From My Collection: Robin Roberts post-Phillies

Robin Roberts is important to me since he was a favorite of my dad growing up.  I've posted two Robin Roberts cards before, which I'll repeat here:

Red Man Tobacco Robin Roberts card (without tab).

Pacific Robin Roberts card.

I have a few more nostalgia cards of Roberts, including more by Pacific and also Baseball Immortals, and maybe others.  But, I have two more regular Topps cards of him as well.  Unfortunately, these are not with the Phillies.

1962 Topps Robin Roberts.

This 1962 Topps card of Roberts says that he's with the Yankees, and he isn't wearing a hat.  You can tell, though, that the pinstripes are red.  So, he's kind of still with the Phils in this one.  He never even actually appeared for the Yankees during the regular season; he played with them in spring training, and was released in May.

1963 Topps Robin Roberts.

He then went to the Orioles.  There, he played three and a half seasons, going 42-36 with a 3.09 ERA, and mentored Jim Palmer; not bad for someone at the end of his career.  After Baltimore, he briefly played with Houston and Chicago.  Roberts was one of the great pitchers of the 1950s, and made the Hall of Fame on the 4th ballot in 1976.  I've said before that to commemorate the Whiz Kids in my collection, I'll be looking to add his 1951 Bowman card, and some of his teammates.  It will be good to have another regular card of him with the Phillies, in addition to the Red Man card above.

Some more 1986 Sportflics Decade Greats: the 1950s

I posted some cards from the 1950s portion of the 1986 Sportflics Decade Greats set the other day.  When I went to put those cards away, I saw that there were some cards missing.  A little investigation showed that I had set some cards aside for a blog post.  The cards I'm showing here are the ones I had originally (several months ago) intended to show to represent the 1950s portion of the set.  But then, you know, pandemic and all, I forgot.  So between the two posts, I'm showing almost all of the cards from of the 50s from the set.

Jackie Robinson.

Roy Campanella.

I should have noticed something amiss.  I should have noticed that Jackie Robinson should have been there.  So here he is with his Brooklyn teammate Roy Campanella.  Back in the late 80s/early 90s when I was collecting, cards like this and Baseball Immortals and the like were the only way I could have cards of these greats.  I'm fortunate to have been able to add a couple of old cards of them to my collection lately.

Ernie Banks.

Mickey Mantle.

Ernie Banks and Mickey Mantle are here, and to my mind they show a limitation of the format, that it's hard to slot some of these players into just one decade.  Of course Banks and Mantle were huge in the 60s, too.  They both won two MVP awards in the 50s, and Mantle got a third in the 60s.  They both led their leagues in home runs and RBIs a few times, but in both cases, not after 1960.  So maybe the 50s is the right call for both of them, that while they continued to be great, they had the most impact in the 50s.

Mainly Robin Roberts.

Bob Lemon, Don Newcombe, and Robin Roberts card back.

If I told you that a Sportflics card had Robin Roberts, Don Newcombe, and Bob Lemon on it, you wouldn't necessarily know who the scan of the card would pick up.  The image that came out was mainly Robin Roberts, which I'm glad about.  I've said a number of times that he was Dad's favorite when he was growing up.  I feel like I'm almost done collecting overall, but I definitely want to pick up one more good Robin Roberts card before I stop.  (I have a couple more goals, but I do need to add another solid Robin Roberts card.)

That's all for now!  Thanks for reading!

Happy Halfiversary! Six Recent Pickups to Celebrate Six Months of Blogging

I started this blog exactly six months ago, on August 8, 2017, writing two posts, an introductory post and a post about my 1953 Topps Bill Bruton card.  Thanks to all of you who come to hear my stories and see my cards.  To celebrate these six months, I am showing today six great cards I bought recently and just received in the mail.

1960 Topps Frank Robinson.

This 1960 Topps Frank Robinson is both my first card from the 1960 Topps set, and also my first card of a young Frank Robinson.  I showed before the best other cards I have of Frank Robinson, his 1972 Topps and 1972 Topps Traded cards.  Robinson, of course, made a big mark with the Reds and with the Orioles, and afterwards also played with the Dodgers, Angels, and Indians.  The 1972 Topps card marks the end of his time with the Orioles, the 1972 Topps Traded is with the Dodgers, and I also have his 1973 card with the Angels.  It's great to add an early-career card of him like this with the Reds, before he won either of his MVP awards, the triple crown, or either of his two World Series.

