1974 Topps Deckle Dating: Paul Splittorff

The background is so blurry but apparently this is Oakland.

June 28, 1973.

Splittorff had pitched the previous day, losing a complete game, 3-2. The same fate would befall teammate Steve Busby this day, losing a complete game by a 3-2 score, losing in the bottom of the ninth on a Freddie Patek error. Busby was undone by a 3-run second inning where the runs scored on a single, a sac fly, and an inning-ending pickoff (scored 1-3-4-3). 

In other news, the Watergate hearings made news as Senator Ervin strongly suggested that President Nixon should appear under oath, while E. Howard Hunt testified that the CIA was also eavesdropping on Senator Kennedy, the first admission that wiretapping went beyond the original incident in the Watergate Hotel. Meanwhile, the first elections were held for the new Northern Ireland Assembly.

 It looks like Busby's base card photo was taken at the same time. Given the circumstances, it's not surprising he looks grumpy in these shots.

 

Wallet Card with some c. 1980 paper signage

Ten years ago, I posted about finding a paper ad for a 1976 anti-apartheid rally at the Herald Square subway station. It is in the space for billboards but there was no billboard at the time. I mentioned in that post reading about others finding a similar ad for a 1980 anti-nuclear contest but it wasn't visible when I went.

I happened to be in that station this week, and several billboards spaces were empty. I found the remains of the anti-apartheid rally sign, sadly now mostly gone. However, I did find the 1980 anti-nuclear contest signs! It was pretty amazing to come up out of the subway and have these staring me in the face when I got to the top of the stairs. Was worth missing my LIRR train to find them, and walk around the station looking for more.

These were posted on two advertising panels next to each other; between them you can see what the original ad looked like. Don McLean is the only name I recognized. There's a program from the concert currently available on eBay.

Between the two panels was a glimpse of another, presumably older, advertisement. All that can be seen is a horse, and "March 20-2?" Presumably this was some time before 1980. March would be very early for horse racing, at least in New York.

There were also these on another panel. It seems to be some kind of anti-imperialist and socialist protest of the government of Argentina. It mentions General Videla, who was the President of that country from 1976 to 1981.

 

Cards from Night Owl

Night Owl sent a fun envelope of cards recently.

Six cards from '75 Hostess. Three big Phillies stars, and three catchers of lesser renown. The Barry Foote is my favorite - a parking lot card! 

Three more Hostesses, this time from 1977. Two of them are looking up at the two non-Hostess cards Night Owl included, an UD Raul Mondesi and a 1976 SSPC promo card of Mickey Mantle. The back notes that the cards are "not available in stores". Remember when that was a common phrase in commercials? There's a phrase you don't hear any more.

 

1981 Topps Orioles Future Stars

 Skipping “front” and “back” for this card and just focusing on the players.

Mike Boddicker

The player: Mike Boddicker pitched fourteen seasons in the major leagues. His first two seasons were dominant – 16-8, 2.77 as a rookie for the 1983 World Champion Orioles (and two complete game victories in the postseason in which he did not allow an earned run); followed by leading the AL in wins (20) and ERA (2.79) in in 1984. However, in that 1984 season he struck out only 128 batters in 261.1 innings. Pitchers with that kind of ratio are usually unable to maintain a high level of performance, and Boddicker was no exception. However, he was able achieve double-figures in wins through the 1991 season, maintaining a respectable ERA most years. For his career he finished 134-116 with a 3.80 ERA. Those numbers are inflated by those first two seasons, though. From 1985, when the league started figuring him out, through his 1993 retirement he was 97-96 with a 4.09 ERA.

The man: He does some youth coaching near his home in Iowa, and runs a charitable organization called the Boddicker Foundation.

My collection: I have 74 of his cards, from 1981 to 1993. I would be interested in trading for 1985 Drake's #34.

 

Mark Corey

The player: Outfielder Mark Corey played in 59 games for the Orioles from 1979 to 1981, hitting .211 with 1 HR and 3 RBI. He stayed in professional baseball through the 1987 season, including spending the 1984 season in Japan.

The man: After his playing career Corey worked in real estate and in airline operations, and was a Rockies scout.

My collection: I have four of his cards, from 1979 to 1981. (This was the last of three straight years that Corey was on an Orioles future stars card.) I would be interested in trading for  1987 Indianapolis Indians #30.

