Burgers or Gum? Johnny Grubb

 Last time was an easy 6-3 win for gum. Will burgers fare better here?

Wendy's has a portrait of Grubb with his bat, while Topps has a sunsoaked action shot of Grubb at Tiger Stadium. Johnny Grubb was a solid outfielder with a little power and a little speed who was a useful bench player in '84. In 86 games he hit .267 with 8 HR and 17 RBI. His big highlight for the year was an 8th inning 2-RBI double off of Dan Quisenberry in Game 2 of the ALCS to give the Tigers a 5-3 lead.

Grubb started his career with the Padres and was an All Star in his second season. As he drifted from team to team in the late 70s and early 80s he saw less and less playing time, and was a full-time backup by the time he got to Detroit. Overall in 1,424 games over 16 seasons, Grubb hit .278 with 99 HR and 475 RBI. After his playing career he was a minor league coach for a while, and is now retired.
 

Wood vs. Wood #328

 Last time it was an 8-4 win for 1987. Who will win here?

Ken Walters poses in front of the screen, with his #17 on his bat knob. Walters was coming off two mediocre seasons for the mediocre Phillies, which would turn out to be the bulk of this major league career. Walters was sold to the Reds shortly after this card came out, spent all of '62 in the minors, and had one last cup of coffee for the Reds in 1963. In 259 major league games he hit .231 with 11 HR and 58 RBI. He kept a low profile after his baseball career, and passed away in 2010.

Bob Welch poses at spring training, with his whole name printed on his glove. Welch gained national prominence as a rookie striking out Reggie Jackson with two runners to end Game 2 of the 1978 World Series. Less well remembered is Welch giving up a walkoff, series-tying hit to Lou Piniella two games later as the Yankees came back from 2-0 down to take the Series. An excellent pitcher, Welch had seven seasons of 3-or-more WAR. Not one of those is 1990, with the A's, when he went 27-6 with a 2.95 ERA, the most wins in a season since Denny McLain's 30 win season, and still the last 25-win season. He only had 2.9 WAR, which if you believe WAR means a replacement-level pitcher would have gone 24-9, still one of the best win totals of the past 50 years. Personally I'm not buying it, even if he was helped by some good luck. Overall in 506 games for the Dodgers and A's he went 211-146 with a 3.47 ERA. After his career he was a pitching coach. He died from a fall in his house in 2014.
 

Something else from Johnny

Here's the other thing that was in the box from Johnny. This huge book took up almost the whole box! (And sorry about the shadows, I've been shoveling for the past two hours and don't want to redo the shots.)

It's a ledger book from 1927. By itself that would be cool, but it's a lot more interesting than that.

It's a scrapbook! It looks like after the ledger book was filled in 1928, it got re-used as a scrapbook. Johnny doesn't know anything about this history, but I'll certainly have a lot of fun looking into it. In fact I plan to do a blog post about every page. Warning - there is no baseball and almost no sports here, this will be one of those blog series I pretty much just do for myself. There is a lot of variety, though.

There is a lot more than just newspaper in the scrapbook, which really helps beef up my "old things" collection. 

Lots of interesting stuff here! This will be a lot of fun to go through; and if there is a particular item that would fit someone else's collection better than mine, I'd be happy to pass it along.

 

Cards from Johnny

Like many of you I got a large flat rate box from Johnny this week. A large flat rate box stuffed with over 20 cards!

Some Yankee stickers, mostly Panini. Someday I should get the old Panini books, I've accumulated quite a few of these. I had '88 and '89 when I was a kid. 

Some newer Yankees, including some very festive cards.

Some minor league autographs of guys who did play in the bigs for the Yankees and were briefly under-the-radar fan favorites. (Whenever I see Jose Pirela I think of the drawn-out way John Sterling used to say his name.)

I always love shiny cards! Andujar was really good before he got hurt. The other two were major Yankee flops.

A large flat rate box with only a couple dozen cards? Surely there must have been something else in there. Yes there certainly was. One more card which was randomly inside the other thing, I don't know if that was intentional or accidental. I actually have the whole '76 Isaly set except for Nolan Ryan so this Thurman Munson is available.

As for the other big thing, that will be another big post, but here's a teaser. See you on the other side of the blizzard!

 

Cake or gum? 1977 Vida Blue

Last time it was a 6-2 win for gum. Who will win here?

Hostess has a closeup of a smiling Blue sitting on the ground, while Topps has him all business in a pitching pose. Both shots have a nice view of the Bicentennial patch.

Blue burst onto the national scene as a 21-year old rookie in 1971, going 24-8 with 301 strikeouts and a 1.82 ERA. He held out for much of 1972 and slipped considerably, going 6-10 and being demoted to the bullpen. However, his strikeout and ERA numbers, though not as good as '71, were still better than most pitchers in the league. He rebounded to win 20 games in '73. Blue was never again as dominant as he was in '71 (he never struck out 200 batters again, let alone 300), but he still put up excellent numbers for Oakland and San Francisco though the 1981 season. Blue was traded to the Royals before the 1982 season, and quickly became embroiled in the cocaine scandals that engulfed that team. He was suspended for the 1984 season, though he returned in 1985 and 1986 as a solid starter for the Giants. He signed with the A's in 1987 but abruptly retired in spring training, presumably due to more drug problems. His career 209-161 record and 3.27 ERA compare well to other pitchers of his era who get Hall of Fame consideration. He is hurt by not living up to his rookie-year hype, his history of drug abuse, and a poor postseason record (1-5, 4.31 ERA in 17 games). Blue was one of the players most directly involved in the cocaine scandals of the 1980s, eventually serving 81 days in jail. Substance abuse continued to haunt him after his career, with at least three DUI arrests in the 2000s and 2010s. Blue was an announcer for the Giantswas involved in various charitable endeavors. He died of cancer in 2023.
 
