Henthorn of plenty

Greg Henthorn of OBC is always very generous in what he sends around. This little seven-card PWE had plenty to write about.

There's a 1962 Babe Ruth card, that's always awesome. I guess there was a lot of interest in Ruth as Roger Maris had just broken his record. The '65 checklist is interesting; somehow the card's owner had almost every card after 371 but none before it. Some horizontal cards of Grady Hatton and Clay Dalrymple, each of whom spent a dozen years in the majors. And a '51 Topps card is always a treat. Cliff Chambers didn't have an illustrious career but he did pitch a no-hitter in 1951.

The two combo cards proved to be the most interesting though, as I researched the players on them. Starting with the Astros card, Alonzo "Candy" Harris had one major league at bat, and then seems to have disappeared. Aaron Pointer is a lot more prominent. Not because his career was longer - 40 games over three seasons. Not even because his four younger sisters became a world famous singing group. After his baseball career (which included three seasons in Japan), Pointer started refereeing high school football games in Tacoma, WA. In 1978, Pointer moved up to the college ranks, becoming the PAC-10's first Black referee. In 1987, Pointer made it to the NFL, and he served 17 seasons as an NFL referee. Highlights including refereeing a game where his sisters sang the national anthem, and a preseason game where his son Deron Pointer, attempting to make the Indianapolis Colts as a wide receiver, made his first catch. He served on the Tacoma Parks Commission board for over 20 years, retiring as Commissioner in 2024.

On the Mets card, there's Ron Locke, who pitched one season with the Mets, and continued to play competitive baseball and softball in his native Rhode Island his adopted home of Florida for decades. Steve Dillon was personally more interesting to me. Dillon pitched in only three major league games, one of which was the first night game at Shea Stadium. I saw he was a New Yorker which always piques my interest so I researched him further. After his baseball career, Dillon, who grew up in the Bronx, became an NYPD officer, and later his son did as well. That son is now the head of security at Citi Field, where his father threw out the first pitch on Old Timers Day in 2022. In the course of my research, I noticed where Dillon is living now. I looked up the address, and according to Google Maps, he lives 0.7 miles away from me. In fact I have probably walked past his house many times. I'm certainly not creepy enough to knock on the door an 83-year-old man and show him an old baseball card, but it's pretty cool that a former MLB player lives so close.
 

1988 Domino's Mickey Stanley

 

A tightly-cropped posed photo with no background; not one of the more interesting photos in the set.

The 25-year-old Stanley had his first full season in 1968, hitting .259 with 11 HR and 60 RBI. He won his first of four Gold Gloves as a centerfielder, but famously moved to shortstop during the stretch run and World Series to replace the struggling Ray Oyler, a move that worked well for Detroit. Stanley played 15 years in the majors, all for the Tigers. He had a little power but low average and speed. In 1,516 games he hit .248 with 117 HR and 500 RBI. After his playing career he worked in commercial real estate, though he is now retired.

I have 21 of his cards, from 1966 to 1979. I would be interested in trading for 1971 Topps #524. 

Burgers or gum? Milt Wilcox

Last time there was a 5-5 tie. Who will win this matchup, the final one in the set? 

The blogger voters have been remarkably divided on these sets - of the previous 21 matchups, nine were won by burgers, nine were won by gum, and three were ties!

Like Stuart who inspired this series, I've not been voting myself to keep impartiality. Personally, I tend to like the Topps cards more in these matchups due to the variety, but it's a lot of fun to see the different reasons people pick one card over the other. Hopefully now that we're at the end, Stuart will weigh in on his preferences!

As is typical for these matchups, Wendy's has a portrait shot in Spring Training, while Topps snapped a photo during game action at Tiger Stadium.

