RIP former major leaguer Doug Creek. He shared his thoughts on baseball cards with this blog in 2011.
On a whim I made a bid on a lot of 1960 Union Oil Seattle Rainiers. All I knew was that they were nice-looking vintage minor league cards. I won with the minimum bid, about a dollar apiece for seven cards. Turns out to have been quite a good deal.
Union Oil (76) put out several PCL sets in the early 1960s, but this is the only one in full color. They photos really look nice. They were taken at Sicks Stadium in Seattle, a longtime minor league park, and the home of the Pilots in 1969. The stadium was torn down in 1979 and the location is now a Lowe's store, where there is a marker noting the location of home plate and a small exhibit about Seattle baseball.
Here are two photos down the right field line. Hal Bevan and Buddy Gilbert. Seattle was a Reds minor league team. The sign in the background is for Royal Red canned tuna.
Pitcher Don Rudolph in the bullpen, and Joe Taylor a little further down the right field line, with more of a center field view.
The lot had seven cards, and it turns out it was only a nine card set. I'm missing Lou Skizas and one of the short prints, Ray Rippelmeyer. But I was fortunate to get the other short print, which I didn't know was an SP at the time. It was the image of this card that compelled me to bid. It has to be one of the best vintage cards of all time.
Eskimo Pie tastes better! Even without that sign, the classic fielding pose and the Coca-Cola sign would have made Chico Obregon's card a winner. But that Eskimo Pie sign makes it an all-time great!
The backs are worth a mention on these. There are great write-ups on the players, with lots of bygone language. (Taylor used to be a singles hitter but now he "squeezes the sawdust out of the bat".) They also give the player's marital status and children, have a big ad for the old Union Oil Company, and a note that they were created by Pete Luther Photo. (The cards do have a photo paper feel to them.) Don Rudolph's writeup is particularly interesting.
That image with the Eskimo Pie ad in the background is fantastic. Haven't had one of those since I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteI would've been all over this lot had I seen it.
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