1981 Topps Jim Norris

 
The front: Simple spring training headshot.

The back: Norris's diving catch of a line drive by the Angels' Tony Solaita with two outs in the ninth inning saved the game for the Indians.

The player: The best baseball player to come out of Seaford, Long Island, Jim Norris played for the Indians and Rangers from 1977 to 1980. In 489 major league games he hit .264 with 7 HR, 110 RBI and 59 SB.

The man: Norris seems to have kept a very low profile during and after his playing career.

My collection: I have six of his cards, from 1978 to 1981. I would be interested in trading for 1975 Oklahoma City 89ers #17.

Cardboard cousins: '71 Topps/'20 Heritage.

 I only have nine cards from this year's Heritage set. That doesn't mean I'm in a rush to get more - that set, like Gypsy Queen, Archives, and Allen and Ginter, I seem to mostly pick up through blogger giveaways or random collection acquisitions. For eight of those cards I had a match in '71 Topps (still need '71 Topps #1). These two stood out:

#26 star pitchers. I guess Quintana isn't really as big a star as he used to be - seems to have struggled more with the Cubs. Still, couldn't pass up squeezing in a HOF rookie card.

#247 Royals rookies. I have no idea why Topps couldn't keep the colors the same. Too soon to tell if either Staumont or Starling will become a Royals star like Paul Splittorff. Looks like Staumont is having a nice season out of the bullpen though.

Cards and vintage things: Tricky Dick and the Swingin' A's

 My Don and Chris Old Stuff order had a lot of Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) material. I'm guessing they produced a lot more stuff than they ended up using. I picked up this and another flyer (I'll show it in another post) not for any love of Nixon, but just because I thought it was cool to have something that was supposed to be posted up on telephone poles or something and then thrown out almost 50 years ago, but still survived.

According to the daily Presidential diary, Nixon arrived in Warren,OH (about an hour outside of Cleveland) at 5:20, so the crowd must have been waiting for a long time. It appears this was actually a motorcade that traveled through several Ohio towns. The President and First Lady stopped briefly at the courthouse to greet some members of the crowd, before moving on to Youngstown.

This motorcade took place about a week after the Oakland A's won their first World Series since they were in Philadelphia in 1930. Two Cleveland natives were on that team - Sal Bando and Mike Hegan. They presumably were not at the event but likely were aware of it. Bando and several other A's had actually already met Nixon, at an August 1971 White House event during Vida Blue's historic run.

Vintage backgrounds: Under the bridge

 I was intrigued by this card of Rick Manning, in Cleveland's infamous all-red uniform, seemingly taking a swing while under a bridge. I think this is a spring training ball park but I don't know where. Any ideas?

1981 Topps Brian Downing

 
The front: Here you get a pretty good look at Downing's stance, one of the more unusual ones in baseball. Downing had a very open stance where he almost faced the pitcher, much like Tony Batista in more recent years. Looks like Yankee Stadium, which would make this September 7, 1980, when Downing went 0-for-3 in a 4-1 loss to the Yankees. That would be Rick Cerone's mitt peeking behind Downing.

The back: That .326 average is not even on the top 10 list in Angels history any more. Darin Erstad's .335 average in 2000 is the team's record. Nine different players are in the team's top 10 list for single season batting average. None are named Mike Trout. (Trout's rookie-season .326 average in 2012 is his career high).

The player: Downing was a catcher for the White Sox and Angels in the 1970s. He saved his career by adapting the wide-open batting stance which helped him become a .326 hitter in '79 and a perennial 20-HR threat. A broken ankle in 1980 led him to play in just 30 games that year and switch to the outfield. Downing last played in the field in 1987 but remained a regular DH for the Angels, and then the Rangers, through 1992. In 2,344 games he hit .267 with 275 HR and 1,073 RBI. He had a keen batting eye, walking more times in his career than he struck out (1,197-1,127).

The man: Downing kept a low profile after his playing career, moving to a small town in Texas and distancing himself from baseball. According a to a 2012 article from the Angels Win blog, Downing felt disrespected by the Angels, leading to his post-career bitterness. According to the comments on that post, Downing was either one of the classiest, nicest players in the game or a jerk who would loudly yell at his wife in public.