Milt Wilcox came up with the Reds in September of 1970 and pitched well enough - 3-2, 2.42 ERA in five games - to make the postseason roster. That October he won Game 3 of the NLCS, but lost Game 2 of the World Series. Over the next five seasons he pitched for three teams without fully living up to his potential. After a disappointing 1976 season with the Cubs AAA team, he was released, and his career looked like it was over. That offseason, at his doctor's suggestion, he took up bowling to strengthen his arm. Wilcox credited that for his success when he signed with the Tigers and was back in the majors after two years. Rejuvenated at the age of 27, Wilcox quickly became a mainstay in the Tigers rotation, with seven straight seasons of double-digit wins. In 1984, he went 6-0 to start the season, tailed off a bit to finish at 17-8, but came up big in the postseason, winning Game 3 of the NLCS and Game 3 of the World Series. He had shoulder surgery after the season, however, and would win just one more major league game over the course of the next two seasons. Overall, in 394 games over parts of 16 seasons, Wilcox went 119-113 with a 4.07 ERA. For the past 20 years, with his son Brian, he has been the owner and MC for Ultimate Air Dogs, billed as the "premier dock jumping organization in the country". These are competitions where dogs jump off docks and do various tricks for large crowds.

With only 22 cards in the set, including the manager, who got left out? Looking at the World Series roster, the omissions were Doug Baker, Howard Johnson, Ruppert Jones and Dave Rozema. Johnson, Jones and Rozema were with new teams in 1985. Doug Baker was actually with the Tigers in April of 1985, but spent most of the season back in AA.
 

Scrapbook pages from an America long ago

I haven't gone into the 1930s scrapbook in a while, but I wanted to do something to commemorate this special day. I decided there must be something relevant in that scrapbook Johnny sent me a while ago, the one that was put together a few years after America's 150th. Most of the scrapbook is focused on family members or popular culture (how American!) but I did find a page that fit close enough. 

This page was actually detached and loose, I'm not sure why. It seems to be from 1935, a few years later than the pages I've shown previously.

 Not just America, but America in color!

Well, colorized, anyway. I'm not sure tanks had pink treads in the 1930s. I guess that was AI coloring 90 years ago. This color spread from the Sunday Mirror shows how America was preparing for the "next war", which was only a few years away. (Note that these were pasted over some ledger entries from 1927). It's easy to forget now, in the relatively peaceful 21st Century, how much an upcoming "next war" seemed inevitable for the generations coming after the two World Wars.

A little more variety, but still plenty of Americana, on this side. Starting off with more tanks on top, and then a clipping from the February 14, 1935 Jacksonville Journal - Last Photo of the Navy's Ill-Fated Dirigible. The USS Macon was one of two rigid airships that the US Navy launched in 1933. The USS Akron crashed soon after, killing 73. The Macon lasted longer, though weather conditions made operating the massive, delicate vehicle difficult. It was based in Sunnyvale, CA, but was stationed for a while in Opa-Locka, FL in 1934, perhaps explaining why it was of interest to the scrapbooker. It returned to Sunnyvale later in 1934 and crashed off Monterey Bay in 1935, this time losing only two men, largely due to the use of life jackets after the first disaster. 

Finally, some magazine cutouts, or maybe some kind of stamps, showing images of American vacation spots, mostly in the West. It's a nice example of how much our country has expanded since the initial vision 250 years ago. 
 

Wood vs. Wood #345

Last time it was an 8-0 shutout for 1987. Will 1962 get on the board here?

Chuck Schilling poses in front of the left field grandstand at Yankee Stadium. The setting is kind of ironic; Schilling grew up on Long Island, in New Hyde Park, as a New York Giants fan who hated the Yankees. After high school two teams were interested in him - the Yankees and the Red Sox, so Schilling chose Boston. He had a good rookie season in 1961, hitting .259 with 5 HR and 62 RBI. However, he broke his hand in 1962 and never regained his rookie form. By '63 he had lost his starting job at second base, and his big league career was over after the 1965 season, at the age of 27. Overall in 541 games he hit .239 with 23 HR and 146 RBI. After his playing career he moved further out east on Long Island, first working in his father's electrical shop in Farmingdale, and then teaching math at Selden Middle School for over 20 years. He died in 2021.

