Wallet Card at one of the last remaining "Peace Through Understanding" arches from the 1964 World's Fair

 During the 1964 World's Fair in Flushing, NY, one innovation was the use of 11 60-foot arches that featured some brand new technology - electronic message boards that displayed local, national and international news. Sponsored by General Foods, some of the arches were scrapped after the fair, but others have survived - repurposed arches have been found in Warwick, RI, Old Forge, NY and Huntsville, OH. At the top of each arch, a sign with the phrase "Peace Through Understanding" was bolted on.

Not too far from the original World's Fair location, another arch sits in a shopping center parking lot in West Hempstead, Long Island. At the end of the fair, Whitey Carlson, owner of the 5,200-seat Island Garden arena in West Hempstead, purchased the arch and other material to display at the arena. The arena hosted a variety of sporting events, concerts, circuses, conventions, etc. From 1969 to 1972, it was the home of the ABA's New York Nets. After the Nets moved down Hempstead Turnpike to the newer, larger, Nassau Coliseum, the Island Garden was torn down, replaced by the Cherry Valley Shopping Center, which features a supermarket and several other stores. Here is the arch today, with a cherry in place of "Peace Through Understanding" and store signs replacing the electronic message board. The bottom of the arch is large enough to drive your car through (which I did).

Just now I published the post, blew up my photo and noticed the sign on the inside - "Employee Parking for Pathmark, Genovese, Radio Shack, Astoria Federal Savings". Pathmark went out of business in 2015 (though the name has been revived); the Genovese pharmacy chain was bought by Eckerd in 2003 (I used to get baseball cards at a different Genovese when I was a kid); Radio Shack is all but out of business; Astoria Federal was acquired by Sterling Bank in 2017. Four extinct brands on one sign!

Vintage and new from Baseball Card Breakdown

 Got four new and four old cards in my latest trade with Baseball Card Breakdown.

Four set needs from 2020 Topps. Marcell Ozuna's next game will hopefully be for a prison team but hey, a set filler is a set filler.

More fun are these four vintage cards of four players who seemed to live good lives. The more I see of the '63 Fleer set the more I enjoy it. Nate Colbert is an O-Pee-Chee card.

1981 Topps Mike Squires

 

The front: There's a very old-timey look about this card, with the old-fashioned, wide-lapel uniform and a featureless field with several trees. Looks like a 19th-century player about to play on a field on the edge of some farmland.

The back: Squires played his high school baseball at Kalamazoo Central High School. Derek Jeter played his high school ball there as well.

The player: Mike Squires was a good-field, no-hit backup first baseman for the White Sox in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The American League Gold Glove winner in 1981, Squires played in 779 major league games, hitting .260 with 6 HR, 141 RBI and 45 SB. He walked 143 times and only struck out 108 times.

The man: Squires was a scout for several teams after his career and has also worked as a high school sports official.

My collection: I have 19 of his cards, from 1979 to 1985. I would be interested in trading for 1984 Nestle #72.

1986 Sportflics Decade Greats Hal Newhouser

 

The player: Hal Newhouser is often considered to be a player who took advantage of the weakened competition of wartime baseball. However, he was a dominant pitcher for several years after the war as well. Newhouser, who was rejected from the service multiple times due to a heart condition, came up with the Tigers in 1939 and struggled through his first few years of pitching, mostly due to a lack of control. He worked with Paul Richards to improve his pitching and in 1944 29-9 with a 2.22 ERA, his first of three straight 20-win seasons. In 1944 and 1945 he won back-to-back MVP awards, still the only pitcher to do so. Newhouser remained a dominant pitcher when the regulars came back after the war, winning at least 17 games each year through the end of the decade with low ERAs. Overall he went 207-150 with a 3.06 ERA.

The man: Newhouser was known for his temper and attitude early in his career, earning the derisive nicknames "Prince Hal" and "Hurricane Hal" for his tantrums, which largely subsided when he became a dominant pitcher. He was so dominant in the late 1940s that in 1947 the Yankees, at the time needing some pitching, supposedly discussed a trade with the Tigers where they would acquire Newhouser for aging slugger Joe DiMaggio. Newhouser later became a very successful scout, signing Milt Pappas and Dean Chance, among others. A Michigan native, Newhouser was an Astros scout in 1992 and implored the Astros to draft local star shortstop Derek Jeter. When the team chose Phil Nevin instead, Newhouser quit.

My collection: I do not have any playing-days cards of Newhouser. His last card as an active player was 1953 Topps #228.

