Bowman Beaters - Dem Bums

Here's the last of the Bowman Beaters. In the box of ruined 1955 Bowman cards there were three tiers of pricyness.  The crummy ones were a quarter a pop and were segregated in a stack outside the box of Bowmans lest they infect the rest with their awfulness. All the ones I got were from this stack. The ones in somewhat better shape were in a box and sold for a dollar each. I checked out the dollar box for the couple of Braves cards I needed for my team set, but alas - there were no high numbers in the dollar box. There was one other price tier of two bucks a card.

Yankees and Dodgers.

This drives me crazy about vintage cards and it's been going on for decades. Yankees and Dodgers always have a premium added to the price. Without fail, if there is a pile of crummy old cards the Yankees and Dodgers will cost twice as much for no reason. Doesn't matter if it's Billy Cox and Charlie Silvera, you are paying star prices for them. I ended up amassing a rather large New York Giants collection out of sheer spite because of this. It's not Los Angeles Dodgers though... as soon as O'Malley broke the hearts of a borough, Dodgers became commoners again. Brooklyn Dodgers are the only ones to get the premium. So when I was once again reminded at the card show of the outrage of pricing 7/8ths of the league like they were second class citizens there was only one thing I could do.

CLEAN OUT THE CHEAP DODGERS.

I picked up eight - count 'em! - eight Brooklyn Dodgers out of that scrungy box for the same price as one elitist card in the normal box. HA! I have foiled the vintage card sellers little scheme. Brooklyn Dodgers are mine, all mine!! MUAHAHA! I didn't get any Yankees for a quarter because eff the Yankees. Here's my crummy bums.

NEWK! I always thought it was strange that a baseball pitcher would have a nickname that referenced the most lethal and destructive weapon known to man, but then I remembered that they only had atom bombs back then so that was ok. Nuke LaLoosh has no excuse. Well, other than the fact that he is fictional. Don Newcombe is one of several Negro League stars that is inexplicably not in the Hall of Fame. (See also: O'Neil, Buck and Minoso, Minnie) Eyeball his stats and be amazed. "But... his career wasn't long enough, he didn't accumulate enough stats..." Yeah, never mind that he was not even allowed on the field because he had too much melanin in his skin for the first few years of his career. Forget the fact that he lost two prime years to military service. Dude was utterly dominant for a few seasons. Plus the guy was a helluva hitter. He'd probably bat 3rd on the Dodger's current lineup. PUT HIM IN ALREADY. Man I wish I could be Commish for a day.

Carl Furillo SHOULD BE IN THE HALL OF FAME DAMMIT - oh wait. Nevermind. Still in torches and pitchforks mode. Maybe in the Dodger Hall of Fame. Carl was a pretty good player. Carl looks introspective on this card as half of another card clings to the front of his TV set looking like The Blob about to gobble up the rest of Carl's card.

Here's a card of Somebody Hughes. Mr. Hughes' first name peeled off the back of the card onto someone else's card and I'm too tired to go looking him up in the Wikipedias right now. The rest of his name might just be on Furillo's card. The lost paper matches pretty well on both cards.

Pitcher Russ Meyer. Sadly not that Russ Meyer. Don't click on that link unless cleavage and violence is acceptable wherever you happen to be reading this. Unfortunately I have nothing more to say about the baseball Russ Meyer because all I can think about is cleavage and violence right now.

And now, Don Hoak with the light colored first series border and light colored paper from a 1955 Topps card stuck to that border. The upper corner of the paper is sort of loose and I can see that the first three letters of the name on the other card is DON. It's very possible that Don Hoak was stuck to Don Hoak. Other possibilities are Don Mossi, Don Zimmer, Don Johnson or Don Ferrarese. The main thing I remember about Don Hoak is the scene in City Slickers. You know the one. "I like baseball. I just don't memorize who played third base for Pittsburgh in 1960." I'd link it but I can't seem to find it anywhere. I was watching that movie with my girlfriend back in college and she was all "You knew who that was, didn't you" and I'm all like "Uhhhh, yeah sure I did". NOPE. NO CLUE. I didn't then but I do now.

Jim Gilliam. Hall of Fame. Now. (This is why the Veteran's committee won't let anyone in anymore - they know I'll just bitch about someone else who isn't in) Ok, maybe not. Jim was actually a pretty solid second baseman. He took over for Jackie, that should tell you something. Jim's rookie card is in the High Series of the 1953 Topps set I'm collecting. It's one of the tough short prints too. I have a sinking feeling that I'll find a Jackie Robinson #1 card in my price range before I find Junior's rookie for my set.

Johnny Podres. On a 1955 baseball card. Yep.

And we finish off with Don Zimmer. Hall of Famer. Boxing Hall of Fame. Seriously though, there should be a baseball character Hall of Fame, because Zim is one of the greatest characters of all time. He'd be a charter member. AND HE'S STILL COACHING. Induct this man into something right now. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Women's Lacrosse Hall of Fame. The Army. Induct Zim somewhere. The man deserves it.