September Vintage Card Show - '54 Set Needs

The holidays are literally murdering me right now but I want to post cool stuff but I also want to be lazy and this card is already scanned and ready to go and I really need to finish posting these before 2014 but I probably won't make it and what I really really need to do is get an editor because this sentence is dreadful.

Have yourself a merry little RAABLONSKI

 

Here is my ranking of pre-standard size Topps sets:

#1) 1953 Topps. Best set of all time now and Forever

#1a) 1956 Topps. Best set of all time that doesn't have an actual Master Class Painting on every card

#3) 1951 Topps. Really neat oddball set that I wish was easier to find

#4) 1954 Topps. Great color and photo, but the flipped card backs infuriate my OCD

#5) 1955 Topps. The Beta version of 1956 Topps that had many bugs that needed to be worked out

#9001) 1952 Topps. Completely overrated ugly pile of impossible to collect junk AKA the precursor to all modern day Topps sets

Don't get me wrong, I love the set. I'll take a '54 Topps card over most anything. When I'm knee deep in  vintage cards at a show this set tends to take a back seat to other needs. I didn't completely neglect the '54s this time out, I'll take a cheap beater card of a '50s All Star any day.

Tuesday Night Charlie Silvera

because charlie silvera

June Cards Show Loot - Phifity-Phour Phillie

Paul Penson looks at me in disgust at how many blog posts I've slacked oph on lately.

I don't care because I philled a hole in my '54 set phor a couple clams.

Don't be a hater, Paul.

January Vintage Show Top 20 - #9 '54 Ford With a Beat Up Chassis

Yyyyyyyeeeeaaaaaahhh... There ain't no way I'm going to post all these things before the card show this weekend. I'll just accelerate my pace of one card every 4 weeks. Here's one of the things I love the most: a 1954 Topps card of a Hall of Famer in absolutely dreadful condition.

One thing that '54 Topps did really well was balance the small action photo with the larger portrait photo. That is not the case with this card. Topps balanced TWO action photos beautifully on this card! The large posed color action shot of Whitey about to pitch perfectly frames the small posed black and white photo of his follow through. It even looks like tiny Whitey is stepping off the O in his big color jersey. It's beautiful! Ok, it looks like a middle school scrapbooking project that was done the morning it was due, but that's the true beauty of 1954 Topps. Pretty much all the cards look like that.

Let's parse the back here a bit. First of all "Whitey's" name is put in "quotes" no less than "two" times. Topps could have called him "Edward" but no one has ever called "Whitey" Ford "Edward" ever, not even his "Momma". So if any of you all think "unnecessary quotations" are a "recent invention" then you should "think again".

The stats on the back confused me at first. Whitey Ford had as many walks as strikeouts? A WHIP pushing 1.5? Then I realized this was his first full year as a Yankee starter. This is actually his third year card, preceded by issues in 1951 and 1953.

A few observations about the cartoon. First, in 1949, Whitey played in Binghamton, not Kansas City. He wasn't in Kansas City until 1950, the year of his Debut with the Yanks. The sleazy looking Yankees executive in the second panel may be Yankee GM George Weiss. I thought about making a "Whitey" joke here but thought better of it. Look up George Weiss, you'll figure it out. The last cartoon panel is fantastic. You wouldn't think a baseball on the shoulder and a whoosh line would effectively convey a batter striking out badly, but in this case it somehow does.

I think I picked this one up for five bucks. That's going to be my default price for anything I can't remember since I know I picked up quite a few superstar cards for five a pop. If you think that's not a great price for a card in this crummy condition, check out this:



That sucker is listed for $58.50.  Aww yeah, I did good.

Here's the complete list of Top 20 posts. See if you can guess what cards are coming up!

#20 - Wantlist Fail Part 1
#19 - Dollar Box Gem
#18 - At Least He's a Hall of Famer Now
#17 - Thurman Inaction
#16 - Cocktail Hour
#15 - Kid Stuff
#14 - Clubbed Cub
#13 - Cheapest High Number I Could Find
#12 - '59, Dude!
#11 - Look at the Whistler
#10 - Heartbreaking Taunt
#9 - '54 Ford With a Beat Up Chassis
#8 - King of the Bums
#7 - Joy of a Completed Page
#6 - HOW THE HELL IS THIS NOT IN THE TOP FIVE?!?!
#5 - Oh, because this one is...
#4 - Awwww, come ON.
#3 - Admit It, You Knew This Was Coming
#2 - Wantlist Fail Part 2
#1 - Feat of Clay

Joy of a Completed Team Set - 1954 Topps

I finally finished it!

