The worst (best) card ever?

This is a picture from TCDB because I currently can't upload pictures.

I traded for this ( and a couple other cards) from my Dad yesterday, and I'm still not quite sure what to make of it. I think it's one of those " So bad it's good" cards. I mean, all that awful '80s facial hair. Goose Gossage looks like a mouse, Rollie Fingers like a wannabe suave corsair, and I'm not quite sure what Dan Quisenberry looks like. I thought maybe rejected Sesame Street character, my Mom thought he looked like a butcher. I'm a big Quisenberry fan, but that definitely wasn't his best picture. 

So what do you think? Awful or awesome?

Because it's been so long since I shared some a song I like, I'll share a couple from Big Star's 2nd album, and also I'll do a little history of Big Star, which you may skip if you want.

 I shared one of the songs from their first album back when I was doing "Song of the Week"    (remember that?) For a long time I only liked their first album ( #1 Record), but over the past year I've come to appreciate their second album too. It's a bit different sounding than the first album. Chris Bell had left the band because he didn't like that Alex Chilton was getting all the attention. Bell ended up dying in a car crash at 27 in 1978.  For a long time I only liked " O My Soul," the first song on the album, but but by now I think I like them all.

( September Gurls is one of their best known songs)

Though the first two albums were ( in my opinion) some of the greatest albums ever, they never were able to sell well because of faulty distribution, and are not very well known. The third, and last, album was more of a mess. By then they only had 2 members of the original 4 ( Alex Chilton and drummer Jody Stephens), and Chilton was kind of in a flame out at the time. When the record company heard the album, they were horrified, and it wasn't released until the 1990s. Though it's erratic overall there are still some good songs like " Jesus Christ" and " Big Black Car". 

Though Big Star wasn't very successful in the band's life time, it influenced many bands, including R.E.M. I'll close with " Big Black Car", from the third album. It might be my favorite Big Star song. The best I can describe is that it sounds like a slice of eternity, like it's never gonna end and you don't want it to.

A special thanks if you got to the end.

Online dime box (part 2)

I also indulged in a good amount of Yankee oddballs. The card on the bottom left is the most interesting to me, as it has yellow baseballs on the front and was created for the 12th National Sports Collectors Convention, which I'm guessing was just the National. 

I was really excited to get my 1st card of Luis Tiant as a Yankee, as I'm a Tiant fan. Bobby Murcer was my Dad's favorite in the '70s, and Ron Guidry was a key cog in the Yankees' back-to-back championships in 1977 and 1978, compiling one of the greatest seasons on the mound in recent history. I'm not really sure why Ron Davis is carrying a bat, but it's a cool shot.

2 really great pictures here. Cards of players tossing footballs are always welcome, and John Wathan's card is definitely a little out of the ordinary too.

I was extremely surprised to get a vintage hall-of-famer for 10 cents. Granted, 1978 is just barely on the tail-end of what I consider vintage, and Weaver was a manager, but still. 1978, in my opinion, had some of the best manager cards ever. It's practically impossible for me to conjure up a mental image of guys like Earl Weaver when they were young, so I appreciate the help.

The Senior League was interesting, as it lasted just a bit longer than one season, and is by now pretty much forgotten, but it was the last stopping point as a professional for semi-stars like "Mick the Quick", "The Mad Hungarian", and Ron Leflore, who had an interesting career. And there's Earl Weaver again!

I added some new cards to the ol' knuckleballer collection. Charlie Hough was definitely old enough to qualify for the Senior League at the time (he debuted in 1970,) but he was busy pitching in the starting rotation of the Rangers. 

R.A Dickey isn't the last knuckleballer in baseball, as there were 2 in the majors in 2019, but as they combined for just 12 innings it didn't really matter. 

I certainly couldn't turn these down for 10 cents. I like the Giancarlo (Mike) Stanton cameo on the Jordany Valdespin card. 

I added a couple of cards to my Jim Abbott collection, which now stands at a whopping 19 cards! Okay, I know that's not really a whole lot, but it isn't too bad.

I'll close out with the late Bob Watson. Though his career numbers don't seem that impressive (.295 AVG, 184 home runs,) you have to realize he spent most of his career in the '70s, which wasn't a big hitting decade, and he also spent most of his career playing for the Astros, who had a very bad stadium for hitters at the time. Rest in peace, Bob Watson.