1968 Topps Game Roberto Clemente.

I've posted about Roberto Clemente a few times, including how my copy of his 1973 Topps card is my all-time favorite card, and my recent acquisition of his 1969 Topps Deckle Edge card.  As a fan of both "The Great One" specifically and the Pirates more generally, you might think I would try to develop a deep collection of Clemente.  The drawback, though, is that I don't want most cards calling him Bob, but rather look only for cards that call him by his name, Roberto (at least on the front of the card).  This card from the 1968 Topps game fits the bill, as his name only appears as his signature.  I do have his 1971 Topps and 1972 topps cards in addition to the 1973, and will look to buy a 1970 as well.  Otherwise, I suppose a 1955 rookie card is on the long-term wishlist, but I don't expect to pick that up anytime soon.  This card also makes my second from the 1968 Topps Game; I showed my Jim Fregosi previously.

1959 Topps Robin Roberts.

I post a lot about Robin Roberts and Richie Ashburn, I think.  Dad grew up in Philly in the 50s, and they were the big stars of the Phils back then.  I'm planning to pick up the 1959 Richie Ashburn, soon, to go with this just-acquired 1959 Robin Roberts.  I previously posted about picking up the 1951 Bowman of Richie Ashburn, which I'm using to commemorate the 1950 NL pennant-winning Whiz Kids team, and I will work on getting the 1951 Bowman of Roberts, too. I have a long-term goal of putting together a 1959 Topps set, and I haven't really started yet, but that's why I picked 1959 when I was looking to get another pair of Roberts and Ashburn cards.

1977 Topps Rookie Outfielders, including Andre Dawson.

I've posted the occasional card of Andre Dawson before, but none of them have really been notable.  Perhaps the most interesting time I've shown Dawson was him on the cover of the first Beckett I ever owned, from September, 1987.  Buying his rookie card, this 1977 Topps Rookie Outfielders card, shared with Gene Richards, John Scott, and Denny Walling, falls under the category of things I probably couldn't afford around 1990.  The 1977 Topps set isn't one that means especially much to me, so I don't generally expect to go looking for many more 1977 cards.  I'm delighted to add the Hawk to those 1977 cards I do have in my main binder.

1978 Topps Eddie Murray.

Here we have another 1970s rookie card of a great slugger, Eddie Murray of the Orioles.  Again, I expect that this would have prohibitively expensive for me around 1990.  At today's prices, though, of course I was going to pick this up eventually.  Where I grew up in Newark, Delaware, we're close to both Philadelphia and Baltimore (just a bit closer to Philly).  Almost everyone was Phillies fans, but there were a few Orioles fans in town, and my Dad's company had season tickets to the Orioles.  He'd get them every now and then, and we saw about 5-10 games at the old Memorial Stadium.  I've still never been to the "new stadium," as I call it, Camden Yards, which opened just as I was graduating high school.  But, when my son is old enough to go to a major league game (maybe this year, maybe next year), we'll make the trip down.  

1978 Topps Mike Schmidt.

Eddie Murray and Mike Schmidt were the two local sluggers when I was growing up, but Schmidt was the bigger star -- like I said, just about everyone in town was a Phillies fan.  I never had any cards of Schmidt from the 70s, though, because they were just too expensive -- on top of the regular price, I feel sure that there was a local premium for them in the pre-internet age.  When I started collecting again last summer, I addressed this collecting gap immediately, acquiring a Schmidt rookie card.  I followed that up with the follow-up card, his 1974 Topps.  As a collector, I don't usually try to get all of anything, and I instead try to represent lots of different things in my collection.  I don't need every Schmidt card or even every Schmidt from the 70s, and I'm happy that I do now have some of those oldest cards of him in my collection.  I wanted to pick up this 1978 card in addition to the 1973 and 1974 for a couple of reasons: I think the card looks incredibly 70s, which I like, and, he didn't have his mustache in the 1973 or 1974 cards, so he didn't quite look like himself. 

