Last week wasn't an April Fools joke, I was just too dang tired to do a Card of the Week. Sick as a Dog + Work + general life stuff = no time for blogging. As John Astin's character on Night Court would say though, "I'm feeling
much better now"... I'm still half assing my Card of the Week as usual though and I picked this one out at the last minute and I'm kind of distracted by some '88 Topps football I need to sort so I might not get this posted 'til Tuesday but I've scanned and uploaded for your viewing pleasure anyway late or not run on sentences be damned here you go folks a 1956 Topps Jim Konstanty!
Jim is best known for winning an MVP out of nowhere in 1950. 31 years before Rollie Fingers did it, Jim won the award as a relief ace for the 1950 Whiz Kids Phillies. Jim matched his career totals for wins with 16, saved another 22 games and helped the Phillies win the pennant. He never came close to that level of performance after that and only have one more decent year for the Phils before getting shipped off to the Yankees. Jim had a decent year with the Yanks in '55 going 7-2 with a 2.31 ERA in the Yankees pen. That was Jim's last hurrah and he was out of the league in '57. I recently put all my '56 cards into plastic sheets but this card didn't make it into the binder.
The thing is, this card is wet. I mean soaking wet. It's been that way since I first got the card. I'm not really sure where or when or
why I bought a card that is saturated with some unknown liquid. I might have got it in a lot, I might have bought it without realizing it was wet, I might have even seen it as a challenge to make it unwet. It's still wet though and I don't know why. It just won't dry and I'm afraid to take it back out of the top loader to see if I can dry it since it's wet and might deteriorate. I have no idea if it's just water or oil or what but the thing ain't drying out and I don't know what to do with it. I'm not putting a wet card in my binder that's for sure. Leaving it out doesn't seem to help dry it, and I'm not putting it near any heat source just in case whatever it's wet with is flammable. I could give it to Steve to immortalize in
Things Done to Cards, but it's not a Sox card so it probably won't work. I can't just get rid of it though, it's a 1956 Topps card of a
Yankee and a high series card to boot. It would be a real shame if I can't salvage the card, it's a nice card other than the whole dampness thing. You got a nice portrait of Jim, an action shot of him warming up in the bullpen and a shadowy figure and what appears to be a giant bipedal beaver watching Jim in the background. I really wish I could go back in time and take a gander at just what the heck happened to this poor card.
Jim is best known for winning an MVP out of nowhere in 1950. 31 years before Rollie Fingers did it, Jim won the award as a relief ace for the 1950 Whiz Kids Phillies. Jim matched his career totals for wins with 16, saved another 22 games and helped the Phillies win the pennant. He never came close to that level of performance after that and only have one more decent year for the Phils before getting shipped off to the Yankees. Jim had a decent year with the Yanks in '55 going 7-2 with a 2.31 ERA in the Yankees pen. That was Jim's last hurrah and he was out of the league in '57. I recently put all my '56 cards into plastic sheets but this card didn't make it into the binder.
The thing is, this card is wet. I mean soaking wet. It's been that way since I first got the card. I'm not really sure where or when or why I bought a card that is saturated with some unknown liquid. I might have got it in a lot, I might have bought it without realizing it was wet, I might have even seen it as a challenge to make it unwet. It's still wet though and I don't know why. It just won't dry and I'm afraid to take it back out of the top loader to see if I can dry it since it's wet and might deteriorate. I have no idea if it's just water or oil or what but the thing ain't drying out and I don't know what to do with it. I'm not putting a wet card in my binder that's for sure. Leaving it out doesn't seem to help dry it, and I'm not putting it near any heat source just in case whatever it's wet with is flammable. I could give it to Steve to immortalize in Things Done to Cards, but it's not a Sox card so it probably won't work. I can't just get rid of it though, it's a 1956 Topps card of a Yankee and a high series card to boot. It would be a real shame if I can't salvage the card, it's a nice card other than the whole dampness thing. You got a nice portrait of Jim, an action shot of him warming up in the bullpen and a shadowy figure and what appears to be a giant bipedal beaver watching Jim in the background. I really wish I could go back in time and take a gander at just what the heck happened to this poor card.
2 comments:
Jim is sporting glasses on par with Jim Breazeale's of 1973 Topps fame. talk about ahead of his time. i wonder if the whole arbiter of eyewear style thing comes with the given name Jim.
This guy ranks near the top of the list for "Worst guys ever to win a MVP". He had one good year and helped the Wiz Kids to the World Series.
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