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.

Some 1982 Fleer Specials

One thing I've always liked about Fleer is what came to be called their "Super Star Specials," in which they usually get a picture of two random players (typically star players) and come up with some justification for putting them on a card together.  In 1982, they were doing this, but they didn't call them Super Star Specials yet; that name seems to have begun in 1983.  I recently acquired 3 of these that I didn't have before, and in addition to these, I'm including an old favorite as well.

Steve Carlton and Carlton Fisk.

The way I acquired these first three is different for each one.  For this card, Steve & Carlton, Carlton & Fisk, I went out of my way to get it.  Specifically, I sought it out on COMC.  I remember seeing the card at a neighbor's house when I was a little kid (I was 6 when the 1982 Fleer set came out).  I knew who Steve Carlton was, but I had never heard of Carlton Fisk before.  I never had the card myself, and since it evokes the memory of those old friends, I thought I would pick it up now.  Also, I'm fond of the old Phillies light blue road uniform; Fisk of course is rocking the old White Sox collared uniform.

Fernando Valenzuela and Gary Carter.

This card, West Meets East, Valenzuela & Carter, was a throw-in on some other card I ordered early on in my return to collecting (last summer).  I'm not sure which card exactly it came with -- maybe my 1974 Dick Allen or 1971 Tony Taylor, both of which were solo purchases from eBay.  It's badly off-center from top to bottom, as you can see, but the photo is all there.  I've decided to get more cards of Fernando Valenzuela into my main binder, and this card is a step on the way. 

This card also highlights what I said about getting two random players on the card and coming up with some random justification.  They're not really random in a sense, since they were the starting battery for the 1981 All-Star Game, which is what the text on the back of the card describes.  The premise on the front, though, West Meets East, is remarkably shallow -- they play in different divisions!  And yet they met!  While the card was probably shot at the All-Star game, the Expos and Dodgers met up frequently -- they played 7 games in the regular (strike-shortened) season, and they played 5 games in the NLCS. 

Frank White and Bucky Dent.

This card, All-Star Infielders, White & Dent, I acquired yet a third way, by opening three packs of 1982 Fleer (as partially chronicled here and here).  Frank White I always liked as a member of the 1980 Royals who lost the World Series to the Phils (even though the Royals lost, I appreciated their talent) and the 1985 Royals who did win the Series.  I'd always known Bucky Dent for a single act, his home run in the 1978 one-game tie-breaker for the AL East title.  That was before my time (I would have been two at the time), but it was passed down in lore.

Len Barker and Bo Diaz.

Finally, we have this card, Perfect Game!  Barker & Diaz, May 15, 1981.  You can tell from the condition of the card that's it's been in my collection a long time, since I was six, I'm sure, when my cards lived on my bedroom floor and were not treated carefully.  I mentioned this card recently when I showed Barker's 1979 Topps card.  As the card indicates, Len Barker of the Indians pitched a perfect game on May 15, 1981, defeating the Blue Jays 3-0.  What's interesting is that Diaz had nothing to do with it.

Len Barker and Bo Diaz card back.

Perhaps the card back is at least somewhat aware of the problem -- rather than saying that Diaz caught the game, it says that he and Barker "both participated."  Since Ron Hassey was the catcher, not Diaz, and Diaz didn't play in the game at all (you can find the box score here), Diaz must have participated from the bench.  Fleer made amends with another Super Star Special in 1983, featuring Barker and Hassey this time, with the theme that Barker and Hassey were the battery for the most recent perfect game at that time. 

That's it for this post, of these Fleer specials I like so much.  Thanks for reading!

Some Cards from the Conlon Collection (Part 2 of 2)

A couple of months ago, I posted 9 cards from the Conlon collection, and said that some others would follow.  It's taken me a while, but here they are.  I must have bought about 5 packs back in the day; I have a bit under 100 Conlon cards total.  I think I appreciate them more now than when I bought them, which was when they were first released in 1991.

Connie Mack.

Cornelius McGillicuddy, better known as Connie Mack, was a Philadelphia institution, and his card here is a portrait with the HOF designation on it.  Mack was inducted at Cooperstown in the second class, in 1937, but he kept managing his A's until 1950 (and they were his A's by then -- he assumed full ownership in 1936).  By the end, the team didn't hadn't done well in years -- between 1934 and 1950, their best finish was 4th in the AL, and they were frequently last.  Their stadium, Shibe Park, which was known as Connie Mack Stadium by the time Dad attended games there in the 50s and 60s, was also not doing too well, and desperately needed replacing by the time the Phillies moved to the Vet in 1971.  But we remember the good times, and Mack had many good seasons, winning five World Series, the last in 1930.  The Phillies honor Mack's memory; he was the first of the Philadelphia Athletics inducted onto the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame.