Andre Dawson hits one high and far at a spring training game in West Palm Beach. Andre Dawson was a five-tool player who excelled at every area of baseball. In 2,627 games, mostly with the Expos and Cubs, the Hall-of-Famer hit .279 with 438 HR, 1,591 RBI and 314 stolen bases. Injuries from playing the first decade of his career on the artificial turf in Montreal prevented those numbers from being even higher. He signed with the Cubs in 1987 and was rejuvenated playing on grass, hitting .287 with a league leading 49 HR and 137 RBI as he won the NL MVP award. He now owns the Paradise Memorial Funeral Home in Miami, FL. He runs the business, drives the hearse, picks up bodies from hospitals, and occasionally poses for pictures and signs autographs for surprised mourners. 

Wallet Card at Nassau Garage

This building on Main Street in Freeport, NY has the sign Nassau Garage. This was originally built in the 1920s as a Packard Automobiles dealer. The Packard dealership moved out shortly after, and became a movie theater which went by various names through the 1980s. 

Now it is the site of various businesses including a jeweler and a barber shop. The website Cinema Treasures has a photo of this building when it was still a movie theater in the 1970s. In that photo you can see the sign for a neighboring businesses on the side of the movie theater. That sign is still there and will be the subject of another Wallet Card post.

Cake or gum? 1977 Buddy Bell

Last time it was a 3-0 win for gum. Hopefully this matchup draws more interest.

Two shots of Buddy Bell at the Oakland Coliseum, at the start and end of a practice swing. Lots to see here, including two different uniform patches, an on-deck circle with baseball stitches, and someone with long hair and street clothes at the batting cage.

Buddy Bell played eighteen years in the major leagues for the Indians, Rangers, Reds and Astros. A five time all-star, he was a contact hitter, walking more than he struck out. He had moderate power – twelve seasons of 10-20 home runs, but never more. Once Brooks Robinson retired, he was the best defensive third baseman in the American League, winning six straight Gold Gloves from 1979 to 1984. Stuck on bad teams his whole career, he played in 2,405 regular season games but zero postseason games. After he retired he spent some time in the White Sox front office, then became the the first base coach for the Indians in 1994 and 1995. He then managed nine seasons for the Tigers, Rockies and Royals, never finishing better than 82-80. That was interspersed with a couple of stints as Indians bench coach in the mid-2000s. In 32 years as an on-field player, coach, and manager, he only reached the postseason once (1995 Indians). He then spent some time as a front office executive for the White Sox and Reds, and is now retired.

Cards from bloggers

Got a couple of nice packages of cards from a couple of great bloggers in the past week . . . 

The Collector Chris was soliciting some TCDB trades and I was glad to find some cards for him. A lot of the cards going both ways were from recent Topps Update sets, but there were others.

I'm sure Chris was happy to get these Yankees and a Giant out of his house.

S.R. '75 Stuart had some extra 2001 Upper Deck Legends of New York cards he generously sent my way. These are the cards with the fuzzy team logos. Starting off with some Brooklyn Dodgers, including two Jackie Robinsons.

On to the New York Giants. Bobby Thomson is on there a couple of times. I noticed on the back of his card, his career numbers were a lot better than I thought. If he hadn't broken his ankle in '54 he could have been a legit Hall of Famer.

On to the Mets. I don't care for the Mets but these individual players I bear no ill will towards. 

The highlight, of course, is the Yankees. I had a lot of Yankees from this set already but was missing most of the cards of the "Mount Rushmore" of Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle. These get me a lot closer to a complete set!

 

1981 Topps Stickers

Before I collected baseball cards I had the 1986 Topps sticker book, which was how I first learned most of the players as a nine-year-old. I started collecting cards but kept up with the stickers for a couple more years. Eventually my card collection grew and grew and the sticker books were forgotten and lost. I did end up accumulating stickers over the years, and a few years ago bought a lot of all of the empty Topps books from the 80s to put my stickers in. (I still should get the Panini books.)

