Street trading in a hurry

Neither Al nor I had a lot of time to meet this week, but he wanted to make time to do so as he needed all the Joe Torre cards I could give him. Torre's charity is right by where he sets up, and I guess he's been in town lately, so people want cards for him to sign. 

I gave Al the cards and he gave me one of his 800-count boxes to look through. He told me to just take the box and bring back what I didn't want, but I was able to quickly go through most of it. 3/4 of the box was 1984 Topps, but I could see some white-backed cards mixed in - more '84 Traded! There was also a large run of 1990 Topps I could quickly discount. So I grabbed just the mixed group in the back of the box, knowing there wasn't much I would need, though Al did say there were some gold cards in there.

Here's the cards I could rule out right away. Junk wax sets I've already completed, and I have all of the 1990s Topps base cards and all of the Collectors Choice base cards. These will all go back to Al next week, unless any of you readers claim any of these cards! The sets may not be the most exciting but it is all stars and HOFers. The mixture here gives you a good sense of what the majority of cards in most of his boxes are like.

Most of the '84 Traded were cards I had already also, partially from a TCDB trade I'll show in the next roundup. Let me know if you need any of these. I'll probably hang on to them as trade bait if there are no claims.

There were cards that I did need! I needed four of the five '92 Topps Gold, a random Fleer Tradition card, and best of all two of the '84 Topps Traded. That Saberhagen was a big deal in the 80s, though it's little more than a common now.

 

Cards from the best bubble

It's always a treat to get a surprise package from Bob of the best bubble.

Starting off with a little bit of oddballs - my first King B 1991 disc, a 1985 Don Mattingly sticker to go in my album, and three vintage reprints. 

Some fantastic Yankee catching talent.

 

Some cool modern cards.The Sandman card says that Yankee Stadium staffers chose Enter Sandman for Mariano Rivera. I thought I remembered that using the song for Rivera was David Wells's idea but I couldn't find anything online to confirm that.

Finally, a couple of autographs! Chien-Ming Wang was a great pitcher who unfortunately had his career cut short by injury.

 

1981 Topps John Stearns

The front: Stearns bats with eye black on, with a bright sunny sky at Shea Stadium.

The back: Stearns holds the University of Colorado record with 16 career interceptions.

The player: Drafted by both the Bills and the Phils, Stearns chose baseball, and played in one major league game with the Phillies before being traded to the Mets. He supplanted Jerry Grote as the starting catcher and played in parts of ten seasons for the Mets in their down years between championships. A four-time All Star, Stearns was a better defensive catcher than hitter. Overall in 810 games he hit .260 with 46 HR and 312 RBI.

The man: Stearns was a long time coach after his playing career. He died in 2022.

My collection: I have 20 of his cards, from 1976 to 1984. I would be interested in trading for 1975 SSPC New York Mets #8.
 

1976 SSPC Willie Montanez

 

The card, in brief: Those three streaks are on every card. I guess the best shot they had of Montanez was damaged during development.

Playing career, in brief: The flamboyant Montanez was an outfielder with some good power, most notably leading the NL in doubles with the Phillies in 1972. He played for nine teams in 14 seasons, seven of those with the Phillies. In 1,632 major league games, he hit .275 with 139 HR and 802 RBI.

Post-playing career, in brief: After his playing career he returned to his native Puerto Rico where he was a scout and ran a baseball school.

My collection: I have 22 of his cards, from 1971 to 1982. I would be interested in trading for 1972 Topps #690. 

1986 Renata Galasso Mattingly #16

Mattingly with a beard! He famously was never the most comfortable with the Yankees' hair regulations. Seeing Yankees with beards the past couple of years has been weird. Some of them just look like a sloppy mess, like Dominguez and Rodon. Amed Rosario has a really good one though.

I wonder where this was, with the low ceiling - a finished basement maybe? My first thought was a garage but that's an odd place to hand a trophy. 

Keep your eye on the ball!

1988 Domino's Don McMahon

 

A simple photo, one that wouldn't have looked out of place on a Topps card of the era, though Topps might not have gone in as close up.

McMahon was an excellent relief pitcher at a time when relief pitchers were not as valued as they are now, so he pitched for seven teams over an eight-year career where he put up excellent numbers - in 874 games he went 90-68 with 152 saves and a 2.96 ERA. As a Milwaukee Braves rookie in 1957 he held the mighty Yankees scoreless over five innings in three games, helping the team win the World Series. Neither he nor the Braves fared as well in the following Series, though McMahon did make his only All Star team in 1958. He was traded in the middle of the season four years in a row - 1966 to 1969. In 1968 the Tigers sent Dennis Ribant to the White Sox for McMahon, who became a key member of the team's bullpen, going 3-1 with a 2.02 ERA in 20 games. He was traded to the Giants the next season, and retired at the age of 42 after the 1972 season. The Giants named him their pitching coach, but the team's bullpen was so depleted that McMahon was reactivated in both '73 and '74. The oldest player in the majors those years, he pitched in 31 games and went 4-0 with 6 saves and a 1.93 ERA. McMahon had gone to Erasmus Hall High School in Flatbush with future Raiders owner Al Davis, and even scouted for Davis during his playing career. In 1986, Davis recommended McMahon to his friend Tommy Lasorda, who hired McMahon as a Dodgers coach. In July of 1987, while pitching batting practice at Dodgers Stadium, McMahon suffered a heart attack and died shortly after.

