Some Recent Pick-Ups
November 23rd, 2011 by slangon
Just a quickie today. These are a couple of cards I recently snagged from eBay.
First up is a Hammerin’ Hank All-Star that has seen better days.
At least whoever owned this previously had the respect to not put tape all the way across Henry’s face.
The back of this card is a bit more respectable than the obverse. By the way, Hank currently sits in a tie for 4th place on the Career Runs Scored list with none other than George Herman Ruth. He’s behind Rickey Henderson, Ty Cobb and (ugh) Barry Bonds. Lou is a lowly 10th.
The early 50’s Bowman sets are definitely some of my favorite vintage sets of all-time. The portraits of the players are amazing and the design is simple but incredible. You can’t beat that black bar with the white lettering. You also have to love a dude named “Snuffy”.
Apparently, there are 2 theories as to how he got that peculiar moniker. Aside from being a baseball player, George was also a star footballer in his youth and at some point he suffered a football related injury that affected his breathing, thus earning him the nickname “Snuffy”. There’s also a theory that he had frequent sinus problems which he treated with the use of snuff.
As cool as those 2 cards are, this is the big one of the group.
This one is a card that I’ve been trying to get my hands on for a while now. I needed it for my ’65 Mets team set, but it wasn’t easy. I don’t think it’s officially a high-number, but it is up there (#470). It’s also obviously a Hall of Fame player, albeit not with the team that he’s most identified with. I wonder about that actually. That’s an interesting topic of discussion. In your experience as a collector, have you found that buying cards of Hall of Famers is less expensive if they’re not from the team that the player is normally associated with?
I also realized that this is my first and only card of Yogi from his playing days. Sort of. Yogi did indeed see some action for the Mets. He appeared in 4 games, compiling 9 at-bats. He wracked up 2 hits for a not-so-Yogi-like .222 batting average. Point is though, he actually did play for the Mets. Thing is though, those 4 games happened between May 1 and May 9 of 1965. Considering that this is card #470, which falls within the 6th Series of the 1965 set, I’m fairly certain that this card was actually issued well after Yogi’s playing days. Sigh.
Ah, screw it. If anyone asks, I’m telling them I have a card from Yogi’s playing days. Coaches don’t wear chest protectors.
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