Wood vs. Wood #310

Last time 1987 squeaked by with a 5-3 win. Will this be a different outcome?

In a battle of lefty aces from New York, Whitey Ford poses pregame at Yankee Stadium, with the left field bleachers and a bit of grandstand in the background. Ford grew up in Astoria, Queens, a short subway ride to Yankee Stadium, and was a big Yankee fan as a child. He came up with the Yankees in 1950 and made an immediate impact, going 9-1 with a 2.81 ERA, and won the clinching Game 4 of the World Series. He lost all of the 1951 and 1952 seasons to military service, but came back in 1953 and picked up right where he left off, going 18-6 with an ERA of 3.00. Until his retirement in 1967, hastened by a circulatory issue in his arm, he was one of the most effective pitchers in baseball. In fact, his 2.75 ERA is the lowest for any pitcher of the live-ball era. His win totals (236) and strikeout totals (1,956) would have been much higher if he hadn't missed two seasons in the prime of his career, and because Casey Stengel went with a five-man rotation, unusual for the era, and often would delay Ford's starts to match him up against tough opponents. He didn't win 20 in a season until Ralph Houk brought back a four-man rotation in 1961. He was just as good, if not better, in World Series play. He pitched in 11 Series and was 10-8 with a 2.71 ERA, and his 33.2 scoreless innings streak in the World Series is still a major league record. After his career, Ford served as Yankee pitching coach for a couple of brief stints, and for decades was a spring training instructor for the team. He died in 2020, watching a Yankee playoff game on TV at his home in Lake Success, Long Island.

Frank Viola doesn't get quite as good a background as Whitey Ford did, having to make do with just a fan in a bright blue shirt. He didn't have quite as good a career was Whitey Ford, either, but he did have several dominant seasons. Viola grew up in East Meadow, Long Island, one town over from where I grew up. He won 16+ games for five straight seasons for the Twins in the 1980s, winning the World Series MVP in 1987 and the AL Cy Young in 1988. Traded to the Mets the next year, he won 20 games for them in 1990. Overall in 421 games, Viola went 176-150 with 1,844 strikeouts and a 3.76 ERA. Since his playing career Viola has been a minor league coach for many years, primarily in the Mets organization. Like many Long Islanders, Viola moved south, and is currently living in North Carolina where he is the pitching coach for the High Point Rockers.
 

1974 Topps Deckle Dating: Willie Horton

The last card in the set, and the series. This was a fun one to research and write.

After many instances of 1972 photos that Topps insisted were 1973, it is funny to me that on the last card in the set, for the first and only time Topps correctly dates a photo to 1972.

On August 8, 1972, the Yankees made news on the field in their big series with the first place Tigers. Horton opened the scoring with an RBI single off of Fritz Peterson, but in a back-and-forth game the Yankees won it, breaking open a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the eighth highlighted by a go-ahead sac fly by rookie sparkplug Celerino Sanchez, and an insurance run via Ron Swoboda's third hit of the day. The win moved the Yankees to just three games back of Detroit.

The Yankees also made news off the field, signing a 30-year lease with the City of New York that called for extensive renovations to Yankee Stadium, renovations which would require the Yankees to play the '74 and '75 seasons at Shea Stadium. In other news, the Madison Square Garden Corporation, owner of the Knicks and Rangers, threatened to move those teams out of New York if they did not get their own deal with the city. And in politics, the Democratic National Committee nominated Sargent Shriver as the new running mate for Presidential candidate George McGovern. Shriver was the committee's seventh choice to replace Thomas Eagleton, McGovern's original running mate, who bowed out after reports that he had received electroshock treatment for depression in the 1960s.

Very similar photos of Horton were used for his 1973 Topps card . . . 

. . . and his 1974 Topps stamp.

1981 Topps Ben Oglivie

 

The front: Taking a page from Johnny's Shadow Shots: I see an oven mitt.

The back: 1980 was by far Oglivie's best season, with 1982 the only other year he topped 30 HR and/or 100 RBI.

The player: Oglivie was primarily a platoon player for the Red Sox and Tigers, but settled into a starting role after being traded to Milwaukee and greatly improved his power numbers. In 1980 Oglivie, who was born in Panama but grew up in the Bronx, became the first foreign-born HR champion. His production tailed off in 1983 and by 1986 his MLB career was over, though he played two more seasons in Japan. Overall in 1,754 games for Boston, Detroit and Milwaukee, he hit .273 with 235 HR and 901 RBI.

