Baseball Cards Come to Life!

Last time 1962 won 8-1. Will it win again here?

Most of the card back-and-forth I do on OBC isn't really trading. It's more of a loose assortment of blind trades. I send cards to people randomly when I have something for them, and others do the same for me. It all pretty much evens out. Occasionally there is an opportunity for a real trade. Phil McNear is working on a '69 set, and one of his last few needs was Johnny Bench. I was fortunate to pick up a spare and traded him that, along with three '67 Topps posters. Here's what I got in return:

That's a 1968 Topps high number and four 1969 Topps stamp albums. The albums are each about 75% full. I already had a few stamps but no albums until now.

Let's look inside each album. Starting with the lowly Indians, here's a nice completed page with a few very good pitchers.
The equally lowly Senators, with Frank Howard the big standout.
The Cubs book had three of the four Hall-of-Famers. Jenkins and Williams are great but I had to go with Ernie Banks as the Cubs representative.
Finally the big one, the Yankee book. Missing Pepitone, Stottlemyre and White, but that's OK because there is Mickey Mantle! Any time I can get a vintage Mick it's worth celebrating.

 

I stumbled across a lot of vintage Dodgers postcards at a reasonable opening bid, and was not outbid. I'm pretty sure both of the legendary Dodger bloggers (Night Owl and GCRL) have shown them on their blogs, they definitely look familiar. I guess it's disputable but I consider them baseball cards. They are cards, of baseball players, and look really nice. Better than most of their cardboard contemporaries.

Almost all of these are undated, and I haven't done the research yet to pin an exact year on them, if it's possible. That research will be fun, though.

Part of the lot were these smaller cards, which aren't postcards but some kind of team issue set. They are unnumbered but have full writeups of the players on the back. They appear to be from 1979. I like how the stadium lines up perfectly on Russell's and Yeager's cards. I also like the off-center action shot of Doug Rau (the back says his nickname is "Bayonne"!) I also like the green St. Patrick's day hat on Garvey.

More from this set. These photos are less interesting. On the back of Manny Mota's set is something you probably wouldn't see written on a card today: "His bonus was a plane ticket away from the ghettos of Santo Domingo and $400."
On to the actual postcards. Starting with two photos that were also on the cards above.
The rest I broke up into categories. This one could be considered "spring training". I love the details like the cars visible behind Billy Grabarkewitz. I don't know for sure whether Walter Alston is in the dugout in Florida or L.A.
Pitching. I should have put Forster in the spring training column. The Dodger Stadium shots look great though.
Action shots! Willie Davis happens to be on the top of the pile on my desk right now, and the speck of dirt on the third base line aligns perfectly to make it look like he has a big pointy nose.
Dodger Stadium posed shots! Most of the cards here are from the 70's but these are mostly '60s players.
Horizontal shots! Ted Sizemore on the handball court is kind of weird (in a good way) but the Sutton and Buckner photos are spectacular. You can even see a Braves pitcher warming in the bullpen on Sutton's card.
Best for last. These are two I know I've seen on the blogs before. The Dick Allen card (the signature says Richie, the back of the card says Rich) is very similar to his '71 Topps card, which I'm not likely to get any time soon. Great to get a card of him from his short Dodger stop. Another short-term Dodger stop for a legendary star, Hoyt Wilhelm's night card I've seen on several blogs.

Here's Bobby Tolan, clearly in the uniform of the Cincinnati Reds, who traded Tolan to the San Diego Padres in November of 1973. He is clearly in a stadium with three decks, with the upper deck towering overhead.

So not even remotely true to claim this is Sun Devil Stadium in Yuma with it's single grandstand, on a date four months after Tolan was traded away from the team he is pictured with here. I'd been wondering about the veracity of the spring training dates on these cards. Here's the first one I've seen that has been BLATANTLY inaccurate.

Once again TCDB had the card front but not the back, but there was one on the Memory Lane Auctions website. Sold for $360 in January!

Could the photo be from Shea Stadium in 1972, like his '73 Topps card?

On March 17, 1974, while Tolan was busy doing something other than getting his photo taken by Topps, 50 people were killed in protests in Bangladesh, OPEC leaders met to end the oil embargo, and New York had it's annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. Here are some photos from the '74 parade.

  

I've had a lot of fun with this series. Appropriate to end it on a mall staple - Hickory Farms.

