Playing career, in brief: Larry Hardy pitched parts of three seasons in the majors, with the Padres in '74 and '75 and the Astros in '76. In 94 games he went 9-4 with 5 saves and a 5.29 ERA.
Post playing career, in brief: Hardy was a coach for several minor and major league teams from 1978 through 2001. He is now retired.
My collection: I have two of his cards, this one and 1975 Topps. I would be interested in trading for 1974 Dean's Photo Service San Diego Padres #NNO.
It's been over a month since I did one of these. Lots of folks to thank . . .
One of the downsides to TCDB is the insistence on scans even though certain cards come out much better as photos. I didn't know what cities were in the background of the '93 UD Then and Now cards until I had them in hand. The Eddie Murray card does have the New York skyline, photographed from northern Queens, probably near Shea Stadium. The Strawberry card, however, is an LA shot. These came from a pretty new TCDB member, skipt.
Trevor Cahill shared another story after I posted yesterday, and it's a fun one, especially for a Yankee fan:
"I do remember as a kid having four cards signed by Alex Rodriguez. I got three and my
Mom got one during bp. Then he hit a grand slam and solo home run off me so I had my friend sell them on eBay."
A-Rod hit those two home runs, driving in five of the Yankees six runs in a 6-1 win on July 6, 2010.
Trevor Cahill pitched 13 seasons in the major leagues for nine teams, mostly the A's, Diamondbacks and Cubs, with whom he won a World Series in 2016. His best season was 2010, when he was an AL All Star, going 18-8 with a 2.97 ERA. Overall in 361 games he had a won-loss record of 86-99 [wonder if he's a fan of Get Smart?] and had a 4.26 ERA.
When I wrote to him to ask about his baseball card experiences, he replied:
"I literally just started ordering some. Haven’t gone through them yet but I loved it as a kid. Was gonna make a binder of as many as I can find for my potential grandkids."
I followed up by asking whether it was cards of himself or anyone else, and he replied:
"Just of me and then jerseys of friends."
Thanks! Here is a card of him from my collection.
I took home a big box of cards from Al tonight, with plans to take what I want and bring back tomorrow. 800-count box with lots of junk wax but plenty worth going through. Almost all minor stars and second-tier/borderline first-tier HOFers. If you want any cards from this set leave a comment before 5pm tomorrow when I give the box back.
With the tight turnaround I'm knocking this post out quickly. These are the cards I might need; I'll be going through them tonight. Most of them I'm pretty sure I won't need, like that unlicensed Boggs. No guarantees from this pile but if you want something here let me know ASAP.
One one block of Toronto's Richmond Street there are two huge ghost signs standing across the street from each other.
Gelber Bros. was a textile business opened in 1910. At some point mid-20th century the business disbanded, but the sign lived on. It was starting to fade when it was restored to it's current return to glory in 2020.
By popular demand (two bloggers with similar requests), another new series, looking at box sets and food issues.
The way I store cards, I store them in boxes by set and then by year. That goes back to my early days in collecting, largely because I had a Beckett Almanac for checklist purposes, so I sorted that way. Maybe if there was TCDB back then I would have sorted by year. However, for sets where I have less than ten cards, they go in a binder, more or less randomly.
For this series, I am just going to go through my boxes. I will cover food issues, meaning food products or food stores. I do have some other sets which still have the little box, so I'll include those too. These will not be long posts with a deep dive into the set, but I'll try for a little twist for each one.
The first qualifying set alphabetically, the way I've sorted them anyway, is 1991 Baseball Aces. I think this is often technically title "US Playing Cards" but when I first got them this is where I put them alphabetically. I think I might have other years in the U's. Maybe at some point I'll move them.
As you can see I have the box. I don't remember where I got this, the complete set, probably part of a large lot from Craigslist or a garage sale. It's a rather nice looking box, kind of looks like every baseball book that came out around this time.
When I put out a call for new series ideas, the ever-creative Stuart came up with a good one - replace the random player that UD assigned for the photo, who was only picked for the era, and replace him with the player who actually had the best game. I like that idea, but am only going to do it for cards I have.
Starting off with card #32, June 30, 1923.
As one of four Yankees with two hits, and driving in the game-winning run, Pipp is actually a good choice for the card. However, you could argue that Pipp wasn't much lineup protection for Babe Ruth, who in addition to going 2-for-2, walked three times. Five times on base in five plate appearances is pretty good, though Ruth did not score once and only had one RBI. Still, five times on base is pretty impressive, so:
Elsewhere, a Belgian troop train was bombed in the occupied Ruhr region of Germany, killing ten; the divorce trial of a New York bank vice president made national news, and Pirates pitcher Babe Adams defeated the Reds on a day where he was honored in a pregame ceremony and gifted a new car.
Last time was another easy win for gum, 7-1. Will this be closer?
Dent was an up-and-coming young shortstop who was traded to the Yankees due to salary demands stated by Dent's agent, NFL Hall of Famer Nick Buoniconti. With the Yankees he became a big star due to clutch moments against the Red Sox and Dodgers that transcended his .247 lifetime average. His big home run in the 1978 one-game playoff is probably the most famous moment in the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry. In post-season play he appeared in three ALCS against KC and two World Series against LA. While KC held him to a .200 average, Dent attacked Dodger pitching for a .349 average, including .417 in 1978, where he was the series MVP. After his playing career he was a long time major league coach, briefly managed the Yankees, and owned a well-known baseball school. He now has a podcast called "Deep to Left", referencing Bill White's famous call of Dent's Fenway Park blast.
This is a little series I'd thought about starting a while ago. The backs of 1966 Philadelphia football cards feature a question on the back, supposed to be revealed by scratching the back of the card. However they appear to have been hard to scratch, leaving them with just an unanswered question. I thought it might be fun to answer a few.
Q.
A.
One more.
Q.
A.
How many readers will get this reference?. I'm not sure what Hauss did in off-seasons during his career, but after retirement he became a banker. Until then I am reminded of Len Hauss once saying about signing autographs for kids "Any football player who doesn't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American, He's a Communist."