What's that? The Aaron? It's uhhhh... supposed to look like that. I had to get one in really bad condition. So bad it's smaller than normal and is printed on Chrome stock. I think it got hit by radiation or something. You know, all those nuclear tests in the '50s? Eeyup, this team set is totally legit. Nope, didn't cheat at all. Why are you looking at me like that? Hey look guys, over there!

PONIES!



(runs)

1954 Topps Cartoons - #4 Knothole Gang

Yay! Posting before work again! I'm actually up early for once! And full of energy! I guess that happens when you go to bed before 2:30am! Let's have some Vinegar Bend!

His name is Wilmer Mizell, he signs his name David Mizell and everyone but his momma calls him Vinegar Bend. I guess we'll see a cartoon about the fermentation of alcohol by acetic acid bacteria today...

Mizell never touched a baseball until he was sixteen! 


To gain control, he threw at a knothole in a barn door!


It was good practice - but he threw so hard he knocked down the barn door several times!

I like how 16 year old Wilmer is built like a stevedore and is wearing a fedora while he practices throwing a baseball at a barn. Wilmer, er David, um Vinegar Bend was a pretty dang good pitcher for the Cardinals in the '50s, although he missed a couple seasons serving in the Army during '54 and '55. He ended up finishing his career with the '62 Mets, but that wasn't the most incompetent organization he was associated with. Nope, Vinegar Bend went on to become a Congressman, serving North Carolina's 5th district from 1969-1975. After 6 years in Washington the Mets must have seemed like a tightly run ship! Who would you rather have leading you - Casey Stengel or Richard Nixon? Remember kids - if you throw baseballs at a barn door one day you too might be a congressional representative. Or something like that.

Ya know who else knocks down barns....

1954 Topps Cartoons - #5 I DARE YOU

Next up in the Cartoon Countdown is Dodgers (um, Reds?) pitcher Joe Black.

Brooklyn Dodgers are always welcome in my collection, especially ones with as much history as Joe Black. Rookie of the Year, first African-American to win a World Series game and dude was on the Cosby Show!

In '42 an angry manager dares Joe Black to try out for his team. 


Joe did- and he became the team's shortstop! Switched to pitching and in '51...


Brooklyn bought him. 1 year later Joe was the league's top relief pitcher - and all on a dare!

I couldn't confirm this story online, but it looks like Joe was at Morgan State University in '42. Maybe Morgan State's coach was the grouchy one? Joe didn't go into the Army until '43. Joe had a fantastic '52 season but got traded to Cincinnati during the Championship year in '55. This card reminds me that I should probably get around to reading The Boys of Summer one of these days. But that's a topic for another post.

1954 Topps Cartoons - #6 Assault & Battery

It only took two weeks, but I finally got over my flash drive rage and rescanned all the '54 cartoon cards. I also scanned 1955 as well and I'm going to upload the lot of them to Picasa before my laptop moves an inch. I'm not losing all these images again! The White Sox get two straight 'toons on the countdown, not that anyone remembers the last cartoon post I did.

That's Al Sima, not Al    A. the front of the card is a bit, um, loved. Loved cards are the best cards.

Toonage:

Best known as a pitcher, he's good at other sports too!


He is considered one of the best bowlers in the Major Leagues!


An amateur boxer in his youth, he won a sectional Golden Gloves crown in the 175-pound class!

So in review... Al can pitch. Al Can bowl. Al can snap the necks of rival males in ritual displays of aggression. Rope that dope, Al!

Back in the saddle again! More toons tomorrow!

1954 Topps Cartoons - #7 Criminal Activity

This is turning out to be sort of a lost weekend for drawing/posting although I did participate in the greatest baseball game I will ever witness yesterday and got to watch enough ponies with my daughter to keep Elmer's supplied for the rest of the decade. I want to get one Topps cartoon out this weekend so this series doesn't end up taking 5 years to finish. This toon goes out to Good 'Ol Steve who is having an extraordinarily interesting life at the moment. Hang in there, buddy!

 Here's a card of Ferris Fain, two time AL batting champ. How did this guy hit so well?

One day in '51, Ferris watched some kids play baseball. 


When they left they forgot the bat. Fain, in a batting slump took it. 


He started using it. That old bat not only ended his slump but helped win the batting crown!