 

Floyd Rayford

The player: Floyd Rayford played parts of seven seasons in the majors as a backup 3B-catcher, mostly for the Orioles. In 390 games he hit .244 with 38 HR and 117 RBI.

The man: Rayford had a long career as a minor league coach but now appears to be retired.

My collection: I have 16 of his cards, from 1981 to 1990. I would be interested in trading for 1978 SSPC #200. 

 

1976 SSPC Rick Auerbach

  

The card, in brief: Lots going on here, from some classic choking up in the foreground, to what looks like a fan starting to unfurl a banner in the background. I miss the days of fanmade banners in the stands. Mets fans always seemed to lead the pack in the number and creativity of banners, even used to do a banner day every year.

Playing career, in brief: Rick Auerbach was a part-time infielder for the Brewers, Dodgers, Reds and Mariners from 1971 to 1981. A lifetime .220 hitter, he had less than 100 at bats in seven of his eleven seasons. In those seven seasons, he hit under .157 four times and over .326 three times. In the four seasons he topped 100 at bats, he hit between .203 and .220.

Post playing career, in brief: Auerbach has had one of the more unusual post-baseball careers, working as a farrier, shoeing horses and administering to their hoof health. It is not clear if he is still active in this profession or retired.

My collection: I have 12 of his cards, from 1972 to 1982. I would be interested in trading for 1978 SSPC #126. 

Odds and Ends

I'm still going through all those cards I bought a few weeks ago, and every once in a while I see a card and think it's worthy of a blog post. I put a few of those together here.

G'day, mate! 

The Charleston Rainbows photographer got creative. For a team named "Rainbows" they had pretty bland uniforms.

There were two cards from the SSPC Baseball Immortals set, one of a 1930s businessman at his desk, one of a 1970s businessman at a resort.

This 1996 Stadium Club parallel is really shiny and high-tech looking. With such a modern technological marvel of football card, Stadium Club gave it a name synonymous with some of the leading technology of the time - Dot Matrix. (Speaking of Dot Matrix, who else is excited that they're making a Spaceballs 2?)

Finally, this card. Just read the back and see if your jaw drops like I did.

Hard to believe that was considered "outside the norm". I looked it up and it really was considered groundbreaking at the time, though like Wyche says he wasn't the first.  Easy to forget that the late '80s were only about 20 years past the end of legal segregation, and there were still a lot of vestiges of it around.
 

1989 Topps Big Cartoon Deep Dive: Rex Hudler

I miss the days of picturesque spring training shots.

Hudler was an All-American wide receiver at Bullard High in California.

He toured several colleges, including getting a guided tour from future baseball star Kirk Gibson. He got a scholarship from Note Dame, but turned it down when he was drafted by the Yankees. His campus tour guide at Notre Dame was a much bigger legend than even Kirk Gibson - football Hall of Famer Joe Montana! 

Cake or gum? 1977 Doug DeCinces

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

Doug DeCinces poses before a game at Cleveland Stadium. On the Topps card you can see through the stadium to the outside, which I haven't noticed on too many cards with Cleveland Stadium. I'd see that a lot on Polo Grounds or Comiskey Park photos.

In 1972 DeCinces was a minor leaguer in the Orioles organization playing catch before a game in Asheville with the 12-year-old son of his manager, Cal Ripken, when bullets started hitting the ground just a few feet from them. DeCinces quickly got the boy out of danger. Police arrested a teenage boy who had been shooting at the field with a rifle, and the game went on as scheduled. A year later DeCinces was in the major leagues, and he soon established himself as a solid, if unspectacular, third baseman. After his age-30 season in 1981, Baltimore traded DeCinces to the Angels to make room for their big third base prospect – Cal Ripken Jr. DeCinces went on to have several more productive seasons with the Angels, before playing his last four big league games with the Cardinals in 1987. Overall, in 1,649 major league games, DeCinces hit .259 with 237 HR and 879 RBI. After his playing career, he went into the commercial real estate business. In 2012 DeCinces was indicted on charges of insider trading, securities fraud and money laundering. He was found guilty in 2017 and was sentenced to eight months of home detention and a $10,000 fine.

