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.

Purposely and Maliciously Tormenting Night Owl at 3:00AM

Because I know you're awake....

Oh lookie here... BROOKLYN

TAUNT TAUNT TAUNT TAUNT TAUNT

Piedmont... The Cigarette of Quality.

Group Break results - Night Owl

Payments are starting to come in so it's time to show off the swag. Eventually I will get the video sorted out but I'll just scan them for now. Night Owl is gaga over Dodgers so I suckered him into enticed him to join the group break with the Jackie Robinson refractor:

It looks better in person. Oddly enough, cards that are curved don't scan well. Along with the Dodgers, Night Owl got these teams from the break:

Blue Jays
Rangers
Mariners
Twins

Le'ts look at the Dodgers first, shall we? After all that's the only thing Night Owl collects...


...



....



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Hrm. The Dodgers seem to have dodged this box. Whoops. There was some other stuff in there. Here's the Rangers:

Chrome MVP Hambone. Not bad, but not a Dodger.  Let's check out the Mariners:

BoChro Ichiro! Still not a Dodger.  Here's the rest of the mess:

Twins Glen Perkins, and a couple 'a rooks. Well, not even rooks. Pre-rooks. Poor, poor, Owlie.

It's all in the details

Ok, I know that the reaction to National Chicle is mixed at best and I feel partially responsible for that. Yeah, I know, the wildly different art styles can be a bit off-putting for a group of collectors where OCD is almost a prerequisite, and admittedly, many of the cards strike out. However there are many hidden gems in this set if you're willing to notice the small details.

Take this Duke Snider card. This is a very nice looking card, one of the best I've seen in my handful of packs. It's colorful, the painting is well done and it's got the original '34 Diamond Stars background complete with pennant. Hey, what's on that pennant?

1955. AKA This:

Now that's a nice touch. Go ahead and give this set a chance, something might surprise you.

--- Image stolen from Robert Edwards Auctions because I STILL haven't gotten my catalog *sob*

1953 Topps Ben Wade

Card #4
Ben Wade
Brooklyn Dodgers
Pitcher

• Played 5 seasons in the majors - 3 years with the Dodger and parts of seasons with the Cubs, Cardinals and Pirates.
• Played with the Army Air Force team during World War Two.
• Hit three home runs in sixty at bats in 1952. 
• Was a scout for the Dodgers from 1962-1973 and was promoted to Scouting Director from 1973 to 1990. 

The second Brooklyn card in the set after #1 Jackie Robinson. Ben is also the second card in the set where the only background is peaceful, fluffy clouds. He's not even the first Wade in the bigs, his brother Jake made his debut for Detroit in 1936. Ben had a short Major league career but had a huge impact on the Dodgers as a scout and later as Scouting Director. Drafting Orel Hershiser and Mike Piazza more than makes up for his 15.43 ERA in the 1953 World Series.

One reason I love the '53 set is the odd things they tried in the design. The facsimile signature in red behind the biographical paragraph is one of those strange but cool things they tried. Look at that autograph. That's a serious autograph.

Weekend Vintage

NO SLEEP TILL

BROOKLYN

I had a game plan when I walked into the vintage show this weekend. I had very little time and less money, so I had to be prepared. Here were my goals:

1) FIND SOME BRAVES YOU DON'T GOT

2) KNOCK SOME NAMES OFF YOUR '50s TOPPS LISTS IN THIS ORDER:

1. 1953 Topps
2. 1956 Topps
3. 1951 Topps
4. 1954 Topps
5. 1955 Topps

3) PICK A FEW COOL CARDS OUT OF THE NON-SPORTS BIN

4) IF THERE'S MONEY LEFT, FIND SOMETHING UNIQUE

I managed to hit every goal, in the allotted time. Now that's planning and organization, kiddos. I wish I could do that with any other aspect of my life at all, but I got my act together for a fleeting half hour on a Sunday at least.  Goal #4 was met with the Bob Feller Wheaties card. This post shows off a couple of victories in goal #2.

