The Perfect Card to Close Out 2016

2016 sucked. Terrible things happened to everyone but you gotta just roll with the punches and move on. I've never really posted a 'most wanted' or 'white whale' list but if I had this card would have been on it. 2016 in all it's badness threw an opportunity to pick this card up at me recently so I took it.

Goddamn funkin' sunuvabitch Pete Rose. This man's cards are the bane of my existence. It's bad enough that one of the last cards I need for just about every set is a Pete Rose card, but dealers always seem to pull out the Beckett from 1988 when pricing the damn things. But the floaty head Rookie card? Hell, that's another thing entirely.

The first year I really went batshit over baseball cards was 1983. This was good because every set that year looked great and was stuffed with future Hall of Famers. It was also bad because the Rookie card craze was really starting to take over the hobby. The crazy good rookie class of Gwynn, Boggs and Sandberg helped with that. Then Mattingly showed up in '84 and things got worse. Then Doc showed up in '85 and it was all over but the crying. But in 1983, the two rookie cards that impressed on me the most were the '69 Reggie and the '63 Rose.

One of my first sports memories is of Reggie Jackson hitting three home runs in a World Series game. Three home runs. In one game! A WORLD SERIES GAME. A game for the whole World!!! Another one was listening to my family crow because Gene Garber screwed up Pete Rose's chance at a Very Good Record. I was impressed that one of "our team's" players defeated someone who was obviously a Great Player and I had an early lesson in the joys of Schadenfreude. So when the Rookie Card Hype hit, these were not the only cards being pushed by the dealers, but they were the ones that really stuck out with me. And, being a kid with enough pocket money to buy a few packs of new cards here and there, I had absolutely no chance of ever getting these two glorious cards at the new and improved rookie pricing.

I finally got my Reggie last year. It is still one of the crown jewels in my collection even though it looks like the stage at the end of a G.G. Allin concert. Hell, it's one of my favorites because it looks so shitty. My futile little rebellion against the PSA Tenners of the world. But like I said earlier, a Rose rookie is something else entirely.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, The concept of a Rookie Card is a marketing scam that went completely out of control. There is some actual method to the madness though. Every Topps set from 1952-1973 were released in different series. Just like today, except there were up to 7 series (I think, if anyone knows of a set with 8 or more series, please let me know in the comments) instead of 2 and an Update. And like today, the last series was printed in WAY less quantities than the first and tended to be chock full o' rookie cards of players who made their debut earlier in the year. Less supply + overhyped demand = BOOMSHANKA, the dealers make $$$$$.

Pete Rose's rookie card is in the fairly scarce 1963 high numbers series. And the rookie card hype hit right when he was chasing down Ty Cobb. And even though I as a wee lad became smitten with the colorful and circley '63 Topps set there was no way I'd ever complete it because of the hype. That little smiley floatey Rose head (which can also be found on his far superior 1964 Rookie Cup card) would forever elude my grasp. And then, 33 years later, it somehow fell right into my lap. You may ask "How?" Here's where the 2016 bit fits in:

THROUGH LIES, CRIMINALITY AND GENERALIZED CHICANERY.

Just like a lot of the bullshit we had to endure in 2016!

Another reason why the Pete Rose rookie always stuck with me is because in the '80s, some chucklehead decided to print up a bunch of fakes and then proceeded to try to sell a whole stack of 'em at a card show. I remember hearing the news reports about it back in the day and am pretty sure I read an article about it with pictures of the fakes in one of the hobby magazines at the time. I couldn't find any original articles, but this Washington Post report from 1988 references the incident. I wasn't so much amazed by the fact someone would have the nerve to try to pass off a bunch of Rose Rookie fakes at a card show full of eagle eyed cardboard nerds, but that the judge ordered they all be stamped as counterfeit instead of destroyed! I could never have a real Rose rookie, but how fuckin' cool would it be to get an Official Fake!

