Cards from Kit Young

For me, Kit Young has always been one of those names that I hear about, but never really think about as an option for buying cards. However, recently my Dad called me over to the computer to show me the site, and it turned out they had good prices for 1933 Goudey. Intrigued, I probed deeper, and was able to find 8 cards for a good price. Here they are:

1949 and 1950 Remar are the cheapest pre-TCMA minor league cards that I know of ; these 2 were just $2.50 combined.  While Earl Jones pitched only briefly in the major leagues in 1945, Augie Galan actually had a long and successful major league career, lasting for 16 years, from 1934 to 1949. He hit .287 for his career, and walked a good bit, while leading the league in stolen bases twice. Just out of the major leagues in 1950, he hit .282 with 13 home runs.

Jess "The Silver Fox" Petty was the only 1933 Goudey I got. Petty was not a bad pitcher, though his career win-loss was 67-78 for his MLB career. He had ERAs of 2.84 and 2.98 in 1926 and 1927, and the '20s was one of the hardest hitting periods in history. By 1933, at 38, he was pitching for the Minneapolis Millers in the American Association, and was still a pretty good pitcher, winning 18 games against 8 losses. For his whole pro career he won 253 games.

It also had an "autograph" on the back, which I don't mind.

I got very good prices for the Red Man tobacco cards. Though it's tough to find even commons for $4, none of the four I got cost more than $3. They aren't mint or anything, Nellie Fox has some heavy creasing, but not too bad. I was very happy to get cards of both Fox and Bobby Avila. Though Avila isn't very well-remembered nowadays, he actually was a very good player for a while there. In 1954, the year of his Red Man card, he won the AL batting title with a mark of .341.

The Whitey Ford was what really sealed the deal, I think. I could hardly believe that an early career card of a Yankee hall of famer from the '50s was just $3, even if there was some heavy creasing. Hank Bauer was appreciated, if not as spectacular.

I was really happy to get this card. I'd always wanted a Mother's Cookies card from the '50s, and I was finally able to get one at a good price. Despite it being in good condition, graded, and a guy who hit .306 in his major league career, Bob Dillinger was priced not much more than a beat-up common usually is. Bob Dillinger actually had his best season in the Pacific Coast League by far in 1953, as he hit .366 with 236 hits in 171 games. For comparison, he hit .287 in 1951 and .301 in 1954.

Overall, I was pleased with my order. The prices were good, and though the shipping was a bit above normal ($7), the cards came on the same week as I ordered them, so I can't really complain.

Thanks for reading!

Free cards

For a while it seemed like every other blog was participating in the free card Friday movement, though the phenomenon has practically disappeared. However, I claimed some cards from 2 different bloggers before the end. The first person I claimed some cards from was Jon, of A Penny Sleeve for Your Thoughts. He was definitely putting up some quality cards for free. Here's the three I got from him:

I only claimed the Brooks Robinson and the DiMaggio from his blog, but he sent Pete Rose as an extra! Neither Brooks nor Pete are exactly in mint condition, but anybody who wants to send me vintage hall-of-famers for free is welcome. 1971 and 1973 Topps were both some of the best sets of the '70s, in my opinion.

I also claimed a couple from Nick, who writes Dime Boxes -- The Low-End Baseball Card Collector's Journey, one of the blogs which made me decide to give blogging a try myself. I only claimed two, but he also sent a couple extras:

These were the 2 that I claimed off the blog, and they packed a punch. I was very happy to get a vintage Phil Niekro, as it was just my 3rd vintage card of him.

These were the four "throw-ins", and mighty good "throw-ins" too. I don't remember if I told him that I liked minor league cards, or if it was just a coincidence, but I was very glad to get some. For one thing, minor league cards are generally a good deal rarer than major league cards. Also, they're more off the beaten path. It's also very interesting to see major leaguers before they made it to the big time (Kevin Seitzer, Rex Hudler) and after ( Fred Gladding.) My favorite of these is Rex Hudler A.K.A "Wonder Dog". It's got a good design and a good picture. I really liked the Seitzer too, as he went on to be a good major leaguer, and because it's a TCMA minor league card.