As always, thanks for reading.  Six months have flown by, and I look forward to much more to come.

Missing years, no more

Before I left for college in 1993, I made sure that my main binder, with all my best cards, was organized in a way I was happy with, for it to stay that way forever, basically.  It lasted about 23 years, until I started to update it in 2016.  The binder starts with my favorite Topps cards chronologically, and these are 9-card pages so it only starts with standard-sized cards, i.e. post-1956.  Back then, the oldest card I had there was my 1959 Topps Harmon Killebrew, and after that it jumped to my 1962 Topps Robin Roberts.  Then I had a 1963 Roberts as well, and then a 1965 Juan Marichal.  Then I had all the years after that represented.  In updating, I decided I wanted all the years represented.  I showed a 1958 John Roseboro, and a 1960 Frank Robinson, but that left 1957, 1961, and 1964 to fill in.  So that's what we have today.

1957 Topps Robin Roberts.

Robin Roberts and Richie Ashburn cards, to me, represent my dad.  Dad was an orphan in the 50s and lived in a locally well-known orphange/school in Philadelphia.  They would take him to Phillies games at Connie Mack stadium every now and then, and he was definitely a Phillies fan.  So even though I have a number of Roberts cards already at the front of the binder, I went for one more.  This 1957 fits in condition-wise with a few of the others, as you may be able to see the multiple creases in the scan.

1961 Topps Bob Gibson.

The greatest pitchers of the 1960s are said to be Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal, and Sandy Koufax.  To represent 1961 in the binder, I went with another Gibson card.  (Koufax cards are expensive!)  He's young here, just a couple of years off his 1959 Topps rookie card.  I showed all my Bob Gibson cards once before, and all my Juan Marichal.  My only good Koufax card is the 1967 NL Pitching Leaders card that I showed once.  This Gibson is now my oldest card of him, beating my previous best, the 1969, by several years.

1964 Topps Duke Snider.

I saw a copy of this Duke Snider card on another blog (sorry I don't remember who), and I had to have one for myself.  It works perfectly that Duke can represent 1964 in my binder, as well as representing those very early New York Mets teams.  It's my second good card of Snider, after the 1955 Red Man tobacco card I showed previously.

Thanks for reading!

Five from 1960 Topps

Back when I was collecting in the late 80s and early 90s, I never had any 1960 Topps cards.  I'm not sure that I ever even saw any 1960 Topps.  Now that I have access to these, I love the design and couldn't help but pick up a few.

Curt Flood.

I got a 1959 Curt Flood as one of my first new cards when I restarted collecting in 2017.  Now I have the 1960 as well.   I appreciate Flood for his courageous, and costly, stand for players' labor rights, in addition to his near-2000 hits and 7 Gold Gloves.

Sandy Koufax.

This is now my best card of Sandy Koufax, by a million miles.  I posted a league leaders card I got previously, and that's fine, but this is awesome.  I don't even know what else to say about this one.

Don Drysdale.

Then we have fellow Dodger pitching great Don Drysdale.  I think this is my only good card of Drysdale.  Other than his pitching feats, I always remember Don Drysdale from that one episode of The Brady Bunch.

Robin Roberts.

I post a lot of Robin Roberts cards, since he was Dad's favorite growing up.  This is another good one.

Richie Ashburn.

And where I have Robin Roberts, I usually have Richie Ashburn.  Ashburn had left the Phils at this point, although I think he's still wearing the red pinstripes in this photo.  Roberts wouldn't be far behind, soon to join Baltimore.

Thanks for reading!

Collection Goals: The Whiz Kids (Update: Red Man Tobacco card)

I posted last week that, in honor of my Dad, I wanted to acquire some cards of the Whiz Kids (Robin Roberts, Richie Ashburn, and others) from the early 1950s, rather than the 1980s/1990s Pacific cards that I have, or the cards I have of Roberts after he left the Phillies.  Upon further review, I do have one card of Roberts with the Phillies -- an old Red Man tobacco card.

1952 (I think) Red Man Tobacco Robin Roberts

I have seven of these Red Man cards in my collection; I bought them from a friend in high school, whose dad had left them (and many more) to her.  They are all "without tabs," and are in slightly rough shape, with some creases here and there.  I'll post the other six sometime later.