And now I got one. Even though 2016 beat me down hard, I'm still fightin' and looking out for thirteen year old me.  Ya got yer Rose, kid.

For the Price of a Rack Pack...

...I got all this out of bargain bins at a card show last month. It's like I made my own vintage 1960 card rack pack!

Let's start the post with a Post. A '60 Topps Post. Now I want to find a 1962 Post Wally Post so I can write a post about a Post Post.

Pete Runnels with the Boston Sock Monster logo. Pete is also useful for your '60s ballcard fantasy team since he has multi-positional eligibility and you don't need to write in 2B in pencil because you ran out of second basemen.

Old Barve alert! I already had this card but I needed another one because I am a team set collector which is daft but the card was cheap so leave me alone. One can never have too many Felixes.

Ede Ihr of the dang rotten stupid Posey was out stinkin lousy Giants. Back in the '60s the Giants were sad sacks who always got their hearts broken and how I long for those days to come again. Oh well, go ahead and print up those Giants 2016 World Champion shirts and beat the rush.

Dick pic! Look at the colors on this card. Look at that portrait of Dick staring off into space while his black & white doppelganger watches intently. Look at how the letters in his name are just all over the place like a 7 year old pasted them in like stickers. Look at that stoned-ass Cubs logo. That bear is blazed, I tell you.

Tito! With a cheek full of North Carolina's entire tobacco crop from 1959. Throw in Virginia's crop with the black & white pic. Notice Chief Wahoo is still wearing his American League crown from 1954.

Red and yella, black and white. This card doesn't need any more colors than that, thank you very much. And as far as my '60s card fantasy team is concerned Sammy and Pete Runnels got the whole infield covered.

Jim O'Toole won 81 games for the Reds from 1960-1964 and you don't even know who the heck he is you cretins. "That's because wins is a bullshit stat" you say. Fine then. 21.5 WAR during that time period if you like newfangled stats. I'm not even discussing Vada Pinson with you because someone will throw out the term "Hall of Very Good" and I'll have to punch that someone in the face.

ANOTHER SOCK MONSTER ZOMG. Here's Jerry Casale and I don't know who he is because I'm a cretin too. I'm sure AdamE will tell me because he wants me to trade Jerry to him but Jerry's going in my set so sorry Adam.

Not the Hall of Fame Earl Averill, but his kid which is close enough. With the Super Rare Catcher-Third Base position eligibility. Also that catcher's mitt may in fact be a black hole.

Barry Latman. If his name was Larry Batman he wouldn't be a pitcher. He'd be a CRIMEFIGHTER. Also of note is the fact that the Chicago White Sox used the Pegasus Boots from the Legend of Zelda games as their team logo, decades before the first game came out in 1986. Which didn't even have the Pegasus Boots as an item. Makes you think.

SERIOUSLY THE GIANTS WERE FAR LESS OBNOXIOUS A TEAM (no offense, Night Owl) BEFORE THEY BECAME A FRIGGIN DYNASTY AND SHIT. Here's Hobie the Catcher.
Hobie Hobie Hobie.
It's fun to say Hobie.

Gus is offended by all the Giants I picked up at the card show. I couldn't help it, I needed them for my set. Yeah, I'm building a set of 1960 Topps, you wanna fight about it? Also, cartoon Orioles are adorable.

Jose Pagan plays the Infield! All of it! ALL OF IT

Is it just me or does that uniform look shady. That B on the cap is off. The Sox didn't have stripes on their sleeves. Holy cow that's a '60 photoshooped Cubs uniform. Airbrushed, even. Buzzing Bear replaced by Menacing Sock Monster. Oh, the deception we card collectors have to endure.