1986 was Sampson's only year playing professional baseball. In 15 games (7 starts) for Spokane he was 3-4 with a 4.15 ERA. He has since gone on to a long career in investment banking and private equity. He is currently Managing Partner of Pacific Growth Investors, a private equity firm in Los Angeles.

Mostly OBC but starting off with a vintage TCDB trade with bearsbaseballcards. My end of the trade was this very nice 1954 Bowman Harry Dorish.

 

Gunny Musgrove and I have traded several times via OBC. He's on TCDB now. He traded me this Topps Heritage insert and threw in a '59 Topps Ray Moore. Like many my age, the first "celebrity death" I was aware of was Mr. Hooper.

 Other OBC envelopes that came in recently . . . 

Joel Freedman beefed up my 1968 Atlantic Oil set with these.

 

It's been a few weeks since I did one of these posts. I've been feeling a little more ambivalent about the weekly low-grade Greg Morris auctions. I'm not sure if they're getting more popular or what but it's been harder to get good cards at the prices I've been used to. A couple of times recently I've been late in the auction, and it looked like I might only end up with a couple of commons that wouldn't justify the $5 flat rate shipping, so I upped some of my bids. I never used to have to do that. I might be approaching the point where I stop doing these, but honestly it's still a lot of fun, and I'm not really spending more total, just a bit more per card.

This one was three weeks ago. Not a whole lot of star power - my favorite card here is the famous '55 Bowman Gene Baker, with the bandage on his head.

The following week the biggest highlight was a '34 Goudey of Yankees backup catcher Arndt Jorgens. The more 1930s cards the more I want. Other than that nothing too extraordinary, though there were a couple of cards, including the rookie, of borderline HOFer Ron Santo.
This week's was better, but only because I upped a couple of bids late. I guess I'm going to have to up my game for the Musials and Spahns of the world that I still need. I even dipped into football which I don't usually do, got some dollar stars and two from the beautiful 1962 set. Speaking of beautiful those Bell Potato Chips Dodgers cards are another favorite of mine.
Other eBay pickups recently include this solid 1957 lot. The top three are all available for trade.
Four unique 1960 Topps high-number All Stars. All have the names of football players who were playing at the time. I got this lot to get a cheap Maris; happened to need Crandall too. My other copies of Skowron and Lollar are in pretty good shape and I'm happy to trade those copies (or these if someone prefers)..
Other pickups included Yankees great Whitey Ford . . .
. . . and his batterymate, Elston Howard.
This is a terrific pickup for my 1968 set.
Another big time pickup - this was in a lot with a torn '69 Johnny Bench. I already had a '69 Bench, and knew of an OBCer who needed one, so I worked out a trade with him and the better copy is already in the mail.
Always happy to grab another Willie Mays.
Finally, a '52 Johnny Mize. I paid $8 which is more than I would have liked to have spent, I was hoping to win a few from one seller and combine shipping but it didn't work out. Still, I don't mind too much because it's a great card of a Yankee Hall-of-Famer.

 

 

The front: A smile and tip of the cap from El Presidente.

The back: There have now been 15 major leaguers from Nicaragua, the most recent being Yankees pitcher Jonathan Loaisaga.

The player: Martinez came up with the Orioles and had several up-and-down seasons. A high point was 1981, leading the AL with 14 wins in the strike-shortened season. A low point was being left off the postseason roster in 1983 due in part to his alcoholism. Martinez got sober after that season and was traded to the Expos in 1986, where he got himself together and became a star at age 33. His best season was 1991, when he led the NL with a 2.39 ERA, 9 complete games and 5 shutouts, including a perfect game. He signed with the Indians after the 1994 season, and at age 41 in 1995 he went 12-5 with a 3.08 ERA to help Cleveland win the pennant. He retired after the 1998 season at the age o f 44. Overall in 692 games he went 245-193 with a 3.70 ERA.

The man: Martinez did some coaching at the major and minor league level, and managed Nicaragua in the 2013 WBC. Martinez's nickname came from his popularity in his native country. Nicaragua's President since 2007 is dictator Daniel Ortega. In 2022 Ortega had Martinez's name removed from the stadium named for the pitcher in 1998 after Martinez criticized the president.

My collection: I have 150 of his cards, from 1977 to 1998. I would be interested in trading for 1979 Hostess #32.

  

The card, in brief: What stands out most to me hear is the warmup jacket.