A couple weeks ago on eBay I saw a complete set of '81 stickers with a very low starting bid. I decided to go for it and end up winning the lot at about a nickel a sticker. I do not consider these part of my baseball card collection. But at that price it seemed relevant enough to be fun.

The photos are fun but not too different from the baseball card photos. Some interesting facial expressions, and for some reason a lot of airbrushed Cardinals.

Some good action shots too, mostly at Yankee Stadium. The Willie Wilson sticker is a reminder of the old "no pepper games" signs, something that is rarely seen on cards.

Some more fun photos I picked out. The cropping of the Tanana reminds me of the Fleer cards of the era, which generally had a little more personality and variety than Topps. (Also - you rarely see Rod Carew with a mustache!)

Putting in the stickers ended up being somewhat difficult. Some stickers came off their backing easily. On other, neither fingernail nor thin blade could fully pry them apart and I had to tape them in with some or all of the backing still in there. Putting ~200 stickers at once is probably less fun than a few at a time, but it's nice to have a complete album and to have done it myself. Here's a sample page with the pitching leaders, including two shots of Steve Carlton in throwing motion, as well as one portrait.

I actually had all the Yankees already, but good excuse to show them again along with the complete A's page.

The All Stars are a shiny fol section in the center of the book.

I already had a fair amount of stickers, so I have plenty to trade to those looking to fill their own album or incorporate them into their card collection!

 

1981 Topps Rance Mulliniks

 

The front: Mulliniks is captured pregame in Milwaukee.

The back: On July 4, 1977, Dave Chalk and Rance Mulliniks hit back-to-back home runs in the fourth inning off of Rick Langford to give California a 4-1 lead in a game they would win, 4-2.

The player: Mulliniks started his career with the Angels and Royals, playing parts of five seasons and struggling to make an impact. He was traded to Toronto before the 1982 season and there he developed into one of the best utility players in the majors. From 1982 to 1988 he played in 110-130 games a year, hitting around .300 with 10-12 HR most years. He was a solid defender with a good batting eye, and was good for 2-3 WAR per season, nice numbers for someone who was not a regular. Toward the end of his career injuries cut his playing time dramatically. In his final season, 1992, he was out for most of the year, returning at the end of the season for three games. He was on the World Series roster but did not play. Overall in 1,325 games he hit .272 with 73 HR and 435 RBI.

The man: After his playing career Mulliniks had a long stint as a Blue Jays announcer, and was also a realtor for Century 21. He is now a motivational speaker.

My collection: I have 56 of his cards, from 1978 to 1992. I would be interested in trading for 1978 SSPC #216.
 

1976 SSPC Glenn Adams

 

The card, in brief: This looks like it was a little earlier in the evening than some of the other Giants cards in the set. Adams looks quite happy to show off his bunting form.

Playing career, in brief: After brief appearances as an outfielder for the Giants in 1975 and 1976, Glenn Adams moved to the American League in 1977 with the Twins as a part-time DH and outfielder. He ended his career with a cup of coffee in Toronto in 1982.  In eight major league seasons, he hit .280 with 34 HR and 225 RBI in 661 games.

Post-playing career, in brief:  Adams was a minor league manager for many years but now appears to be retired.

My collection: I have 13 of his cards, from 1976 to 1983. I would be interested in trading for 1982 TCMA Syracuse Chiefs #19.

1986 Renata Galasso Mattingly #21

Nice photo at spring training, interesting to see the batting cage behind the outfield.

Nice to see he helps out around the house.

1988 Domino's Joe Sparma

 

Great action photo here!