Howcome Ted didn't get the airbrush treatment?? "Ah, it's just the Phillies, no one cares about them", says the Topps Airbrush artist as he kicks off work early to get a beer. A single tear rolls down the cheek of an  executive at Fleer headquarters in Philadelphia as he examines his competitor's product. "I shall have my revenge" he mutters through gritted teeth. REVEEEEEENGE

Dangit another stinking Giant. Wait... another fluffy cute Oriole? I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING ANYMORE. This is more confusing than the numbering on 2014 Topps Update.

But wait... Every rack pack always has some inserts!

Rookie Stars! 26 years of Major League experience between these guys when it was all said and done. Not bad for a highish series floaty head rookie combo card.

MVPs! Yogi and Campy. Back when catchers were The Man. Also of note is Campanella with the imaginary card created 20 years later because Topps was in a death battle with Bowman at the time and couldn't make a card for him. It's good to have a monopoly.

Yaz had a rookie card in 1960 Topps and here he is on a '70s card with bitchin' sideburns. Eat yer heart out Milhaus.

Waddya think? Should I have just picked up a rack pack of Topps from Wally World? I didn't get a single parallel in this pack and everyone loves those after all.

June Vintage Card Show Loot: Floaty Head Goodness

Best thing about cards from the '60s: the league leader cards are cheap as hell and stacked with stars. The '60s also has a particular fondness for disembodied floaty heads. ESPECIALLY the 1963 Topps set. Check out this beauty:

 Frank, Stan and Hank of the same freaking card. Tommy Davis and Bill White weren't slouches either. There's about 14,000 hits on this card. Serious, serious star power right here.

AND IT AIN'T NOTHIN COMPARED TO THIS MONSTER:

HANK. FRANK. ERNIE. CHA-CHA. AND WILLIE-FREAKING-MAYS. ALL ON THE SAME CARD.  Ain't even estimating on this one. There are Two Thousand Eight Hundred And Ninety Two career home runs on this card. All without Biogenesis. Think about this: On this card, ORLANDO CEPEDA IS THE SCRUB. Holy crap I love this card. It also allowed me to do this:

'63 Topps Team set complete page. So many bright colors. The third League Leader card ain't too shabby either. Gibby, Drysdale and Sandy-Frickkin-Koufax? And Bob Shaw too boot! If only the high numbers were this fun to collect...

Old School Heritage and New School Ponies - Part 12

The My Little Pony Royal Princess Wedding is happening RIGHT NOW, and I'm embarrassing myself trying to coach little league baseball whole I have a splitting headache from waking up a 4 in the morning with heartburn and not getting any sleep and after the game I get to go to Costco oh joy. So I don't get to see the wedding live online, I have to wait for YouTube. Wanna piss me off for posting ponies? Watch the episode and post spoilers to Twitter and my blog. No that isn't just a sneaky way of getting you to watch ponies, really I swear.

In the meantime until I'm able to watch the show I'm going to assume the wedding went off like this. I want Pinkie Pie's shirt SO BAD.

Here's the last of the '63s, Hall of Famer Billy Williams. This guy is so underrated it's stupid. I swear, if I had a pony for every time someone said Billy Williams isn't a Hall of Famer, I'd have... well... even more ponies than I already have. AND THAT'S A LOTTA PONIES. Just check out this Gem Mint specimen. Scuffs and scrapes all over the card, but not enough to scrape off the 49 year old wax. Perfectly rounded corners. Creases everywhere. And last but not least, SIX - count em - SIX staples were used to mount this thing to some object that was instantly beautified by its presence. Can you imagine the work it took to get this card looking like this? It doesn't just happen by itself, this kind of wear takes effort. Go ahead, take one of those newfangled Heritage cards you've been opening up by the handful and make it look as good as this, I dare ya.

UPDATE: My family abandoned me to ponies so I got to watch the episode when it aired. Holy crap was that good. At 44 minutes, it was slightly rushed in points but they squoze as much epicness in as they could. Celestia knows how the hell they're going to top that in season 3.

