Cake or gum? 1977 Roy Smalley

Last time it was a 5-1 win for gum. Will it win again here?

Before and after swing at Anaheim Stadium. I couldn't resist lining up the cards to follow the curve of the stadium.

Shortstop Roy Smalley played sixteen seasons in the major leagues, mostly for the Twins and Yankees. He was an All-Star in 1979, hitting .271 with 24 HR and 95 RBI. Overall in 1,653 games he hit .257 with 163 HR and 694 RBI, good power numbers for a shortstop Smalley’s father, also named Roy Smalley, played eleven seasons in the major leagues. His uncle was long-time manager Gene Mauch. While playing for the Yankees Smalley’s neighbor was a banking executive (later the CEO of EF Hutton) who convinced Smalley to go into banking after his career. He is currently a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley in Minneapolis. 

Street trades are still hanging on

It's been getting harder and harder to fill Al's player needs, and he's been running out of boxes. Still, we've both got a long way to go before we run out of cards. We both agreed today that it's getting harder and harder to buy collections. I know this year there seem to be very few yard sales except for the usual suspects. I guess maybe the real estate market is slow these days, not too many people moving.

The box he brought for me today was full of just 1986 Topps and 1990 Fleer. Still, mixed in with the 1990 Fleer were a couple of World Series inserts I needed:

I then went through one of the boxes Al always keeps, with cards from some of the more popular out-of-town teams - Red Sox, Dodgers, Tigers. I managed to find a few promising cards.

Luck was with me - only the mini Pedro I had already. That card is available for trade.

As I was flipping through, I noticed the gray back of a 1981 Topps card. It was an OPC! A good one too, Alan Trammell. I flipped through the rest of the cards backwards, and found two '84 Topps Tradeds, but I had both of them so they're available, I'm sure they won't last long! And in the light the gold hologram on the back of this 1992 UD Mo Vaughn card caught my eye. I've got a few copies of this card already and hardly need more, but I figure the gold hologram will appeal to the magnifying-glass set over at TCDB.

 

Canadian quickie

I needed a short post on a late night, fortunately I had a nice little eBay package come in. 32 cheap '78 OPCs, of which I needed 16.

A couple were of the "traded" variety!

50% ratio is pretty good for this set. I might have a taker for the dupes, but if you collect this set and have needs, let me know.
 

Wallet Card at Datz Moving & Storage

Another example of a pretty old sign that looks really old. This sign for Datz Moving & Storage on Vestry Street in Manhattan looks like it could be 1930s, but the business was at this site from 1969 to 1974. The business did not last very long but the signage sure has. You can even see remnants of an older sign behind the Datz sign. Looks like the word "Famous"? Also barely visible above are the remnants of another business, Regina Products.

 

1981 Topps Jim Bibby

 

The front: A cloudy day at Shea Stadium.

The back: The only other Pirate to reach double-digits in wins was John Candelaria, with 11.

The player: Jim Bibby was one of the best unheralded pitchers of the 1970s. He put up excellent numbers for lousy teams in Texas and Cleveland, highlighted by a no-hitter of the Oakland A’s at the peak of their dynasty in 1973. He signed with the Pirates in 1978 and was a key member of their World Championship team in 1979, leading the NL in winning percentage, a feat he would repeat the following year. Overall in twelve seasons he went 111-101 with a 3.76 ERA.

The man: Bibby served in Vietnam as a truck driver before his major league career began. After his playing career he was a minor league pitching coach for several teams. He died from bone cancer in 2010.

My collection: I have 22 of his cards, from 1972 to 1984. I would be interested in trading for 1976 SSPC Samples #2.
 

1976 SSPC Chris Speier

 

The card: Some of the Giants players are photographed at twilight, making them borderline night cards. This one might be one of the darkest nights seen on a card.

Playing career, in brief:  Speier came up with the Giants in 1971 and was an All-Star the next three seasons, mostly because of his defensive reputation. He never hit much, but stayed in the league until 1989. In 19 seasons for five teams, mostly the Giants and Expos, he hit .246 with 112 HR and 720 RBI.

