Cheap thrills

I picked up a few very cheap modern lots of cards from an eBay seller. Total $3 shipped. Worth the price for some random shiny new cards.

These were a bunch of free-shipping auctions that started at a penny. Seller must have misjudge the popularity for these. Trent Grisham was the one that caught my eye. He came to the Yankees as a throw-in to the Juan Soto deal. Grisham is 0-for-3 so far but Soto has certainly transformed the team. (4-0!) I guess it was a good strategy to get a guy in his walk year, get his best season most likely. Back to these Grisham cards, the pink X-fractor is a standout here. 

Ketel Marte of the D-Backs. Not a player I know much about. Just looked at his stats and they are quite good, a power-hitting second baseman. Hitting .462 this year. Lots of shiny cards here.

Jesse Winker is a journeyman outfielder, now with the Nationals and hitting .375 to start the year. They look the same in the photo but there is a purple parallel and a dark blue parallel.

A whole lot of purple Padres. These are apparently Meijer exclusives. I've never been inside a Meijer. According to the website the nearest one is 700 miles away. A couple of dupes here that are good trade bait, maybe.

And finally a whole lot more Padres. A lot of people hate the Padres. Heck, the one Padres fan blogger I can think of doesn't even like them anymore. I guess that's why these were so cheap. I have no strong feeling about them one way or the other, though, so I'm happy to add these.

Time Traveling

Some fun variety in my latest Diamond Jesters time travel trade.

Starting out with the vintage cards. A couple of Dodger stars with a Bowman Cal Abrams and a Post John Roseboro.

On to the junk wax era with three oddballs of some great players.

And some fun recent cards. Rod Carew steals the show on Jose Berrios's card. Stars of MLB seems to be a common insert but it's a fun shiny one.

1986 Spokane Indians at the Mall - Tony Pellegrino

 

If you liked the last card I posted, you'll love this one. If you thought that was the most boring card so far, then you're out of luck. This is the second of two cards in a row at the optician..

Infielder Tony Pellegrino, from Smithtown, Long Island, played in the Padres organization from 1986 to 1989. In 376 games he hit .273 with 14 HR and 206 RBI. He seems to have kept a low profile since his playing days.

1981 Topps Terry Kennedy

 

The front: Kennedy is locked in waiting for the pitch at Shea Stadium. In four day games at Shea in 1980, Kennedy went 5-for-19.

The back: Bob Kennedy played sixteen years in the major leagues, and won a World Series with Cleveland in 1948. Bob Kennedy Jr. pitched in the Cardinals organization from 1971 to 1975, never getting above A ball.

The player: Catcher Terry Kennedy played fourteen seasons in the major leagues, hitting .264 with 113 HR and 628 RBI. A four-time All-Star, he was a key member of two NL pennant winners in the 1980's, the Padres in 1984 and the Giants in 1989.

The man: Kennedy was a long-time minor league manager and coach, and is currently a scout for the Cubs. He shared his thoughts on baseball cards with this blog in 2014.

My collection: I have 77 of his cards, from 1979 to 1992. I would be interested in trading for 1982 Fleer Stamps #105.

Cards from Dan Williams

Got a fun PWE from OBCer Dan Williams that I thought was interesting enough to get it's own post.

Starting off with three vintage cards. I've seen the Phillies' Hamner listed as "Granville" and "Granny". The back of this card calls him "Gran". The Art Nehf 1961 Fleer card is interesting. 184 wins wouldn't seem enough to get you into an all-time greats set, even back then. However he had just passed away in December 1960 so maybe there had been more attention on his career when the set was being put together.

Some newer stuff. Dan found some '95 Select Certified that is on my wantlist. I'd forgotten it was there. I'd added it because Al had a lot in his boxes and I wanted to have my wantlist handy. The '90 Sportflics I knew I had on there. The Sportflics (not Sportflix) cards are somewhat of a priority of mine for modern cards. In 1990 I bought one pack, it was something like three cards for a dollar, and I was so disgusted I didn't buy more. A lot of others probably thought the same because I don't come across this set very often.