Old School Heritage and New School Ponies - Part 11

This post was supposed to lament the fact that Ponies debuted a few months after Dr. Demento's last show aired on June 6th 2010 meaning that all the ridiculous pony mashups that have been created never got a chance to be on the show. Then to my surprise, I find out that he's been doing streaming internet shows since then and never really left. Didn't find ponies in the playlist but April 7th's show has baseball songs!



And yes, I love this music unironically, just like I love Fish Heads, Bulbous Bouffant and Dogs Singing Jingle Bells. That's how I roll.

Here's a card of Roger Maris' 1962 World Series game 3 heroics where he drove in two runs and scored a third in the 7th inning to lead the Damn Yankees to victory. Problem is, that picture sure as hell isn't of the 7th inning of that game. Here we see #9 Maris on 1st base and #32 Elston Howard taking an awkward swing at the plate. In the 7th inning of game 3, Roger hit a single with Mickey Mantle on 2nd and Tom Tresh on 3rd and advanced to second base on an error by Willie McCovey. Roger was never on first when Howard was up in the 7th inning, so what inning is this? It's not the second inning, Maris flied out to right.  In the 4th, Roger grounded out to 1st base to end the inning. We know what he did in the 7th inning... aaaaaand that was it for Roger that day. So this photo isn't actually from game 3.

I wish the photo was sharp enough to show a pinstripe on a uniform so I could confirm this photo was from a Yankee home game. I have no knowledge of old-time stadiums so for all I know, this game is obviously being played in Candlestick and I'm barking up the wrong tree but I'm assuming the photo was taken in New York. All you SABR guys point and laugh if I'm wrong. I looked through the box scores and found three possibilities for this photograph:

Game 4:

Second inning - Flyball out to center.
Fourth inning - Groundout unassisted to first base.
Sixth inning - Roger walked. Elston flew out to right on his at bat.

Game 5:
First inning - Fly out to left to end the inning.
Fourth inning - Roger made it to first on a fielder's choice, Elston Howard then struck out.
Sixth inning - Ground out to second base.
Eighth inning - Roger walked, Elston flew out to center.

If this pic was actually taken in New York during the 1962 World Series (I can't tell if that catcher is a Giant, can you?) then it was probably taken in the 6th inning of game 4 or the 4th or 8th inning of game 5. That's all I got until MLB stops hoarding their vintage game footage like a dragon hoards gold. Can anyone else out there pinpoint this moment?

Old School Heritage and New School Ponies - Part 10

The week is over and all I want to to is post this thing and go to bed and have sweet dreams.

I pity the fool who don't like Pinkie Pie.

Three reasons why this card is awesome.

1) Manny Mota rookie card. It even came in a toploader with ROOKIE CARD in gold on the top.

2) Colt .45s. I am so tempted to start collecting Colt .45s right now but then I remember the other 9001 collections I got going.

3) This:



Don't give me that look, that's what 99% of you thought when I posted a Manny Mota card.

Old School Heritage and New School Ponies - Part 9

Today has not gone quite as expected and I do not particularly appreciate Google's little joke of COMPLETELY revamping Blogger's post creation page on 4/20 but I'mma post something today if it kills me. Here's Pinkie Pie enjoying the holiday a little too much instead of collecting cards like a good pony.



And here's a 1963 Rookie Stars card from 1963. Don't laugh, there actually were 1962 Rookie Stars cards from 1963.

Angels,Colt .45s Twins and Mets. Four (mostly) brand spankin' new teams at the time. Don't know who any of these dudes are and don't have time to go hunting for them on the interwebs but I do appreciate the floaty heads.

No where the hell did Blogger put their labels....

Old School Heritage and New School Ponies - Part 8: Catchers

RARITY CATCH ME



Shoulda had Elston catch you, Pinkie...