Yep, ol' Ferris won the batting title AFTER SWIPING SOME KID'S BAT. Although the way that bat looks in the second panel, the kid might have been trying to get that bat swiped for quite some time. It worked for Ferris though! I wonder how long that bat lasted in the bigs before it broke or an equipment manager mistook it for a table leg and sent it to the scrap heap. Ferris was actually a fantastic hitter in his own right and had a lifetime OBP of .424. He was also a bit of a nut, which caused friction in the clubhouse and ended up getting him run from the league. If Ferris was born 50 years later with an OBP like that, he'd have a 200 million dollar contract, his face would be painted 100 feet high on Nike's corporate offices and Bill James would start a new religion dedicated to the worship of Ferris. Hey, there's worse things to worship besides OBP...

Nothing down here today, I really gotta go...

1954 Topps Cartoons - Honorable Mentions

Before I kick off the '54 cartoons, I feel the need - nay - the obligation to inform you all that the funniest photograph that has ever or will ever be committed to film (or pixels, as the case may be) has already been taken and it's this one right here.

Human shutterbugs shall never surpass this masterpiece of comedy. Perhaps a strange alien race far away in a distant galaxy has snapped a more hilarious photo, but to those far out space nuts, I say: PICS OR GTFO. This right here is as far as humankind will ever progress in the photographic medium. I found this in this little insane corner of the interwebs and I am a much happier person today because of it.

Ok, onto the 'toons.

Comics in 1954 are much different from the ones in '53. The take up just as much if not a little more square inchage on the back of the card, but it is now in a comic strip form spread out over the bottom of the card. 1953 toons are simple and straightforward like Toothpaste For Dinner, the '54s are more complex and nuanced like Chainsawsuit. I'm hoping and praying that Topps' real "Game Changer" for 2012 is that they hired Winston Rountree to do the cartoons for the back. Each card would probably have to be 10" by 14" to fit in all the words, but it would be totally worth it. But I digress. In exchange for the Dugout Quiz* we now have Inside Baseball. Each toon is a two or three panel comic with an anecdote about the player on the card. They are all done pretty well, although they aren't as cartoony or funny as some of the '53s due to the subject matter.

It took me a while to find the right toons to post. Thanks to the flip flop back orientation of the '54 set, trying to read all the cartoons while flipping my binder upside down and back side up every 5 seconds was not easy. Reading tiny black text on a green background with my worthless eyesight wasn't fun either. There were also too many good stories in there, I had my binder half dismantled before I finally settled on 19 cartoons, which eventually got whittled down to a top 7. Aaaaaand of course, I just had to add in a couple of honorable mentions with similar but opposite themes.

Here's the rookie card of Philly hurler Tom Qualters.

In high school, Tom dreamed of playing for the Phils!


But the Phil's scout saw Tom at his worst!


But there was a reason - Tom was just getting over the flu! The Phils knew this and gave him a contract!

A heartwarming story, eh? Kid blows his big break but the scout sees something no one else does and signs him anyway? Pixar should pick up this story for their next picture, right? Well, check the back of the card. The Phillies threw 50 Grand at the kid when he was 18. He pitched in one game in 1953. See the ERA? Wonder why it's blank? That's not because it's an error, it's because Topps couldn't fit a 162.00 ERA in the box. Ok, so the kid got shelled in his first outing, he can still pitch and he'll get some seasoning in the minors and be right back up after his cuppa coffee. NOPE. Philly let Tom rot on the bench for TWO WHOLE YEARS. He pitched one game in '53, none in '54 and finally got sent to the Carolina League in '55. While his development was being stunted, Tom also gained the nickname "Moneybags" from his teammates. Worst of all, after Philly gave up on him and he went to the White Sox, just as he started to come into his own as a relief pitcher, he hurt his arm and his career was kaputt. Does Pixar do tragedies?

You knew I had to sneak a Brave onto the list somewhere.

Del became a catcher by a strange trick of fate.


He was last on line when equipment was handed out in school. Del got the catcher's mitt. That started his career.

Three exclamation points for Tom, none for Del. The rookie hype is not a recent phenomenon. While Tom was a burner striking out batters right and left in high school, Del was apparently a slacker who showed up late to practice one day and ended up with the Tools of Ignorance because no one else wanted them. While Tom's career didn't pan out, Del ended up being arguably the best catcher in Braves franchise history up until some kid named Brian showed up a few years ago. Rookie of the Year runner up, 11 time All-Star, four Gold Gloves and actually had a decent stick at the plate. All because he was last in line.