There were a few plastic boxes full of $2 and $3 cards from 1953, 1954, 1955 and 1956 Topps out on one of the tables. I scrounged through them and managed to find three $2 cards I liked and needed. There were a ton of '55 Topps there. I could have knocked about twenty 1955 cards off my list, but I'm not too crazy about that set so I passed. I eventually settled on what I considered to be the best cards out of the 1954 and 1956 Topps $2 boxes. Oddly enough, the best cards were Bums.

1954 Topps Rube Walker

Rube was basically the Charlie Silvera of the National League. A light hitting, savvy catcher who made a damn good living sitting on the bench behind a Hall of Famer. Rube backed up Roy Campanella in Brooklyn from 1951 to 1957 and picked up four World Series bonus checks along the way. When his playing days were done, he became a pitching coach and was on the staff of the 1982 Western Division Champion Atlanta Braves and 1969 Mets who did something or other mildly impressive. 1954 Topps wasn't a favorite of mine as a kid, but it has really grown on me. It's probably my third favorite set of the decade now behind 1953 and 1956. Speaking of '56...

1956 Topps Don Zimmer

Don Zimmer was young once! Oh yes he was! Zim is better known for his days as a manager and coach, but he spent a nice 12-year career in the bigs as a utility infielder type for the Dodgers, Cubs, Mets, Reds and Senators. Of course he's best known for a little fracas with Pedro Martinez, but the man has more rings than Dominican Pete will ever see, and don't you forget it. He also has a rather awesome MySpace page. I especially enjoy the quizzical look on Don's face here. He seems to be thinking "The Brooklyn Dodgers won WHAT???"

I also did some damage to another of my '50s wantlists, but that will have to wait for another post...

Integration of Baseball

62 years ago today Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. That seems really long ago yet not that long at all. The Indians and Browns would integrate later that same year. The Giants were next, but it took two more years. The Braves followed a year later in 1950. The White Sox a year after that. Then Eisenhower was elected. By the end of the 1953 season half the teams in the league had been integrated. Four teams in each league. Four more followed suit in 1954. The Yankees finally came around in 1955. 1956: Ike re-elected. The Phillies completed the National Leagues' integration in 1957, ten years and one week after Jackie first took the field. The Tigers integrated in 1958, leaving only the Red Sox. They finally called up Pumpsie on July 21st, 1959. Almost 50 years ago. Pumpsie beat Hawaii's statehood by a month. It still feels like a long time ago. But not really that long at all.

More Brooklyn Beaters

So Duke doesn't get lonely on the blog, here's a collection of some more Bums from a happier time.

1989 Bowman Jackie Robinson 1950 reprint and 1960 Fleer Branch Rickey

Jackie's reprint card is paired up with an old Branch Rickey card for obvious reasons. Branch is proudly posing for his card as commissioner of the Continental League.

I don't own an original Jackie Robinson card, but I came really close one time. My aunt gave me two cassette tapes for my 15th birthday: U2's Joshua Tree and an Elton John Greatest Hits compilation. I didn't really get into U2 until college and the Elton tape wasn't good Elton, it was "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" pop drivel Elton. I went to return them for the cash and lo and behold the mall was having a card show that day. Newly rich with about 26 bucks in my hands I started checking out all the tables full of cards. While I was looking, some dude came up to me out of nowhere and offered me the deal of a lifetime, a 1953 Topps Jackie Robinson card for 25 bucks. I was pretty stunned, '53 Topps was one of my favorite sets even back then and seeing a legend like Jackie was a bit overwhelming. I remember the card as being perfect, but you've seen my idea of Gem Mint. It was probably G/VG grade most likely. He basically said it's yours for 25 bucks, take it or leave it.

