1993 Studio Robby Thompson

Hobbies are fishing, tennis, golf and water sports: Guy likes being outdoors.

Favorite sports announcer is Chris Berman: Thompson did not get a nickname from Berman.

Favorite player as a kid was Pete Rose: In high school Thompson grew his hair shaggy in emulation of Rose.

Might have been an educator if he hadn’t been an athlete: Thompson did not go into education after his baseball career.

Pet peeve is slow traffic in the fast lane: Lots of lead-footed drivers in this set.

Where he is now: As of 2016 he was a Special Assistant to the Indians GM. Not clear if he is still in the role.

More Birds, Red and Blue

Right after my trade package from Cards on Cards, came my cards from his recent 10th Anniversary Group Break. I was fortunate enough to snag two teams, the Blue Jays and the Cardinals.

Got the Blue Jays right after the Yankees took two out of three at the Skydome. This should give you an idea of the types of sets that were in the break. That Classic Draft Shawn Green was the last card I needed to complete that set.

 The Cardinals were a little different, as Kerry was keeping them for himself, so it was random Cardinals he was purging, which made for a fun assortment. Multiple minor league cards for a lot of players.

 The minor league cards ranged from the 1980s to the present.

 Lots of other cool cards, like two different numbered Albert Pujols cards.

 This McGwire oddball is pretty neat . . .

 . . . but this one is really great.

 This was the weirdest oddball in the lot. I've never seen a baseball card ornament before. It even has a string to hang it up.

Comments and a card

I was feeling a bit bummed about this blog lately, as I hadn't gotten comments on anything for a while, even when posting a few times soliciting potential trades. Turns out Blogger has messed with the comment reporting feature - I had missed the last month's worth of comments including some trade propositions. Here is a link from The Lost Collector about how to rectify the problem if you are experiencing it. He also links to another discussion about whether baseball card blogging is a dying art. I certainly hope not, I find it really enjoyable to read what others have to write about cards, and a great way to propose trades. I know at some point I'll have to start expanding more into Twitter and/or TCDB for trades. Maybe I can be "One Million Cheap Vintage Cards" on Twitter. (I don't fully understand this One Million thing - I assume they don't actually want duplicates.) I had a good trade with One Million Cubs, but another Million guy started asking for pictures of my house which I thought was weird, and I haven't gotten back to Twitter trading since. Are there any good Twitter traders people would recommended I'd do TCDB but am worried Beckett might go after it like it did with Zistle. Will probably put at least my tradelist up there at some point.

Anyway, here is the result of another one-card trade with Al this week. On April 22, 1960, Moose Skowron went 2-4 and Mickey Mantle and Hector Lopez homered as Whitey Ford out-dueled Hoyt Wilhelm in a battle of future Hall-of-Famers.

Coke and vintage

Kerry of Cards on Cards had an extra 1981 Coca-Cola Cardinals set to trade. I worked out a trade for those plus a bunch of really cool vintage cards, instead for some modern Cardinals and sets needs that he had.

Here are the Cokes. I don't drink soda at all, but I really like both the Coke and Pepsi logos.

 Four 1961 cards were the oldest ones he sent. I love the back of the Grim card - "Long considered one of the weakest hitter in the game, Bob amazed everyone - himself included - by blasting a grand slam homer to beat the White Sox 10-8."

 1965 McCarver and two '71s.

 A few '72s highlighted by a sweaty Joe Torre.

 73's an 74's. The Bernie Carbo card might be the oldest card of a player with an untucked jersey.

 Two regular '75s, and two minis. Down to just 56 left to complete the regular set. I now have three '75 minis, all Cardinals.

 '76 and '77. The shortstop behind Lou Brock is Jackie Hernandez, who last played for the Pirates in '73, making that photo at least two years out of date. And what is that thing hanging out of John Curtis's pocket?

Wallet Card at the site of one of this year's Topps Heritage Inserts

This year's Topps Heritage set has an insert card in the "News Flashback" set with an event that took place on Long Island. Other than Revolutionary War battles and LI Ducks cards, I can't think of any other baseball cards with a Long Island mention. I don't have this card and would be interested in trading for it - card is number NF-7.

The back of the card reads, "The first of what is now millions of Automated Teller Machines opened for business in the U.S. on September 2, 1969 in Rockville Centre, New York. Chemical Bank boasted that because of what was then called its "Docoteller", that it "will open at 9:00 and never close again."