 

1981 Topps Bob Stanley

 

The front: This looks like Memorial Stadium, one of the last parks to have such a wide open view beyond the outfield wall. Stanley pitched in two day games in Baltimore, Saturday and Sunday, July 5 & 6. On Saturday he got four outs among the 7th and 8th innings to hold a 1-0 Sox win, and on Sunday he pitched to the last two batters in the ninth, retiring Ken Singleton on a groundout to save a 6-4 Boston triumph.

The back: Stanley pitched the third and fourth innings of the '79 All Star Game, in relief of starter Nolan Ryan. He allowed a double to Mike Schmidt and an RBI groundout to Dave Winfield. To this date he is still the only person from Maine to play in an All Star Game.

The player: Stanley had some fantastic years as a reliever for the Red Sox, twice finishing in the top 10 in Cy Young voting. In 1986 he finally got to pitch in a World Series, and put together a terrific stat line - 6.1 scoreless innings over five appearances, with four K's and only one walk. Yet the inherited runners he allowed to score in Game 6, including his own wild pitch that tied the game, leave him forever remembered as a World Series goat (not the good kind). In 13 seasons in the majors, all with Boston, he went 115-97 with 132 saves and a 3.64 ERA.

The man: Stanley had a long career as a minor league pitching coach for several teams. He is now retired.

My collection: I have 47 of his cards, from 1978 to 1990. I would be interested in trading for 1978 SSPC #164.
 

Mostly vintage roundup

Some nice amounts of cards, mostly vintage, mostly needed, that came to me in the past couple of week. 

 Starting off with several envelopes from OBCers. Cliff Franklin sent these three. I needed the '54 but already had the '55s, so there's some vintage tradebait.

Doug Smith sent a nice group of cards including a Luis Tiant rookie. I already have that Ed Sadowski card so it is available for trade. It does have one of the best photos in the set.

Andrew Goguen sent these great cards. Showing their backs because that's where the fun is with OPC!

Cooter Bankston sent three old cards of much older players. My favorite of these shows Hal Chase as a New York Highlander at Hilltop Park with the Fort Washington Armory in the background.

Some vintage cardboard came my way from some TCDB trades. Just as cool as the older cards that woodmangb sent, is a set kill for 1986 Sportflics, with that Nolan Ryan card.

 

Another final card I needed from a set from my childhood, card #1 George Brett of 1989 Topps Sticker Backs, thanks to WildwoodSam. That Steve Finley card is really fantastic too, though.

Two wooden vintage cards and a Sony Betamax Topps Heritage card, from JBozovsky. Bloggers might remember him from the semi-dormant Wax Pack Wonders blog. (That's a good enough segue to note that a former blogger has returned from hiatus with a new blog - The Angels in Order are now Batting Out of Order).

 

Vintage cards on eBay seem to get more expensive every week, but I still find the occasional gently used cards at bargain prices, though even my estimation of bargain prices is creeping up.

Starting off with an end of career "rookie card", 1933 Goudey Lefty O'Doul, often considered one of the best players not in the Hall of Fame.  

A couple of cool exhibits, with Ralph Kiner and Don Newcombe. I do like the randomness of Newcombe shaking a disembodied hand.

Finally, the Scooter, Phil Rizzuto! One of the best card pictures of it's era.

 

1976 SSPC Gary Lavelle

 

The card, in brief: This card make me wonder how many night cards Night Owl has, where the player pictured at night is wearing sunglasses.

Playing career, in brief: Gary Lavelle was an outstanding reliever who unfortunately spent most of his career with some bad SF Giants teams, denying him the chance for postseason success. A two-time all-star, he pitched in 745 games, going 80-77 with 136 saves and a 2.93 ERA.

Post-playing career, in brief: Lavelle had a long career as head baseball coach at Greenbrier Christian Academy in Virginia, winning over 500 games. At age 77 he is still active, as Assistant Pitching Coach at Bryant & Stratton College.

My collection: I have 32 of his cards, from 1975 to 1986. I would be interested in trading for 1978 Hostess #32. 

1986 Renata Galasso Mattingly #9

This card would have been a little more appropriate a couple of weeks ago, but there's still lots of snow on the ground here on Long Island. Apparently it's also been a historically snowy winter in Evansville, IN this year.

Looks like he's an adult in that photo, too. Below Mattingly comments on his 1985 MVP award.

1988 Domino's Al Kaline

The Domino's set came out with the '68 Tigers best player, Al Kaline walking off the field.

Perhaps people complained that a big star should have a better photo, so at some point that card was replaced with this one.

Al Kaline was one of the best Tigers of all time. He started his career off spectacularly. In 1955 he won the AL batting title at the age of 20, hitting .340 with 27 HR and 102 RBI. He had another monster year in 1956, hitting .314 with 27 HR and 128 RBI. From then on, he was a consistent, if not exactly spectacular, presence on the Tigers for almost 20 years. He regularly hit around .300 with 20+ HR and 75+ RBI. His numbers would have looked better if he was able to stay on the field more consistently; he only topped 140 games played three times between 1962 and 1973, though he did play a full season in 1974 thanks to the new DH rule. Overall, in 22 seasons he hit .297 with 3,007 hits, 399 HR and 1,582 RBI. After his career he was a long-time Tigers announcer. He died in 2020. 

I have 32 of his cards, from 1955 to 1974. I would be interested in trading for 1954 Topps #201, 1955 Topps #4, and 1956 Topps #20.