1988 Starting Lineup Talking Baseball Mets Team Set

When I turned 13 in 1988, I think one of my birthday presents was the Starting Lineup Talking Baseball game.  The game was electronic and you could play the built-in teams or buy extra cartridges that had other teams.  The built-in teams were AL All-Stars and NL All-Stars, and there were cards of them; I've posted them before.  A cartridge would have three more teams, and I only had one cartridge, with the Phillies and Pirates, and the third team was the Mets.  I showed the Pirates once before too.  The All-Star teams had photos on the cards and the cards that came with the cartridges are drawings instead; not sure why.  Also, speaking of things I'm not sure about, I don't know why I have 25/20 of these cards.  For some reason I have two each of Roger McDowell, Jesse Orosco, Rafael Santana, Tim Teufel, and Mookie Wilson.

Bill Almon.

Wally Backman.

I won't have a lot to say about all these guys.  But I know both Bill Almon and Wally Backman from their days with other teams.  Almon was a Pirate before he was a Met, and then ended his career with the Phillies.  Backman also had some years with the Phillies, as they were working on their 1993 pennant run.  He left the Phils in 1992 though.

Gary Carter.

David Cone.

Here we have a couple more famous guys, in Gary Carter and David Cone.  Cone wasn't with the 1986 championship Mets but made up for it with 5 World Series wins after that.

Ron Darling.

Lenny Dykstra.

I always think the same thing when I think of Ron Darling.  I think it must have been before a World Series game, although it could have been for something else, the TV station was doing a Warren Zevon song parody in the pregame.  It was of "Werewolves of London."  The line about Ron Darling was, "I saw Ron Darling with a Chinese menu in his hand."  Lenny Dykstra doesn't need much further comment, I think.

Sid Fernandez.

Dwight Gooden.

According to the book "The Bad Guys Won" about the 1986 Mets season, Sid Fernandez is pretty dumb.  The book tells a story where he decides not to buy a house because he doesn't understand the concept of a mortgage.  Then there's Dwight Gooden.  Like Gary Carter above, those stars around him show that he was an All-Star.

Keith Hernandez.

Howard Johnson.

Keith Hernandez, of Seinfeld fame, and Howard Johnson, suspiciously powerful hitter.

Barry Lyons.

Dave Magadan.

I don't know anything to say about Barry Lyons.  Dave Magadan was well-known at the time for being a Future Star in the 1987 Topps set.

Lee Mazzilli.

Roger McDowell.

Roger McDowell is another who went on to the Phillies, as the closer before Mitch Williams showed up.  Mazzilli was one of the senior members of the 1986 Mets team, having debuted in the majors in 1976 in a first stint with the Mets.

Kevin McReynolds.

Jesse Orosco.

The worst of the '86 Mets were the "Scum Bunch," and Jesse Orosco was their leader.  I don't have much to say about Kevin McReynolds; he was with the Mets from '87-'91, and again to close out his career in '94.

Rafael Santana.

Darryl Strawberry.

Daryl Strawberry is also adorned with stars here, indicating that he was an All-Star.  Rafael Santana didn't have a long or storied career, and being with the '86 Mets seems like it's his career highlight.

Tim Teufel.

Mookie Wilson.

According to the book, Tim Teufel came to the Mets from the Twins.  The atmosphere in Minnesota was professional and supportive, and he had the shock of going from that to the crude and juvenile atmosphere of the Mets.  He was assimilated into the Mets' culture, being arrested after a bar fight in Houston on a road trip.  Mookie Wilson was an exception to the antics with those Mets; he later recorded a gospel album, for instance.

Thanks for reading!

Finished my 1972 Topps set

When I was young, I dreamed of collecting a vintage set, the 1979 Topps set.  It was hard to find a bunch of old cards then so I only got about 10% through.  When I resumed collecting a couple years ago, instead of making good on that progress, I just bought a complete 1979 Topps set for not too much money.  I did pursue the dream, though, by starting a 1972 Topps set.  And now I'm done.  I don't have every single card with me, though, because a bunch are in my COMC order.  I put in to have it shipped back in July, and in the current environment, they say that means that I'll get it in mid-October.  But, I do own them all, even if I can't hold them all in my hands right now.  For now the ones I have with me are in a couple of boxes.  I think eventually I'll get them situated into a new binder.

Pat Corrales In Action.

Pat Corrales In Action card back: Tom Seaver.

The last of the high numbers are these five, which came to me via eBay.  They're a good bunch to show to illustrate this post about completing the set.  I have a clear early memory of Pat Corrales from the 1983 Topps set as the Phillies manager.  I knew the Phillies won the pennant in 1983 and assumed that it was with Corrales.  But he had been fired at some point, and Paul "the Pope" Owens took them to the World Series instead.  Wikipedia tells me that Corrales is the only manager to ever be fired in first place, although the Phils' record at the time was only 43-42.

One of the reasons I've decided to put the set in a binder is to be able to see the puzzle backs of the in-action cards.  I think it was Greg from The Collective Mind (if not, sorry) who said that while you use 9-card pages for most of the set, a good way to see the puzzle cards is sideways in 8-card sheets, so that the puzzle is assembled.  This bit of Tom Seaver seen here can serve as a sort of tribute to the recently departed as I don't especially have interesting cards of him to make into a post of their own.