Joe Sparma was the quarterback for the Ohio State Buckeyes, leading them to a Big Ten Championship in 1961. He quit the team after the 1962 season due to conflicts with coach Woody Hayes and decided to focus on baseball. He signed with the Tigers and got off to a fast start with the team, going 13-8 with a 3.18 ERA in his first full season in 1965. However, he was not able to sustain that early success and by 1968 Sparma was again having conflicts with leadership, this time Tigers manager Mayo Smith, who pulled Sparma from the rotation mid-season and barely used him after that. He was traded to the Expos after the 1969 season but pitched poorly for them, ending his major league career at the age of 28. In 183 games he went 52-52 with a 3.94 ERA. After his baseball career he worked for Buckeye Steel in Worthington, OH. He died from complications of a heart attack in 1986 at the age of 44.

I have six of his cards, from 1965 to 1970. I would be interested in trading for 1964 Topps #512.  

Bowman baseball - you'll love it

Al texted me the other day to entice me with something to trade for more Braves - "I have a new stack of Bowman baseball you'll love it". Well I did tell him I didn't need any more Topps base or late 80s cards. Bowman's not necessarily my favorite, but they're OK in small doses, and a card I don't have is a card I need. I picked them up today. His Braves guy didn't show up so we'll see if he ends up needing any more.

Turns out it was a stack of a few dozen cards from 2019 Bowman, mostly the base set but a few BPs and BCPs. I brought the whole stack home, along with a few other randoms he'd found. Here's the Bowman keepers. The big deal is that he had a Judge he let me take. Jazz Chisholm's in there too, I didn't know he started off as a Diamondback.

The pile had heavy duplication, though it was mostly stars which is nice. I'll bring most of these back in a couple of weeks when I'm in the city next, but hopefully there's some cards that may fit some readers collections. In particular check out all those Mike Trouts! Is he no longer such a big deal?

In the other little stack of cards I found some keepers, including a few from '18 Topps Update. Some really nice horizontal cards here.

And some more I didn't need, but maybe a reader does. Mostly Topps Update but there's also a nice silver pack Ozzie Smith.

 

Burgers or gum? Lou Whitaker

Last time gum cruised to a 6-2 win. Will it win again here?

Wendy's has Whitaker chatting with someone while posing for a photo, while Topps has him turning a double play over a Red Sox player in what must be a spring training game.

Whitaker had a good season in 1984, though not as good as '83 when he had a career year hitting .320. Whitaker hit .289 with 13 HR and 56 RBI, and after a poor ALCS showing rebounded to have a good World Series, reaching base 9 times and scoring 6 runs. Lou Whitaker was one of the better second baseman in the American League in the 1980s. The 1978 AL Rookie of the year and a five-time All-Star, Whitaker played in 2,390 games and hit .276 with 244 HR and 1,084 RBI. He was an excellent fielder and walked more than he struck out. His hitting numbers were not spectacular but he was an above-average hitter for a long time. After his playing days, Whitaker was an instructor for the Tigers for many years but is now retired.
 

Wood vs. Wood #344

Last time it was a 5-2 win for 1962. Who will win here?

Ed Bauta looks off to the distance on his rookie card. His last card would be the following year - and it used the same photo. The Cuba-born Bauta pitched for the Cardinals and Mets from 1960 to 1963. In 97 games, all in relief, he went 6-6 with 11 saves and a 4.35 ERA. After his retirement he worked in the moving business in New York and New Jersey. He died in 2022.

Joe Niekro delivers a pitch at Yankee Stadium. Knuckleballer Joe Niekro pitched for 22 years for seven teams. His best seasons were with the Astros, with 20-win seasons in 1979 and 1980. Overall he was 221-204 with 1,747 strikeouts in 702 games. After his playing career he coached for the Twins and Rockies. He died of a brain aneurysm in 2006.
 

Cake or gum? 1977 Rick Burleson

Last time it was a 5-0 shutout for gum. Will cake get on the board here?

Tough call here - do you prefer Burleson looking slightly to the left, or looking slightly to the right?

