The Kim Rudolph collection

I found a lot on eBay that was mostly cards I didn't need, but it had three that would get me close on a couple of vintage sets. The seller had a vintage football lot too, I bid on both with the minimum bid and won. With a few exceptions, the cards are in great shape, except for the Kim Rudolph autograph on every card.

Clemente and McCovey are the two big names I still needed from the 1967 Topps Posters.  I still need Matty Alou and Bobby Knoop, those should not be too difficult to get. Luis Tiant gets me to just four needs in the '69 Topps set - Reggie, Mickey, Nolan, and a high number common of George Stone. There was also a '69 Topps Decal I needed, as well as a couple of back variations.

There were lots of cards leftover that will be tradebait, certainly for OBC but for blog traders too - as usual, if I have a better conditioned card I'll trade that one, the writing doesn't bother me. Starting off with a whole lot of '69 semi-highs, with a few big names in there.

Two '67 Topps posters available.

A whole lot of '67s, again with a few HOFers.

A few older cards, including most of a '59 Mantle baseball thrills!

The football lot was mostly cards I needed. My first five 1968 Topps Standups. All punched out but they look great. A lot of '69 stamps and one 1971 need. Some big names in those stamps.

My first '68 Topps poster. 

A whole lot of '68 Topps needs. I don't think I've gotten so many at once before, and I'm really appreciating the design of this set more.

Some '67 Philadelphias, including a great card with the Giant's Jerry Hillebrand taking down the Eagles Earl Gros with a nice open-field tackle. I love the cards with the action photos from Yankee Stadium.

Some football trade bait, a couple of '71s and a few '69 stamps.

 

1986 Renata Galasso Mattingly Puzzle #5

It's a night card! The Hit Man looks like he's having fun with this pose.

 

Series 2

Once again I decided to knock out the set by getting it all at once, a collated box from eBay for $30, so less than a dime a card. 

As usual there is a lot of sameness to the photo selection, but I was able to find some interesting cards. That Wyatt Langford card looks like a pretty good double play photo, except he's an outfielder!

I thought that Eric Wagaman card was a poorly photoshopped Marlins uniform - I forgot that's what the Twins uniform looks like these days. The Mike Tauchman card is definitely an AI uniform, though. My first thought on seeing the card was HoJo! Really looks like him there. And I had to include Trent Grisham who had a big day today, two HRs.

The JP Crawford card is a true DP card, with as high a leap as you'll ever see. Cool that there are separate cards for Ohtani as a hitter and a pitcher. He's at that level where you have to show his card whenever you get one. And that card at the bottom that looks like generic "players signing autographs" is actually Mike Trout and Zach Neto ripping packs. Which is a great idea for a card but lousy execution because you can barely see the cards.

Overall not bad. Not nearly as good as cards used to be, but better than a couple of years ago. Speaking about finding something to like about modern cards, I have never liked any of the "city connect" alternate uniforms. Until I saw this Astros uniform that looks like an astronaut's spacesuit. That would be awesome if it was Houston's regular uniform.

 

Wallet Card at the Village Plaza Hotel

The Hotel Colborne was constructed on Washington Place in Greenwich Village in 1915. By 1960 the name had changed to the Village Plaza Hotel, and around that time this sign was painted on the side of the building, with the note in the blue stripe that it was air conditioned. By this time, it had devolved from a luxurious tourist hotel to a single-room-occupancy welfare hotel. In 1967, one of the residents and her hippie boyfriend were killed in what were known as the "Groovy Murders". The comments section for the post on this hotel on the Ephemeral New York blog are a fascinating discussion on the people involved in that incident from those who were actually living in the Village as runaway teens at that time. In recent years, the building has become co-op apartments, but the old Village Plaza sign remains.

 

1981 Topps Mike Heath

 

The front: Heath is back at Yankee Stadium, playing against the team he debuted for.

The back: On June 19, 1979, Heath made his A's debut, pinch hitting for Jeff Newman in the second inning against the Royals. I'm not sure what happened to Newman, but in the top of the second George Scott scored on a sac fly, so maybe there was a collision at home plate. Heath flew out in that at bat. However, in the bottom of the fourth, Heath followed Wayne Gross and Dave Revering with back-to-back-to-back HRs off of Dennis Leonard to tie the game at 3. In the 8th inning, with the score now tied at 5, Heath homered off of Al Hrabosky in what proved to be the game winner. Heath played in 73 more games that season but hit just one more HR.

The player: Heath played 14 seasons in the majors for 5 teams, mostly the A's and Tigers. Overall in 1,325 games he hit .252 with 86 HR and 469 RBI.

The man: After his playing career, Heath has done some youth coaching, and is a fantasy camp regular.

My collection: I have 62 of his cards, from 1979 to 1992. I would be interested in trading for 1985 Mother's Cookies Oakland Athletics #4.
 