Weird mixed lot

 I picked up this weird little lot for $7 on eBay. Not my best purchase but I did all right, especially if I can trigger some trades. Five different sports, and some unusual stuff.

I'd never even seen a boxing card before, but now I own one. Happy to trade it though. Any boxing collectors?

Three hockey cards. An O-Pee-Chee, a Topps and a Topps Chrome. All up for trade.

Some basketball, all for trade.

Three football keepers, including two Giants. I'd never seen a foil version of that Pacific design before. They also had a baseball set in that design.

Three baseball oddballs. The Frank Thomas promo card is a facsimile autograph. The Dustin Pedroia is not a regular Chrome card; it is a special stamped version for The National. I already had the SSPC Frank Robinson so that is available for trade.

1988 Vancouver Canadians, AAA White Sox Team. I really like the 1988 ProCards design with the gold color and sans serif font. Every photo in the set looks pretty much the same, though. Big names in the set are Greg Hibbard, Ron Karkovice, and Mike Yastrzemski, whose father was a Hall-of-Famer and whose son is an up-and-coming star for the Giants.

Finally, these are the reason I purchased the lot. 1986 Palm Springs Angels Smokey Bear minor league cards. I love minor league oddballs like these. I didn't realize there would be so much duplication, though. Hopefully some of you enjoy cards like these too, as the dupes are available for trade. Do note that they are a little larger than standard size (too big to fit in a standard page/sleeve) and are not in mint condition. Still, they are fun and unique cards. The biggest name is Bryan Price, now manager of the Reds.

Stamps (not the postage kind)

 I picked up a small lot of 1969 Topps stamps for a quarter each. Nice little oddball addition to my vintage collection. There was some duplication, so maybe some of this can be trade bait.

Here are the keepers. Basically Luis Aparicio and a bunch of commons. I only had one '69 stamp previously.

Here are the duplicates - Ron Kline, Pirates; Wally Bunker, Royals; Chico Salmon, Pilots, Jerry Adair, Royals.

80's football and 60's baseball

 Here are my pickups from my latest Time Travel Trade with Diamond Jesters. Lately' I've been picking up any football cards I happen to need. In the 1980s Topps had some very nice team cards in their sets. These are from the '88 set.

Of course, my main focus with the Time Travel Trades is vintage baseball, and I was happy to pick up these two great cards. I love the background on the Hank Foiles. And the airbrushed SF logo on what is clearly a Cubs uniform is pretty funny.

 

Vintage mix

 I got these cards recently in a trade with Night Owl. Three 60's set needs here. The most interesting part is the P-OF designation for Mel Queen. An outfielder who converted to pitching, Queen was the last player to spend significant major league time at each position until Rick Ankiel, though in the 1950s and 1960s there were several other players who went similar position changes at the big league level.

Some bigger star power in these food oddballs. Most Hostess sets look pretty much alike but the '76 set stands out for the bicentennial design. That Stottlemyre Kelloggs card is a great one too.

 

1963 White Sox Scorebook

 Here's the oldest publication in Johnny's great package, and so the last in the series. Too hard to pick one favorite but this is right up there for sure.

Under the old-school Hamm's Beer ad, back when they still used a cartoon bear to advertise beer, the White Sox clip-and-fold schedule has 43 games on TV (WGN). Also check out the action photo with Twins pitcher Camilo Pascual attempting to beat out a hit.

I think of restaurants in ballparks as a modern thing, but there were two Rudie's Steak Houses in White Sox Park. Yes, White Sox Park - the team changed the name of the Stadium from Comiskey Park to White Sox Park in 1962, then changed it back in 1976. I also love the Hill and Hill ad with Frankie Frisch, because he was a ballplayer from such a different age. He was 65 years old at the time and passed away in 1973.

7 Up ad, plus a nice shot of new White Sox pitcher Jim Brosnan.

A great look at the famous White Sox Park scoreboard.

The owner kept score. There was also an index card in the book noting that this was Game 1 of a doubleheader on August 18, 1963, won by Ralph Terry and the Yankees 8-2. Hector Lopez hit a home run; Tom Tresh and Joe Pepitone also got big RBI hits. The Yankees also won the second game, 8-4. Jim Bouton got the win in that game as Elston Howard homered and Bobby Richardson and Joe Pepitone got some big RBI hits.

There were a lot of infrastructure improvements across the US in the early 60s, such as the brand new Dan Ryan Expressway, Chicago Skyway and Indiana Toll Road.

Pause for Coke! That's Ray Herbert and Jim Landis in the photo.