Post-playing career, in brief:  After his playing career he was a major league coach for seven different teams between 2000 and 2020. He appears to now be retired.

My collection: I have 54 of his cards, from 1972 to 1990. I would be interested in trading for 1974 Topps Stamps #NNO. 

1986 Renata Galasso Mattingly #18

The Mattinglys in the sleigh on Christmas 1985 with six-month-old Taylor. 

Looks like Mattingly enjoyed facing the stars. He would later get to play with Boggs on the Yankees from 1993 to 1995. I wonder if this set came out later in the 1986 season; before 1986 Clemens wasn't a star.

 

 

 

1988 Domino's Ray Oyler

 

An interesting, unique shot. Nice close-up of Oyler and his glove.

Ray Oyler was the ultimate good field, no hit shortstop. He was a defensive whiz with great range, short hands, and was excellent at turning a double play. However, he was arguably the worst hitter in major league history. He played in 111 games for the Tigers in their championship year, hitting .135 with 1 HR and 12 RBI, the lowest ever average for a player who appeared in 100 games in a season. He was benched at the end of the season in favor of Mickey Stanley, who had no prior shortstop experience. (Oyler did appear in 4 games as a defensive replacement.) Overall, in six seasons for the Tigers, Pilots and Angels, he hit .175 with 15 HR and 86 RBI in 1,265 AB, the lowest ever average for a player with 1,000 career at bats. The skinny shortstop was always swinging for the fences despite his lack of ability, accounting for his low batting average but very occasional power. He became a fan favorite with the Seattle Pilots in 1969, with an ironic "Ray Oyler Fan Club" that turned genuine as the season went on. Oyler stayed in Seattle after his playing career, and worked for Boeing and Safeway. He died in 1981.

I have nine of his cards, from 1965 to 1970. I would be interested in trading for 1969 Milton Bradley #NNO. 

 

Big vintage trade

Had another big vintage trade with Kurt Albert of TCDB. This is the second time we've sent large packages of old cards each way.

Starting off with football. Lots of star cards from 1980s Topps sets, most notably LT! 

Some '60s and '70s football too. Some great photos here.

Two different wooden TV sets represented in this trade, with '66 Topps football and '55 Bowman baseball.

That Lou Burnette card takes us from football to baseball. Yes, that spelling was intentional. Someone left this card to close to a space heater back in 1955!

Lots of fun vintage oddballs with some big time names.

I'm starting to come around on Nu Card Scoops, especially as I recently learned they were made on Long Island, not too far from where I live and even closer to where I grew up. 

Filling holes in '50s and '60s Topps sets is always a priority.

Finishing off with some nice high numbers from 1972 Topps. Not only are the high numbers rarer in the early 70s sets, but they often seemed to have clearer photos too.

 

Wallet card with a 25 year old Coca-Cola can

This is not one of my oldest discoveries but it is one of my more fun ones. This weekend I was playing with my son in his elementary school playground, and he showed me where an old fence got taken down where a building had been torn down on the other side. This exposed a layer of garbage wedged between the remaining chain link fence and some construction rubble. Some of the items looked like they might be old, it was hard to tell. We both had fun exploring. This was the most promising item we found.

Bleached from the sun but still showing some red, and interestingly some green.  

I had no idea if it was from last week or last century, but decided it was worth taking a wallet card photo. My son had fun holding the card for the photo.

A few years ago this would have been an extremely difficult puzzle to solve, maybe looking up hundreds of coke cans to hopefully get a match. It is 2026, however, so I uploaded the top photo to ChatGPT, went back and forth with prompts a few times, and found the design in question!

According to Packaging Pedia, this is the design Coca-Cola used from 1999-2003. If you go back to the top photo, you can see part of the word "enjoy", and it turns out the green is from the design showing the old soda bottle. There are a few cans for sale on eBay which also peg this design from that time period. While not terribly old or rare, it's a lot older than my son and we both had a lot of fun exploring some old stuff and then looking it up later. (And yes, we threw out the can so no kids would get hurt on the sharp edges.)

And if you think about it, this can of soda was enjoyed when Jesse Orosco, Jamie Moyer and Julio Franco were active major leaguers, and only got thrown out this week.