Vintage background: Rendezvous Park

It wasn't just the expansion teams whose spring training photos made for interesting backgrounds. These two water towers loom over John "Blue Moon" Odom during the A's brief stay (1969-1972) at Rendezvous Park  in Mesa. Previously the spring home of the Cubs, Rendezvous Park housed the A's from 1969 to 1976.

The original park was built in 1895; this was torn down in 1979 to build the Mesa Convention Center. This photo from Digital Ballparks shows how prominent the water towers were (they appear to have disappeared with the ballpark).

Wallet Card at one of Brooklyn's oldest street signs

Between 1964 and 1984, New York City street signs were color coded by borough, with black being the color for Brooklyn. Beginning in 1984 the city moved to uniform green signs for all boroughs. This black sign at the corner of 7th Avenue and 1st Street in Park Slope may be the last survivor of this style of sign.

1981 Topps Dickie Thon

The front: Simple spring-training headshot of a very young-looking ballplayer.

The back: There is an error on this card – while Thon’s father’s name was Fred, his grandfather was also named Fred and that is the former player and manager in Puerto Rico.

The player: Dickie Thon was a promising young shortstop for the Astros in the early 1980s. After leading the NL in triples in 1982, Thon had a breakout season in 1983, hitting .286 with 20 HR, 79 RBI and 34 stolen bases. In April of 1984 he was hit in the face with a pitch, permanently damaging his vision. While he came back and was a serviceable major leaguer for several more years, he was never again a star.

The man: Born in Indiana while his Puerto Rican father attended Notre Dame, Thon grew up in Puerto Rico and did not speak fluent English until he was a teenager. He lives in Puerto Rico today, owning a baseball team in Santurce.

My collection: I have 70 of his cards, from 1980 to 1994. I would be interested in trading for 1983 Fleer Star Stickers #204.

What was in the star box

To answer a question from a commenter on the previous post, I guess I bought this lot as both trade fodder and for my own collection. I've tried to be "strategic" in card buying, but I find that just using my instincts seems to work best. There's enough consistency in what is in most lots, and what the prices are, that when I see something that stands out as different, I jump on it. I would say that I don't buy collections primarily as trade fodder, though, as unfortunately there aren't that many bloggers left (there are maybe a dozen or so people I trade with regularly), and I don't have the time to start with something like TCDB. I suppose I could try to flip cards, but I don't want to add the stress of trying to make money off of my hobby.

Anyway, here is what was in the star box. For these purposes I sorted by player, and then some miscellany. If you see anything you want let me know, it will be a while before I have everything sorted enough to know what I need and what to trade.

There were large numbers of certain superstars, few to none of others. No real rhyme or reason. Some huge stars like Ripken and Bonds for whom I've never seen so many of their cards in one place. If you see someone you have a PC for, I might be able to really help you out.

Piles of: Paul Molitor, Andy Pettitte, Mike Piazza, Kirby Puckett, Cal Ripken, Ivan Rodriguez, Nolan Ryan, Ryne Sandberg, Frank Thomas, Dave Winfield

 Piles of: Tom Glavine, Tony Gwynn, Randy Johnson, Chipper Jones, Greg Maddux, Don Mattingly

 Piles of: Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Wade Boggs, Barry Bonds, George Brett, Roger Clemens

 Miscellany: cards of retired players. I've never owned a Jewish Major Leaguers card - this is a full set of one of the update sets ("Record Breakers"). Several Front Row promos.

 Miscellaneous modern stars. One or two each of various stars.

 Nothing earlier than 1981 in these boxes. However there were some big star cards from the early 1970s. Maybe a set filler for somebody in here?

Baseball card story from Robert Stock

Robert Stock appeared in 42 games for the Padres in 2018 and 2019, going 2-1 with a 4.11 ERA, striking out 53 batters in 50.1 innings. He will pitch for the Phillies in 2020. He kindly answered my questions about baseball cards with this story:

"The first thing I ever read was the back of a Chipper Jones baseball card when I was young!"

Thanks!

Another big acquisition

Not my biggest, nor my best deal, but $40 for 3,000-4,000 cards with lots of stars and not much junk wax is a pretty good buy. I picked it up last night after work in Brooklyn (a $2M brownstone in Park Slope). Didn't realize just how much there would be - I ended up carrying two big garbage bags plus my own rather heavy bookbag through several Brooklyn streets, in the subway, and on the railroad. The things we do for cards.

Too much to show in one post, so I'll break it up into two parts. The first part is the volume, the second part is the big stars.

The "volume" is seven big boxes, basically hard plastic versions of 800-count boxes. Just showing the contests of each box. Needless to say there will be a lot of trade fodder, so if there are sets or players you are interested in, just let me know. I have a lot of sorting ahead of me though.

When this box popped open along the way, these were the first cards I saw other than the loose stars. I was annoyed until I found later on that this was definitely the least interesting box in the set. Here we have: Large stack of '98 Topps (there was tons of this set around the boxes, I'm hoping I have the last ones I need to complete the set); smaller stacks of '96 UD, '95 Stadium Club, '95 Ultra; 95 Topps (with some Cyberstats variations below); some random junk wax, small stacks of '95 Studio and '95 UD.