There were a lot of variables that went into my final decision. First of all, 15 year olds don't always have the best judgment. 25 dollars was a good price for that card even back then (my late 80's price guide shows it booking at exactly $25 in good condition), but that would mean spending most of my money in one shot. The seller wasn't a dealer with a table, he was just some guy. The whole thing seemed kind of shady to me. For all I knew he nabbed the card off someone's table and once I bought it mall security would haul me away as a thief. In the end I couldn't pull the trigger on the deal and I passed it up. There was too much other really cool looking stuff everywhere and I didn't want to blow my wad on one card. If I had just had an extra ten stashed in my pocket I might have gotten it. If I could have looked around just a bit or if he had come up to me about 20 minutes later I probably would have bought it. That card looked really nice to me. I ended with a pretty good haul from the show anyway including the only Topps Venezuelan cards I've ever even seen, let alone own. I still think about that Robinson card though.

1956 Topps Walter Alston and 1955 Topps Billy Herman

Two Hall of Famers here coaching the Bums. Walter is in the Hall for leading the Dodgers to seven pennants and four World Series titles. I'm not sure what Billy Herman is in the Hall of Fame for, but he's in and that's all that counts. These cards show the pitfalls of horizontal card designs. Everyone has to stoop over to fit on the card.

1953 Topps Roy Campanella

I don't have Jackie, but I got Campy. This is his best card as far as I'm concerned and you just have to see it to appreciate how good it looks. The Archives card just doesn't do it justice.

1952 Bowman Don Newcombe

I like Newk and I have a few of his cards. This one is easily the ugliest one I have and thus, my favorite. There are a lot of things to love about this card. The slouch, the stare, the arms that reach to his kneecaps. I could see the pose if Don was on the mound looking in for the sign from the catcher, but the empty bleachers sure doesn't make it look like he's in a game situation. I've seen plenty of cards where someone has written the year on the card, but I have no clue why someone felt it necessary to write it on his crotch.

1956 Topps Johnny Podres

Pitch a great game on just the right day, and you'll be remembered forever.

1954 Topps Joe Black

Joe had an incredible 1952 season where he won 15 and saved 15 games in relief for the Dodgers, then started 3 World Series games. Joe won the Rookie of the Year award, but then got his mechanics screwed up when manager Chuck Dressen told him to add some pitches to his repertoire. An enterprising young proofreader has updated Joe's card to reflect his 1955 trade to Cincinnati.

1955 Bowman Jim Gilliam

Another Negro League vet who won the Rookie of the Year award, Gilliam is one of the best players no one knows about. It's easy for a team to go to 7 World Series when guys like Jim are on the roster doing all the little things to help a team win.

1948 Leaf Gene Hermanski

I only have a couple '48 Leaf cards, I may as well show one of 'em off. This card looks a hell of a lot better in person.

1950 Bowman Carl Furillo

Why, yes. All of my Brooklyn Dodgers cards have a heavy crease, or scribbles all over it, or have been glued to a scrapbook at one point, or was chewed on by a dog, or went through the wash a couple of times, or all of the above, why do you ask? Furillo was actually a pretty good outfielder, but got overshadowed by all the other stars on those Dodger teams. Think Bobby Abreu on the Yankees. Kind of like that.

1954 Bowman Billy Cox

I'll leave off with that dude from the flea market's favorite player. One of these days I should really ask the guy his name. Comic Book Guy has a nice ring to it. Flea Market Baseball Card and Porn Guy, not so much.

Card of the Week 10/08

This week's Card of the Week is one of the most beautiful specimens I own. A Pristine 1954 Topps Duke Snider.


I thought I'd post the card for your viewing pleasure while I work on the draft of the actual post.
Can any of you smart kids tell me why I chose a Brooklyn Dodger for my Card of the Week on this dark day in American History?

