Wallet card at Grand Central Terminal in Grand Central Terminal

I had a little time before my train this evening so I stopped by the NYC Transit Museum's little annex/store there. They always have some kind of exhibit. This time it was a model train set. The back half was a standard Lionelville town, but the front was various NYC locations, including CBGBs, the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square, and the Lenox Lounge in Harlem. 

I thought it would be a fun little wallet card photo to show Grand Central at Grand Central. Just like in real life, the MetLife building rises behind the famous station. In 2018, MetLife moved away from this logo to a less bold design, and replaced the logo that looks like the one you see here.

 

1981 Topps Keith Hernandez

 

The front: I'm pretty sure that's Shea Stadium, that was the color of the outfield wall at the time. In five day games at Shea in 1980 (three won by the Mets), Hernandez went 6-for-23, with two doubles.

The back: Hernandez was a left-handed quarterback at Capuchino High School.

The player: Keith Hernandez had some very good seasons for the Cardinals and Mets, most notably 1979 when he was NL co-MVP, when he hit .344 with 11 HR and 105 RBI. Often considered one of the best defensive first baseman in baseball history, his offensive numbers, while solid, haven't been able to get him to crack the Hall of Fame, even as standards have watered down considerably over the past decade. In 2088 games he hit .296 with 162 HR and 1,071 RBI.

The man: Hernandez has been a lightning rod for controversy during and after his career. The Cardinals got rid of him when they thought his drug use was a bad influence on the team. He gets credit for helping lead the Mets when they won a World Series in 1986, but doesn't seem to get as much blame for the way the team quickly fell apart and underachieved with him as captain in the years since, most notably getting into a fistfight with Darryl Strawberry in spring training 1989. Hernandez, who posed in a Confederate uniform for a magazine profile in 1986, has made some controversial sexist and homophobic remarks in his 20 years as a Mets announcer.

My collection: I have 114 of his cards, from 1975 to 1991. I would be interested in trading for 1977 Hostess #115.

1976 SSPC Dave Heaverlo

 

The card, in brief: The 1970s were full of ballplayers with long hair. Dave Heaverlo was not one of them. In fact, his nickname was "Kojak".

Playing career, in brief: Dave Heaverlo pitched seven years in the majors for the Giants, A's and Mariners. In 356 games, all in relief, he went 26-26 with 26 saves and a 3.41 ERA. I imagine that must be a record for the highest number where a pitcher has the same number for wins, losses and saves for a career.

Post-playing career, in brief: After his playing career Heaverlo was a college baseball coach and college football announcer. He appears to now be retired.

My collection: I have eight of his cards, from 1976 to 1981. I would be interested in trading for  1983 TCMA Tacoma Tigers #21

1986 Renata Galasso Mattingly #8

Get off the court, kid! How old does Mattingly look here? High school senior, junior maybe?

7th grade! Maybe I was just a scrawny kid, and it's certainly been a while, but I don't remember 12-year-olds being that muscular.

 

1988 Domino's Willie Horton

Great shot of Willie Horton, but definitely not from 1968. Facial hair on ballplayers was still a no-no at that point.

Horton was a powerful hitter who had his best season in '68, hitting .285 with 36 HR and 85 RBI. Horton had a big swing and struck out a lot, but had enough power to top 20 HR six times in 15 seasons. Unlike many power hitters he aged poorly, with most of his best seasons coming early in his career. In the mid-to-late '70s he bounced around from team to team, with one more excellent season coming with the Mariners in 1979, hitting .279 with 29 HR and 106 RBI. Overall in 2,028 games he hit .273 with 325 HR and 1,163 RBI. After his playing days he was a coach for the Yankees and White Sox, and since 2003 he has been a Special Assistant for the Tigers.

I have 26 of his cards, from 1965 to 1980. I would be interested in trading for 1964 Topps #512 and  1972 Topps #750. 

Burgers or gum? Barbaro Garbey

Last time Wendy's won a close one, 4-3. This time will it be Barbaro Burgers or Garbey Gum?

Wendy's goes for Garbey looking glum while holding his bat, while Topps has Garbey looking glum with no bat.

Barbaro Garbey defected from Cuba to the US in 1980. Known as a great player in Cuba, he was quickly signed by the Tigers and worked his way through their system. He made the team out of Spring Training in 1984 and got off to a very good start - at the team's 35-5 high-water mark he was hitting .355. However, he tailed off significantly after that, ending the season hitting .287 with 5 HR and 52 RBI in 110 games. He also spent some time with the Tigers in '85 and the Rangers in '88, but made little impact. Since his retirement he had a long career as a minor league coach, and is now a Spanish-language announcer for the Tigers.
 