I have 14 of his cards, from 1958 to 1972. I would be interested in trading for 1962 Topps #483, 1963 Topps #395 and 1965 Topps #317. 

1930 album: Mrs. Ruth Greeson

This page of stamped envelopes leaves little doubt as to the owner of the book. 

 

Chronologically, we have here Christmas cards from 1920 and 1921, both To Ruth May, From Miss Carter. A letter postmarked February 3, 1929, addressed to Miss Ruth Martin, Rt, 1 Box #924, So. Jacksonville, FL. The rest, all postmarked between October and December 1930, to Mrs. Ruth Greeson, or Mr & Mrs. Kelley (or K.U.) Greeson (sometimes Greason), 510 Tuttle Street, August, GA. 

It certainly seems that Miss Ruth May Martin of Jacksonville married Mr. Kelley Greeson and moved to Augusta in 1929 or 1930.

Thanks to the magic of the internet, specifically Ancestry.com, we can indeed confirm it. 

Here's 510 Tuttle today. Judging by the chain-link fence and bars on the windows, this is probably not the fancy part of Jacksonville.

In 1962 Kelly and Ruth moved to Keystone Heights, southwest of Jacksonville. Kelly passed away in 1988, but Ruth, who was an accountant, lived until 2000, passing away at the age of 90, a great-great-grandmother. 

 Here is her full obituary. At some point I might try to track down some of these people, though the common names and large cities will make it difficult, not to mention that this information is over 25 years old. I am very curious if John might recognize a name here, particularly the one from Ocala.

(source: https://www.genlookups.com/fl/webbbs_config.pl/noframes/read/2413)  

 Ruth Greeson
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS - Ruth May Martin Greeson, 90, died Sunday, Nov. 12, 2000.
Born in Bainbridge, Ga., Mrs. Greeson lived most of her life in Jacksonville before moving to Keystone Heights in 1962. She was a past recorder, senior regent and junior graduate regent of the Women of the Moose, Chapter 305 and was an accountant.
Mrs. Greeson is survived by: two daughters, Dawn Greeson Smith Gordon of Charlotte, N.C. and Wanda Greeson Phillips of Jacksonville; a sister Cornelia Harrell of Moorhead City, N.C.; a brother Paul Martin of Ocala; seven grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. She was preceded in death by her husband of 57 years, Kelly Greeson, and a grandson Kelly H. Smith.
Funeral services for Mrs. Greeson were Nov. 15, 2000 in the chapel of Jacksonville Memory Gardens Funeral Home with the Rev. John Hunt and the Rev. Buddy Friedman officiating. Interment followed in Jacksonville Memory Gardens, Garden of The Last Supper.
Memorial contributions may be made in her memory to Hospice of NE Florida, 4266 Sunbeam Rd., Jacksonville, FL 32257 or Fresh Start Fellowship, Keystone Heights, FL 32656. 

[I'll show the contents of the envelopes in another post. Appeared to mostly be Christmas cards and birth announcements, but they weren't coming out easily so that'll be another post for another time.]
 

Wallet Card in Nashville: Yorke Men's Shop

When I knew I was going to Nashville I did some research on ghost signs in the area to look for. One of the most prominent is one for Yorke Men's Shop. As a much smaller city than New York, there aren't as many people documenting these signs, and one post I saw about this sign doubted that this store had ever existed, so I didn't even plan to take a photo, but I ended up passing by it and so I decided to, just in case it was real. Upon further research, it seems quite possible it is.

Unfortunately the van blocks part of the sign - "If it's new, if it's sharp - we have it." This is in an outdoor mall called the Arcade that was initially opened in the 1920s. Looking it up again, I found this Instagram post from a user named mcarsten with a photograph of the store in 1973, from an article about crime in the Arcade. In the past few years the Arcade, like much of Nashville, has been refurbished and made more tourist-friendly. This sign was revealed in 2019, and it wouldn't be out of character for a fake, retro-looking sign. Mcarsten suggests that the sign had been covered with wood rather than painted over, perhaps explaining why it was in such good shape.
 

Mediocre street trade

Not much pickings in Al's boxes this time. He says he has dozens of long boxes of cards at home, and he brings one or two each time for me to look at, marking them when I'm done so they don't repeat. These boxes are almost always junk wax or maybe recent Topps base cards, very few cards that I need. Stars are almost always gone, and there are virtually never rarities. Sometimes, like today, it's just picking out the very few cards that are not 1988 Donruss or 1992 Score.

Mostly dupes this time; heck, the originals in my collection for a lot of these probably came from his boxes over the years. A Jake Peavy rookie and a bunch of Bowman's mostly 2014.

Still, I came away with four cards I didn't have before, and a card I don't have is a card I need. Jose Bautista rookie and some more Bowman.

 

Burgers or gum? Jack Morris

Last time it was a 3-1 win for Wendy's. Hopefully there are more voters this time!

Like many players in this series, we have a Wendy's card with a spring training portrait and a Topps card with a Tiger Stadium action photo.

Like the whole Tiger team, Jack Morris's 1984 started off with a bang - in his case, a no-hitter on April 7. Morris started the season 10-1, tailed off a bit and finished the regular season 19-11, with a 3.60 ERA. However, he was dominant in October. In three postseason starts, two in the World Series, Morris went 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA. The Hall of Famer pitched 14 seasons for the Tigers, and then spent time with the Twins and Blue Jays, helping both teams win World Series. Overall in 549 games, he went 254-186 with a 3.90 ERA. He has since been an announcer for each of the three teams he won a World Series with.