The player, in brief: Outfielder Ed Armbrister played for the Reds from 1973 to 1977, hitting .245 with 4 HR and 19 RBI in 224 games. He is best known for a play in Game Three of the 1975 World Series, where he collided with Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk on a bunt attempt in the tenth inning in a game the Red Sox would go on to lose. The umpires ruled that Armbrister did not intend to interfere with Fisk and thus called him safe. 

Post-playing career, in brief: After his retirement he worked in the casino business in his native Bahamas. He was also a consultant to the Bahamas Ministry of Sport. He died in 2021.

My collection: I have seven of his cards, from 1972 to 1978. I would be interested in trading for 1978 SSPC 270 #124.

  

Johnson's trying to avoid looking at any of the stains on the cover.

 

 Nice Yankee Stadium shot here.

  

The Hank Aaron reference is fun. The other day a reader left a comment, mentioning an internet debate over whether Chris Speier or Johnny Logan was the best shortstop to play with Aaron with the Braves or Mays with the Giants. Personally I think Alvin Dark had better numbers than either of them.

Last time Topps cruised to an 8-1 victory. Who will win this time?

This is an interesting matchup - almost an identical pose, but two different locations. Speier must have been very consistent with his batting stance. Speier came up with the Giants in 1971 and was an All-Star the next three seasons, mostly because of his defensive reputation. He never hit much, but stayed in the league until 1989. In 19 seasons for five teams, mostly the Giants and Expos, he hit .246 with 112 HR and 720 RBI. After his playing career he was a major league coach for seven different teams between 2000 and 2020. He appears to now be retired.

Last time it was a 5-3 victory for 1962. Who will win this time?

Rookie Al Downing poses at Yankee Stadium. The youngster's name and uniform number can be seen on his glove. Downing originally came up with the Yankees in 1961 but had his first full season in 1963, going 13-5 with a 2.56 ERA. His 1964 was even better, leading the AL with 217 strikeouts. As the Yankees' fortunes waned in the late 1960s, so did Downing's. He put up solid numbers but not as good as his first two seasons, though he was an All-Star in 1967. After the 1969 the Yankees traded him to Oakland, who quickly flipped him to Milwaukee. Before the 1971 season the Brewers traded him to the Dodgers, where he was named Comeback Player of the Year, going 20-9 with a 2.68 ERA in 1971. He had a couple more good seasons, hanging on through 1977. Overall in 405 games he went 123-107 with 1,639 strikeouts and a 3.22 ERA. Despite these very good numbers, Downing is best known as the pitcher who allowed Hank Aaron's 715th home run. After his playing career he was a Dodgers announcer for many years. He is now retired but still makes appearances for the Yankees and Dodgers.

Cecilio Guante gets a simple head shot here. He was coming off of four straight seasons as an excellent set-up man for the Pirates. By the time this card was printed Guante was a Yankee, going to the Bronx in the blockbuster Rhoden-for-Drabek trade. Guante had a rough season in 1987, going 3-2 with a 5.73 ERA. He pitched much better in 1988, but the Yankees traded him to Texas for Dale Mohorcic, another bad acquisition for the Yankees. Guante had a solid season in 1989 for Texas. He signed with Cleveland in 1990 and struggled again, going 2-3 with a 5.01 ERA in his last major league season. Overall in 363 games he went 29-34 with 35 saves and a 3.48 ERA. Guante kept a low profile during his career and has kept that way since retiring and returning to his native Dominican Republic.

 Front scan from TCDB.

 

Only back photo I could find was of a graded copy, sold by Memory Lane Auctions last year for $420!

March 19, 1973, according to Topps. From earlier posts we've seen that the spring training dates aren't always right. Don't know if this one is or not, but in an odd coincidence, the Sports Illustrated with that cover date (which I believe would have been published a few days earlier) had an article about Sanguillen replacing the late Roberto Clemente in right field. The next day, March 20, Clemente was officially elected into the Hall of Fame. On the field, the Pirates beat the Royals 8-3.

There is certainly a chance this might be an older photo. Sanguillen's uniform and the background are similar enough to his 1973 card to open up the possibility, though it's impossible to say for sure.

In other news, 58 people were killed in a plane crash in South Vietnam, 50 were killed at gas explosions in a mine in India, and baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn announced that he was "appalled" by the wife-swap by Yankee pitchers Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson but said the commissioner's office had no authority to intervene in the matter.