Gabby Hartnett.

Gabby Hartnett of the Cubs was the NL MVP in 1935, with a .344 batting average and 91 RBI.  In batting average, he was third in the league, behind Arky Vaughan of the Pirates and Joe Medwick of the Cardinals.  In RBI, he placed 9th.  The award was surely not just for these numbers, but also because he had a great defensive year.  The card makes a point of saying the award came from the Baseball Writer's Association, drawing attention to the fact that the method of determining the league MVPs has changed over time.  The current system, in which the award is voted by the writers, started in 1931.

Sam Jones.

Harry Hooper.

Here we have two cards, of pitcher Sam Jones and outfielder Harry Hooper, commemorating the Red Sox World Series-winning team of 1916.  Since these cards were issued in 1991, it was the 75th anniversary of the 1916 championship Sox.  Even though we weren't an AL family, watching the Phillies at home, mainly, I must have caught the occassional Red Sox-Yankees game on TV.  It's impossible to forget the Yankees fans taunting the Red Sox with chants of "nineteen-eighteen" to remind them they hadn't won the World Series since 1918, two years after this 1916 triumph.  That's all in the past, though, as the Sox have won more World Series than the Yankees since the turn of the current century.

Jewel Ens.

Jewel Ens is pictured here as a coach for the Tigers in 1932.  Ens played for the Pirates from 1922-1925; while the Pirates won the 1925 World Series, he appeared in only 3 regular-season games and none in the Series.  According to Wikipedia, though, he was actually a player-coach from 1923-1925.  He took over managing the Bucs 1929-1931.  He didn't manage again after that, but was a coach for several teams.

Babe Herman.

This card of Babe Herman is from the "great stories" subset, about catching a baseball, or a "baseball," from a plane.  The story doesn't appear to be about Herman, but the back of the card quotes Herman in telling it.  Wilbert Robinson, manager of the Dodgers, had agreed to try to catch a baseball dropped from a plane as a promotion.  What was dropped, though, was actually a grapefruit, which, quite naturally, exploded upon being caught.  There was some commotion in the confusion.

Daffy Dean.

Just like some of the cards above celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Red Sox winning the World Series, some of the cards celebrate 100 years of Cardinals baseball.  This card of Paul "Daffy" Dean, showing him in 1939, has the Cardinals anniversary notation in the corner.  As a Pirates and Phillies fan, it's hard for me to get excited about the Cardinals, whom I think of as the NL version of the Yankees -- they haven't won nearly as many World Series as the Yankees, but it feels like it sometimes.  Dean pitched in the majors from 1934 through 1943, with a career record of 50-34, and pitched alongside his more successful brother, Dizzy Dean, for several years.

Walter Holke.

Walter Holke played in the majors from 1914 through 1925, for the Giants, Braves, Phillies, and Reds.  As the card front notes, he hit into an unassisted triple play on October 6, 1923, while he was with the Phils.  This seems like a good time to mention a related, but better, memory for Phillies fans, when Mickey Morandini turned the tables and executed an unassisted triple play as a fielder, as I've blogged about before.

Gavvy Cravath.

This card calls Gavvy Cravath the home run king of the dead ball era, roughly the first two decades of the 20th century.  I'm a fan of "small ball," in which baserunning and strategy are important, but the dead ball era took this to the extreme.  In 1915, Cravath, of the Phillies, led the majors in home runs with a then-astounding total of 24.  The AL leader in 1915 was Braggo Roth, with 7.

Heinie Manush.

I'll wrap up this post with Heinie Manush, pictured here with the Senators in 1932.  The card front notes that Manush made the Hall in 1964; his selection came via the Veterans Committee.  Manush had a career batting average of .330, and made 2,524 career hits, and was known as a solid defensive outfielder.

That all for today.  Thanks for reading!

Oversized in My Collection: 1986 Donruss All-Stars (Part 5 of 6)

Welcome to our fifth installment showing the 1986 Donruss All-Star set, ten cards at a time.  This week we are continuing with the American League bench from the 1985 All-Star game, for cards 41-50.  Next week will be our final post for this set.  As we recap the game below, it's worth remembering that it was a lopsided 6-1 win for the NL.