As far as collection goals go, I suppose I'll be more specific, then.  I'd like to get Roberts, Ashburn, and some others (maybe Del Ennis, Granny Hamner, and Jim Konstanty) from the same set -- 1951 Bowman would seem most appropriate, reflecting the 1950 World Series run.  To be even more specific, I think I'll look for ones which are already PSA graded, too.

Recent Acquisitions: Five 1962 Post Cards (Bruton, Killebrew, Clemente, Roberts, Ashburn)

I recently purchased five cards from the 1962 Post set.  As I mentioned in my last post, at this point in my life as a collector, I am interested in representing different sets in my collection rather than collecting the whole sets.  These five cards from 1962 Post are enough to accomplish that goal, while adding cards of some favorite players.

Bill Bruton.

One of my favorite cards is my 1953 Topps Bill Bruton, which I pulled from a "grab bag" at Stale Gum, the local card shop in Newark, DE in the mid-1980s.  Bruton is a fellow Delawarean, and was a prolific base stealer in his day.  It's nice to have a second card of him.

Harmon Killebrew.

I mentioned in the previous post that I always appreciated Harmon Killebrew as one of the few players to have more home runs than Mike Schmidt.  When Schmidt retired, that list was just Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Harmon Killebrew, and Reggie Jackson.  In the post-steroids era the current all-time home run list is meaningless to me, but those older guys were the real thing.

Roberto Clemente.

Here we have another Clemente card, which I appreciate for calling him Roberto, not Bob.  He was something special, and it's nice to have a card from early in his career.  He had 1,062 career hits when this card was printed, about 1/3 of his career total of 3,000.

Robin Roberts.

I write a lot about Robin Roberts and Richie Ashburn, since they were Dad's favorites when he was little.  It's nice to add more cards of them, and this Roberts is even when he was still with the Phillies.  The card does note that his contract was sold to the Yankees, but I like that it shows him in a Phillies hat, unlike his 1962 Topps.

Richie Ashburn.

The Ashburn, by contrast, is after he left the Phils and moved to the Cubs; he was traded in January, 1960.  My only other good Ashburn card is the 1951 Bowman I bought in November.  Otherwise, all I have of Ashburn are things like Pacific cards.

I really couldn't be happier with these 5 cards, both so that the old Post cards are now something I have in my collection, and to buttress my small collections of these 5 players.  For cards from the early 60s of some great players, these Post cards were really quite affordable, too.

Oversized in My Collection: 1990 Phillies Team-Issued Photo Cards

Continuing my Saturday series on oversized cards, today I'm featuring some from the 1990 Phillies team-issued set.  In a later post I'll show some of the cards of active players, but right now, I'm showing some others.  To start, we have cards commemorating the 4 retired numbers at that time.

Robin Roberts.

Richie Ashburn.

Robin Roberts was in the Hall of Fame already, and the local sentiment was definitely that Richie Ashburn belonged in the Hall, too.  When Dad and I started going to Phillies games, those were the only retired numbers.  Grover Cleveland Alexander and Chuck Klein are honored in a similar way, but didn't have numbers per se to retire.

Steve Carlton.

Mike Schmidt.

Then, of course, Steve Carlton and Mike Schmidt both retired.  And of course the Phils retired their numbers.  Dad and I went to both number retirement games; we could only get nosebleed seats for both games, but we were there.  The number retirement commemorative programs for each of them are gems of my memorabilia collection.

The Phillie Phanatic.

As I said once before, it's great to have a couple cards of the Phanatic.  Maybe I'll try to get a regular-sized card of him to go in the binder, since these oversized ones are all I have of him.

Schmidt and Maddox as broadcasters, with some other broadcaster in the middle.

The Phillies team-issued set also includes cards of the broadcasters.  This card has the Prism broadcasters; Prism was a cable pay station (like HBO), but local to Philly.  In addition to showing movies like HBO did, they also covered local events like Phillies games, and whatever might be going on at the local arena, the Spectrum.  We never subscribed to Prism, so I never saw this broadcasting team.  Of course, the reason this card is of interest is that 2/3 of the broadcasting team are Phillies greats, Mike Schmidt and Garry Maddox.  Not sure who the guy in the middle is, but I could find out by looking at the back of the card.