The man: A philosophy enthusiast, Oglivie was generally considered one of the smartest men in the majors during his playing days. He was a hitting coach for several teams but appears to now be retired.

My collection: I have 41 of his cards, from 1973 to 1987. I would be interested in trading for 1972 Topps #761.
 

Holiday surprise from The Best Bubble

Got a surprise holiday package from The Best Bubble. Lots of fun cards and non-cards in there!

Starting off with the cards. Highlights include a Steve Kemp autograph, a TCMA card of Joe Pactwa, who never made the majors, a couple of 80's reprints of '50s cards, and two Don Mattingly oddballs! 

Bob also included a 1971 Yankees schedule! Great seeing the old Stadium in one of it's last years. Cool that they chose a bunt for their photo.

The inside tells you wear you could buy a ticket throughout the NYC area, including calling Yankee Stadium at CY. 3-6000.

The back has an ad for Schaefer beer. 

There were also these really cool scrapbook-like index cards chronicling the career of Elston Howard. It looks like they may have been started sometime in the mid-1960s and the owner kept with it over the years, or perhaps they just used some old materials they had access to later on. Bob - if you have more info on these, would love to know the backstory!

There seemed to be an order, starting with this card with a great action photo of Howard, a photocopy of the Yankees logo, and Howard's head cut off of a 1962 Topps league leaders card! 

These seem to have been arranged like pages in a scrapbook.  A couple of nice dated photos of Howard as a catcher.

The next "page" has a cutout of a newspaper article of Howard in his Red Sox uniform. Howard was traded to the Red Sox in August of 1967 and was a key factor in them winning a surprise pennant that year.

The scrapbooker even colored in Howard's red socks! The next card chronicled Howard's years as a Yankee coach and his untimely death in 1980.

The back of that card has cutouts of Howard from several other team photos. Finishing off with a photocopy of Howard's 1958 Topps card.

 

Baseball card stories from the Hon. Robin Fuson

Robin Fuson pitched ten seasons in the minor leagues, mostly in the Indians and Red Sox organizations. In 228 games he went 91-74 with a 3.79 ERA. After his baseball career ended he was a coach in the A's organization, then went to law school and became a prosecuting attorney. In 2018 he was elected as a Circuit Court Judge in Florida's 13th Judicial Circuit, a position he still holds. He kindly answered my questions about baseball cards.

"Regarding my Pawtucket card, I had been sent back down from big league, spring training, being the last guy reassigned and I wasn’t happy. So early in the season to kinda mess with my manager Rac Slider, who was a sticker for the rules I shaved half of my mustache off. I grew a mustache in college in the 70s and maintained that mustache my entire career up until 1985 when I shaved half of it. That happened to be the same day they were taking the pictures for our baseball cards and I didn’t want to look completely insane so I shaved the other half off. So there was no mustache in that picture. 

 

My first card in 1978, they listed me as an infielder. I guess technically that’s correct since I stood in the middle of the field.

I was in AAA with Cleveland three separate times, once with Seattle and twice with Boston. Out of all of those chances I was in the city at the time of the baseball card shoots only once, that being Pawtucket. 

My favorite card is probably the Buffalo card from 1983. Buffalo has a long history of some of the greatest players wearing that uniform and the stadium was War Memorial, the Rockpile, which had its own history. And the movie The Natural was filmed that summer as well.

I don’t collect cards, but I have two Tom Seaver baseball cards because he was my idol."

Thanks!

 

1976 SSPC Walt Alston

 

 

The front, in brief: A rare dugout shot from this set.

Playing career, in brief: First baseman Walt Alston was signed by the Carinals to a minor league contract in 1935, and in 1936 played well enough to earn a brief promotion to the major leagues. He played in one game, made an error, and struck out in his only plate appearance. He spent years in the minors trying to make his way back to the majors, but never did as a player. In 1940 he became a player manager, a role he continued in the Cardinals, and later Dodger organizations, through 1946.

Post-playing career, in brief: Alston kept managing in the Dodgers' system until 1954, when he replaced the popular Charlie Dressen. Alston won over skeptics by winning 92 games in his first season, then bringing the Dodgers their first world championship the next year. It was the first of four championships and seven pennants for Alston's Dodgers, cementing him as one of the most successful managers of his era. He retired at the end of the 1976 season, and died of a heart attack in 1984.

My collection: In my own spreadsheet I only track playing-days cards of players, and Alston never got a card during his playing days. Looking at his "managing days" cards, I have 18 from 1960 to 1976, and would be interested in trading for 1956 Topps #8 and 1972 Topps #749. 