My collection: I have 74 of his cards, from 1974 to 1992. I would be interested in trading for 1982 Fleer Stamps #215.

Cardboard cousins: '70 Topps/'19 Heritage

 I have a lot of '70 Topps (though few stars or high numbers) but only a handful of '19 Heritage.

#224 Topps matched up pitchers from the Pilots/Brewers franchise.

#196 NL playoffs. Saved by the Belli was from the Dodger cards I got from Night Owl last week.

#117 Cubs outfielders

#114 Yankees shortstops

#98 Tigers outfielders

#82 Yankees backup catchers

#61 NL Batting Leaders. Two big stars and one OK guy, on both cards.

Cards and vintage things: Model Railroader

A couple of times a year we would take the kids to a model train show in our area. They like to look at the model cities, towns, countryside, etc. We go with my father-in-law who is a big train fan. They usually have stacks of train magazines and catalogs that are free to take on your way out.  The kids like to take some for art projects and such. The last time we were there, some time last year, I noticed some much older-looking magazines. My father-in-law and I split up what we could find. I ended up with four from 1948-1949, two from 1961 and one from 1973. I'm not really into model trains but it's always interesting to read anything from that era. 

Here are the four oldest ones with some cards of the most famous baseball player/model railroader, Joe DiMaggio. DiMaggio was a big fan of model trains and hosted a short-lived TV show for Lionel in 1950. He once appeared on the cover of a magazine called Model Builder with a train set. He was never on the cover of Model Railroader but here is a 2007 article about celebrity modelers which mentions him.

Vintage backgrounds: 1957 Topps Don Kaiser

 This was one of the cards I got recently from Cards as I See Them. It's an interesting background but I can't place it. It looks like there is a scoreboard on the right side of the card. Kaiser is wearing a road uniform so it is presumably one of the other seven NL parks in 1956. Most of the NL scoreboards were square. The only one that flared up on the sides like this one was the Polo Grounds. However the grandstand at the Polo Grounds was much closer to the scoreboard than most other parks and would have been more prominent here, I think. This one has me stumped. Any suggestions? 

1981 Topps Sammy Stewart

First off, RIP Lou Brock, baseball Hall of Famer who shared his thoughts on cards with this blog in 2012.

The front: I'm pretty sure this is Yankee Stadium. That would make this August 10, 1980. Stewart came into a 4-4 game in the sixth inning, and in the seventh allowed an RBI groundout to give the Yankees a 5-4 lead. Stewart was bailed out by Rick Dempsey and Eddie Murray, who got RBI hits in the top of the ninth to give the O's a 6-5 win.

The back: Stewart went to Owen High School in Swannanoa, NC.

The player: Stewart spent his ten year career (eight years in Baltimore) almost entirely in middle relief. In 359 games (25 starts) he went 59-48 with 45 saves and a 3.59 ERA.

The man: After his baseball career Stewart became addicted to crack, was arrested 26 times and spent several years in prison. He died of heart disease in 2018.

My collection: I have 32 of his cards, from 1979 to 1988. I would be interested in trading for 1984 All-Star Game Program Insert #NNO.

Wonderful vintage from Wax Pack Wonders

 It's hard to add a new regular trading buddy since I've just been doing PWEs since March. Wax Pack Wonders only started in April but we've already traded a few times. This time it was a vintage trade. As many of you know I don't really care about condition with vintage cards (or any cards, for that matter). For those of you who are, though - look into a trade with Jeff. These are some of the nicest conditioned vintage I've ever seen. Particularly the '63-'68 in the photo below - almost all look pack fresh, with the '63-'68 cards having four sharp corners. I've almost never seen that on a vintage card.

The back of the '66 Bobby Klaus has one of the strangest cartoons I've seen on a card. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be Bobby or his brother that's dressed like a woman.

(I know, it's supposed to be the mom. Mrs. Klaus, I guess. Doesn't really match with the way the caption is written, though.)