Previously in this series:

1. 1986 Donruss All-Stars Part 1 (1-10).
2. 1986 Donruss All-Stars Part 2 (11-20).
3. 1986 Donruss All-Stars Part 3 (21-30).
4. 1986 Donruss All-Stars Part 4 (31-40).

#41. Phil Bradley.

First up this week is Phil Bradley, outfielder for the Mariners.  I remember Bradley was briefly with the Phillies after the Mariners, and then he was with the Orioles and White Sox, and played a little in Japan as well.  The Phillies traded him to the Orioles for Ken Howell, who was briefly the ace of the Phils.  In the All-Star Game, Bradley went 0-for-1, striking out against Jeff Reardon.  It was Bradley's only All-Star appearance.

#42. Dan Petry.

Dan Petry of the Tigers was a starting pitcher, going 18-8 when the Tigers won the World Series in 1984, and finishing 15-13 with a 3.36 ERA in 1985.  Like Phil Bradley, this was his only All-Star appearance.  In the game, he pitched 1/3 of an inning, giving up three walks and two runs (both earned).  He took over from Donnie Moore to start the ninth inning, and promptly walked Ryne Sandberg and Tim Raines.  Tony Pena then struck out, and Jack Clark walked.  He was then pulled.

#43. Guillermo Hernandez.

After Petry was pulled, Guillermo Hernandez took over.  He gave up a ground-rule double to Willie McGee, with two runs scoring, both charged to Petry.  He then struck out Dave Parker, intentionally walked Tim Wallach, and struck out Glenn Wilson of the Phillies to finish the top of the 9th.

This was the second of three consecutive All-Star appearances for Hernandez, who, like Petry, also won the World Series with the Tigers in 1984.  He even won both the Cy Young and the AL MVP that season, as he finished 68 of the Tigers' games, earning a 9-3 record with 32 saves.  Hernandez was also on the pennant-winning 1983 Phillies.  He stayed with Detroit through the end of his career in 1989, pitching with them in the ALCS again in 1987 when the Tigers won the AL East.

#44. Tom Brunansky.

That 1987 ALCS was won by the Twins, and Tom Brunansky was part of that championship team.  Brunansky's only All-Star appearance was this one in 1985, and he went 0-for-1, grounding out off Jeff Reardon to end the 8th inning.  Brunansky's career spanned 1981-1994, and he played with the Angels, Cardinals, Red Sox, and Brewers in addition to the Twins.

#45. Alan Trammell.

Alan Trammell and the previously-featured Jack Morris finally give that 1984 Tigers team a couple of Hall-of-Famers.  While I don't have as much respect for the Hall as I once did, I do hope that they see fit to include Trammell's and Morris' teammate Lou Whitaker at the next opportunity.

Trammell entered the game in the 7th inning, substituting for Cal Ripken, Jr. at shortstop.  Like most of the AL batters, he wasn't very effective at the plate that night, grounding out off Goose Gossage in the 9th, in his only plate appearance.  This was the third of six All-Star appearances for the MVP of the 1984 World Series.

#46. Donnie Moore.

Reliever Donnie Moore had 31 saves in 1985 and an ERA of only 1.92; he had 21 saves and a 2.97 ERA the next year as the Angels took the AL West.  Like several of the other players featured here, 1985 was Moore's only All-Star Game.  He pitched two innings, giving up no runs.  He faced only six batters, getting ground outs from Jack Clark, Willie McGee, Dave Parker, and Pete Rose, striking out Tim Wallach, and getting Ozzie Smith to fly out to center.

#47. Wade Boggs.

Wade Boggs replaced Paul Molitor at third base in the ninth inning; Molitor moved to center field, and Phil Bradley came out of the game.  In his only plate appearance, Boggs drew a walk from Goose Gossage.  Boggs was still young, then, and the 1985 game was the first of his 12 straight All-Star appearances.

#48. Ernie Whitt.

This was catcher Ernie Whitt's only All-Star appearance as well.  He replaced Carlton Fisk on the field in the top of the 6th, and was replaced at catcher by Rich Gedman in the 8th.  He didn't get to bat; instead, when he came up, Gary Ward pinch hit for him.  While he was catching, and Dave Stieb was pitching, Jose Cruz stole second.  Whitt's career lasted 1976-1991, mainly with the Jays, but he was also briefly with the Red Sox, Braves, and Orioles.