Wallet Card at Mayon Crating & Shipping

At 27 Desbrosses Street in Tribeca, is a sign that looks really old, and is still pretty old. Mayon Crating & Shipping opened in 1977, when this was still an industrial area, and closed in the early 1990s as the neighborhood shifted to high-end residential apartments.

 

The vestiges of a much older sign can be seen underneath.

This seller was tip top

An eBay seller called cards-fan was selling some really cool old singles with low opening bids and I actually won a couple that nobody bid on. After the auctions were over he told me that he had an extra of one of the other cards I had bid on, and he threw that in two. Three for the price of two - for 1947 Tip Top Bread cards! Really generous for a really cool, and really old, oddball set. Anything before not only Topps but Bowman too is really cool to me.

Two St. Louis Cardinals and a St. Louis Brown! The backs are really fun too, with the advertisement for Tip Top Bread. It even explains how trading works.

1986 Renata Galasso Mattingly #3

Mattingly was pretty intense even as a 4th grader in 1971.

Not only was Don Mattingly a basketball star, his son Preston was too. After his minor league baseball career, he got a scholarship to play college basketball at Lamar. And somehow I didn't know until now that he's been the GM of the Phillies for the past two years.

1988 Domino's: Wayne Comer

 

Comer is a model of concentration as he takes a practice swing at Tiger Stadium.

Comer was a rookie backup outfielder on the 1968 Tigers, hitting .125 with 1 HR and 3 RBI in 48 games. He was drafted by the Pilots and had his only full season with them in 1969. Overall in 316 games over 5 seasons for the Tigers, Pilots/Brewers and Senators, Comer hit .229 with 16 HR and 67 RBI. After his MLB days he had a long career as a high school baseball coach. He died in 2023.

I have two of his playing-days cards, 1969 and 1970 Topps. I would be interested in trading for 1970 MLB PhotoStamps #NNO.

Burgers or gum? Juan Berenguer

Last time was a 7-1 win for burgers. Will this one be luckier for gum?

Wendy's stays firm with the spring headshot, while Topps mixes it up with Berenguer warming up pregame in Detroit.

Mostly a reliever in his career, 1984 was Berenguer's only season where he was primarily a starter. In 27 starts he went 11-10 with a 3.48 ERA. He did not pitch in the postseason. Berenguer was a talented but erratic pitcher for several teams before landing with the Tigers in 1983. Famed pitching coach Roger Craig taught Berenguer the split-fingered fastball and he used it with considerable success as a starter for the Tigers and a reliever for the Giants, Twins and Braves. Overall, in 490 games (95 starts) over a 15-year career, he went 67-62 with 32 saves and a 3.90 ERA. Berenguer was known as "Pancho Villa" during his playing days due to his resemblance to the Mexican revolutionary. He most recent job was selling cars at Lincoln of Bloomington, near Minneapolis.
 

Cake or gum? 1977 Al Oliver

Last time there was a 5-5 tie. I'm guessing there will be a winner here.

Looks like two photos taken at the same sitting! In earlier years Hostess cards had more going on in the background, but that seemed to switch in '77. These two cards are a great example of that.

A lifetime .303 hitter, Oliver hit over .300 for nine straight seasons, from 1976 to 1984. He was a seven-time all-star, and hit 219 HR over his eighteen year career, reaching 20 twice. He retired after the 1985 season after no-one signed him, which he claims was due to collusion. He has said that if allowed to sign with another team, he would have gotten 3000 hits and would thus have made the Hall of Fame. However, in 1986 he was going to be 39 years old, was 257 hits away from 3000, and had only 197 in the previous two years. So his odds of getting to 3000 if he signed somewhere in 1986 were still quite slim. He is now a licensed minister and the Chairman of Deacons at Beulah Baptist Church in his hometown of Portsmouth, OH.
 

Wood vs. Wood #309

Last time there was a 5-5 tie! Will there be a winner this time?

Nothing but a clear blue sky (or blue backdrop) behind Moe Morhardt. Moe Morhardt's MLB career consisted of 25 games for the Cubs in 1961 and 1962, hitting .206 with 0 HR and 3 RBI. After his playing career he was a gym teacher, athletic director and coach for several sports at the Gilbert School in Connecticut, was the baseball coach at the University of Hartford, and as of the late 2010s was still involved in coaching youths. Two of his sons played pro baseball; one of them, Greg Morhardt, later became a scout, famous for discovering Mike Trout.