Wood vs. Wood #325

Last time it was a 7-3 win for 1987. Who will win here?

Luis Aparicio is photographed at the old Yankee Stadium, with the facade, grandstand and bleachers all nicely represented. Luis Aparicio came up with the White Sox as a 22-year-old shortstop, and led the AL in stolen bases. It was the first of nine straight seasons for him to lead the league in steals. Considered the greatest-fielding shortstop of his generation, he also had a great batting eye, walking as often as he struck out. A walk and a steal were considered an "Aparicio double".  He had some of the least impressive "traditional" hitting stats of any Hall of Famer - .262 batting average (only one season above .280); 83 HR (only one season with 10), and 791 RBI (never more than 61 in a season). He did have 2,677 hits, but never more than 182 in a season. After his playing career he returned to his native Venezuela and was a manager and an announcer. He is now retired, and since 2024 is the oldest living Hall of Famer.

Garry Templeton gets a simple spring training shot. Templeton's career started off looking like he could be an equal or better than Aparicio, at least as a hitter. In his first three full seasons for the Cardinals, Templeton led the NL in triples each year, and he led the NL in hits in 1979. Unlike Aparicio, he was a poor defensive shortstop, and was traded straight-up to the Padres for their shortstop, Ozzie Smith. Smith blossomed into an Aparicio-like HOFer in St. Louis, while Templeton devolved into a mediocre shortstop who still managed to hang around for a decade in San Diego. Overall he hit .271 with 2,096 hits, 70 HR, 728 RBI and 242 SB. Numbers that were on the surface quite similar to Aparicio's, but most of those numbers came in his first few years in St. Louis, dragged down by his decade in San Diego, where he managed just 10.1 WAR in 10 seasons. After his playing career Templeton was a minor league coach and manager. He is now retired.
 

Cake or gum? 1977 Ron LeFlore

Last time the voting went, in order, cake-gum-cake-gum-cake-gum-cake-gum-cake-gum: a 5-5 tie. Who will win here? And will we get another fun vote pattern?

Two spring training shots, two very different photos. I'm not sure if these were taken at the same time or not.

Ron LeFlore's first experience playing organized baseball came when he was in prison for armed robbery. An inmate with connections to Tigers manager Billy Martin (who but Billy would have prison connections for baseball talent?) convinced Martin to give LeFlore a tryout. LeFlore was released from prison in July of 1973, and a year later he was in the major leagues. He immediately became a star, as one of the fastest players in the league and an excellent hitter as well. From 1976 to 1979 he was one of the best hitters in the American League. He hit .300 in three of those four seasons, and in 1978, hitting .297, he led the AL with 126 runs and 68 stolen bases. However, his continuing association with drug dealers and mob figures led new Tigers manager Sparky Anderson to trade LeFlore to Montreal. In his one season with the Expos LeFlore led the NL with 97 stolen bases, though he hit just .257. After the season LeFlore signed a big free agent contract with the White Sox. In Chicago LeFlore's baseball skill rapidly declined, while he continued to make bad decision off the field. At the end of the 1982 season, he was arrested for drug and gun possession. He failed to make the White Sox roster in spring training of 1983 and retired. After his career he worked in a variety of jobs, even attending umpire school. He was also arrested twice for failure to pay child support. At last report he was retired and living in Florida.
 

OBC Roundup

 It's been almost a month since my last roundup post. I've gotten some nice cards from OBC members since that last post.

Six cards from 1986, three Leafs and three True Values, from Randy Griffin.

Four 1960s Topps cards, from Bob Chapman.

Six 1988 Sportflics cards, from. Rick Lyons.

A mix of old and new, from Ron Hoehne.

Nine '62s, from Jon Jeans.

 Finally, four from Fifty-Three, from Cesar Capio.

 

Wallet Card at a Waldbaum's that burned down 60 years ago

 

Waldbaum's was a major Long Island supermarket chain that went bankrupt in 2015, the same year I started doing wallet cards. There are still plenty of Waldbaum's remnants that felt too new to include as wallet card entries. 

This one is more interesting, though. I had passed by this strip of stores on Broadway in Hewlett, NY hundreds of times without noticing the back. It's pretty faded but the WALDBAUM'S is still fairly legible. It took a fair amount of internet detective work to figure out that this Waldbaum's was destroyed by fire in 1965. A New York Times article mentioned that it was "suspicious". Articles from other more local papers are behind paywalls, but I wonder if it's suspicious that another, larger Waldbaum's had been opened in the same town a few years earlier? Whatever is the case, it's cool that this sign survived a big fire and still is visible 60 years later.