However, the photo in the picture is not in Rockville Centre and not even in a Chemical Bank! Here is the full photo, which as you can see was in a First National City (Citibank). This was the first ATM in New York City, at the bank's headquarters at 399 Park Avenue. Here is the full photo.

Here is the Citibank at 399 Park today.

Chemical Bank is now Chase and the bank in Rockville Centre has been remodeled since 1969, with the original ATM long gone. Here is what that bank looks like today.

1993 Studio Larry Walker

Hobbies are hockey, bowling, magic and golf: Walker played street hockey as a kid with future NHL star Cam Neely. In 2014 Walker bowled a 300 game.

 

Favorite sports announcer is Don Cherry: Not surprising that Walker, a Canadian, chose a hockey announcer.

 

Favorite player as a kid was Mike Bossy: Bossy and Walker were in the 1992 Pinnacle Idols subset.

 

Most prized possessions are his golf clubs: I think this is the lamest “prized possession” yet.

 

Might have been a lumberjack if he hadn’t been an athlete: But one of the best answers to this question.

 

Where he is now: He does some occasional charity golf and pretty active on Twitter; other than that keeping a fairly low profile.

1993 Studio Darryl Strawberry

Hobby is bowling: Hard to picture Darryl bowling.

Favorite sports announcers are Vin Scully and Chick Hearn: Strawberry grew up in LA rooting for Scully’s Dodgers and Hearn’s Lakers.

Favorite player as a kid was Pete Rose: Both were great hitters, tremendous baseball stars, and federal tax evaders.

Might have been a lawyer if he hadn’t been an athlete: Second straight clubhouse lawyer. Strawberry did not become a lawyer after his career.

Where he is now: He is now an ordained Christian minister and recently wrote the book Don’t Give Upon Me: Shedding Light on Addiction.

Wallet card with some more fallout shelter signs

I wasn't planning to post more of these, but my last post got a good reaction so it seems like people are interested in them. Here are some more I spotted in the past few weeks. The first one is from Herald Towers, which is the former Hotel McAlpin you might remember from my last wallet card post.

1993 Studio Sammy Sosa

For those keeping score I am skipping the checklist card #120.

 

Hobby is listening to salsa and merengue music: In 2004, his last season with the Cubs, Sosa played the same salsa CD very loudly on his boombox in the Cubs clubhouse. On the last day of the season someone smashed that boombox during the game. The perpetrator was never discovered.

 

Favorite sports announcer is Harry Caray: Sosa was in his first season with the Cubs and already Caray was his favorite.

 

Might have been a lawyer if he hadn’t been an athlete: Sosa did not go into the law after his playing career.

 

Where he is now: He has mostly kept a low profile since his retirement, getting the most notoriety for bleaching his skin.

Anthony Ranaudo on baseball cards

Anthony Ranaudo pitched for the Red Sox, Rangers and White Sox from 2014 to 2016. In 20 games he went 5-5 with a 7.01 ERA. Now the owner of Ranaudo Baseball in Baton Rouge, LA, he kindly answered my questions about baseball cards.

Do you have any stories about cards or yourself or of other players?

-- I do not have any good stories unfortunately, but will say that I played at Pawtucket for a few years as one of my main stops, and that was a really cool, unique experience. If you have not been there before, Pawtucket's field is relatively old, but with rich history. The stands and seats sit extremely high above the playing surface, and there are limited spots to be field level with the players. You have to pay a premium to sit in the box seats at field level, so this leaves most fans hanging out above the dugouts. In order to get their items signed they would almost go "fishing" and drop lines down with balls, memorabilia, and cards attached to a string. Or they would cut open milk containers and toss their items in that to get signed by the players.

Favorite card of myself or another player?

-- Growing up, my favorite card was a Derek Jeter rookie card that I sent in the mail to have him return signed. Unfortunately it took two years, but Mr. Jeter sent it back eventually, and it was my prized possession for years. When I was playing I had an autograph signing with Panini, and was signing cards that had a piece of my uniform in it. I thought that was probably my favorite card of myself I have seen.

Do you collect cards?

-- I do not presently collect cards, but from about 1996-2005 I collected cards with my dad and uncle. It was a normal Saturday routine to go to a card shop and window shop at all the error cards and signed memorabilia. We would get the Beckett books and check the value of certain cards and compare them with ones we had previously got and what each other had collected. I think my dad still has about 10,000 cards left in his collection from those days. Probably worth some money now a days haha.

Thanks! Here is a card of him from my collection.