Earl Battey and Elston Howard are featured in this '63 Combo card. With no inset circle the combos are the plainest cards in the set, but there's plenty of room for the photo. This pic might have been taken at the first 1962 All-Star game in Washington since Earl and Elston are both in the home pinstripes. I'm worn out and am getting a headache and just wanna go to bed so I'll just linky SABR's biographies on Elston and Earl here instead of summarizing them up.

Old School Heritage and New School Ponies - Part 7 - Dbuffalo

Hooray! I've got all the 1963 Topps cards scanned and uploaded! Brohoofs for everyone!

Get it? Duffalo? Buffalo? HAH!

I R Punny. I'm guessing I left descreening off or scanned at 150 dpi or something because this scan has a lovely moiré pattern. I was pleasantly surprised to find this for a buck in the '63 box as it's from the tough 523-576 high series. For some reason the 6th series (447-522) is even tougher. Further confusing the issue is that the checklists say the 6th series is cards 430-506 and the 7th series is 507-576. Either the checklists are lying or the price guides are. Or YOU are. Maybe I'm the liar. Hell, I'm probably lying right now. Prove that I'm not! Anyway high numbered cards cost more because scarcity or something (economics!) and I got one cheap so yay me. Brohoof for the Duffalo!

Epic Brohoof by *Mixermike622 on deviantART

Old School Heritage and New School Ponies - Part 6

They Might Be Great And Powerful Giants:



TMBG + TGaPT = happy Dayf.

The last '63 card I picked up for my 1st series set was this American League Victory Leaders card. Floaty heads for the win! Literally. At first glance this may not seem like a super-star-studded specimen but these were some fine pitchers in the early '60s. Let's go down the list, shall we?

Ralph Terry won 23 games for the Yankees in '62, easily his career year. No Cy Young award for Terry that year since the award had not been split into one for each league yet and Don Drysdale owned all other pitchers that year. Terry did get his only all star nods and a World Series MVP so he did pretty well for himself. Not only that, he was a helluva golfer. The thing he's most known for though is coughing up a phone run in 1960 to some dude named Mazeroski.

Ray Herbert also had a career year in 1962 with his only 20-win season. In his defense, he played for the crummy Kansas City A's and not the mighty Yankees. Ray had the season winning percentage crown in '62 and also was the winning pitcher in the second All Star Game that year. You say you need more trivia? He gave up Carl Yastrzemski's first hit.

Camilo Pascual is one of the best pitchers from the '60s that you've never heard of. From 1959 to 1964 he won 100 games for the Senators and Twins. He also had 7 all star appearances and lead the league in strikeouts three times and complete games three times during that period. Dude could pitch.

Dick Donovan was originally signed by the Braves, but was out of the bigs in '63. He won 18 games for the Atlanta Crackers in '64 and the White Sox picked him up. He had his career year for the Sox in '57, going 16-6 and coming in second to Warren Spahn in the Cy Young voting. After being picked up in the expansion draft by Washington, he was traded to the Indians for the '62 season and came up with a 20-win season for the Tribe. As far as I know, he has no cards as a Brave which irritates me.

Jim Bunning is a Hall of Famer and a Senator, but he only won 19 games in '62 so I'm not even gonna talk about him.

If you wanna know the next five on the list, here ya go:
Jim Kaat - 18 wins (should be a Hall of Famer)
Whitey Ford - 17 wins (is a Hall of Famer)
Hank Aguirre - 16 wins (yes I typed Mark the first time)
Gene Conley - 15 wins (Screwball Hall of Famer)
Bill Monbouquette - 15 wins (Red Sox Hall of Famer)

That enough star power for ya?

Old School Heritage and New School Ponies - Part 5: Derpy Hooves, I choose YOU!

Ponymon cards.


Derpy by ~dmon2 on deviantART

That is all.

Seriously, I don't even care about some Giant. PONYMON CARDS! I'd punch a kitten in the face for a SweetieBot card.

Ok Fine. Tom hit a home run off of White Ford in the '62 World Series. Want any more info, Google it.