Finally, some 1997 Upper Deck. I love the dated captions. Both Yankee cards have a spring training shot. Ruben Rivera's is dated 3-13-96. Tino Martinez's is dated 5-13-96. I assume that's an error, and was probably shot the same day as Rivera's. And speaking of March baseball, Edgar Martinez's card is from the first ever March regular season game. Fast forward to 2024 and looking forward to some March regular season baseball tomorrow!

1976 SSPC Clay Kirby

 

The card, in brief: A nice sunset shot, with the grounds crew pulling the tarp in the background.

The player, in brief: Kirby lost 20 games with the expansion Padres as a rookie in 1969, then in 1970 was famously pinch-hit for in the eighth inning while pitching a no-hitter against the Mets; reliever Jack Baldschun then lost the no-hitter and the game in the ninth. Kirby put together a couple of good seasons for the Padres, then was traded to the Reds. He was part of the Big Red Machine that won the 1975 World Series. He went 10-6 during the season but did not pitch in the playoffs. He was traded to Montreal after the season, and the back of the card (written by Keith Olbermann) notes that the "Expos are ecstatic over the acquisition" of Kirby. With the Expos in '76 Kirby went 1-8 with a 5.72 ERA. He attempted comebacks with the Padres in '77 and Twins in '78 but his major league career was over. In 261 games he went 75-104 with a 3.84 ERA.

Post playing career, in brief: After his playing career he worked as a securities broker. In 1991, at the age of 43, he suffered a heart attack in July, then died from a second heart attack in October.

My collection: I have 12 of his cards, from 1969 to 1976. I would be interested in trading for 1971 Dell Today's Team Stamps #NNO.

Equipment: 1988 Topps (Base)

Starting off slow, with nicknames. In the 1987 set we saw Lee Mazzilli with a tan glove with "MAZ" on it. In 1988 he has a black glove with "MAZ" on it.

Meanwhile Todd Frohwirth has "FRO".

Moving on to wrong bats. The Indians were too cheap to buy a light-colored sharpie, I guess. If you look closely you will see that Andy Allanson has bat #2. Allanson wore #6; #2 belonged to Brett Butler.

Frank White wore #20, as can be seen on the bill of his cap. His bat knob however, appears to have the #8. #8 had been worn by Jim Sundberg in 1986, and would be worn by Mike Macfarlane in 1988, but no Royal wore that number in 1987.

Dave Clark wore #12, but neither bat has a 12 on it. One appears to be an upside down 6? But the other is clearly #15, worn by Dave Gallagher.

The Traded set will be it's own post another time, but a lot of wrong numbers in the base set are the result of mid-season trades. Jim Morrison wore #2 for the Pirates, but switched to #9 when he was traded to the Tigers in August. Topps airbrushed his spring training photo but did not change the number.

Pittsburgh got Darnell Coles in exchange for Morrison. Coles wore #19 for the Tigers but switched to #7 with the Pirates. This is not an airbrushed shot, but it looks like Coles is using a bat with his old Detroit number.

 

Glenn Hoffman also kept his bats after a team and number switch. Hoffman switched from #18 to #37 when he was traded from Boston to the Dodgers in August. Looks like Hoffman, or the Dodgers equipment manager, crossed out the old number and wrote in the new one.

 

When Mark Davis was traded from the Giants to the Padres in July, he went from #32 to #48. Davis didn't cross out the 32, but he did add in a 48.

 

Cake or Gum? 1976 Cesar Cedeno

 

Hostess has a rather typical spring training shot. The line across the photo is a crease on my card. Topps has Cedeno posing during batting practice at Dodger Stadium, wearing a logo-less hat and a #40 memorial patch for Don Wilson. Cedeno came up with the Astros as a 19-year-old rookie in 1970 and quickly became a star. An exciting combination of power and speed, he led the NL in doubles in 1971 and 1972. In both 1972 and 1973, he hit .320 with 20+ HR and 50+ steals. That December, he was charged with involuntary manslaughter when he was playing with a gun with a 19-year-old woman in his hotel room; the gun went off, killing the woman. Cedeno served 20 days in jail and was fined $100. Though still a productive player for many years, he did not put up the same kind of numbers after that incident. Overall, in 17 seasons, mostly for the Astros, Cedeno hit .285 with 199 HR, 976 RBI and 550 SB. After his career he was arrested once for drunk driving and twice for domestic abuse. He had a long coaching career for several organizations, mostly the Astros, and was inducted into the Astros Hall of Fame in 2020.