Mike Young steps into the batters box at Memorial Stadium. Young was a power-hitting outfielder for the Orioles who hit 45 HR over his first two seasons, 1984 and 1985. However, a series of injuries robbed him of his effectiveness and he was unable to live up to his early career success. Overall in 635 games, mostly for Baltimore, he hit .247 with 72 HR and 235 RBI. After his career he worked for Abbott Vascular, was a personal trainer, and started a foundation to battle obesity. He died of a heart attack in 2023.
 

Roundup

It's been several weeks since my last roundup post . . . 

Two '53 Milwaukee Braves from Greg Henthorn, OBC. Check out the signs behind Murray Wall that say Murray and Wall. 

1940 Goudey card from eBay.

Two more cheap Goudeys from eBay. The '39 is Dick Coffman.

Two envelopes from OBC's Scott Jensen that came on different days . . . 

. . . each with two beautiful '71 Topps Super cards!

'52 Bowman Ralph Kiner. ebay.

Two 1958 cards of Kansas City players. The background color, bottom colors and even the team name are different on the two cards! Bob Bannon, OBC.

A '62 Post and five '73 OPCs. Fun to see the cartoons in French. Bob Donaldson, OBC.

A fun TCDB trade with Sportty1. Three cards from 1992 RBI Magazine. These seem to be fairly rare but he has dozens of each card from that set to trade. The Yankees are fantastic but that Canseco is easily the best card in the set.

The cartoons on the backs of the Canseco and Mattingly are fun too.

Finally an eBay lot of '56 Topps. Eight needs for my set including some fantastic "at the wall" images of Bill Virdon and Jim Greengrass.

Some trade bait too including a random '60 Topps card.

 

1965 and 1966 Seattle Angels cards

Here's a fun little eBay win. Some real minor league oddballs, in rough shape but still really cool.

The lot was advertised as 1966 Seattle Angels cards. And many of them were 1966's. They were an Angels minor league affiliate, lots of familiar names of players on their way up to, and occasionally down from, the major leagues. 

The backs are all the same. I love the sponsor list with some major brand names that are long gone. 

Not all of the cards were 1966's - some were actually 1965! Some duplication here with two Merritt Ranews, two Fred Holmses and three cards of Ed "Spanky" Kirkpatrick! I only need one of each so there's some trade bait if they fit someone's collection.

No sponsor's name on the '65 backs, but one of them has what might have been the original owner's info! I love getting cards with handwritten 1960s style phone numbers!

Tom Borda, 2343 29th Street South, Seattle, PA 3-3802. There is a Tom Borda who graduated Seattle Prep in 1970, and that might be the same Tom Borda who was a pilot for FedEx. And googling that phone number shows it belonged to a Lou Borda in the late 1950s and into the 1960s, in several Italian and English language Seattle newspapers due to his role as the president of that city's Italian Club.
 

 

Free cards on free cards

I got a package yesterday from Cards on Cards with the results of two of his generous giveaways. (And speaking of his giveaways, he kicked off his college football giveaway today!)

Every once in a while he gives away "damaged cards". I can't find anything remotely wrong with these!

I also won the last-place prize in the college basketball tournament. I've finished second in the football tournaments but never a last-place prize before. He used to warn us to beware of those! For the record, I don't try to lose, but I know nothing about college sports so I usually just pick the favorites except for a few school I pick because they are local (a rarity in these parts) or I know someone who went there. Usually that puts me squarely in the middle of the packs.

Here are my winnings! Two needs for my 1983 Fleer Star Stickers set, and three unopened packs. I already have the complete sets for 1986 League Leaders and 1988 Big Baseball, so I'll pass those along to the first person who comments requesting them (US only). 

I've never had any 1989 Topps coins before, so out of curiosity I opened the pack. I don't consider these "cards" but figured it would be nice to have three for the collection. 

Well, two I guess. Funny thing is TCDB has the coins in their database but not the card. I've got an idea for a certain former blogger who can use the Witt and the advertising card. There was more gum but it was shattered into many pieces that were stuck to the wrapper so I tossed those.
 

1974 Topps Deckle Dating: Johnny Bench

 Card 71 out of 72.

March 1, 1973.

The same date as teammate Tony Perez. As noted in that post, spring games hadn't started yet, and it was a bad day for Britain with a fatal IRA bombing in London and a Royal Navy ship sabotaged in Beirut.

The full-color photo was used for his 1974 Topps Puzzle.