*True story: on highway 41, there was a bait shop called The Dougout that had a big billboard that I would frequently pass on my travels. The shop is closed but the billboard is still there. And now whenever I try to type the word "Dugout" it comes out as "Dougout" every single time.

June Vintage Show Top Ten #7

Tonight we have some 1954 Topps action for the price of a 2011 retail pack.

1954 Topps #226 Jeshosie Heard

The little green dot on the card sleeve means it was two bucks. Yes, this is Orioles Day on the blog. Here's a '54 rookie card of pitcher Jehosie "Jay" Heard. I think it was the only Topps card Jay ever got, as he made two appearances for the O's in '54 before being sent back to the Pacific Coast League. Those two games were significant ones as Jehosie was the first black player on the Baltimore Orioles.

The Orioles had technically integrated seven years earlier when the St. Louis Browns called up Hank Thompson and Willard Brown to the club in 1947. Jehosie was still the first for the franchise to wear a Baltimore uniform. Despite never playing baseball until playing on an Army team during World War Two, Jay went on to win a pennant with his hometown Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues and pitched well in the minors and Pacific Coast League. The 'toons on the back of the card feature his 20-win season and no-hitter in 1952. I actually passed this card up at least once at previous shows but I'm glad I finally picked it up. There's some real gems in the bargain box if you just look...

The Perfect Cubs Card

I knows a Card of the Week when I see one.

That package of '54 cards I got from Crinkly Wrappers included a few cards of coaches. You don't see a lot of coaches in Topps sets, but Topps was in the middle of a player war with Bowman at the time and I guess they needed to fill out the set. Most of the coaches they used were former MLB players including a few who were stars in their time so it was a decent way to pad a set. One of the cards is of Cubs' coach Ray Blades. Ray was an outfielder on many of the St. Louis Cardinals' Pennant winning teams of the late '20s and early '30s. His best season was in 1925 when he hit .342 over 122 games. After his playing days were over, he managed the Cardinals for a couple of seasons, was a minor league manager and coached for several different teams. In 1953 he was brought on as a coach for the Cubs resulting in this fantastic card:

Look at that man's face. That poor man's face. That is the face of a man who just watched a runaway train wipe out his brand new truck which was being driven by his wife who just ran off with his life's savings because she was having a torrid love affair with his best friend's dog. He then went to the ballpark and watched the Cubs lose to Milwaukee in the 14th. That's what I see when I look at that face.

This is absolutely perfect for a franchise as horribly forlorn as the Cubs. They are one of the two remaining teams that were a part of the original National League Charter, but they lose out on being the oldest MLB franchise because they lost two years to the Great Chicago Fire. The last time they won a World Series, they had to go beat Ty Cobb to do it. The last time they won a pennant, Harry Truman was President. They've won exactly one playoff series since 1908 and followed that up with one of the most infamous collapses in playoff history. This is not a happy franchise.

So how perfect is this card? On one of the most colorful sets in history, it has a blank white background. Ray's black & white 'action' photo is cropped in such a way that it appears as if he is pulling an errant javelin out of his chest. The Cubs logo has a completely vacant stare, as if the poor animal is trying to go into its happy place. And that sad sack photo of poor Ray... why did Topps choose that photo? Maybe the designer of that card was a fan of Norman Rockwell.

Absolutely perfect.

First shiny in the mail

January was "Get yer Topps lists in order" month, February is "Get your trades in order" month. Thorzul may as well stop reading 'till March because you're about to get flooded with package posts. Since I'm all agog aver the Platinum Diamond set, I may as well show off the first one I've received in the mail.

Ok, even the most curmudgeonly of grouches has to admit that Topps hit a home run with this card. Never discount the power of grouchy curmudgeonliness. Rick Ankiel slides safely into third while getting tagged in the face while third base coach Brian Snitker looks on while doing girl push ups. This card doesn't need any shiny at all, but I'll take it.

This came from Crinkly Wrappers as a throw in to a trade we had lined up. He is collecting the 1954 Topps set and doing a lot better job at it than I am. I offered Mr. Crinkly any common cards he needed for his set in exchange for any of the doubles he's accumulated that I needed. He accepted and sent me a healthy pile of '54 in the mail. Let's see if you can recognize one...