Chris Wheeler, Andy Musser, the great Harry Kalas, and Richie Ashburn.

Since we watched Phillies games broadcast over the air, this card shows our usual broadcasters, Chris Wheeler, Andy Musser, Harry Kalas, and Richie Ashburn himself.  The greatest of these is Harry Kalas, who locally was the voice of the Phillies (enshrined at Cooperstown as winner of the Ford C. Frick award), and known all over as the voice of NFL films.  After Kalas died, when I was riding the train into Philly for work one day, I spotted a bit of graffiti on a highway overpass, "Harry Kalas lives forever."  Indeed.

Collection Goals: The Whiz Kids

The Phillies winning the 1980 World Series forms the basis of some of my earliest memories.  I would have been four years old at the time, just a few days short of turning five.  The main thing I remember is how excited everyone was.  My Dad was 30 years older than me, which would put him at an age where he might have had very early memories of the Phillies losing the 1950 World Series.  Those Phillies were the Whiz Kids, and the two Hall-of-Famers from the team were Robin Roberts and Richie Ashburn.

Some 1980s (or maybe 1990s) Pacific cards of Roberts and Ashburn.

I have set the following as a collection goal, then, in honor of Dad, who died almost five years ago now: get some cards from the early 1950s of the Whiz Kids.  All I have are much later issues -- I have a few of Roberts from the 1960s, after he left the Phillies, and I have some Pacific cards, like those pictured here.  I think 1951 Bowman would be most appropriate, since that should reflect the team that actually went to the World Series.  I'll hope to get Roberts, Ashburn, and a few others that I've heard of.

Four from 1959 Topps

I've been going over my last year+ of acquisitions and figuring out what I never posted.  Today we have four cards from 1959 Topps.  I considered trying to complete the 1959 set but abandoned the idea, for now at least.  After I finish 1972 Topps and 1955 Bowman, I'll see if I want to start another set project.  But I did pick up a few cards to test the waters.

Johnny Podres.

I have a certain fascination with the Brooklyn Dodgers.  This being the 1959 set, it's after the move to Los Angeles, but I'm interested in Podres for his role with Brooklyn as MVP of the 1955 World Series.  Podres was part of the 1959 and 1963 World Series champion Dodgers as well.  He played with them in their 1965 championship season, too, but not in the postseason.

Danny Murtaugh with Frank Thomas and Ted Kluszewski.

On my list of "These guys should be in the Hall of Fame," in addition to Curt Flood and Dick Allen, is Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh.  This card was just before Murtaugh led Clemente, Mazeroski, Groat, and company to upset the Yankees in the 1960 World Series.  He would go on to beat the Orioles in the 1971 World Series as well, and the Orioles were again arguably the better team.  Murtaugh is pictured here with Frank Thomas, who I featured in a recent post of 1955 Bowman cards, and Ted Kluszewski.  This is one of my only cards (and the only one issued during his playing days) of Kluszewski.

Richie Ashburn.

I tend to pick up cards of Richie Ashburn and Robin Roberts in pairs.  I got the 1959 Roberts first and posted it some time ago.  Then there's a little asymmetry, in that I picked up a 1957 Roberts but not the corresponding Ashburn.  But that's balanced on my binder page by the following card, which is also a 1950s Ashburn, although that's not all it is.

Richie Ashburn and Willie Mays.

So, saving the best for last, we have Richie Ashburn and Willie Mays!  Of course in hindsight Mays is the much bigger star and better hitter.  But in 1958, Ashburn led the majors in batting average with .350, and Mays was second with .347.  Coming in third, fourth, and fifth were Stan Musial, Ted Williams, and Hank Aaron.  Cards like this, and the Pirates one above, remind me of the 1980s Fleer Super Star Specials, in which Fleer would come up with just about any excuse to have a couple of popular players on a card together.  Even though these old Topps cards came first by several decades, I experienced the Fleer versions first, as these 1950s cards were unaffordable and inaccessible to me back then.

Thanks for reading!