Rick Burleson was a scrappy second baseman with doubles power, especially effective at Fenway Park, who was a key member of the great Red Sox teams of the late 1970s. After the 1980 season the Angels traded Carney Lansford to Boston to get Burleson. Burleson had his best season by WAR (4.5) in the strike shortened 1981 season. Unfortunately, Burleson hurt his arm the next season, effectively ending his career, though he hung on for brief stints over the next several seasons. Overall in 1,346 games, he hit .273 with 256 2B, 50 HR and 449 RBI. After his playing career he had a long career as a scout, minor league manager and minor league coach. He is now retired.
 

1981 Topps Len Barker

 

The front: An awkward-looking delivery at Yankee Stadium. This must be June 29, 1980, same as Gary Alexander, Bo Diaz and Jorge Orta. Barker struggled that day, allowing 6 earned runs in 6.1 innings as Cleveland fell, 7-2. Barker allowed home runs to Bronx Bombers Jim Spencer, Joe Lefebvre and Brian Doyle.

The back: Barker won two games that week in 1979, beating the Red Sox 3-0 and the Rangers 6-2.

The player: Len Barker pitched eleven years in the major leagues. His best seasons were in Cleveland, leading the American League in strikeouts in 1980 and 1981. He pitched a perfect game for the Indians in 1981. He was traded to the Braves during the 1983 season, but injuries limited his effectiveness for Atlanta. Overall in 248 games he went 74-76 with a 4.34 ERA.

The man: According to a Sports Illustrated article after Barker’s perfect game, he improved when he went to Cleveland because they got him to lay off beer, which helped him lose ten pounds and improve his concentration from 50% to 80%. Said Indians President Gabe Paul, “When I see Barker watching a plane going overhead when he's on the mound, I know he's through.” He is now head baseball coach at Notre Dame College. He also participates in fantasy camps. In the 1990s, he met a fantasy camper named Mike Ferrante. They ended up going into the construction business together for a while, and Barker married Ferrante’s daughter.

My collection: I have 29 of his cards, from 1977 to 1986. I would be interested in trading for 1978 SSPC #91.
 

 

These are bad, even for me

I won a nicely priced lot of 1950s Topps cards off of eBay this week. That's very hard to do, so as you can imagine there must have been a catch. And that there was - the cards were trimmed. As condition-insensitive as I am, I am more bothered by trimming than things like writing and creasing, as it means part of the card is missing. Plus it's weird when flipping through my cards to have some cards being noticeably smaller. In general though, as long it's no more than the border I'm generally OK with trimming. This lot really pushes it though.

These are the most intact cards in the lot. Most of these I had already, but a few were new to me. Most notably several 1952s! And some of the 1953s are high numbers. '53 high numbers are very hard to get, and I had very few before this. In fact now I have a dupe of Mike Sandlock. 

These cards are a little more heavily trimmed. The '57s actually look pretty good borderless, reminiscient of '53 Bowman. And more '52s! Highlighted by Ralph Houk from his days as a Yankee catcher.

Here's where things get really ugly. These cards are heavily trimmed! They are all the size of late 80s Topps Mini Leaders card (one on the top left for scale). There are '58s where the player's name has been cut off! I actually needed four '58s and four '59s from this photo, though I am giving some thought to trying to upgrade them, something I virtually never do. The '59 Cuellar rookie might not be worth it, but the others should be cheap purchases or easy TCDB trades. But there's more '53 high numbers here, those will have to do. And you might not be able to tell here, but the rightmost card in the middle and bottom rows are '52s. Name and right edge cut off. Probably not worth the trouble of upgrading, though.

So I added lots of cards I needed, but have lots left over. Unless any readers here are interested in '50s cards that are trimmed, some heavily, I can probably find homes for these at OBC.
 

