Saturday, January 26, 2019

Late but still great

After laying forgotten on the floor of the Tallahassee postal facility for a few weeks, Johnny's trade package finally arrived in New York yesterday. At the time he sent it, I needed all of the cards. A few of them I since picked up in my recent lot purchases, but they would have been dupes then anyway. All but one of the cards was a part of one of Johnny's more obscure mini-collections.

The 1958 Vada Pinson is the one that doesn't fit. Just a rookie card of a guy with 2750+ hits, 250+ HR and 300+ SB. Extremely cool. I know a lot of people like to rag on yellow baseball cards, but yellow '58s are some of my favorite vintage cards. The '66 Eddie Fisher fits the minicollection though. That year he reached #2 on the charts with "Games That Lovers Play".
 Five from 1970, including Fisher again. In 1970 he was laying low after his divorce with Connie Stevens the previous year. In 1970 Tony Gonzalez had not yet been born; that year Atlanta's tight end was Jim Mitchell, who had a solid 11-year career. Chuck Taylor the basketball shoe guy had died the previous year. Bob Reed was in his first season starring as Mike Brady on The Brady Bunch, while Lee May had his second straight 30-HR season in Cincinnati.
Gonzalez and Taylor are available for trade if anyone wants them.
 Frank Baker is probably here for Hall-of-Famer Home Run Baker, but he isn't even the only Frank Baker in the '71 set (there was also Yankees shortstop Frank Baker). In 1972 The Jimmy Stewart Show was cancelled after one season. Boog Powell was born twenty years after this card was produced, and made his big league debut with Seattle in 2017. He is now with the Padres. Yankees legend Bernie Williams was a five-year-old in Puerto Rico in 1973. Reggae singer Jackie Brown's record Bearded Babylon came out in 1976.
Stewart (a high number!) and Powell are available for trade.

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