#49. Harold Baines.

Now, one of my personal favorite players, Harold Baines.  While 1985 was the first of his six All-Star appearances, for some reason it wasn't his first time showing up in the Donruss All-Stars set; I showed his card from the 1984 set earlier.  According to Baseball Reference, the top 5 most similar batters to Baines are Tony Perez, Al Kaline, Dave Parker, Billy Williams, and Andre Dawson, four out five of whom are in the Hall.  Anyway, in the 1985 All-Star Game, Baines pinch hit for pitcher Jimmy Key in the third, hitting a single off NL starting pitcher LaMarr Hoyt.  It was one of only five hits for the AL all night.

#50. Don Mattingly.

Finishing out this installment at card #50 is Donnie Baseball, Don Mattingly, in his prime.  In the 7th inning, he replaced Eddie Murray at first base.  He flied out off Fernando Valenzuela in his only at-bat, in the bottom of the 7th.  In 1985, Mattingly won a Silver Slugger and a Gold Glove, was the AL MVP, and led the league in doubles with 48 and RBI with 145.  When he was good, he was great.

That's it for this week.  We have one more installment to go, so we'll see the last ten cards, including the Metrodome itself, next week.  Thanks for reading!

Sets Not in My Collection: 1988 and 1989 Donruss Baseball's Best

I really don't know where I ever got some of these cards.  I have a conjecture that maybe the shows I used to go to back around 1990 might have given a random selection of a couple dozen cards included with the admission.  Otherwise, I have so many odd cards that I really can't imagine ever buying on purpose.  This includes a total of 18 cards from the 1988 and 1989 Donruss Baseball's Best sets -- 8 from 1988, and 10 from 1989.  I'll show all the ones I have below.

1988 Glenn Davis.	1988 Glenn Davis back.
1989 Bobby Bonilla.	1989 Bobby Bonilla back.

I don't think I ever knew what these cards were, until now.  I have no memory of Baseball's Best; having rejoined the collecting world last summer, being on hiatus since 1994, I feel constantly surprised when I discover sets which are new to me from the junk era.  While they were obviously 1988 and 1989 Donruss cards, they're also obviously not the main set, as can be seen by the differences in both the fronts and the backs.  As I keep saying, information was harder to come by back then, and I'm sure when I encountered these, I figured they were some odd Donruss set and I just filed them away.  I suppose I could have asked at one of the several local card shops if the owners recognized them, but I probably wasn't all that interested, either.  I just looked through the ads in some of my old Baseball Cards magazines, and there are one or two dealers who do advertise the Baseball's Best sets.  But mainly, they appear to have not been very popular even at the time.

Gene Garber.	Tom Candiotti.
Jack Howell.	Vance Law.

The set had approximately 12 cards from each team, representing baseball's best players.  That's just about half of each team.  That's a fairly low standard for "baseball's best" -- the top half. 

Here we see Gene Garber, whom I remember with the Braves, but it looks like he finished his career with the Royals, and Tom Candiotti, who was near the beginning of his career.  Jack Howell with the Angels hit .245 in 1987, with 64 RBI to earn his place among Baseball's Best.

There was a post at Wrigley Wax just the other day about double logos in the 1987 Fleer set.  Since the 1987 Fleer cards had a team logo at the bottom right, that logo was placed right next to the same logo on the players' jerseys in a number of cases.  Here we see the same thing on the Vance Law card.  I think of Vance Law as a Pirate, and as part of Tony Pena's 1981 Topps rookie card, but he was really only with the Bucs in 1980 and 1981.  Law made his only All-Star appearance with the Cubs in 1988.

Gerald Perry.	Jay Bell.
Paul Kilgus.	Steve Wilson.

Like Vance Law, Gerald Perry also made his only All-Star appearance in 1988.  Jay Bell is my personal favorite from this group, since he went on to be shortstop for the Pirates during their division-winning years in the early 90s.  Bell stayed in the majors long enough to win the World Series with Arizona in 2001.

Paul Kilgus was a rookie in 1987, going 2-7 with a 4.13 ERA and 0 saves.  He followed that up with a regular spot in the Texas rotation, achieving a 12-15 record in 1988 with a 4.16 ERA.  He retired after the 1993 season.  Moving on to the 1989 Baseball's Best set, Steve Wilson pitched for the Rangers, Cubs, and Dodgers between 1988 and 1993, with a career 13-18 record, a 4.40 ERA, and 6 saves.