Four 1950's Topps cards

I'm continuing to post some cards I've picked up from various COMC shipments in the past year.  This time, two 1957 Topps and two 1958 Topps.

1957 Topps Larry Doby.

1957 Topps Roy Campanella.

I'm very excited to get my first good cards of both Larry Doby and Roy Campanella.  I want at least one more of both, especially one of Doby with the Indians, with whom he became the second black player in MLB just months after Jackie Robinson with the Dodgers.  Back when I was watching baseball in the late 80s and early 90s, Doby had thus far been excluded from the Hall.  When I rejoined the baseball-watching world a couple of years ago, I was delighted to see that this oversight had been corrected in the interim.

1958 Topps Bill Mazeroski.

1958 Topps Richie Ashburn.

I posted a while ago that I had picked up a 1957 Robin Roberts; usually I try to get cards of Roberts and Richie Ashburn in pairs, since they were the greats of the 1950s Phillies that my dad grew up with.  I decided to slightly split the pair, by matching it with a 1958 Ashburn instead of 1957, just so that I have another 1958.  I posted my first 1958 card before, too; it was of John Roseboro.  And to add a Bucco to the mix, I picked up this 1958 Maz as well.

At first I thought I didn't like the 1957 design so much because it's so plain, and the 1958's with their bright colorful backgrounds seem fun.  But seeing all of these together, I think I do prefer the full photos on the 1957's.  They're all great, though.  Thanks for reading!

From my collection: Ralph Kiner Red Man cards

Just a brief post today.  I have seven Red Man cards in my collection, and I've shown the Yogi Berra, the Robin Roberts, the Casey Stengel, and the Duke Snider before.  Today we have the two Ralph Kiners.

1952 Red Man Ralph Kiner card.

1953 Red Man Ralph Kiner.

I've told the story before, that circa 1992 in high school, a friend (who was estranged from her dad) got a bunch of these cards from him.  She didn't want them, and preferred to have cash.  She let me look through them for a few I wanted, and let me figure out how much the ones I wanted were worth, and I bought my seven for that much.  If I had more money, I would have taken more, I'm sure.  Being a Pirates fan, I took more than one Pirate, but maybe the only Pirate there was was Ralph Kiner.  So I got two of him.  You see that all they did to change the picture from year to year was change the background.  They did update the text, though.

So that's it for now.  I said I had seven of these cards, so that leaves Pee Wee Reese as the last one I have to show, which I'll do at some point.  Thanks for reading!

Some Whiz Kids Memorabilia

I've said many times in the few months I've been writing this blog that my dad was a little kid when the Phillies won the NL pennant; these were the Whiz Kids, and they made a big impression on Dad.  Towards the end of his life, I gave him some Whiz Kids memorabilia as a gift.  After he died, Mom returned it to me.

1975 Commemorative Program.

Program back.

The main item I gave Dad was this special 1975 Phillies program commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Whiz Kids. 

Whiz Kids Team Picture.

Inside is a wealth of information, and especially photos, of that pennant-winning year.  If you're a fan of a different team, you might not quite understand what being a Phillies fan was like.  By 1975, the Phils were almost 100 years old (founded in 1883), had only ever won two pennants (1915 and 1950) and no championships.  The 25th anniversary of winning a pennant was the most they had to celebrate.  This would all change a few years later, of course, with the 1980 World Series win by Schmidt, Rose, Carlton, and company.

Richie Ashburn avoiding a pickoff attempt.

Those Whiz Kids had two eventual Hall-of-Famers, Robin Roberts and Richie Ashburn, whom I've posted about a number of times.  Here's a nice picture of Ashburn sliding back into first to avoid being picked off.

Whiz Kids buttons.

I also got Dad these two Whiz Kids buttons.  I assume these are from approximately 1950, but I don't see how to tell for sure.  They do look old-fashioned.

1954 Bowman Stan Lopata.

Finally, since this is a baseball card blog, I'll close with a baseball card of one of the Whiz Kids.  Here we have Stan Lopata, featured on a 1954 Bowman card.  Lopata was a catcher with the Phils from 1948-1958, and played with the Braves from 1959-1960.  He was an All-Star in 1955 and 1956.