Wallet Card at Harvan Sporting Goods

Recently I passed by 114 Chambers Street. In a 2023 wallet card megapost I showed this building, with a sign from a short-lived aquarium from the 1980s, and a shoe store sign from the 1970s. Those signs are long gone, and peeking through is a sign from their predecessor..

Harvan Sporting Goods operated here in the 1950s and 1960s. They were a prominent seller of firearms, as all the references to the business are from various message boards and websites dealing with vintage firearms. Here's a photo of a Harvan catalog, available for $50 on eBay, with the 114 Chambers address. 

Wood vs. Wood #287

Last time it was a 6-3 victory for 1962. Will it come out on top again here?

George Witt has not hat but plenty of hathead. Usually known as Red, Witt had a great rookie season in 1958, going 9-2 with a 1.61 ERA in 15 starts. He hurt his elbow in 1959 and was ineffective after that, though he did win a World Series ring in 1960. Between October of 1961 and May of 1962, Witt was sold by the Pirates to the Angels, by the Angels back to the Pirates, and from the Pirates to Houston. He was ineffective that season, pitched briefly in the minors in 1963, and then returned home to southern California. Overall in 66 major league games (38 starts) he went 11-16 with a 4.32 ERA. At Tustin High School in California he was a science teacher, PE teacher, Foreign Study League group leader, baseball coach, and tennis coach. He died of cancer in 2013.

Dave Von Ohlen looks like he's throwing a warmup pitch. This is Anaheim Stadium, where Von Ohlen appeared in a day game on August 17, 1986. Von Ohlen came into the game in relief of Joaquin Andujar, who had just given up the go-ahead run to make it 3-2, and had runners on first and second with nobody out. Von Ohlen allowed a single to George Hendrick to load the bases, and was relieved by Doug Bair, who allowed one more run (charged to Andujar) but escaped without further damage. It was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it outing by Von Ohlen, but Topps's photographer (Doug McWilliams?) did not blink. California went on to win the game, 7-3. A native of Flushing, Queens, Von Ohlen was drafted by the Mets and pitched in their system for six seasons, but never made the majors. He signed with the Cardinals in 1983, and made his major league debut that year. He pitched five seasons in the majors for St. Louis, Cleveland and Oakland. In 127 games, all in relief, 7-7 with a 3.33 ERA and 4 saves. After his career he returned to Long Island, where he has had a long career as a Supervisor at North Shore Hospital, and is a coach for the LI Dodgers travel team. 
 

1974 Topps Deckle Dating: Jose Cardenal

The stitching on Cardenal's cap really stands out on the black-and-white card.

March 22, 1973. 

Same date as teammate Don Kessinger. As I wrote for that post, the Cubs topped the Padres in a spring training game, 8-4. In other news, a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean killed 63 crew members on two cargo ships, and the Presidents of Indonesia and Czechoslovakia were re-elected unopposed.

1981 Topps Ross Baumgarten

 

The front: A sea of pink seats. Maybe Milwaukee or California?

The back: The two cartoons cherry-picked Baumgarten's two best games of his rookie season. In his five other games he went 0-2 with a 14.63 ERA.

The player: Ross Baumgarten pitched for the White Sox from 1978 to 1981, putting up good numbers despite poor run support. In 1980 he had a 3.44 ERA but only a 2-12 record due to the White Sox scoring 47 runs in his 23 starts. He pitched one season for the Pirates in 1982 but injuries ended up shortening his career. Overall in 90 games he went 22-36 with a 4.00 ERA.

The man: After his career Baumgarten was a high school baseball coach and a financial advisor. He is now retired.

My collection: I have 11 of his cards, from 1979 to 1983. I would be interested in trading for 1978 TCMA Appleton Foxes #4.
 

1976 SSPC Don Sutton

 

The card, in brief: He's not Suttoning here. He actually looks quite annoyed at the photographer.

Playing career, in brief: Don Sutton was an amazing model of consistency in his long major league career, winning at least 11 games in 21 of his 23 major league seasons. A four-time All-Star, he was the Dodgers' ace in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. He signed with the Astros after the 1980 season and remained effective for several teams well into his 40s. He pitched in four World Series, on the losing side each time, pitching well in '74 and '77 and poorly in '78 and '82. Overall in 774 games he went 324-256 with a 3.26 ERA. His 3,574 strikeouts are seventh all-time. 

Post-playing career, in brief: Sutton was a longtime broadcaster, mostly for the Braves. He died of cancer in 2021.