Cards from Night Owl

Got a fun trade package from Night Owl.

Some modern cards here. Two Score Piazzas. One completes my 1996 Score yet! Still have half a dozen to go on the 1998 set. He also found a couple of my 2024 Topps needs.

Some vintage too - '77 Hostess! Some great cake cards here. The colorful hats of the 1970s jump out here. I happened to get a '77 Seaver from an OBCer shortly before, so this one, which is in very nice shape, is available.

Wood vs. Wood #193

 Last time 1987 cruised to a 6-2 victory. Who will win this time?

Eddie Kasko stares off into the distance. I'm not positive but I think this is the old Busch Stadium (f/k/a Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. The shortstop was coming off his only All-Star season in 1961, as he hit .271 with 2 HR and 27 RBI to help the Reds win the NL pennant. The versatile Kasko also was a third baseman, and twice led the NL in fielding at that position. In a ten year career with the Cardinals, Reds, Astros and Red Sox, Kasko hit .264 with 22 HR and 261 RBI. After his retirement in 1966 he stayed in the Boston organization as a minor league manager, and was promoted to manage the Red Sox in 1970. He was replaced as manager in 1973 by Darrell Johnson, but stayed in the organization until 1994, including fifteen years as the team's scouting director. He died in 2020.

Roger Craig is also staring off into the distance. #193 in the 1987 set was #183 in the 1962 set! Back in October Roger Craig won his Wood vs. Wood as a player, defeating Andy Hawkins 7-2. Will he be as successful on the other side of the battle?

Latest vintage star pickups

Lots of quantity in my most recent Greg Morris winnings, but most of these were in the ~$1 range, so that's OK. The two big ones were the '67 Oliva and '68 Palmer, didn't mind spending more for them as those sets are getting closer to the finish line. Here's most of those cards:

. . . but I had the most fun with ten additions to my 1957 set. Doby and Wynn were $3 each, but the rest were all from the tough mid-series and were $1.25 or less. For every Topps set from 1955 on I am over 50% except this one, still at 30%. '57s are tough to come by, no surprise as it's such a beautiful set.

There were only nine in that photo because I really wanted to highlight this one. I thought it was such an interesting looking card, with the light tower with advertising, and the Paul Smith's name and team blending in with the advertising on the outfield wall. I looked up the card to see if there was more information on it, and it was more interesting than I thought. There is a thread about this card on the Net54 message board. The photo was actually taken at El Gran Estadio del Cerro in Havana, where Smith was playing minor league ball at the time! The Net54 link even has the original photo used for the card.

The week before was another relatively modest lot, highlighted by several '63 Hall of Famers in various degrees of trimming.

 

I also bid on two '59 Drysdale's and ending up winning both. Happy to trade the one in better condition.

 

Others picked up over the past couple of weeks:

Very happy to pick up a '71 Clemente for under $10. Sure, it's trimmed, creased and stapled, but nothing important is missing. This was the last "big" card I needed for that set. I still need 76 more cards, almost all high-numbers. Still some moderately big names like Tony Perez and Dick Allen, but nobody left of Clemente's stature.

Another cheap very rough card, this one only set me back about $2. I still need over 100 cards from this set, and the high-numbers tend to be tougher. Still need Ryan, Carew, Garvey, some of the big traded cards. Still, nice to cross off this one.

A cheap, stained Duke Snider card.

Two Yankees from the '65 set, a low-numbered star and a high-numbered common, so they average out to about the same price-wise.

