1986 Sportflics Decade Greats Juan Marichal

 

I love seeing the real Sportflics effect here with Marichal's famous high leg kick. It looks better in person.

The player: Juan Marichal came up with the Giants in 1960 and pitched a one-hitter in his debut, heralding the rise of a new star pitcher in the National League. Marichal won 191 games in the 1960s, the most in the major leagues, winning 20 games six times in seven years from 1963 to 1969. He never won the Cy Young Award, as first Sandy Koufax and then Bob Gibson dominated the league at the same time Marichal was consistently winning games. Chronic back pain and other injuries limited his effectiveness as an elite pitcher after the age of 33, so he did not put up huge career numbers as well. Still, his career numbers of 243-142, 2.89 ERA and 2,303 strikeouts rank him as one of the best pitchers of his era.

The person: Marichal generally lived a life without incident, with the major exception of August 22, 1965. In an already-tense game with brushback pitchers, Marichal was batting against Sandy Koufax when catcher John Roseboro's return throw grazed Marichal's head. Marichal hit Roseboro twice with his bat, opening a bloody gash that needed 14 stitches to close. Marichal was suspended for eight games, hit with a record fine, and instantly became one of the most hated men in sports. Despite his pitching accomplishments, baseball writers did not elect Marichal in his first two years of Hall of Fame eligibility. It was only after Roseboro publicly forgave him that he was elected to the Hall. Roseboro and Marichal reportedly became good friends after that. In the late 1980s and early 1990s Roseboro was an announcer and the director of the A's Dominican Republic operations. From 1996 to 2000 he was that country's Minister of Sports and Physical Education. He still lives in the Dominican Republic, on a large farm where he remains active.

My collection: I have his base Topps cards from 1962, 1967, 1968, 1971, 1973 and 1974.

A Year of Topps Designs: 1962

1962 was an all-time great year for set design at Topps. The baseball and football sets were instant classic. The woodgrain baseball set is iconic, and personally I think the black bordered football set with the action-photo inset is even better.

The hockey set is also quite good, with an action picture behind the player.

In non-sport, Topps put out a set for the movie Mars Attacks. The set remains well-known to this day, maybe even more than the film.

That set was all-horizontal, as was a Civil War news set which capitalized on the increased interest in the war on its centennial. Both of these sets were some of the most graphically violent sets in the company's history.

The only other set put out in 1962 was "Casey and Kildare", featuring the two heartthrob TV doctors. Each card was a black-and-white photo of one of the doctors, with the actor's facsimile signature.

Trade with BobbyL

Got some cards in a TCDB trade with a user named BobbyL. Most of the cards completed or nearly completed sets for me. In a couple of cases I thought they completed sets but they didn't.

1994 Donruss: completed

1995 Fleer: completed

1994 Score: completed

1995 Score: thought it was completed, turns out I need three more: 420 (Salmon), 602, 603 (checklists)

2016 Topps: thought it was completed, turns out I need two more: 167 (Ellsbury), 263 (Joc Pederson). So somehow there's a Yankee common from this set that's never landed my way. Turns out I already had the Maybin too.

1991 Ultra: completed

1994 Ultra: completed

1995 Ultra: need one more, 331 (A-Rod)

Got a few other cards from various sets as well, that were on my wantlist for various reasons:

 

Street trades going strong

I'm not in the city very much anymore, but I do try to pull off a street trade when I am in. This week I met up with Al at this table and a lot of cards changed hands.

This one was on Al's table but he was fine with me taking it; I guess it had been there a while with no takers. This 1958 card is one of the oldest and nicest cards I've gotten in one of these trades.

Everything else came from his boxes, like this minor league Frank Thomas card. It looks like a Broder but it was actually an insert card from a Best set.

I got catfished by this card, and I don't mean Jim Hunter. It was in a toploader and I thought it was some Expos oddball; it was actually three paper-thin baseball-card style business cards for this guy's financial services business. Apparently, Resner actually was a minor league coach for the Expos, and he also made a film of the last Giants game at the Polo Grounds that is quite well known. Still, I can't really consider this a legit baseball card.