Old School Heritage and New School Ponies - Part 4: Red A's

Doctor Whooves is best pony. (After Derpy, that is)



It amazes me how JT at The Writer's Journey always seems to find the really cool pony stuff before I do.

Not gonna lie, I'm wiped tonight and I don't wanna do anything but I have three posts to write and I'm gonna power through 'em so I can go to bed really quick.

I've always been mildly fascinated with cards from franchises who moved cities. Not terribly surprising since my team is on its third city so far. Brookyln Dodgers, St. Louis Browns, Washington Senators, New York Giants, Seattle Pilots, Philadelphia A's. I don't count the Montreal Expos because they should still exist, goddamnit. The one defunct team I never really cared about was the Kansas City A's. I'm not even sure why. When I was a kid I would go bonkers for a Browns or a Senators card, but the KC A's was just a big meh. I don't think the word meh even existed back then, but they were still meh. Maybe it's because I thought the Philadelphia A's and Connie Mack were cooler. Maybe it was because I was a child of the '80s and couldn't think of Kansas City without seeing Royal Blue. Maybe it was because many of the sets I had KC A's cards from (1955, 1957, 1961, 1962) were kinda meh themselves.

Tonight I think I might have finally figured it out. Notice that the striking red and yellow border of this card of Ed Rakow goes nicely with his uniform. But wait, the A's unis are supposed to have yellow on them. These are red. A's aren't red! They're yellow and green! Up until 1963 when they finally went green, the KC A's uniforms were red and blue. Thinking back on it, the only KC A's card I remember fondly from when I was a kid was a Rene Lachemann card I picked out of a bargain box. Green uniform. That's an A.

Old School Heritage and New School Ponies - Part 3

YOU CANNOT RESIST THE PONY

YOU PROBABLY CANNOT RESIST THE VINTAGE

Who da heck is Bob Allison? I'm glad I asked!

He was a star for the Senators/Twins!
He was the Rookie of the Year in 1959!
He hit 30 or more homers three times!
He hit 29 homers a couple of other seasons!
His batting average wasn't all that great but he could draw walks and had a good OBP!
He was an All-Star 3 times!
He was a dang good player and shouldn't be relegated to the common box!

That would make a good game... Everyone gets 10 bucks and they have to build the best team with that cash from vintage bargain boxes. Winner takes all. Vintage card rotisserie... I should patent that.

Old School Heritage and New School Ponies - Part 2

Ok, so the inclusion of Pretty Party Ponies in the last 1963 Topps card post was apparently a hit, so I'm going to blatantly pander to you all and include ponies in every post. Aren't you excited!!!

Here's another '63 Topps card I bought instead of a pack of 2012 Heritage.

Augh! A Cub! I must make fun of Cubs right now because I am angry because I can't see 75% of Braves games on Atlanta TV but every friggin Cubs game is on WGN  and I have a Deep Dark Cub Secret I have delayed in admitting to in public. Hint: eventually I'll have to post another video on Youtube. Three things I really like about this card:

1/88th of a 1963 Topps first series set
That freaky blank stare cubbie logo amuses me.
DEM GLASSES

Oddity: of the 4 green-bordered cards I got in this '63 Binge this is the only one with a yellow circle for the inset photo. I'm too lazy to go check my set to see how uncommon that is, but I like the combo.

In lieu of Heritage

Qypsy Gueen drops this week so I'm commemorating the event by showing off all the 1963 Topps cards I picked up instead of buying new packs of 2012 Heritage. I don't know what I'll do next month since I can't afford original Gypsy Queen cards from the 1880's. This will keep the blog busy all week while I'm obsessing over a Pretty Princess Pony Royal Wedding.



