A football trade

I'm probably not buying any more vintage football, but I'm happy to do more vintage football trades. These cards came from a trade with reader Ken, with whom I recently did a vintage baseball trade. 

Here's a few '74s, mostly checklists but a few players including Staubach. A couple of nicer photos from the '78 set as well.

Here's a dozen '73s, almost all of them big names. My favorites are the two in the lower center, MacArthur Lane and Bubba Smith. Cards like those two I'd be happy to trade for all day long.

 

1986 Sportflics Decade Greats Mel Ott

 

On-the-field trivia: Mel Ott was known for an unusually high leg kick to generate his powerful swing; Sportflics used photos from both sides that showcased the kick. Ott retired in 1947 with 511 home runs, 200 more than any other National Leaguer and third all-time behind Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx. He led the National League in home runs six times, and in walks seven times, walking almost twice as many times as he struck out in his career (1708 to 896). 

Off-the-field trivia: One of the most popular men in baseball among both players and fans, Ott managed the Giants throughout the 1940s; he was the "nice guy" in Leo Durocher's famous "nice guys finish last" quote. Sadly, he died from injuries sustained in a car accident in 1958, a fate later shared by fellow New York Giants Hall-of-Famers Carl Hubbell and Frankie Frisch. Since 1959, the National League has presented the Mel Ott award to the league home run champion. 

My collection: I do not have any playing-days cards of Ott. His last card as an active player was 1943 MP and Co.

Some more football cards and an update

 You may remember that the USPS misdelivered a couple of eBay football card orders and the best I could get from them was a handwritten note on a Google maps printout from the post office. Well, surprise of surprises, I am actually getting a refund from eBay on the $20 purchase, and am still waiting to hear about the $10 purchase. It took a call and quite a few emails with their customer service, but I am definitely feeling better about that fiasco.

While that was going on I did make one small purchase of a late '70s football lot. I have to say it kind of confirmed my "meh" feeling to vintage football. They're fun but not as much fun as I thought they would be.

Here are my favorite cards in the lot. Highlighted by some guys sitting on the bench, and a guy named "Joe Lavender" rocking some cool shades (which he sports on several other cards as well, apparently).

I don't regret the purchase but I am losing my enthusiasm for picking up more of these, though I'm still happy to trade for vintage football cards (and have quite a few from throughout the 70s to trade). What I do plan to do is to go through each set on TCDB and see which cards look most interesting to me, and make a want list just of them.

Cardboard Cousins: '76 Topps / '15 Archives

 2015 Archives included '57 and '76 designs. Today I picked a '76 pair, both #144. Al Fitzmorris and Yordano Ventura were starting pitchers who each won 11+ games three years in a row. Tragically, Ventura was killed in a car accident after the 2016 season. Fitzmorris was not protected by the Royals in the 1976 expansion draft despite winning 15 games for the club, due to conflicts with manager Whitey Herzog. He was drafted by the Blue Jays who traded him to the Indians. Both pitchers were on the 2019 ballot for the Royals Hall of Fame. It does not appear anyone was actually selected from this ballot; the last inductee was in 2015. 

Cards and Vintage Things: September 24-25-26, 1964

 Thursday-Saturday, September 24-25-26 of 1964 were marked by freedom movements in Africa, with the capital of Congo seized by rebels, and a war for independence launched by the Mozambique Liberation Front. In the US, the Warren Commission presented it's findings to President Johnson, while the TV season kicked off with new shows debuting including The Munster, Gomer Pyle and Gilligan's Island.

Meanwhile in Williamsport, PA, the 85th Annual Pennsylvania State Firemen's Convention was held. The convention was concluded with a parade on Saturday that had 3,000 marchers over 3,000 hours. There was a "Mardi Gras atmosphere" in downtown Williamsport including a makeshift reviewing stand in front of the county prison and young boys trying on "Beatle" wigs.

Many of these dated matchbooks came from a seller in the Philadelphia area. The last of these posts had a quite positive Phillies team in June of 1964. September was a different story for the squad, as a ten game losing streak at the end of September ruined their pennant chances in one of the biggest collapses in baseball history. These were losses 4, 5 and 6 of the streak, all at home against the Braves. One player who couldn't be blamed for the collapse was rookie Dick Allen. Allen had eight hits in thirteen at bats in the three games, including a triple and home run. In the other seven games of the losing streak Allen hit .346. I wonder if Allen's teammates hadn't collapsed, and he became seen as a young hero of a surprise pennant-winner and possibly World Champion, might his career might have gone much smoother?