Looks like I don't need to have this one shipped anymore. I just declined a bunch of trades for it too... Better start offering it up, I'm sure I can get a 1987 Ozzie smith for it. I'm still waiting on Crinkly's '54 want list so I'll hold off on showing the rest of them right now. There's a couple of doozies in the package that have to be shown off so be patient... Thanks for the oldies (and shiny)!

1954 Topps Ken Raffensberger

Ken looks like I feel so no updates on anything today. 

With some sleep and a day off I should be rarin' to go and back on my manic publishing schedule by Monday.

1954 Topps Fr-

Stop that Redleg! He just stole the top quarter of the card! Hurry! He's escaping the scene of the crime! Poor Frank looks distraught that his name is now Fr, pitc for the Redlegs.

Ah Redlegs. The Freedom Fries of the Fifties. At least Frank Thomas Smith has his full name safely stored on the back of the card. I have no idea what took the massive chunk out of this card, but if I had to guess it was one of those staple remover things. Some kid took one of those, pretended it was a piranha and went CHOMP right on Frank's card. The kid obviously cared about the card through, because he didn't harm the picture, the logo or most importantly, the number on the back. Poor Frank is still left in the aftermath to eternally ask the question "WHY???"

1954 Topps Don Mueller

It's mid-week again, which means I'm too busy for proper posts so you get Vintage goodies again. This card is a little scruffy, but it looks like Don is too. One thing that stands out to me is how Don's signature is one long unbroken line. Very nice.

Don's nickname is Mandrake. I guess that means he plays the outfield like he has roots? Oh wait, not. It because he's magic. These 56 year old references can get confusing.

Why 1954 Topps Backs are infuriating

Need I say more??

1954 Topps Ray Jablonski

Ray Jablonski - that's a 1950's baseball player name if ever I heard one. Careful Ray, that logo's going to poke you in the head. Those corners are sharp.

Raymond Leo Jablonski. Yep, that's a baseball name all right. Check out that rookie year stat line too. Pretty good, but still finished behind Jim Gilliam and Harvey Haddix in the Rookie of the Year balloting. He was two spots ahead of Rip Repulski though. Rip Repulski! Now that's a '50s baseball name!

1954 Topps Preston Ward

The '53s from my card show haul are done, but I got plenty of '54s. I've got about 3 minutes to write this up so I'll be brief. The 1954 Topps set was not one of my favorites when I was a kid. This is probably due to the deep seated neuroses I suffer from. I've always had this weird asperger OCD thing going on which hit its peak intensity during my teen years. Is it any surprise that a set where every card in the set looked miscut would weird me out? This is long before the days of full bleed borders and Strasburg Superfractor enhancements. I've grown to like this set, but this card with a collage of two great looking photos that work by themselves but are somewhat awkward together is bringing back the old uneasiness. I need to go wash my hands a couple dozen times.

The backs of this set are great looking, but infuriating. That's a subject for another post though.

A couple from the quarter box

I hit the card shop with the quarter box again today, vintage lists in hand. Unfortunately, I bragged too much about how I found a quarter box with early '70s cards in it.

The '70s cards were almost completely wiped out.

Luckily, I had already gotten all the semi-high numbered cards and as many '72s off my wantlist that I could find before the vintage goodness evaporated. I am nothing if not flexible in my card-scrounging skills and I still managed to walk out of the shop with a large pile of swag. There was quite a bit of 2010 short prints, inserts and parallels in the box and I managed to get some quarter goodies. Here are a couple that fit a theme.

Here's a 1954 Topps Yo Momma of Al Kaline. Al's rookie card is the second best card from the '54 set and is pretty iconic in its own right. I've always liked Al and not just because my nerdy sciencey self snickered a bit at his name when I was a kid. One time when my mom was out on a business trip, she came home with a couple of pages of baseball cards for me that she found at an antique shop. Two pages of vintage Al Kaline cards. The '54 wasn't in there but there was a really nice 1960 card of Al that I still cherish. That card is the exact opposite of a card Yo Momma threw out. I found a nice pile of these in the box and nabbed them all. I also found this:

Here's a National Chicle short print of Reid Gorecki. Reid made his debut with the Braves last year and played in 31 games mostly as a defensive replacement and pinch runner. He was released after the season and is now in the Yankees' minor league system. I'm kind of bummed about that now, after appearing in just about every early 2010 set as a Brave, he finally gets a really cool card and is now a Yankee. Them's the breaks.

What a Hall of Fame Tiger and a journeyman rookie have in common, I don't know. The '54 Topps design ties them together at least on a couple of quarter cards.