 

 Next box: Diamond Ink is some kind of Ultra contest card, not sure if I will consider them cards or not. Below that, another large stack of '98; and below that, quite a few "Minted in Cooperstown parallels". Next to those is a large stack of '98 Ultra, and quite a few "Gold Medallion" parallels. Also seen here: a few early '80s Donruss and Fleer, including some '84 Donruss which you rarely see in the wild; large stack of '96 UD (maybe I'll get close to finishing that set?), a few random cards including Finest and Score, A lot of Fleer Million Dollar Giveaway, small stacks of '95, '96 and '97 Topps, and '96 Leaf. Also what looks like the contents of one pack of '17 Stadium Club, including the famous swimming pool crd.

Next box: Large stacks of '99 Ultra and Stadium Club, smaller ones of Fleer Tradition and Upper Deck. Also small stacks of a few other sets. About a dozen Ron Darling cards, including that '86 Leaf on top. Most are with the A's though. The Topps Now card was in the Craigslist photo and one of the reasons I decided to buy the set. I have no interest in purchasing them online so was wondering when one would trickle down in a collection like this. Turns out this isn't exactly a usual Topps Now but a thank you they sent to all purchasers at the end of 2016. Still pretty cool though.

 Next box: Big stacks of '98 Ultra and Pinnacle. A couple of shiny Pinnacle parallels below. Also a large stack of '98 Stadium Club, and the one on top is some kind of numbered shiny parallel. A few stacks of other sets, some randoms (that Murphy is an '88 O-Pee-Chee, not Topps, quite a few '88 OPCs made their way in). Also a big stack of '98 Ultra.

 Next box: This one was very eclectic. A lot of this was stars organized by player. Some larger stacks of players include: Randy Johnson, Paul Molitor, Rickey Henderson, Eddie Murray, Ivan Rodriguez, Joe Carter, Albert Belle, Dave Winfield, Robin Yount. Notice three cards of each of the '88 OPC cards of Bobby Bonilla and Rafael Palmeiro. The Joe Torre on the bottom left is an oddball I haven't seen before. Apparently it's something called 1990 MVP Sportscards Baseball All-Star Card Game.

 Next box: This one is Ultra heavy. Lots of Ultra in these boxes which is great because they had some great photography in those years. '99 and '00 I believe, with lots of Gold Medallion parallels as well. Some other stacks include '95, '97, '99, '00 and '01 Topps, '96 and '01 UD, and a couple piles of randoms.

 Last box for now: A pile of reprints of early '50s Topps and Bowman sets. 90% Brooklyn Dodgers. Some '04 Heritage (made two piles by mistake). Stack of Upper Deck Power-Up. Some Bowman stacks, one stack just of Hometown parallels). Big stack of '97 Ultra, plus some Gold Medallion parallels. I think there are some other Gold Medallions in the big stack. Some '04 and '05 Topps, including '05 gold. Stacks of Albert Bell, Juan Gonzalez and Hideo Nomo as well.

That's plenty for now, tomorrow I'll show off the big box of stars.

Vintage Backgrounds: Keegan Field

Here's the last of the four 1969 expansion teams in 1970 Topps. When they were awarded the Padres' spring training site, the city of Yuma, Arizona constructed a modern, multi-field baseball complex that was considered one of the finest in the nation when it was built. However, for 1969 the Padres had to train at Keegan field, a local youth baseball field. According to an article by the Yuma County Library District, a community-wide effort got the field ready for 1969 Spring Training. Doc Mattei, the team's traveling secretary, said “The Marines built the lockers.  The electric company took light poles and made a batting cage.  Tanner Construction leveled the field.  We raised $3,000 from a raffle, $3,000 from a barbecue, another $3,000 selling bumper stickers.” Even with these improvements, there were not clubhouse facilities for the visiting team, the home team had to shower at an adjoining swimming pool, and capacity was less than 3,000 fans.

I found this photo striking with the palm trees and red signs. I assume this is Keegan Field, but the black-and-white overhead photo in the Yuma Library article is the only picture I could find of the park, so I could not confirm.

Wallet Card with another BMT/IND sighting

I was in the 6th avenue/34th street subway station and noticed a sign I hadn't seen before. These BMT/Independent signs are pretty rare (the lines have been defunct for about 50 years). I've taken photos of similar signs in another part of this station but this was in a different entrance.

1981 Topps Record Breaker: Willie Wilson

The front: Wilson is wearing a lot of Yankee Stadium dirt on his pants as he begins his swing. Wilson played in one day game in the Bronx in 1980, a 14-3 Royals victory on July 20. Wilson went 4-for-5 with a walk.

The back: Wilson’s record was broken by Jimmy Rollins, who had 716 at-bats in 2007. Others to top 700 in a season are Ichiro Suzuki (704 in 2004) and Juan Samuel (701 in 1984).