Monday, March 18, 2024

Wallet card in the Meatpacking District

Last week I was in the city for work, and had time for a walk at the end of the day. I ended up in the meatpacking district, which no longer packs meat but is instead home to ridiculously expensive fashion boutiques. The old buildings have been restored rather than destroyed, however, so it is nice to walk around in. I hadn't been here since the early days of my wallet card posts, so I took a few photos.

R&L Luncheonette opened here in 1938. It changed it's name to R&L Restaurant in 1955, installing the chrome sign seen here. It closed in 2008, and has since been a wine bar and a Madewell fashion store, both keeping the old restaurant sign. It appears that the location is between businesses again; hopefully the sign remains.

Middendorf & Rohrs was a wholesale grocery business that operated from 1897 to 1964. It was sold to a realty company in 1964, where it was renovated for use by a meatpacking company. In 1998 it was sold again and remodeled as office space, with fashion boutiques on the ground floor.
Check out all of the old technology listed on the side of this building. It's barely legible but the company name Bogen can be seen on top. The Bogen company was a pioneer in audio technology. Started in 1932, the company was acquired by Unitronics in 1956 and moved to New Jersey. Fortunately, the sign advertising TV boosters, UHF converters and other old technology is still quite readable.

 

Sunday, March 17, 2024

1974 Topps Deckle Dating - Bobby Grich

 Here's Bobby Grich at Yankee Stadium . . .

. . . on September 1, 1973, the start of the last month of the original Yankee Stadium.

Grich went 1-for-4 with a runs scored as the Orioles beat up Pat Dobson and the Yankees, 10-6. Don Baylor homered while Tommy Davis and Boog Powell each had three hits. Thurman Munson and Mike Hegan homered for the Yankees.

Although the Yankees were playing in Shea Stadium in 1974, Grich's 1975 Hostess card still has him at the old Yankee Stadium, so it's possible this photo is from the same day. Both photos were taken on the third base side of home plate.

In other news, 35 people were killed in a hotel arson fire in Copenhagen, Denmark; the Chief of Staff of the Provisional IRA was arrested in Ireland, and George Foreman defended his heavyweight title, knocking out Jose Roman in two minutes in Tokyo.



Saturday, March 16, 2024

TCDB/OCB roundup

 It's been almost a month since I did one of these. All my blogger trades and most of my TCDB transactions were covered in posts, but I've got about a month's worth of OBC incoming to acknowledge, and one TCDB trade.

Starting off with TCDB trader Erdoro. Nice mix of cards here.

On to OBC, starting with Dan Williams who sent four beautiful early 50s cards . . .

. . . and six fantastic 1998 Metal cards.
Mark Camps sent this great ladder of TVs. Gil McDougald is my favorite here. The last card, Bob Greenwood, I have already so is available for trade.
Five from '65! Thanks to Andrew White for these.

Dave Hogan sent nine great cards from '59. If you look closely at the Mazeroski card you will see a mark on the card.
Mike Rich sent a PWE stuffed with 15 1961 Topps cards . . .
. . . five 1962 Topps stamps . . .
. . . and four 1966 Topps rubdowns. I love them all!
Bryon Boyd sent three mini cards from 1975, and four grownup-sized cards from 1956, 1965, and 1966.
Three horizontal goodies from 1960, thanks to Mark Zentkovich.
Greg Henthorn went through my wantlists and found some great cards for me, highlighted by a 1959 Billy Martin! Seems I had not been updating as conscientiously as I thought, as the last two cards, Gilbert and Tartabull, I had already but hadn't deleted from my wantlist.

 

Friday, March 15, 2024

Cards from Johnny part II

The bulk of what I got from Johnny was from 1956 Topps. Between these cards and the ones I recently got from Crocodile, I've gone from under 1/3 of the set to over 1/2 of the set very quickly!

I'll do this post Johnny style, photo after photo of groups of cards. 1956 Topps is considered one of the best-looking sets ever, and these are great examples of that.

Lots of great action poses (they appear to be photographs that were painted on, or copied by artists). There wouldn't be another action-packed set like this until the 1970s.

A couple of young Brooklyn Dodgers who would go on to be major league managers. Also I'm pretty certain there's a Billy Martin cameo on Al Smith's card.
Lots of great catcher action here.
These must be some of the oldest "Tatooine cards".
It doesn't look like Johnny Temple knows where the ball is on his card.
The Runnels card is confusing to me. There is nobody who wore #39 in the American League from 1951 (Runnels's debut) through 1955 who look like the baserunner in the picture. I think the artist changed the original number.
Dale Mitchell's card the year he would very famously strike out.
Two great Dodger photos on this page. Clem Labine's card has an ad on the Ebbets Field wall for J. Michaels department store. I was able to get a wallet card photo of an old sign for that store a few years ago.
I happened to get a '56 Hobie Landrith from an OBCer the same day I got Johnny's package. So now I have an extra!
The last three cards. Check out the Jim Busby card - baserunner slides into the base, watching a loose ball go by. In 68 years has there been another card of a scene like that? Now all the action photos look the same. Night Owl made a great comment on my 2024 post - the photos are cropped so closely now. You don't get the kind of wider perspective that makes for a more interesting photo.


Thursday, March 14, 2024

Trade with Johnny Part I

Recently Johnny of the Trading Spot bought a huge lot of mid-50s cards. Fortunately, I hadn't checked his wantlists in a while, and I was able to build up a big pile of Braves and setneeds for him. In return I was able to get a lot of cards for my 1950s sets.

