Contest winnings plus more

I was one of the lucky winners at a recent contest at Chavez Ravining. My prize was this autographed card of Lance McCullers Jr. I remember his dad as part of the Yankees' disastrous Jack Clark trade. Great looking card.

 Alex also threw in some other cards from my wantlist. Here are some Bowman cards, mostly errors of one kind or another. Look carefully at Ervin Santana's facsimile autograph on the lower right.

 Also, a few of my needs from the 2019 Topps Opening Day set.

Thanks!

Vintage backgrounds: Where's Boog?

One of the most popular cards in the 1975 set is Boog Powell calling for a foul pop-up. Where is it? It's difficult to say for certain, but I think this is Metropolitan Stadium in Minnesota, which was known for it's unusually-shaped foul pole. Powell played in one day game in Minnesota - August 11, 1974. He caught three popups that day. Attendance was 27,363, over half capacity, for Harmon Killebrew day. So why does the ballpark look so empty? My guess is that this may actually be from pregame warmups, as some of the fans are turned away from the game and another is walking to her seat.

Three HOF sluggers

I picked these three cards of Hall of Fame outfielders from the last (?) Free Card Friday at Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary. That's 1,241 home runs from these three.

1981 Topps Dave Bergman

The front: I believe this photo was taken at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

The back: Bergman's two-run triple was part of a four-run tenth inning in Game Two. The Astros won the game but lost the series.

The player: Bergman had a long career as a part-time player for the Yankees, Astros, Giants and especially the Tigers, for whom he played in 9 of his 17 seasons. In only four of those seasons did he have over 200 at-bats, and he topped 300 just once. Overall in 1,349 games he hit .258 with 54 HR and 289 RBI.

The man: After his playing career Bergman went into a career in banking. He was also active in the Joe Niekro Foundation's efforts to raise awareness of brain aneurysms. He died of cancer in 2015.

My collection: I have 57 of his cards, from 1976 to 1992. I would be interested in trading for 1984 Topps Traded #11.

Cardboard Cousins: 1961 Topps/2010 Heritage

Looks like in 2010, Topps followed the '61 set very closely for the first 200 cards or so, then petered out except for the checklists. Here are the cases where I have the match for each set.

#361 Fifth Series Checklists. The '61 set had photos from a random game in Wrigley Field on the checklists; the '10 set had photos from the 2009 World Series. Both look great.

 #273 4th Series Checklist.

 #199 KC hitters.

 #196 Cubs infielders.

 #178 Cardinals outfielders.

 #174 Washington pitchers.

 #165 Pirates outfielders.

 #132 The last two White Sox managers to win a pennant

 #130 Dodgers first basemen.

 #119 KC multi-player cards

 #116 Yankees infielders

 #102 Orioles outfielders.

 #100 Pirates pitchers.

 #93 Phillies outfielders.

 #77 All-star rookie pitchers

#73 Braves outfielders

 #72 Giants pitchers

 #60 Indians shortstops

 #36 Twins pitchers

Cards and vintage things: July 1948

One of the things I picked up from Don & Chris Old Stuff was a July 1948 calendar blotter from Great-West Life Assurance Company. I picked it up because that is the month my Mom was born. Looking for a baseball highlight from that month, I found that on this date in 1948, the Pirates' outfield of Ralph Kiner, Johnny Hopp and Wally Westlake set a major league record with 19 outfield putouts. The record-setting effort didn't help the Pirates cause though; they lost to the Reds 6-4 when the Pirates blew a 4-3 lead in the ninth thanks to a Ted Kluszewski game-tying home run that these guys couldn't catch up to, followed by two infield errors to allow the winning runs to score.

Vintage backgrounds: Palm Springs Mountains

In the 1970s the Angels trained in Palm Springs. According to Wikipedia, Palm Springs is sheltered by the San Bernardino Mountains to the north, the Santa Rosa Mountains to the south, by the San Jacinto Mountains to the west and by the Little San Bernardino Mountains to the east. I don't know what direction this photo was taken, but it has to be some of the most mountain seen on a baseball card.

Also noticeable is the black ribbon on Doyle's sleeve. GCRL/Cards as I see them has the definitive reference on memorial patches/ribbons. This ribbon, worn only in spring training of 1974, was for minor leaguer Bruce Heinbechner, who was killed in a car accident during spring training.

1981 Topps Victor Cruz

The front: One of the happiest players in the set.

The back: Cruz was the Blue Jays' top rookie in 1978; rather than hanging on to him they traded him to Cleveland for Alfredo Griffin.

The player: After Cruz's excellent 1978 season he had a few decent seasons in the Cleveland, Texas and Pittsburgh bullpens. Overall in 187 games he went 18-23 with 37 saves and a 3.09 ERA.

The man: Cruz died at the age of 46 in 2004. Shawn, a commentor on Cruz's profile on the 1980 Topps Blog said "I talked to Sid Monge once at a minor league game and Monge said that Cruz had massive weight issues and 'Victor ate himself out of baseball and then ate himself to death'."

My collection: I have eight of his cards, from 1979 to 1982. I would be interested in trading for 1984 TCMA Oklahoma City 89ers #20.

Free cards from Penny Sleeves

The godfather of the Free Card Friday trade is Jon from Penny Sleeve for your Thoughts. (Jon Pennysleeves - sounds like a Dickens character.) I got a very nice selection of vintage and nearly-vintage cards from him.

Some great vintage here. Romo is an OPC. The Roy Face is my first 1960 Leaf card. Leaf wasn't Canadian at this time. In person the card is kind of glossy, looks like a 1960 photograph, kind of like the Topps deckle edge cards.

 The top row here is all oddballs from 1979. Not truly vintage in my book but still very cool. And no way I could pass up a Tanaka or a Munson.

 I have very few vintage football cards - this is my first from 1970 Topps. Ernie Koy Jr., son of a former major league baseball player, posing at Yankee Stadium with a backdrop familiar from hundres of baseball cards over the years. Fantastic card.

Free cards from Dime Boxes

Nick from Dime Boxes has been giving away quite an eclectic mix of cards in his recent Free Card Fridays. Lots of fun! Here are my recent claims:

Vintage cards! Holtzman is an OPC.

 Eighties oddballs! I may be more excited for these than for the vintage. I have very few pre-1986 minor league cards in my collection. I also love Broder cards, and the Randy Lerch is a Canadian oddball I'd never seen before. Stuart was a Montreal-based bakery, kind of a French-Canadian Hostess.

 I picked a few modern cards too. Some Yankee fan favorites and a very shiny Panini card highlight this bunch.