Vintage backgrounds: Where is Tom Egan?

 There's a lot going on Tom (or Tommy, as he signed his name) Egan's card. There are a few fans in the stands, the gates probably just recently opened. There's a notice on the dugout wall, another Angel lounging on the steps. There even appears to be some bunting on the fence near the dugout. But where is this?

Egan is wearing his home uniform. In 1966 the newly renamed California Angels opened Anaheim Stadium. However, this doesn't really look like Anaheim Stadium. Also, why does Egan, who had only played in the majors with the Angels in 1965 and 1966, have his cap airbrushed? Perhaps, then, this is 1965, when the team was known as the Los Angeles Angels, and Topps airbrushed out the LA from his cap. But the Angels played in Dodger Stadium this year, and this certainly isn't Dodger Stadium.

I think this is actually Yankee Stadium! The colors and shape of the dugout match the old Yankee Stadium more closely than either LA ballpark, I think. In 1965, Egan was an 18-year-old "bonus baby" who had to spend the season on the major league roster. Perhaps while in Yankee Stadium early in the year the Angels (or Topps) decided to take some photos of their new player and put him in the home whites even though they were on the road. The Angels actually played the Yankees at home in the first week of the season, but later in April the Yankees opened their home schedule against the Twins and Angels; perhaps the bunting was still up for opening week.

Wallet Card at Royol Home Appliance

 In 1936 an appliance dealer and repair shop called Royol opened in Freeport, NY. At some point in the 1960s or 1970s the name changed to Willig-Royol. The location is now called C&C Appliance, but you can still see "Royol" in a sidewalk sign at the entrance to the store.

Here is an advertisement for the store from 1952:

Some items the USPS actually delivered

 This week I received my first eBay purchase since my big USPS fiasco last month. It was a small lot of 1969s for a good price, just under a quarter of a card shipped. This week I tempted fate by daring to order a small football lot; let's see what happens there.

The big attraction for the '69 lot was that it was stocked with high numbers. These were the cards I needed from the set, all high numbers and some moderately big names, too:

Here's the trade bait from that lot. The cards on the bottom are all high numbers.

Fuji sends cards that reach for the sky

 I got a very nice package of cards this week from Fuji. It started from my recent comment that I was interested in the New York buildings from the Allen & Ginter Reach for the Sky insert set. Fuji sent me this great Empire State Building card.

The building on the lower right side of the card is where I worked from January 2009 until March 2020 when Covid made me a full-time work-from-home employee. The buildings on the right side of the card were what I would see when looking out the window of our main conference room, at about this height from the street. So this card makes me weirdly nostalgic for sitting in meetings waiting for them to end.

The rest of the package was very Yankees focused. Some great cards here including a 1960 Johnny Blanchard.

My favorite one is the Marv Throneberry card which appears to be spring training action with water right past the third base line. Sure enough, Al Lang Stadium, where the Yankees trained during Marvelous Marv's time with the team, had it's third base line just across the street from Tampa Bay.

This was actually my favorite card in the package, as I was forced to do some sleuthing to figure out what the heck it was.

Turns out it's a 1975 Fleer Cloth Pennant Sticker. You can read all about it on the Fleer Sticker Project blog. Very cool oddball item.

Some of the cards Fuji sent me that I had already. He sent me a bunch of Yankees from the 1993 Upper Deck All Time Heroes set, but I already have the full set so that is available for trade, as are the three early '70s cards below.

Interview with former Fleer photographer Lou Sauritch

 One of the company's original baseball card photographers, Lou Sauritch worked at Fleer for 23 years. I spoke with him on the phone and he kindly answered my baseball card questions with some great stories.

"My brother had a surfboard company and Tim Flannery was going to do a photo with the surfboard to promote it. I initially suggested taking the photo at the beach but Flannery didn’t want to. He said “Have your brother bring the board to the stadium” which is what we did.

The Bill Ripken card (photographed by Steve Babineau) was so surprising to me because the photo had to be checked so many times  – first of all you get the picture, then it goes to Fleer, then it has to go to print it. After that card came you had to check everything. One time I was shooting Juan Berenguer with the Giants. I shot regular and then I shot up from underneath. Later I got the film back and I saw that the bottom of the brim of his hat said “a*****e” on it. I asked Juan about it the next time I saw him. He said “Yeah, when Roger Craig comes to take me out, I flip the hat up at him”.