My collection: I have 68 of his cards, from 1966 to 1989. I would be interested in trading for 1975 Hostess #7. 

Wallet Card at Engine 29

160 Chambers Street was built in 1833 as a private residence. As this area of lower Manhattan became more commercial, it was purchased by the City of New York in 1863 and converted to a police station, and later a house of relief, before becoming the firehouse for Engine 29 in 1894. It served as a firehouse until 1947, when it was converted into offices for the Uniformed Fire Officers Association. Since 1967, it has returned to its roots as a private residence, with a commercial business on the ground floor, currently the Venu Stella spa. However, the Engine 29 sign can still be seen many decades after the building's conversion from a firehouse.

 

 

1989 Topps Big Cartoon Deep Dive: Andy McGaffigan

 Must be a spring game, Topps never took photos at Montreal. 

Andy McGaffigan, known for his wacky humor, and his Harry Caray impression . . . 

. . . I guess? 

Searching the web, I couldn't find any evidence of McGaffigan doing anything funny other than teasing flight-fearing teammates on a turbulent trip. Nothing about a Caray impression anywhere. That didn't stop all of the AI's that the internet is infected with these days from trying to make sense of it though. 

The only mention I found in Google search results was from an eBay AI description of McGaffigan's 1990 Topps card (not 1989), which also mentions the Caray impression. The eBay AI's ridiculously grand prose is in full effect in describing this most common of common cards: 

That was the only instance in the Google search results, but that didn't stop the Google AI from trying to weigh in.

No "specific Holy Cow moment", I guess.

These were so ridiculously I decided to try a couple more AI "leaders". Bing Copilot gives us a Harry Caray impression that seems pretty ridiculous to me. “Holy cow! That McGaffigan fella’s got a slider that could make a grown man cry!” Maybe a Cubs fan can say for sure but I kind of doubt that's something Caray would have actually said. 

Finally, ChatGPT gives us this really detailed impression of McGaffigan, the baseball announcer.

After his playing career McGaffigan has advised nonprofits and has been a financial advisor for the past 25 years. He was never an announcer. That didn't stop ChatGPT for making up his style!

I also tried Perplexity; it had no answers, but to it's credit it didn't try to make up anything either.
 

 

Trayvon Robinson on baseball cards

Outfielder Trayvon Robinson played 12 seasons of professional baseball, reaching the major leagues with the Mariners in 2011 and 2012. In 90 major league games he hit .215 with 5 HR and 26 RBI. Now the hitting coach for the Lancaster Stormers of the Atlantic League, he kindly answered my questions about baseball cards.

"One of my MLB cards have me robbing a home run on my major league debut. I thought it was pretty cool.  

I have a lot of cards out of myself, but my favorite player is Juan Gonzalez and I currently have one of his cards in my locker, pretty cool. I typically don’t go out the way to collect baseball cards, but when there is a card of some players for my childhood, I try to collect them."

Thanks!

 

Cake or gum? 1977 Dave Lopes

Last time gum held on for a 6-4 win. Who will come out on top here?

Hostess has Lopes at Candlestick Park, looking out at the field pregame. I'm not sure where Topps's photo was taken, but it's got Lopes balancing his bats in an interesting way, probably on deck. Both cards call him Dave, but his signature on the Topps card is Davey.

Part of the legendary Garvey-Cey-Russell-Lopes infield of the Dodgers of the 1970s and early 1980s, Lopes was one of the games’ preeminent speedsters who also had a powerful bat for a second baseman of the era. A four-time all-star who led the NL in stolen bases in 1975 and 1976, Lopes finished his 16-year career with 155 home runs and 557 stolen bases. After his playing career he spent 30 years as a coach for several major league teams, and served as the manager of the Milwaukee Brewers from 2000 to 2002. He retired from coaching after the 2017 season.
 

Bought a box of cards

I haven't been buying cards since I got laid off from my job. I still am getting severance and am hopefully close on a couple of opportunities (don't want to jinx it). However, I couldn't resist when I saw a post on Facebook Marketplace. A thrift store that I've been to a few times but never saw cards at, posted this photo, saying $30 a box or $0.10 a card. It looked so tempting I decided to take a look to see if I could find enough to be worth filling up a box.