An even Braver street trade

Yesterday I gave Al another 200-count box of Braves, plus some more of the usual guys he always needs. He had brought with him a 3,200 count of mixed cards. I didn't want to take the entire box back and forth, and as a lot of it was runs on 1989 Upper Deck, 1990 Topps, 1994 Collectors Choice, etc, that I didn't need, I instead just pulled out about 1,000+ cards that seemed promising, albeit with a lot of junk mixed in. Like usual, I'm keeping what I need, and returning what I don't. 

I was able to pull out a few hundred cards I didn't have. Mostly baseball but also a little football. Nothing terribly interesting or exciting but I'll enjoy adding all of them to my collection. 

To figure out what I needed, I first separated out the sets that I knew I'd completed, largely junk wax or Topps base cards. These are the other sets, these will go back to Al unless someone sees something they're interested in. There are a few inserts, but mostly base cards as you can see. If you see a set or type of card you think you have needs from, let me know, or if there's a team or player to look for, I can check for that too.

Same with this pile, the "junx wax" pile. Some early 80s Topps, Donruss and Fleer, and lots of stars too. (Less stars in the pile above.) Same here - happy to look for anything people want before I return the cards next week.

 

1967 Philadelphia lot

 I picked up a lot of 1967 Philadelphia football for cheap on eBay. Not something I was looking for, but came across it and I like the look of the old Philly sets, so I put in a minimum bid and won.

Frank Tarkenton is the biggest name here, but there's also rookie cards of Hall of Famers Dave Robinson and Dave Wilcox. 

Some from the middle of the set, including a nice shot of Giants star Spider Lockhart at Yankee Stadium.

Finishing off with these fine cards, including Ron Bull's card which definitely looks burned.

The backs have trivia questions with no visible answer. Good space for doing math problems, and also gives me an idea for a new blog series, hopefully humorous but maybe kind of dumb.

 

There were three dupes for me in this lot, available for trade: #47 John Wooten (Browns); #51 Cornell Green (Cowboys), #136 Timmy Brown (Eagles) 

1976 SSPC Gary Thomasson

 

The card, in brief: What's so interesting in the upper deck?

Playing career, in brief: Thomasson was a part-time outfielder for the Giants in the 1970s. In 1977 at the age of 25, he had what looked like a breakout season, hitting .256 with 17 HR and 71 RBI.  The Giants sold high, packaging him to Oakland as part of the deal that brought Vida Blue to San Francisco. Thomasson struggled with the A's, and was traded to the Yankees midseason, where he was a little-used bench player. He ended his US career with the Dodgers, and signed a big contract to play for the Yomiuri Giants. He struggled mightily in Japan, nearly setting the league strikeout record before being benched. 

Meanwhile, the Japanese artist Genpei Akasegawa developed a fascination with objects that were no longer in use but were still maintained, originally inspired by a staircase with no entranceway on the top, but was still regularly repaired. He published a popular book of photos of this "hyperart" - objects not intended to be art but still maintaining an artistic quality. The books showed images of objects that were "maintained in good condition, but with no purpose, to the point of becoming a work of art." A baseball fan, Akasegawa named these after the expensive but useless artifact languishing on the Yomiuri Giants bench - "Hyperart Thomasson". The concept was popular in the 1980s and regained popularity in the 2010s. According to one art blog, Messy Nessy, "On Instagram, there are over 3,000 posts alone under the Japanese “Tomasson” hashtag: トマソン".

Post playing career, in brief: Thomasson has kept a low profile since his baseball career. Anyone know what he is doing now?

My collection: I have 13 of his cards, from 1974 to 1981. I would be interested in trading for  1980 Los Angeles Dodgers Police SGA #NNO.

1986 Renata Galasso Mattingly #20

We're getting to the section of the set with the modern photos of Mattingly. 

 Yankee fan and famous drummer Jack Scarangella was so popular with the team that there was an informal Yankee Stadium Drum Room. The site Not So Modern Drummer has photos of Scarangella drumming with Mattingly, Ron Guidry, Willie Randolph and Paul O'Neill.