Al has lots of these silver pack cards. Well, one of those is a shiny Bowman card, but same idea, shiny modern cards. Turns out I already had the Bregman.

Picked out some Yankees. Turns out I already had Teixeira and Wang too. Green sparkly Cervelli makes up for those mistakes.

Picked out a bunch of superstars figuring I'd need them, and I was right for all. Wally Backman isn't a superstar but I don't have many '88 Leaf cards.

Because I have wantlists for these sets on my blog, I could check these on my phone and confirm I needed them. Eloy Jimenez rookie card was a big deal when it came out; he's only 25 and had a pretty good season, so there's still a chance he could be a star.

From the eBay dime box

I've gotten a few more cheap singles from eBay recently.

This one wasn't actually a dime, ended up being thirty cents. I put $0.25 bids on any vintage cards I need; this one went up but not all the way to $0.30, so I bid again and didn't get beat. Al McBean is forgotten today, but he was the Pirates relief ace for much of the 1960s.

Balancing out McBean, this vintage card was somehow only a nickel. Two-time batting champion Tommy Davis was coming off an excellent season with the Mets, but appears to still be in Dodgers gear here.

Not vintage, but four nice shiny cards. All but Mikolas are numbered too (Narvaez 13/191, Jansen 10/38, Snell 7/85). Not bad for a dime each. I know it's not fashionable to praise Panini cards but these all look real nice to me.

 

Time Travel Football

Here are my latest Diamond Jesters Time Travel Trade pickups. All football this time.

The nicest one is this Alvin Harper card, with a photo by Walter Iooss. Unlike similar baseball cards, there is no story from the photographer, just a writeup of the player, but it's still a great card. Even though it's a Cowboy.

The rest are all from a 1993 Score insert set. There are no player names on the front which is an odd choice. Best card here is a Cowboy too, old Giants-killer Emmitt Smith.

 

Trade with alexewolf

Did another smaller TCDB trade recently, with alexewolf.

Most of the cards I got came from the 2021 Topps set. Some highlights include Brewers dabbing and Blue Jays using sanitizer.

There were also two cards from long before anyone would have imagined seeing either of those things on a baseball card.

Trade with Mark Zentkovich

Mark Zentkovich (mzentko on TCDB) isn't a blogger, but he's a frequent commenter. He reached out to me regarding a trade and we ended up with a nice little swap. This brings my needs for 2014 Topps under 50, and all but one are from series 2. Three big stars here, and one guy whose big league career lasted 28 games.

 

Johnny's Box Part III: A bit of everything

Johnny packed a lot of interesting things into that box. There was a whole lot more than just matchbooks and stamps. All of this stuff was a lot of fun to go through, and I'm happy to add these to my "old stuff" collection. However, I would also like to pay it forward and offer some of these items to bloggers who might also get a lot of enjoyment from some of these things.

There was a lot of bank-related ephemera in the box (as well as a lot of bank matchbooks). It's certainly a reminder of how frequently one had to go to the bank in the pre-internet days. I haven't been inside one in years, everything is online now. These envelopes from a local Georgia bank cover most of the months of 1978. There were a few dupes, so happy to pass them along to someone who might be interested in one or more.

Save your dimes in the Pocket Pig Coin Saver! That's a pre-Roosevelt dime on the cover, but I don't think this item is that old, probably 1950s or 1960s. Definitely a keeper.

This bank pouch is pretty cool. Some coin collectors also collect these; if you are one, happy to pass this along.

Maybe this should have gone with the stamps post. First day of issue envelope for the United States Post Office. Hard to believe that the post office as we know it is barely 50 years old.

New portable tape recorder! A brief internet search indicates these came out around 1965. No cassette tapes then, this was reel-to-reel.