UPDATE: two days later... Sorry about that folks. You know those old Road Runner cartoons where Wile E. Coyote chases the speedy bird across a railroad track? Then he looks down one side of the track and sees nothing, then looks down the other side of the track, and sees it's all clear, then starts to go across the track and then *POW* he's flattened by a train? Replace train with work and Wile E. with me and that's your answer to why it's taken so long to finish this post.

Reader Rob got it right, although in a slightly roundabout fashion. On October 8th, 1957, Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley officially announced that the Dodgers were moving to Los Angeles. There are a library full of books devoted to the subject, so I'm not going to get into the controversy of whether greedy O'Malley bolted for more money or if the idiot politicians forced him out of town. Rob is absolutely right in one respect: The Dodgers move to the west coast was dependent on the Giants doing the same. The Giants actually had many of the same issues as the Dodgers, a crumbling stadium, lagging attendance, stubborn politicians and a giant pot of money waiting for them in California from a city desperate for a major league club. There's a legitimate gripe there as well, everyone bemoans the poor Brooklynites losing their team, but no one really cares about the die-hard Giants fans that watched their team run off. Maybe it's sympathy for the working class Brooklyn fans , maybe it's the Jackie Robinson mystique, maybe it's the whole Ebbets field trolly-dodging bums mythology, maybe it's the fact that most people think the Giants are still in New York (they beat the Jets just last week!). I personally think it's because the jilted Brooklyn fans got more book deals.

At any rate, New York went from the Center of the Baseball World to not even having a National League team in one fell swoop. It wasn't surprising that a team would move, every city that had two teams lost one of them to another town in the mid-50's except for Chicago (which is surprising, considering how lousy those Cubs teams were). Losing both at once was a big shock though, and generated a bit of resentment. Q: If you were locked in a room with Hitler, Stalin and Walter O'Malley, and had a gun but only two bullets, what do you do? A: Shoot O'Malley. Twice. Would it have really been that difficult to find another team to ship out to California? The woeful Senators ended up moving to Minnesota a few short years later anyway. On the flip side, America was changing in the 50's and it was really about time that the Major Leagues spread out from a handful of Eastern cities to the rest of the country. Whether you're a broken hearted Brooklyn fan or a happy San Francisco fan or were born decades later in between the two coasts and don't care either way, there is one evil that Walter O'Malley unleashed upon the world for which he can never be forgiven: Had the Dodgers not moved to Los Angeles, the New York Mets would never have existed.

Ok, enough with the history lesson and the backhanded swipe at my team's division rival, let's talk about this wonderful card. Before I got this one, the only original Duke Snider card I had was his 1964 Topps card. Anyone who has seen that card knows how sad it looks, featuring a shell shocked Snider playing for a horrific '63 Mets team. An eBay seller I frequented for vintage cards happened to also be a Brooklyn fan. For some reason there are a whole lot of old time collectors who are Brooklyn fans. It makes sense, Topps was based out of Brooklyn and there were a lot of cards floating around during the Dodgers' heyday in the 50's. There is a hard core collector who has a stand at the local flea market who is a big time Dodgers fan. When I go to check out his cards (he has a fantastic selection of vintage and autographed stuff) he likes to tell stories of his favorite player Billy Cox, of grabbing handfuls of 1954 NY Journal-American cards off of newstands when he was a kid (and putting Mantles in the bicycle spokes since he was a Yankee) and of big purchases of collections back in the day.

Apparently this eBay seller upgraded a few cards in his collection, because a group of Brooklyn auctions popped up all at once and this Duke was one of them. I snagged this one pretty cheaply and was happy to get it. Minor imperfections aside, it's a great looking card of a great player from a great set. Who would complain if they had a Willie Mays or Mickey Mantle in this condition? Heck I'd murder entire villages in cold blood for a '54 Aaron that looked even half as good as this one. Point is, it's an original Duke card and I didn't have to drop a hundred bucks on it. All those creases and scuffs and erase marks and tears just show that it has character. Who wants it in beautiful unblemished PSA 8? Well I do, but I'll settle for this slightly used version for now.