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.

 

1988 Domino's Jim Price

 

This is a nice photo, not very different from the type of photo Topps would use at the time, though I don't think they usually shot from below.

Jim Price spent five seasons as a backup catcher for the Tigers. In 261 games he hit .214 with 18 HR and 71 RBI. He hit just .174 in '68 and was 0-for-2 in the World Series. After his playing career he had a long career as a Tigers announcer, from 1993 to July of 2023. He died in August of 2023.

I have seven of his cards, from 1967 to 1971. I would be interested in trading for 1971 Dell Today's Team Stamps #NNO.