Some long awaiting posting

Just looked at the last post and couldn't believe it's been over a month. And then I realize that the freelance I have picked up has almost become a second full-time job. Certainly not complaining but between work, freelance, and my commute I find I haven't been able to find time to blog. Some days I feel lucky I have five minutes to go to the bathroom.

Well without further rambling, I will jump right into this while I have the time. Over the past month, I have made a couple of trades (My Cardboard Mistress, Smed, and Angels in Order) that I have scanned, just need to write and post. I have some vintage eBay winnings to post but right now, I will throw some vintage (cheap, cheap) from the LSC.

So I keep finding myself going back to a 1600 shoebox that has all sorts of 1960's Topps odds and ends, mostly '61, '62, and '63s and managed to pull these out. Still like the simple look to the 1961 Topps, strong colors and one of the largest photo image areas in the 1960's Topps. I like the Fairly card because it's clearly Spring Training and you can see that the "dugout" is barely a bench against the stands. Nice touch with all the batting helmets lined up too. I knew I had a 1968 Curt Flood but something about this fielding shot drew me in.

These four cards came from the same shoebox at the LSC. Always love grabbing some vintage leader cards, especially when they have some HOF'ers on them (in this case Jim Bunning). Jim King hit for the cycle on May 26, 1964 and Perranoski was a hell of a reliever for the Dodgers during the 1960's. I think the '65 set is one of my all-time favorites. Nice design with the baseball pennant, great colors ...

Next box I jumped into was a 3200 count of 1969 Topps. While it's not my favorite design, it certainly yielded some awesome cards!!! One them, the Say Hey Kid. Soft corners, and a crease but for $5.00 I was not going to Say Ney. I had been looking for a Mays off condition card but couldn't land one this cheap on eBay. Nice showing of three other HOF'ers as well, although Topps was lazy and had used this Joe Morgan pic in it's 1968 set.

Next up some star pitchers from the 60's including the two stars of the 1968 Tigers World Series championship.

 Some Miracle Mets although I was a little shocked I didn't come across a Seaver from this set. I believe Terrific Tom is a double, if not a triple print in this set. It's on my list of cards I definitely want to track down.

Next batch I pulled had some stars and minor stars from that decade. In all the vintage Topps '60s I have gone through at the LSC, this 1969 All-Star was the first Willie Horton I came across. Had to have it. Odd to see the "A" on the A's hats not have the "A's". They had just moved to Oakland in 1968 and it wasn't till the 1970 season did the apostrophe and "s" appeared.

And finally, some vintage leaders cards. I think I grab the four of these for maybe a buck total. Where else can you find three HOFers on the same card? Marichal, Gibson, Jenkins!!!!  McCovey, Santo, Williams!!!! Love these and don't mind that they're a little beat up.

And with that, it comes time to make lunch for the kids. Have a bunch of stuff to post and hope to do some writing tonight while putting back a Shipyard Pumpkinhead or two. 

LCS visit brings in vintage and retro vintage (PART TWO)

So many times I look at the boxes and boxes of cards and wonder, how can I organize my collection better. How can I make it truly mine? How can I keep this "fun" for me? What's a good way to pull out a binder and explore the history of the game? The players, the uniforms, the crazy hair of the 70's, odd nicknames, etc. ... I know other blogs have "built" All-Time team binders and the like, but how can I do this for myself in a way that encompasses the stars and not so stars of America's pastime and showcase Topps' design through the years?

I have thought about just doing a page of each Topps baseball card design, but there is no way I would be able to limit myself to say, nine cards from any given year. Hhhmmm, what if I did that and didn't limit myself?  Well then I might have nine pages of 1971 Topps but only one page of 1988 Topps. That won't work.

I went back and thought about doing the All-Time teams bit again and again ... a project that would be easier to tackle and more attractive thanks to all the recent reto set products. However, I am a bit anal and wouldn't want a 2011 Gypsy Queen Honus Wagner next to a nice 1964 Topps Bill Mazeroski. So what to do, what to do, how can I pull this together? I needed to answer the question of "what is it about baseball and baseball cards that I love the most? What always draws me back to looking at these pieces of cardboard?" The answer was easy and stems from one of my favorite baseball books in my library, Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Lineups.

So with a little bit of fine tuning on my end, I am starting a new collecting project that will be one of All-Decade teams for each Major League ball club from the 1960's till present in Topps baseball card form. Each ball club for each decade will have; one, 9-pocket page for the starting line up that will include a pinch hitter/utility/DH, one, 9-pocket page of a starting rotation of five, a couple of bullpen saviors, a closer, and one, 9-pocket page of bench guys and/or highlight cards such as post-season or record breaking performances.

I will begin posting these teams little by little and would love to hear feedback even if it's in the form of "What the hell are you thinking putting player A over player B????"

So with this project in mind, how could I not pass up this Roger Maris for only $3.00!!  I mean, would you rather have this 1964 Topps card or a $3.00, crap pack of 2011 Bowman????

Sure, there's a lot of wear on this baby, but all the stats are there to peruse and the card really has some nice color. It's my first and only Yankee so far for my 60's Yanks, All-Decade team and what a way to kick this collection off.

Next up, a high number ... all for the price of a 2011 Topps Rack Pack ...

Your starting second baseman of your 1960's Pittsburgh Pirates, BILL MAZEROSKI!!! The 1964 Topps design is a little underrated I feel. The set has some great color, the color photos spilling over onto the white borders, and the game/quiz on the back of the cards is a cool touch. Seems like the 1960, 1962, and 1967 Topps designs get all the love but this, I think, will be the next Heritage set I'll collect. It's a just a classic and clean set.

Next up for the cost of a couple of new packs, more guys to help fill out the rosters for my '60s teams for the Braves, Cardinals, Cubs, and Phillies to name a few ...

Love, love this shot of Callison!!  I mean, look at that color and the classic wool uniform against a backdrop of an old school ballpark.

Here's a bunch of 1968 Topps with Shannon probably being my pinch hitter as Ken Boyer will be the starting third baseman for the this '60s Cards team. At one point when I was a teen, actually had a chance to buy a partial set from this year and for whatever reason, I decided not to. Still kicking myself on that one. I think would have been maybe $80 for about three quarters of the set. For some reason, I still like this design over the '69 ... Oh well.

And speaking of 1969, here's the last three vintage pulls from the LCS. Maxvill fills out my Cards infield alongside the '68 Javier, above, and Veale was a pretty good lefty in his day.

So with that, I have begun putting these guys in sheets as well as begun putting together a wantlist for other cards I will need for the 1960s and 1970s teams. I hope you'll help me along the journey and hope it sparks some pretty good debate in the comments section.

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CONTEST, CONTEST, CONTEST!!!!
And finally before I forget, I'd like to pimp This Card Is Cool's blog contest over here. Ryan's always has some good reads and he steps it up a notch in celebrating his 200th post. Congrats Ryan, keep up the great work and thanks for the cool contest!