Terry Forster’s card in 1981, our first year, he has his leg crossed with a big smile. I was shooting him in the dugout and he farted very loudly, the whole dugout started laughing.

My favorite cards - I took photos of my son who played in the minors for the Orioles for three years before he got injured. Fleer had minor league cards at the time. This was in Bluefield, West Virginia and then when he came up to California, High Desert. I had shot his managers like Butch Wynegar, Andy Etchebarren, Joe Ferguson.

The Flannery card was another favorite because it was different. All the card companies were boring until Upper Deck came out and you had action shots and guys in the dugout, it really helped the industry.

I made a lot of good friends among the players. Don Baylor was a good friend of mine, we stayed close until he passed away, that was very difficult. Rod Carew and I talked every day.  I’ve known him since 1979. We used to golf all the time until his heart attack. 

I used to photograph both Griffeys, I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania near where they lived. I did a lot of work for Gargoyle Sunglasses that he used to promote.  I got a call from Griffey’s agent right after he signed the glasses contract, he told that if there was any ad work I would do it. That was a great experience.

In Bo Jackson’s rookie year, my friend Mitch Haddad, the Donruss photographer, and I were trying to take photos of him but he kept refusing.  We explained the situation to Frank White, and he said “Bo, get over here.  See these two guys here, they’re good guys, you do what they tell you,” and he posed for us. Mitch now photographs TV shows - George Lopez, West Wing, NCIS. We used to travel all the time together. We were buddies, would share a room, go to rib places.

We had a good relationship with certain veterans. The rookies would see them talking with you and know “this guy must be decent”.  Made good friends like Baylor and Carew. 

Some were difficult. Dave Kingman was a real a*****e. One time there was nobody around, he was just leaning on the batting cage. I politely went up to him and said “Dave, can I get a few shots of you?” He got angry and said, “Can’t you see I am thinking!” Another time he told me he wanted a picture with his dog. I wanted to say no but I didn’t.

I did take a photo of Jason Giambi with his dog. I saw him with the dog and asked “Can I take a picture with your dog?”, and he said “Yeah, sure!”

Some of these guys were real characters. Dan Plesac – He originally wanted one where he was stretching out on the ground like a first baseman reaching for a throw. Fleer wouldn’t go for it, but we got one instead where he posed as a hitter with a bat and helmet.

Mark Grant was another one – he told me to go high up in the stands, he was going to have a catcher’s mask in his hand, reaching for a pop fly. Fleer said no to the photo. I told them, “Do you think I could get a pitcher to take that pose if he didn’t want to?” We ended up doing the one that looked like he was a hockey goalie with a baseball bat and glove.

I shot football too – that wasn’t as enjoyable. I like football but it’s much harder. I had an editor that would get on you all the time. He would watch the highlights and ask why I didn’t get a shot of a big catch. I told him I have to shot 36 guys at a time. I got him to come with me to a game in Philadelphia, we got to the game and I said, “You tell me where to shoot.” After the game was over he told me “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize.” We also had to do headshots on the bench and hope the players would look at you. You don’t get to know the players the way you do in baseball. My high school buddy Dave Dalby who played for the Raiders I would see before the game. But most of the players you couldn’t communicate with because they were so whacked out on game day.

Magic Johnson’s rookie year I shot the Lakers. A friend of mine worked for Ebony Magazine and needed some pictures of Magic.

I got into photography because I collected cards. I went to these collectors shows all the time, and I met the curator of the Angels Hall of Fame. He tells me, “Why don’t you start a company writing press guides and doing the photos?” I ended up doing 18 of the 24 teams at the time. Then I got a press pass for the Angels, borrowed my brother’s camera, and got more and more into it. I was not the team photographer but gave them lots of photos. Then in 1980 I saw a tiny article in the LA Times about the baseball card lawsuit, and called Fleer. About two months later they called me back and I started working for them. Steve Babineau and I were their first two photographers – he did the East Coast and I did the West Coast. I worked for them from 1980 through 2003 spring training. The industry was sliding, we had been sold a number of times. They went under shortly after, so I got out at the right time. There are so many cards these days – people come up to me all the time asking what their cards are worth, but they’re usually not worth anything."

Thanks!