1976 SSPC Horace Speed

 

The card, in brief: It looks like Speed spent a lot of time working on his facial hair.

Playing career, in brief: Speed played parts of three seasons for the Giants and Indians. In 113 games he hit .207 with 0 HR and 6 RBI. Speed's speed wasn't much of a factor - he was thrown out on 5 of 9 base stealing attempts.

Post playing career, in brief: Speed kept a low profile after his playing career, though his son played minor league ball in the late 1990s.

My collection: I have two of his cards - this one, and 1979 Topps. I would be interested in trading for  1980 TCMA Richmond Braves #14.

1988 Domino's Don Wert

 

Nice vintage action shot! 

When Wert got called up to the big leagues in 1963 he quickly nailed down the Tigers' starting 3B job, and held it for the rest of the decade. Best known for his glove, Wert had an OK bat until getting beaned in 1968; he never hit close as well as he did before the beaning. However, he did make his only All Star Game that year and had some stretch run highlights, including the winning hit in the pennant clincher, and driving in the Tigers' last run in the World Series. Overall in nine seasons (eight with Detroit) he hit .242 with 77 HR and 365 RBI. After his playing career he mostly worked outside of sports in fields like farming and advertising, but was the head baseball coach at Franklin & Marshall College from 1976 to 1981. He died in 2024.

I have 11 of his cards, from 1962 to 1972. I would be interested in trading for 1971 Dell Today's Team Stamps #NNO.

Wood vs Wood #348

Last time it was a 4-4 tie. Will there be a winner here?

Larry Burright in a fielding pose with his batting helmet on, very unusual. The LA on the helmet looks airbrushed on, and even the background looks a little questionable. Burright came up with the Dodgers in 1962 and was the backup second baseman. In 276 games he hit .205 with 4 HR and 30 RBI, and in the tie-breaking playoff against the Giants, he made an error that allowed for a run which helped the Giants seal the Dodgers' fate. Los Angeles then exiled Burright to the lowly Mets, for whom he made brief appearances in '63 and '64. Overall in 159 games he hit .205 with 4 HR and 33 RBI. After his playing career he worked as a carpenter. He died in 2025.

Carmelo Martinez waits in the on-deck circle at Jack Murphy Stadium. Martinez was a powerful outfielder who played for six teams over nine seasons, mostly the Padres. He did not hit for average, but reached double digits in home runs six times. Overall in 1,003 major league games, he hit .245 with 108 HR and 424 RBI. After his playing career he has been a minor league coach and a manager in Latin America, most recently in the Mexican League in 2025.
 

Back to Johnny's album

It's been too long since I posted from the ~1930 album Johnny sent me. Last time I had shown two pages with envelopes pasted in. I had not been looking forward to trying to open them, but it turns out they had been slit to make taking the contents out very easy.

October 5, 1930 was a banner day for Donna Jean's family. 

Back in those days these were the kinds of greeting cards you'd send your friends.

The rest of the envelopes were Christmas Cards. Not all of them are interesting, but I liked this one from the sunny South.

Nothing says best wishes like three unhappy cats.

A rustic scene from what was probably not all that long ago.

The next two pages were all poems, seemingly of a moralistic nature. I wasn't interested in reading them but here they are in case some reader might enjoy them.

Page two.

 

Wallet card at a building not seen for 100 years

Revisiting one of my earliest wallet card photos with a big update:

You may be familiar with the famous Macy's building on 34th Street, which until a few years ago was the largest store in the world (and is still the largest in the US). Interestingly, the huge red shopping bag that says "Macy's" is on the one part of the block that Macy's does not actually own. Around 1901, R.H. Macy decided to move his store to 34th street, he quietly started buying up all of the property on the block so that he could build his superstore. However, one of his rivals found out and bought the property on the corner, with the idea that he would sell it to Macy and purchase their prior location. However, Macy decided to just build around the property instead of giving in to the guy who bought the corner property. In the 1920s, that building changed hands, and Macy's began renting the top floors of the building for advertising purposes, but never bought that last parcel on 34th street, currently home to Sunglass Hut.

The big update:

The owner of the building now is planning to lease that space to another retailer, and recently got permission from the city to replace the Macy's signage with new digital billboards.

Before we get to the new photos, a brief retrospective: 

1906: The brand new Macy's building dominates the corner holdout.

 

1940: The building is largely covered by ads.

 

1964: Color postcard

 

2015: My wallet card photo. By this time Macy's had settled into the "red shopping bag" design.

 

2026: Today! 34th street side. These top three stories had been blocked for public view since the 1920s. They were unoccupied for the past century as there was no means for dual exit with the windows blocked.

Broadway side: It's such a spooky feeling seeing these newly revealed unused floors. Kind of like digging up a grave site.