No, really, I'm disturbingly geeked up over this thing. Vinyl Scratch is in it! DJ PON-3 in the hizzouse! Plus Twilight Sparkle looks adorable as, um, Flower Foal or Best Mare or whatever the heck she's supposed to be in the wedding party. If The Great And Powerful Trixie shows up as a wedding guest I'm gonna lose my shit. The blog might be renamed The Great And Powerful Trixie Junkie by this time next week. This is not out of the realm of possibility as Trixie is actually getting her own toy in this fall's MLP line from Hasbro. You all may laugh at my pony addiction, but my crazy antics have apparently caused an actual girl to become interested in watching My Little Pony. Think about that for a minute.

Ok, so what I done did dood it? A week or two ago (you can probably find the exact date on my Twitter feed) I hit the card shop and bought some vintage '63s instead of ripping packs of Heritage. Because I'm one of those troublemaking never satisfied collectors who eschew carefully planned marketing strategies and buy what I damn well please. I picked up some old, beat up singles that cost about the same as maybe three or four packs of the new stuff. I'll let you all decide if I made the right choice. I'm going to show them off in the order in which I scanned them, which is to say, completely randomly.

Here's number 56 from the set, the rookie card of Phillies pitcher Dennis Bennett. I sadly discovered about a minute ago that Mr. Bennett had passed away less than a month ago. This card is from the first series set. It's one of the series I'm focusing on completing along with the first series of 1960, '65 and '71 and the third series of '72 Topps. It's also the first series I actively tried to work on, as I bought up every 1963 Topps first series common card at the old Atlanta Sports Cards in the mid-'80s. I refused to buy them unless they were unlisted in Beckett and I could get them for twenty-five cents a pop. Dennis here, being a rookie card, didn't make the cut back then. The price a couple decades later didn't go up all that much as I picked this one up for a buck.

Joy of an Incomplete Page

You guys voted in the poll over to the right and managed to pick out some pretty good sets to work on. I'm guessing there's a lot of 1971 Topps fans out there, or at least a bunch of people collecting it with a bunch of doubles.The '63 set is also nice, I'm looking forward to 2012 Heritage. The series binder is maxed out at five sets now, here's a mostly completed page from each:

This page is technically complete since I have Joe Adcock in my Braves team set binder. I would have posted a different page had I realized that sooner.

The '63 set ain't gonna be easy. This page is missing Pedro Ramos and the Buc Blasters combo card - featuring some guy named Clemente.

Tony Gonzalez is the last card for this page. This series shouldn't be too hard to knock out if I put some effort into it. The only stars left besides the league leaders cards are Robin Roberts, Jim Kaat and Frank Howard.

The dreaded Thurman Munson Series... 132 cards and stars out the buttocks. This page is easily completeable with Ron Klimkowski however.

Ok, this is only one of two sheets in my 1972 Topps series 1 set that is actually missing a card. It's a doozy though. I just checked online and I can complete this series for under ten bucks. Why the hell am I buying new wax again!?!?

So what do you think? I've got one completed series under my belt, how many more can I do by the end of the year?

Card Show Top 20 - #1 The Holy Grail of Commons

Here it is, The card you've waited four months to see. The absolute best card I picked up from the Freedom Cardboard show last February. IT's worth the wait. I've been looking for this dang thing for over 25 years. I've asked for it at card shops, I've looked for it at shows, I've been outbid online, and I finally found it. It's mine. All mine. The greatest common card in the history of baseball cards as far as I'm concerned. BEHOLD: The HOLY GRAIL OF COMMON CARDS:

Angels sing, etc..etc...

1963 Topps #126 Bob Uecker 

The immortal Bob Uecker in his only solo Braves card. His rookie was on a 1962 4-in-1 high number rookie card that is expensive as crap. His 1964 card has him in a Braves uniform but with Cardinals on the top of the card. If you want a Uecker Topps card as a Brave, this is it. And oh what a perfect card it is....