I saw the post on Saturday night, and it had already been up for a day. I arrived at 10am Sunday morning as the place opened, not knowing if everything had been picked through, or there would be lots of people crowding around, or it would all be junk not worth going through. I was lucky on all counts, and ended up staying until 1:30, and would have stayed longer if I didn't have to go get my kid. I went through every box, probably 20-30 5,000 count boxes plus a lot of other random boxes, though the randoms were almost all junk wax. In the end I was able to fill up a 5,000 count box for $30. 

In those 3.5 hours I did a lot of digging, including crawling under the table and climbing on top to get at all of the boxes. In no particular order, here are some highlights of what I picked out.

Anyone spy some '88 Fleer Star Stickers? Some of these duplicate what I got yesterday. And there was a full 6-card '88 Fleer Headliners set. I only needed McGwire. Night Owl are you still working on this set? 

There were a few Empire Strikes Back cards in one of the boxes, plus a few other random modern Star Wars cards. There were a few other nonsport cards mixed in with those (sometimes I was just grabbing handfuls of cards that looked interesting. The firefighting cards were an odd nonsport set I'd never seen before. An interesting oddity but doesn't fit my collection so those are available.

How often do you see Topps Tiffany in collections like this? The back of the '89 really pops, the purple is more vibrant than on the traded sets.

There was a whole lot of '83 OPC. I didn't have a lot from this set so needed most of them.

Towards the end when I was running out of time I just grabbed handfuls of modern cards. The '97 and '99 Fleer Showcase are really shiny so they caught my eye and I grabbed a few hundred of them. All commons and minor stars. The '99s are split between row 2 and 3, the '97s are all row 1. Lots of dupes especially the '97s, so let me know if you need cards from these sets. I also grabbed a lot of Pacific from various years, and some other late 90s and early 00s random stuff.

About 40% of the cards I took were football cards, mostly Topps cards from the 70s and 80s, especially 80s. Lots of '87 and '88 as I casually try to fill those sets from my youth. I haven't sorted the football cards yet (almost done with sorting baseball) so I don't know how far along I got, and how much might have duplicated what I got from TCDB this week.

There was not much vintage but I found a little! Probably most fun were these 1971 Dell Today Stamps. In each case they were mixed in randomly with junk wax, in different boxes. There were probably more of these that I missed, couldn't flip through every card.

There was a box of 1970s cards, including '71s. I knew I only needed high numbers. Turns out I already had Wynne, and had Cain too. He isn't even a high number but the number wasn't visible on the back.

My first 1975 Shakey's Pizza card! Nice looking design. I already had the '74 Fleer Anson, it turns out. And cool Bart Starr football stamp!

More vintage oddballs. I don't collect APBA cards so that one is available. I think it is from 1987. The Hal Newhouser card is a 1977 TCMA. I already have the '69 Globe set but took the one I saw, Joel Horlen. And on the bottom is just the inside page of a 1969 Topps Expos stamp book. Manny Mota is the one stamp and it's one I needed.

The box I decided to fill had several box sets that I planned to check but never had the time so I just left them in there. The only one I needed was the '86 Exciting Stars. The rest I already had the cards from. They had already been picked clean of the stars. And the NFL Collect-A-Books box had some NBA Collect-A-Books inside. 

Cool oddball, a SWB Red Barons set.

I found one "hit" card and such a cool one, a bat card of 1960s Yankee Hector Lopez!

I like Coca-Cola cards so these were a nice find.

Some random fun football goodness.

At one point I found a few oddball Mattinglys, including a Broder! I did need a few of these.

I found a 1982 Topps Traded card I needed, it's a tough set to find in the wild. Interestingly this is not a card in a penny sleeve with a sticker on it. It is a card that has been laminated, and then a price tag put on the laminated card!

There were a lot of Phillies and Eagles cards in some of these boxes, I'm guessing they may have come from Philly at some point. There were some cool team-issued oddballs, including several copies of that Dave Gallagher card.

Finally, a couple more random vintage football cards, don't even remember why I took the photo but here it is.

I'm having a lot of fun with these and at some point will have a lot to trade out of it. A lot of the time I was the only one there, after a while another guy came in to look through the cards but we weren't in each other's way. When I was leaving I saw there were a lot more card boxes in another part of the store, with a few people going through them. I guess I need to decide if I want to spend the time and money to go back and look again this weekend.