Lee Smith.	Frank Williams.
Jose Gonzalez.	Milt Thompson.

Lee Smith was a great reliever in his day, owning the all-time saves record for many years.  He pitched in over 1,000 games in his career, with an ERA of just 3.03.  Frank Williams pitched for the Giants, Reds, and Tigers in a career lasting between 1984 and 1989, with a career record of 24-14, 8 saves, and an ERA of 3.00.  Outfielder Jose Gonzalez played for the Dodgers, Pirates, Indians, and Angels between 1985 and 1992, with a career batting average of .213.  Gonzalez appeared in 5 games of the 1988 NLCS with the Dodgers, having zero plate appearances but scoring two runs, and he appeared in 4 games of the World Series, with two plate appearances, striking out both times.

Milt Thompson I remember fondly as a member of the Phillies when I started paying attention to baseball, 1986-1988.  The Phils weren't very good back then, but he was a dependable bat, hitting .302 in 1987.  He was traded to the Cardinals in December, 1988, but came back to the Phillies as a free agent in time to be part of the pennant-winning 1993 team.  He played with the Astros, Dodgers, and Rockies before retiring after the 1996 season.

Mitch Webster.	Gary Gaetti.
Gerald Young.	Matt Nokes.

I posted a card of Mitch Webster with the Expos once, which was celebrating his being the triples champ of the NL with 13 in 1986.  Gary Gaetti was an important part of the Twins' 1987 World Series-winning team, but wasn't still with them for their 1991 repeat.  Gaetti was a two-time All-Star who won four Gold Gloves and a Silver Slugger, and ended his career with 360 home runs and 1341 RBI.  Gerald Young played with Houston, Colorado, and St. Louis between 1987 and 1994, leading the league twice in times caught stealing (he had 65 steals in 1988 and was caught 27 times, and had 34 steals in 1989 and was caught 25 times).  He didn't steal nearly as many bases after that.  Matt Nokes was a big star with the Tigers when he was young; I don't think I've posted a card of him before, but I did post him on a magazine cover.  Unfortunately, Nokes never seemed to be able to match his performance from his 1987 rookie season.

So, that's it for the cards from the 1988 and 1989 Donruss Baseball's Best sets.  As you can see from some of the players, taking half of all MLB players doesn't result in a great definition of the "best," although some of these folks were stars, and a few had some very good years.  Donruss changed things up for 1990, issuing separate sets for the best of the AL and the best of the NL, and we'll talk about those sets in some future posts.  Thanks for reading!

Oscar Gamble in My Collection

Looking around the cardblogosphere, I see the sad news that Oscar Gamble has died.  While I'm sure he's most famous for his hair, he had a 17-year career in which he accumulated 1195 hits, 200 home runs, 666 RBI, and achieved a career slugging average of .454.

1979 Topps Oscar Gamble.

I've been getting my collection entered on the Trading Card Database.  So far I've mostly done the low-hanging fruit, which is entering complete sets.  I estimate that I've gotten about 1/3 of my collection listed so far, including most of my pre-1980 cards.  A nice feature is that I can search for exactly which cards I have of a certain player, for a post like this.  The earliest card I have of Gamble appears to be 1979 Topps, of which I have two.  One is in the complete set I recently bought, and then I had a spare from the 1979 cards I acquired years ago towards my goal of collecting a set.

Even though the 70s were ending, this is a nice card of that decade.  While not as large as on his 1976 Traded card, Oscar Gamble's hair is still notable, as is the great old Padres uniform.

1985 Fleer Update Oscar Gamble.

I also have a complete 1984 Topps set, but it's not in the most accessible place so I didn't open it up to get his card out.  Next up, though, is the 1985 Fleer Update set, marking Gamble's signing with the White Sox as a free agent in March, 1985.  He would be released in August, 1985, ending his career.  He played in 70 games with the White Sox that year, batting .203 with 20 RBI.

Pacific Senior Baseball Oscar Gamble.

Finally, I have this Pacific card of the Senior Professional Baseball Association.  Gamble is depicted with the St. Lucie Legends, one of the eight teams that played in the 1989-1990 season.

May you rest in peace, Oscar Gamble; you will certainly always be remembered for your classic baseball cards.