Every once in a while I bid on some pre-WWII cards if they seem cheap enough. Wouldn't have bid if I had taken the time to notice I already had the Wally Moses in this two-card lot. Well, it's trade bait now!

Newsday July 21, 1969

This is the last of my three moon-landing Newsdays. There were a few pages from the July 19, nothing worth taking a photo of. Once again, a very no-frills cover.

I found this article very interesting. It kind of gives the feeling of what the astronauts were looking at. Looking briefly online it seems the causes of volcanism on the moon is still very much up for debate. However, Buzz Aldrin was correct about the basalt.

Some local pride over the successful building of the lunar module.

The New York Times I had for this day was missing the sports section, so this is the first I'd read of this story about the Yankee game being paused, with legendary PA announcer Bob Sheppard announcing the successful moon landing to the crowd. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be video of the game.

A photo of the old Yankee Stadium scoreboard with an Apollo update. Also, Bat Day!

Around the league. Gaylord Perry's home run on the day of the moon landing is probably the most famous baseball-related moon story, but it's the last item in the out-of-town scoreboard, with brother Jim getting top billing.

 

A few more from 2024

A couple more TCDB trades have further scaled down my wantlist on this set. doublee919 sent four rookies and Mike Trout, the only non-rookie left that I needed.

Eggbert60 is a Mariners fan, and he sent five Mariners rookies. But I was most happy for the two Yankee cards from the latest Stadium Club set. Bernie Williams guitar cards are always fun. The other card has a delightfully bizarre photo from the first Yogi Berra day in 1959. It's a colorized black-and-white photo, and I'm pretty skeptical about the color choices, including the exact same gray for everything wood-grained and the heavy amount of blue. I've noticed in AI-colored videos of old NYC, lots of blue and purple with almost no red, so you get things like blue Coca-Cola signs. I'm guessing a lot of the colors in this card are wrong too but it's still fun to look at.

 

Wallet card in the Meatpacking District

Last week I was in the city for work, and had time for a walk at the end of the day. I ended up in the meatpacking district, which no longer packs meat but is instead home to ridiculously expensive fashion boutiques. The old buildings have been restored rather than destroyed, however, so it is nice to walk around in. I hadn't been here since the early days of my wallet card posts, so I took a few photos.

R&L Luncheonette opened here in 1938. It changed it's name to R&L Restaurant in 1955, installing the chrome sign seen here. It closed in 2008, and has since been a wine bar and a Madewell fashion store, both keeping the old restaurant sign. It appears that the location is between businesses again; hopefully the sign remains.

Middendorf & Rohrs was a wholesale grocery business that operated from 1897 to 1964. It was sold to a realty company in 1964, where it was renovated for use by a meatpacking company. In 1998 it was sold again and remodeled as office space, with fashion boutiques on the ground floor.

Check out all of the old technology listed on the side of this building. It's barely legible but the company name Bogen can be seen on top. The Bogen company was a pioneer in audio technology. Started in 1932, the company was acquired by Unitronics in 1956 and moved to New Jersey. Fortunately, the sign advertising TV boosters, UHF converters and other old technology is still quite readable.

 

1974 Topps Deckle Dating - Bobby Grich

 Here's Bobby Grich at Yankee Stadium . . .

. . . on September 1, 1973, the start of the last month of the original Yankee Stadium.

Grich went 1-for-4 with a runs scored as the Orioles beat up Pat Dobson and the Yankees, 10-6. Don Baylor homered while Tommy Davis and Boog Powell each had three hits. Thurman Munson and Mike Hegan homered for the Yankees.

Although the Yankees were playing in Shea Stadium in 1974, Grich's 1975 Hostess card still has him at the old Yankee Stadium, so it's possible this photo is from the same day. Both photos were taken on the third base side of home plate.

In other news, 35 people were killed in a hotel arson fire in Copenhagen, Denmark; the Chief of Staff of the Provisional IRA was arrested in Ireland, and George Foreman defended his heavyweight title, knocking out Jose Roman in two minutes in Tokyo.