Breaking this up into two posts, starting with the smaller group first, 1954 and 1955.

Eleven cards for my 1954 Topps set. Personally I like the white-background look the best but they are all great looking cards.

Here are the rest. Perhaps the W.S. on Al Smith's card refers to his leadoff home run in the World Series that year. Or his famous beer shower in the 1959 World Series. Or maybe the card was owned by a young Willard Scott.
Just four needs for my 1955 set, but they push me to over 50% completion, on what is admittedly a pretty small set. All four are pretty notable - hero of the '55 World Series, first Black Pirate, record HR streak, and first little leaguer to play in the majors.


Wednesday, March 13, 2024

1986 Spokane Indians at the Mall - Jeff Yurtin

Jeff Yurtin appears to be at U-City Optical, next to a sign advertising Tuff-Kote Ultra-Violet Shield. The only Tuff-Kote I can find online is a floor coating, so I guess whatever this was didn't last long.

Yurtin spent time at first base, third base and the outfield in five seasons in the Padres organization, including two years at AAA Las Vegas in 1989 and 1990. In 514 games he hit .279 with 41 HR and 267 RBI. He now lives in Reno, NV where he is CEO of an e-commerce services company called Shopper Reviews.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Knocking out most of Series I

I decided to try to go the TCDB route to complete my 2024 set and it seems to be working. I just put my needs list on there and the offers rolled in.

This bulk trade came from howe9909. This was about 275 cards in the set. I'm finding myself glad to knock the set out quickly. I like the design, but everything else is typical 21s century Topps. I find the photos just lack personality. I don't know if that is a reflection of today's players, or of me.

I've been trading with Mihome316 for years, before I was even on TCDB. He sent a star-studded group heavy on the big names in the Yankee lineup. Soto, Judge and Volpe are going to have to live up to the hype big time, especially now that Cole is hurt.
A few more 2024s, with some older variety like some '83 Cubs oddballs that I find a lot more visually interesting, from dmarek.
I have two other transactions in the works. TCDB removes cards from my wantlist when they are in transaction, so pending those, I have 24 cards left to go, all of them RCs.


Monday, March 11, 2024

1981 Topps Dick Tidrow

 

The front: The photographer captures Tidrow against an all-blue-sky background.

The back: The messy Tidrow was famous for managing to get his uniform filthy before a game even started. Teammates named him after character in the Mobil commercials, "Mr. Dirt".

The player: Tidrow was a so-so starting pitcher for the Indians in 1972 and 1973, and in 1974 Cleveland sent him and Chris Chambliss to the Yankees in a trade that helped shape the late-70s championship Yankees teams. In '75 the Yankees moved Tidrow to the bullpen, and he became the main set-up man for Sparky Lyle. In '78, with Tidrow coming off of surgery and the Yankees shaking up their bullpen, Tidrow as moved back to the starting rotation, and once again he was less effective in a starting role. After a poor start to the '79 season, the Yankees traded Tidrow to the Cubs for Ray Burris. Burris was awful for the Yankees, but Tidrow regained his form and was an effective reliever through 1982. He was traded across town to the White Sox in 1983, where he helped them win the AL West. He ended his career with 11 games with the Mets in 1984. Overall in 620 games (138 starts) he went 100-94 with 55 saves and a 3.68 ERA.

The man: After his career he was a scout for the Yankees for several years, then went to the Giants when they hired Yankees executive Brian Sabean. He eventually became Director of Player Personnel for the Giants, helping build a team that won three World Series in five seasons. He was still working for the Giants when he died in 2021.

My collection: I have 28 of his cards, from 1972 to 1984. I would be interested in trading for 1982 Fleer Stamps #99.


Sunday, March 10, 2024

1983 Topps Football

OBC has moved from a 1984 project to a 1983 project. Ken Goetsch sent me five PWEs stuffed with most of my remaining needs for the '83 Topps football set.

Some big stars here like Dorsett and Fouts. But I also like the card of the Eagles punter trying to look tough on the sidelines.

Some big-time kicking cards here.
Lots of star power especially at the end of the set. But also fun are cards like Roland James on the Gatorade-phone.
Ken also sent 16 cards from the sticker insert set. Lots of big names, a real mix of players from before my time who seem like they were from a much older era, and players who were big stars when I started following football a few years later. And check out that Dan Fouts image compared to the one in the first photo.
Some more great action photos. LT sighting! That Wesley Walker card is cool. I recently saw it on Night Owl's blog, where I learned that it is the same photo as on his 1986 1000 Yard insert card. I have had that card since 1986 so it was cool to learn it was originally from 1983.

 


Saturday, March 9, 2024

1976 SSPC Don Gullett

 

The card, in brief: It has unintentionally become Don Gullett week here. Just a coincidence that two of my different "series" landed on the same player. Some commenters on Thursday's post mentioned Gullett's "confused" or "deer in the headlights" face. Looks like we're getting that here too. I guess this is the dugout, with some helmets on hooks behind him, but I almost think this might be somewhere inside the stadium, between the dugout and the clubhouse? It's certainly a unique vantage point.

Playing career, in brief: See my writeup on Thursday. Tl;dr: A good pitcher, with a great won-loss record, felled by injuries in the prime of his career.

Post-playing career, in brief: Reds pitching coach for 22 years (1993-2005). Gullett, who had a history of heart problems including two heart attacks before the age of 40, died of heart disease in February.

My collection: I have 19 of his cards, from 1971 to 1980. I would be interested in trading for 1977 Burger King Yankees #6.