Bob in the standard batting pose. His face is a unique combination of intense focus and slack-jawed bewilderment. The Milwaukee M overlooks a perfect bill that is not too curved and not too flat. The Screaming Brave howls on Bob's sleeve. Follow catcher Del Crandall is seen in the background bird dogging chicks in the stands. The inset photo has bob in the crouch, displaying the freakishly large catcher's mitt necessary to receive a young Phil Niekro's knuckleballs. The bottom border is blue and red, Braves colors. Gorgeous.

I've wanted this card since the mid 80's. I probably first saw Ueck in a Miller Lite commercial. Ha ha! He's not sitting in the front row at all! Then Bob showed up on Mr. Belvedere and my interest was piqued. The dude from Mr. Belvedere probably had a baseball card! I had already tried looking for a football card of Webster's dad (name that player - you have five seconds!) why not get one of Ueck too. Somewhere along the line I found out he played for the Braves. Then Major League came out. MUST. HAVE. UECK. CARD.

Problem was, I couldn't find one. Back in the '80s I asked the old Atlanta Sports Cards if they had any Bob Uecker cards. The shopkeeps' reaction to my query was just about the same as if I had said "Ronald Reagan is an alien Lobsterman from the planet Voltron". I dropped the subject even though I could have sworn I saw a Euck card there once. I looked around other shops and shows and found nada. Granted, most of the '90s I was caught up in Insertmania and vintage was not in the forefront of my mind. The new century came and with it came eBay and Yahoo Auctions. I saw many auctions for Ueck cards. The problem is, the people who were online buying baseball cards at the time were just as big of a nerd as I was and really really wanted their Uecker cards too. Cards were going for over $10 a throw, which is kind of nuts for a '60s common*. When a card came in my price range it would inevitably get sniped. Even the reprint of the dang card went for six bucks. My usual tactic of scrounging through bargain boxes was not turning up any Ueckers at all, and he didn't end up in any star cases either. Before the show, the '63 Ueck was on my top 10 all-time wantlist along with the '54 Aaron and the '40 Play Ball Casey Stengel.

Then the card show happened. There's a vintage seller that has showed up to the past two big shows in Atlanta. We only get one every two or three years, but this guy showed up. Uncle.. something or other. Uncle Larry? Floyd? Jerry? Lumpy? I can't remember the name even though I tried to memorize it so I wouldn't forget it later. Uncle Somethin's vintage cards. The dude had a massive table - probably four or five tables to be accurate - with vintage binders piled three deep all across the tables. Two or three or four different books for every vintage Topps set filled with commons and stars. some pockets were three or four cards deep. Basically if you were looking for a common card and he didn't have it, then it just flat out wasn't your day. the cards in the binders were a tad pricey, but they were all in above average shape. On either end of the table were bargain boxes. One side had a dollar box that held very little of interest to me. the bargain boxes on the other side were much better. I found my only '53 Topps card in that box along with some other goodies. Before I cashed out I looked at all the binders. It finally clicked. UECK! HE'S GOTTA BE IN THERE SOMEWHERE! I checked the '63 Topps low number binder, flipped to the 120s... and THERE! UECK! THREE OF EM! One was $4, the other two $3.50. I snagged this one for three-fiddy. A dream - my dream - fulfilled for the price of a happy meal. I had found the Grail. And I didn't even have to get taunted by Frenchmen.

The Top 20 List:

#20 Reds' Heavy Artillery

#19 Blue MadDog

#18 Lil' Jimmy

#17 Real Fake '52

#16 First Topps

#15 Bogus Boog

#14 V103 Tree

#13 Sertoma Rico

#12 '55 Finishers

#11 Hey Shiny

#10 What the Dickens

#9 '60 Spahnnie

#8 Lonely '53

#7 Super Chief

#6 Original Frank

#5 Hoops Inspiration

#4 Rocket Robin

#3 Wizard Off Kilter

#2 Shenanigans Were Called

#1 The Holy Grail of Commons


* Yes, Bob Uecker is a common card by any definition of the word. The man has made an entire career out of being a common. That's why we love him.