This was apparently used to clean parts of telephone switchboards. The zip code dates it no earlier than mid-60s, but I'm guessing it's within 10 years of that time.

Any beer ephemera collectors out there? This is a coin bank in the shape of a Pabst Blue Ribbon can. Might fit into someone's collection, but note the bottom, it is pretty rusted.

The Upper Room is a Christian daily devotional magazine distributed to the Armed Forces and other organizations. One of these is from 1945, the other from 1961. It's always cool to get old magazines, but I know there are some bloggers for whom their religion is an important part of their lives, and would appreciate the content of these more than I would. Let me know in the comments or an email if you'd like either or both.

American Legion membership cards, 1942 and 1943. I've digitally blanked out the name.

Here is an envelope that would have come with some developed photographs. Hard to say for sure but it appears that the date is 1945.

This probably isn't that old. No area code so maybe 1970s or 1980s. Whoever owned this didn't get very far on their way to that night's stay in the honeymoon suite. Googled the place and all the links talk about how haunted this house is, apparently a hotbed of paranormal activity if you believe that. Maybe that's why this ticket didn't end up getting much use. It's not an inn anymore, so too late to keep adding to it, but maybe someone collects haunted house memorabilia?

I doubt this plastic figurine is very old. I'd guess 1970s or 1980s at earliest. Tried looking it up, you might be surprised how much Mr. Peanut merchandise is out there. Fit anyone's collection?

This was one of the coolest things in the box. It was actually in the bag with the stamps. It is a 1953 letter from Harilela's Emporium in Hong Kong.

Hari Harilela moved from India to Canton in 1930 and eventually started a business in Hong Kong. According to Wikipedia, he pioneered the idea of supplying custom-made suits by mail order. This letter is a receipt of payment - $34.50 in 1953 would be the equivalent of $383.52 today. Somebody ordered an expensive suit! (Or maybe a few cheaper suits). I am assuming that the "Harry Harilela" who signed this letter is the same as Hari Harilela, who a few years later diversified into real estate and hotel holdings, eventually becoming the richest Indian in Hong Kong, and served in a variety of public positions including Hong Kong Affairs Advisor to the Government of the People's Republic of China in the 1990s.

This one is probably my favorite, though. Somehow John's uncle had a January 1949 calendar issued by a van company based in the Bronx. Very exciting to get some local (to me) history. Looks like this business was around until at least the 1960s. That location, now a public parking lot, is less than a mile from Yankee Stadium.

Johnny's Box Part II: Stamps

Another of the collections from Johnny's Uncle Fred: A big bag stuffed with stamps. Like the matchbooks, these all appear to be from the 1960s-1980s.

Several sports-themed stamps.

Three stamps from the 1982 Knoxville World's Fair. I can think of one blogger for whom this might be quite relevant.

A variety of other stamps that caught my eye as just plain interesting. That 22 cent Love stamp I remember from my childhood; 22 cents are the oldest ones I remember using. Some other interesting subjects like Dinosaurs, New York, and the new Zip Code.

Lots of space-themed stamps.

A lot of the stamps were kept with the original postmark, which made them more interesting to me. A lot of them were postmarks from in and around Georgia, but here's one from the Grand Central Station post office. I used to mail card packages from there, though after a few years ago I switched to a less-crowded post office on 43rd Street, then started using the one by Penn Station. Now of course I mail them all out from Long Island.

I greatly enjoyed going through all of these stamps, spending hours going through them. However, I don't think this package is going to make a stamp collector out of me. Unlike matchbooks which provide a snapshot of their time, stamps are almost always backwards-looking, so they don't represent as well the time in which they were printed. If anyone collects stamps I'd be happy to send some or all your way - and if you have certain kinds of stamps you are interested in, I'm happy to look for some for you. (I think these were almost all domestic, a few Canada and Mexico/Latin America). 

The ones with the postmark were the most interesting to me, helping to give a sense of time and place. None were more evocative than this combination, a 1968 postmark with a Law and Order stamp.