Now it's Pepsi for those who think young! The article advertises a trip to New York to coincide with the White Sox visiting the Yankees, with tours of the city during the day and tickets to the game each night. The guests would stay at the Hotel Roosevelt along with the White Sox.

Buy White Sox tickets at Sears! Photo of Sox pitcher Johnny Buzhardt.

Another cool action photo, with Nellie Fox sliding past Yogi Berra. But check out the photos for Teenage Night, including pitcher Mike Joyce, 22 years old, dancing with one of the teenagers.

Here's the back cover. You may have noticed most of the ads featured alphanumeric phone numbers. This was one of the first with an all-numeric number.

There weren't any other "articles" beyond what I showed here, just bits of trivia and the like. Some other advertisers, besides lots of local businesses, included Ford (McDormick Place Motors, Buy Brand New 1963 Fords at '62 Prices - at this time of year they must have been clearing out stock getting ready for the '64s); Motorola (Now Play FM Through Your Car Radio); Cities Service gas, and several major cigarette brands.

1968 Orange Bowl program

 I guess this style would be called "psychedelic" today, though there was probably no place less counterculture in the US in 1968 then a college football game in the South.

A lot of the advertising was regional. I though this Eastern Airlines advertisement was interesting with it's Space Age optimism.

Like the All Star Game program, there was a lot of civic boosterism in this program. In this article Miami publicist Hank Meyer proudly talks about how Miami will be hosting the Republican Convention in 1968 and expresses disappointment that they didn't get the Democratic Convention too. Considering what ended up happening at the '68 Democratic Convention, I imagine Hank ended up rather relieved about not getting it. Miami did host the Democrats in '72.

Another article made the claim that Miami was the "Sports Capitol of the Nation". This despite no pro baseball, hockey or basketball teams, though the St. Louis Hawks did play six "home" games in Miami. (I didn't even know the Hawks used to be in St. Louis.) I picked this page from the article for the photo of Mickey Mantle golfing.

Credit cards were still pretty new, and this ad already talks about trading in your old card for a new one. Note that the bank phone number is already all-numeric.

The Tennessee players. Steve Kiner, Richmond Flowers, Dewey Warren and Herman Weaver went on to significant NFL careers. Bubba Wyche is Sam's brother.

More Vols, along with a Twiggy-esque Jordan Marsh ad.

Here's the Oklahoma team. Notice something they have that Tennesee doesn't?

Unlike Tennesee, there are Black players. Only three, but that's three more than Tennessee. Later in 1968 Lester McClain became the first Black player to integrate that school's football team. One of Oklahoma's Black players, Eddie Hinton, went on to an NFL career, as did Jim Files and Steve Zabel.

I was a bit disappointed that only half of this Coca-Cola ad was in the book, especially as I actually have the cup in the ad. (The middle page of the magazine was missing.)

Here's the full program of activities for Orange Bowl weekend. The one that stood out to me was the NFL Pro Playoff Classic, which I had never heard of. From 1960 to 1969, the NFL had a game with the second place teams in each NFL conference played each other for third place in the league, a week before the championship game between the two first place teams. It was held every year in the Orange Bowl. Unsurprisingly it attracted little fan interest and the players were not keen on playing in a "loser's game".

Check out young Barry Switzer on the Sooner coaching staff.

An ad for the company that printed the program still uses the alpha-numeric phone style.

The Orange Bowl Queen and her Court look like a low-budget vampire movie.

Some great photos of the 1967 Orange Bowl, including Florida quarterback Steve Spurrier. I like the sequential photos of Larry Smith's record setting 94-yard TD run - you don't really see photo sequences like that today.

So what happened in the '68 game? Oklahoma cruised to a 19-0 lead at halftime. Tennessee scored 10 points thanks to a pair of third quarter interceptions to get close. With the score 19-17 in the fourth quarter Oklahoma returned an interception of their own for a TD. Tennessee answered with a TD drive to again come within two points, and was able to get the ball back with almost two minutes remaining, but Tennessee kicker Karl Kremser missed a 43-yard field goal attempt with seven seconds left, and Oklahoma won the game 26-24.

Other notable articles in the program covered the Orange Bowl Regatta, overviews of each college and each team's season; the parade and fireworks pageant, and the 1939 Orange Bowl (also TN-OK). Other notable advertisers included GM (1968 Olds Vista-Cruiser); the '68 Chevrolets; Southern Bell, Gulf, French's, Florida Power & Light, and just about every bank in Miami.