Back to The Sportlots Salt Mines
June 25th, 2011 by slangon
So the other day I showed off a handful of 1960’s Topps cards that I needed for my set that I got off of Sportlots. Well, that wasn’t all that was in that there envelope. There was also a small pile of other, assorted, banged-up, vintage goodness. Let’s investigate, shall we.
1960 Fleer #33 Wilbert Robinson
I’m not sure how this happened, but I’ve been amassing a small pile of these 1960 Fleer cards. They might not be the most exciting design, but they’re a pretty cool way of getting old cards of old Hall of Famers without selling a kidney. It’s also cool to me that it’s a Hall of Fame manager, who used to rock a plaid uniform. Do you think Uncle Robbie went to his grave thinking he would be the most famous Robinson to ever be associated with the Dodgers organization?
I was also able to bang out a couple of team cards that I needed for that collection.
1958 Topps #174 Kansas City Athletics TC
I think this is officially the oldest team card that I now own. Although the inclusion of that big honking yellow bar makes the photo slightly smaller, I kind of like knowing which player is which. On the other hand, that’s always a fun game, trying to figure out which tiny guy is a particular player.
1965 Topps #91 Chicago Cubs TC
1971 Topps #502 Chicago Cubs TC
I also scored 2 old Cubs team cards, one from the Floating Heads Era and one from the Pre-Floating Heads Era. I was able to pick up the ’65 pretty damn cheap. I think I paid 25 or 30 cents for it, which was surprising. I usually don’t see team cards from 1965 that cheap. Maybe the seller mistyped the price when they were setting it up. Oh well, my good luck I guess. I’ve wanted that ’71 for as long as I can remember. I actually kind of remember seeing that card somewhere when I was a kid and wanting it even though I wasn’t terribly into vintage and certainly hadn’t yet developed a love for team cards. I think I just though it looked weird.
Sticking with the 71’s…
1971 Topps #527 Cleon Jones
1971 Topps #596 Mike Jorgensen
1971 Topps #687 Ron Taylor
The 1969 set is probably the oldest and closest to being done Mets set that I still have to finish. I need 1 card to kill it off. The only problem is that 1 card is Nolan Ryan. The ’71 set is a close second in both age and percentage of completion. Although I think I also need Nolan Ryan and a couple of short printed high numbers. Actually, I think I’m down to 1 short print for the ’71 set after that Ron Taylor, which is also short printed. I guess we’ll see which gets to the finish line first.
Finally, this is probably my favorite card in the bunch, and might’ve been responsible for officially catapulting the 1956 Topps set in front of the 1953 Topps set for my favorite set from the 50’s.
1956 Topps #75 Roy Sievers
I’ve always loved the ’56 set for the way it combined a portrait with an action shot, but this is by far my favorite action shot that I’ve seen thus far. The plays at the plate are always cool, and I’m always fond of a coach frantically trying to hold up a runner at 3rd, but it’s hard to beat a guy robbing someone of a home run, especially when there’s a 3 foot chain link fence involved. He’s reaching back far, too. Old Roy better be careful or might separate a shoulder. I also dig the shades. Stuff all that into the already awesome 1956 Topps design and I’d say you’ve got a winner. All in all, I’d be hard pressed to fin a cooler looking card.
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