Bobby Murcer.

Donn Clendenon.

This Bobby Murcer is card 699, putting his in-action card in the honor position of number 700.  That strikes me as a little odd because it would seem like he was a big deal, but I've actually barely heard of him.  Wikipedia tells me that he was touted as "the next Mickey Mantle" back in the day.  He had a decent enough career, being a five-time All-Star, but all that ended a bit before my time, and like I said, growing up in the 80s I never heard much about him.  Then we have Donn Clendenon, who is more familiar to me because he was a longtime Pirate.  He missed out on the Pirate championships in 1960 and 1971 since his years with the team were 1961-1968, but he was part of the Miracle Mets in 1969.

Jose Pagan In Action.

Jim Kaat.

Then we have Bucco Jose Pagan (In Action), and Jim Kaat.  I wouldn't have been surprised if Kaat were in the Hall of Fame, but instead he's someone that people can write articles about, debating whether he should be in the Hall of Fame.  He had a long career spanning from the late 50s to the 80s, and he makes an appearance in my binder with a very beat up 1978 Topps card with the Phillies.  Part of why I picked the 1972 set as the new object of my dream of collecting a vintage set was to commemorate the Pirates winning the 1971 World Series.  Jose Pagan drove in the deciding run in Game 7, so he's a perfect card to feature here at the end.

So that's a complete set in the books.  That leaves me working on my 1955 Bowman set; I have 250/320 cards for that, so only 70 to go.  I don't expect to pick up another vintage set project -- I've toyed with the idea of 1959 Topps or 1967 Topps, but I think they'd be too hard to finish out.  Maybe I'll reconsider one day.  In any case, thanks for reading!

Update: Just after posting, I looked at other recent blog posts and saw that Night Owl had written two days before about the 1972 Topps Set club.  Total coincidence.

Negro Leagues Centennial Team postcard set

A new gem of my collection is this postcard set to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Negro National League.  I got this boxed set of 3.5"x5.5" postcards for a $100 donation to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.  It's a limited edition of 2020 copies, and mine is numbered 0943/2020.  They still seem to be available if you want one, too.

Rube Foster on the box.

I've only been to Kansas City proper once, for a friend's wedding.  I flew in another time but didn't stay, when I visited University of Missouri at Columbia for a conference (that time, if I had planned better, I could have caught a Royals game, since I drove right by the stadium when a game was about to start).  When in Kansas City, my wife and I did make it to the Nelson-Atkins art museum, which is a wonderful museum.  But I didn't know then that Kansas City was where Rube Foster led the organization of the Negro National League in 1920.  And so Kansas City now is the home of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.  That's going to be worth another visit to Kansas City one day, when we can travel more again.

Rube Foster on the checklist card.

Checklist.

Naturally they feature Rube Foster several times, including on the box and on the checklist.  If you take a glance at the checklist, you see there are a lot of greats here.

Judy Johnson.

Judy Johnson card back.

To highlight one front and back, I'll show the local favorite, my fellow Delawarean, Judy Johnson.  For a long time he was Delaware's only Hall-of-Famer.  Hilldale played in Darby, PA, just west of Philly.

Larry Doby.

Buck Leonard.

To show just a couple more, we have Larry Doby with the Newark Eagles and Buck Leonard with the Homestead Grays.  The Grays were one of two great Pittsburgh-area Negro Leagues teams, the other being the Crawfords.  I posted a while ago about having read a great biography of Larry Doby, which I really enjoyed.

I'm really so pleased to have another fine Negro Leagues set in my collection.  Thanks for reading!

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!

1990 Topps Minis #55: Glenn Davis

It's been about 10 months since I featured any of the 1990 Topps Mini League Leaders cards, but there's no time like the present to resume the series.  We last had John Franco of the Reds, and now we're on to Houston with Glenn Davis.

#55, Glenn Davis.

Davis was a slugging first baseman for a few years, hitting at least 20 home runs per year between 1985 and 1990.  Having started with Houston in 1984, he closed out his career with Baltimore in 1993.  He finished second in NL MVP voting in 1986, when his Astros lost the NLCS to the Mets.  Number one in the NL MVP voting that year was Mike Schmidt, winning his third and final NL MVP award.

Glenn Davis card back.

To get into this league leaders set, Davis tied for third in home runs with 34 in 1989.  He was 7th in RBI and slugging.  Numbers one and two in the NL home run race were Kevin Mitchell and Howard Johnson, and Eric Davis tied with Glenn for third place.

That's all for now.  Thanks for reading!

1986 Sportflics Decade Greats: the 1950s

 I posted once before about picking up the 1986 Sportflics Decade Greats set.  As the name suggests, the cards are arranged by decade.  They start with the 30s, and I posted a handful of the cards representing the 30s and 40s.  I've meant to get back to this, and today here are some of the cards of the 50s.

An image mainly of Mickey Vernon.

Best first basemen of the 50s.