In retrospect, I wish that I claimed more cards from people, but I guess it's OK. If I claimed too many cards I would have felt obliged to host one or two free card Fridays myself, and I'd go broke from the shipping. Okay, maybe it wouldn't leave me penniless, but it wouldn't be too far off.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to Jon and Nick for the cards!

Getting serious about 1933 Goudey

I've always loved 1933 Goudey, and a couple of years ago I decided that I'd try to complete it. However, that project went on the back-burner after getting 5 cards as I decided that with $10 prices for commons, and 4 Babe Ruths, it wasn't going to happen.

I thought about it more this spring, and I realized that if I sold the cards I have that I don't need or want, I could get a hall of famer or two and some commons. That's gone alright so far; I've definitely made some progress. Here are the cards I've gotten so far in my Goudey quest part II:

This was the first one I got, and my favorite. Over the past year or two I've gotten interested in the minor leagues, and John (Jack) Ogden was one of the stars on the greatest minor league dynasty ever: The Baltimore Orioles. They won the International League pennant every year from 1919 to 1925, under the leadership of Jack Dunn, who is usually remembered as the man who sold Babe Ruth to the Red Sox. Jack Ogden spent all of his minor league time in the International League, which at the time was at the highest minor league classification, AA. He was very successful too, winning 213 games against just 103 losses in the International League. His best season was 1922, as he went 31-8, as the Orioles won 115 games against just 52 losses that year.

 His career was winding down by 1933,  his last year in pro ball outside of 1 inning in 1934. Ogden was featured as an Oriole on his Goudey card, because Goudey included some minor leaguers in the set. Here's the back:

It looks like this card was once owned by a certain Dick Cawley. Whenever something like that happens I always Google the name, hoping that the person went on to fame or something. No luck yet.

Same deal here, though I just got a boring name. John Smith, I mean. It would have been so much more interesting if I got Isaac Jablonowski, or something distinctive like that. This was my 3rd Yankee from the set, which I was happy to get for just $7. Walter Brown, or "Jumbo" Brown as he is more well known, was the heaviest player ever until C.C Sabathia came along, tipping the scales at 295 pounds. He led the league in saves twice later in his career with the Giants, but you have to understand that his league-leading totals were 7 and 8 respectively.

Gus Suhr had another interesting story. In 1929 he came out of nowhere to lead the Pacific Coast League, which at the time was the top minor league, with 51 home runs. It just was a fluke; he had never hit more than 27 home runs in a minor league season before, and his major league high was 17. Even funnier was that he played regularly for 3 years in the PCL during war time, and hit the grand total of 1 home run in the 3 years combined. You could look it up, as Casey Stengel used to say.

He wasn't a bad player in the majors though; he played 11 years in the bigs and led the league in games played 3 times.

Dick Bartell had the best major league career of the guys I got in this round of Goudey's, playing for 18 years in the major leagues, with a career batting average of .284, pretty good for a infielder. This one was actually completely funded with cards I sold on Ebay, so that was nice. It's a nice card, though, really, they all are.

This card is definitely the worst conditioned '33 Goudey I've gotten so far. Oh well. As I've recounted a couple times, I'm a Stratomatic player, and the '27 Yankees is the team I play with the most. Mark Koenig was the starting shortstop for that team, so I've developed an appreciation for him. When you play Stratomatic with a player, you really get to know them better. I know Koenig as He Who Never Does Any Thing But Hit Singles.

That batch of 5 cards gave me 10 total. I still have 229 left, including a lot of hall of famers, not to mention 6 cards of Ruth and Gherig alone. I probably won't finish it unless I get a really good job when I grow up, but you never know.

And in any case, it's a great set.