostly just pinch hitting.
Some 1968 Topps.
#344 Donn Clendenon
#424 Chicago White Sox Team Card
I couldn’t pass up getting that Donn Clendenon, even though it was pre-Mets. I’m glad I didn’t. I don’t remember ever seeing a player looking so surly on a baseball card. He looks like he wants to kill whoever is taking that picture. Also, another nice team card for the managers / team collection. Oddly enough, there’s a couple of soon to be Mets on that card as well, including Ken Boyer and Sandy Alomar Sr.
A bunch of 1967 Topps.
#23 Larry Elliot
#154 World Series Game 4
#228 Gil Hodges
#233 A.L. E.R.A. Leaders Gary Peters / Joel Horlen / Steve Hargan
#264 Ron Swoboda
#282 Johnny “Blue Moon” Odom
#413 Jerry Grote
Again, some Mets got crossed of my wantlist for the 1967 set, and some other random ’67 cards were purchased. The Gil Hodges is pretty awesome. He was manager of the Senators for 5 seasons before taking over as skipper of the Mets. He improved their record every year over those 5 seasons, moving them from 10th place his first year up to 6th place by his last year. I also like the Johnny Odom card mostly because of his nickname of “Blue Moon”. I tried to find some info on how he got that nickname and it seems that Charlie Finley just made it up to make him seem more downhome or something. He apparently did the same thing with Catfish Hunter. I also find it weird that on the Odom card, his name and position are red and yellow, whereas every other ’67 Topps card I have the name and position are just black. I’m always a little fascinated by those weird little design quirks.
A few 1966 Topps.
#4 Ray Culp
#5 Jim Fregosi
#17 John Stephenson
#96 Felipe Alou
#131 California Angels Team Card
#154 Chuck Hiller
#172 New York Mets Team Card
Here’s a couple of random cards to go along with some ’66 Mets. You can see by the 10th place designation that this was from when the Mets still stunk real bad. I guess modern Mets fans should find comfort in the fact that at least they can’t end up in 10th place again. I also got the Angels team card from this year. There’s one really weird looking guy that I’m becoming fixated on just because he looks like a lunatic, or an ape-man.
A lone 1964 Topps card.
#87 St. Louis Cardinals Team Card
This one doesn’t look so bad from the front, but apparently someone at some point had glued it into a book or something because each of the 4 corners is missing a chunk of paper. They actually wrote the card number in with pencil since it was completely gone. This is an excellent example of one of the biggest advantages Check Out My Cards has over Sportlots, namely that they have scans of the front and backs of the cards. The seller listed this card as “Good”, which is debatable, but for 25¢, I think it’s worth the risk.
One 1962 Topps card.
#7 Frank Thomas
This was the only card I paid more than a dollar for. Much like Gil Hodges, Duke Snider and Richie Ashburn, Thomas is one of those guys whose a bit of a headache for Mets team collectors since his cards are usually much more than other guys cards based on the fact that they were good before they came to the Mets.
A pair of 1961 Topps cards.
#57 Marv Thorneberry
#246 Bob Davis
I couldn’t pass up a Marvelous Marv card, nor could I pass up a card from 1961 was that only a quarter, even if it is just a common.
A small stack of 1960 Topps.
#25 Roy Sievers
#37 Bill Bruton
#57 Win-Savers Turk Lown / Gerry Staley
#203 Sammy White
#266 Joe Jay
I was glad to get the Roy Sievers card, just because I got sent him a custom card a while back that he was nice enough to sign for me. It’s nice to get my hands on a “real” card of his. It’s funny. When I was looking for photos to make the custom card, I don’t remember seeing any pictures of him smiling. I guess he takes his baseball seriously. I also like that Bill Bruton card just because he looks like he’s a million years old.
A quartet of 1959 Topps.
#269 Jack Meyer
#330 Gus Triandos
#377 Johnny Antonelli
#501 Bobby Tiefenauer
This time I did remember to scan the back of one of the cards. That Jack Meyer is little worse than the St. Louis Cardinals card, but basically the same damage. The other three, although pretty bad, are not that messed up on the back. But again, they were each a quarter, so I’m not too mad.
A single 1958 Topps.
#406 Vic Power
This one is in much much better condition, and it only cost 30¢ more than those beat to hell ’59’s. What’s weird is both this and all 4 of the 1959 cards are listed as “good”. Go figure. I got this just because Vic Power is such an awesome name. I also love that old Athletics elephant logo. Apparently, at some point John McGraw called the A’s a “white elephant” and they embraced it and made it their logo. According to Wikipedia:
A white elephant is an idiom for a valuable possession of which its owner cannot dispose and whose cost (particularly cost of upkeep) is out of proportion to its usefulness or worth.
One 1956 Topps.
#49 Pedro Ramos
This is probably my second favorite of all the 50’s designs, and certainly in my top ten favorites of all time. Mr. Ramos looks like he’s been up to something. Maybe he was up late watching Reefer Madness or something. It’s strange that they list the team as the Washington Nationals, but the Senators were in the American League. What the hell, Topps?
One 1955 Topps card.
#7 Jim Hegan
Another nice 50’s design. It’s actually so close to the ’56 design that I’m having trouble deciding which I like better. The obvious differences being the 1956 has the background in the ballpark, and the 1955 has the team logo. I really like seeing the logo, but I think the ballpark background is much cooler than the faded color background. Because of that the ’56 wins out in my book, but only by a hair.
And finally, a 1955 Bowman.
#148 Bob Chakales
The only non-Topps card of the bunch. It’s a fun little design. Personally, I like Bowman’s earlier designs, but this one is cool, too. When I was really little, my parents had a TV that looked kind of like that and it was huge. More like a piece of furniture than an appliance. Of course it didn’t work and we had a 13″ black and white TV sitting on top of it that we would actually watch.
So there we go. Another successful Sportlots haul. I got to say, I would be absolutely ecstatic if I got any of these cards from the Million Card Giveaway, even if they were in the condition that some of these cards are in. We all know that’s not going to happen, but one can dream, can’t one?
Nice haul. Topps Million is Live!
That’s totally weird about Sievers. On most of his other bb cards he IS smiling.
Really? I could swear when I was looking for photos of him to use when I was making a custom of him, he had a similar look to what he has in the card above. Weird.