Sportflics of course sometimes did solo cards of players and sometimes leveraged their format for greater impact, and here we have a 3-in-1 card of the best first basemen of the 50s:  Gil Hodges, Ted Kluszewski, and Mickey Vernon.  Speaking for myself at least, you never know which image you'll get when scanning Sportflics, and what showed up here was an image that was largely Mickey Vernon in his Senators cap.

Ralph Kiner.

Stan Musial.

Although the 1950s Pirates weren't very good, finishing either 7th or 8th each year from 1950-1957 (although things picked up after that), I wanted to represent them here.  Above, Ted Kluszewski is mentioned as being a Pirate on the card back, but he's pictured as a Red.  Here we have a better representation in Ralph Kiner.  I think the effect of the scan is funny, making him look like one of those 1938 Goudey cards with the big head.  The Cardinals were actually only a little better than the Pirates in the 50s, in a bit of a lull between winning multiple World Series in the 40s and in the 60s.  Here we have their great, Stan Musial.

Warren Spahn.

Eddie Mathews.

By contrast, a perennial contender in the 50s was the Braves, and they did take home a World Series in 1957.  I've said many times on this blog that the Phillies winning the 1980 World Series was a formative experience for me, happening just as I was turning 5 years old.  That team rhymes a bit with those Braves of the 50s, with the great left-handed pitcher (Warren Spahn or Steve Carlton) and the 500-home-run hitting third baseman (Eddie Mathews or Mike Schmidt).  There isn't an analogue of a young Hank Aaron on those Phillies, though.

Luis Aparacio and Nellie Fox.

Best Double Play Duo of the 50s.

The White Sox didn't win a World Series in the 50s but they were a contender, with a pennant in 1959 and several 2nd and 3rd place finishes in the AL.  They're represented well here with Hall of Fame infield combo Nellie Fox and Luis Aparacio.  There's also a card (not pictured) of Hall of Fame pitcher Early Wynn, who finished the decade with the White Sox.  Other players representing the 50s in the set that I'm not showing are Duke Snider and Yogi Berra (and a few more, which will be featured in another post).

This is really a great set with a lot of beautiful photos.  I think it's Sportflics at its best.  Thanks for reading!

1986 Sportflics Decade Greats: 1930s and 1940s

A week ago Sunday, I said that I would be posting a bunch of Sportflics coming up.  Here's the first batch, a few cards from the 1986 Sportflics Decades Great set.

1986 Sportflics Decade Greats.

Box bottom: ad for Rookies set.

Here we have the top, front, and bottom of the box.  This feels very 80s to me.  The bottom advertises another 1986 Sportflics set, their Rookies set.

Inside flaps: Mickey Mantle disc offer.

Hank Greenberg.

I posted before the 1986 Sportflics Dwight Gooden disc offer and the Don Mattingly disc offer.   There's also a Mickey Mantle that you could get through this form.  Searching COMC for these discs, I see that they're listed as 1986 Sportflics Jumbo discs, and in addition to Gooden, Mattingly, and Mantle, there are Wade Boggs, Wally Joyner, and Roger Clemens out there.  Maybe they came from offers in the Rookies set, or some other promotion.

As for the cards, I'm showing here a handful of the cards that the set identifies as the greats of the 1930s and 1940s.  Also, instead of scanning, I'm holding these in my hand and taking photos with my phone, trying to angle them so as to get clear shots of some of the card images.  So you'll see my thumb or hand in most of them.  Starting off we have Hank Greenberg, who I wish I had a Play Ball card of.  But instead I settle for nostalgia cards like this.

Joe DiMaggio.

Joe DiMaggio.

Joe DiMaggio is in the set as one of the Greats of the 1940s.  Who could possibly argue with that?  The card back (not pictured!) shows his stats for the 40s, with a .325 batting average and over 1000 hits.  This, of course, is despite not playing 1943-1945 for military service during World War II.

Lou Gehrig.

Lou Gehrig.

For each decade, Sportflics designated one player as the Player of the Decade.  For the 1930s, that was Lou Gehrig.  He had 1802 hits in the 30s, batting .343.  Not to mention the playing streak.

Jimmie Foxx.

Jimmie Foxx.

Jimmie Foxx is a personal favorite.  I said that I wished I had a Play Ball of Hank Greenberg, but since Foxx is more important to me, I did get one of him a while back.  Foxx was the longtime number 2 in career home runs, before the sluggers of the 60s came along (Frank Robinson, Harmon Killebrew, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Mickey Mantle).  I don't know exactly when one of them passed him.  But the old Philadelphia Athletic held on to be number 2 to Babe Ruth for a long time.

Babe Ruth.

Babe Ruth.

Speaking of Ruth, here he is.  After the 30s and 40s, the cards are in color for the 1950s onward.  This set is a wonderful representation of so much of the baseball history I love.  The Sportflics format is perfect for this purpose, too, showing a portrait and two action shots of each of these greats.  It may not come across perfectly in a blog post, but this set really captures something great about baseball.

I'll show a few cards from the set's remaining decades in a couple more posts.  Thanks for reading!