Merry Christmas!

 I hope you all had merry and card-filled Christmases. My Christmas was nice and peaceful, and the most card-filled Christmas I've ever had.

I found a lot of cards for my parents to get me on Net54. It had  289 cards from 1948-59, in low and mid-grade condition, for $110, or just 38 cents a card. 

I was looking forward to it a lot, and thankfully I was not disappointed. There were a lot of great cards, and I had a blast going through them all. It kept me happy for an hour, and was a really good deal.

Just a week after getting my first 1948 Bowman, I got two more, Barney McCoskey and Bill Wight. Barney McCoskey hit .312 in his major league career, and in 1948 hit .326 while striking out just 22 times.

The three 1949 Bowmans are Dick Kokos, Whitey Platt, and Floyd Baker.

For a lot of these early cards, they're cool to have even if they're in bad condition or nobodies. For price comparison, the cheapest 1949 Bowman on COMC is $3.35.

These guys are Jerry Coleman (Yankee!), Cliff Fannin, Johnny Wryostek, Sam Dente, Pete Suder, and Buddy Rosar. Buddy Rosar was backup catcher for the 1941 Yankees. He had a very good season in my Stratomatic league this season, hitting .278 with 3 homers and 5 doubles in 36 at-bats. The 1941 Yankees were 14-6, first in their league, but lost the World Series in six games to the 1927 Yankees.

These two, Jack Banta and Dale Coogan, were actually high numbers. They're also in pretty decent condition.

The 1951 Bowmans were a pretty rough lot except for Chuck Diering, but I was super excited to get my first card of Ted Kluszewski. Nice Preacher Roe, too.

Nobody special here, but I'm working on 1952 Bowman, and am now up to 26/252. 

These two are high numbers. Bob Chipman had a decent twelve-year career, with a 51-46 record and 3.72 ERA. 1952 was his last season. 

Everett "Skeeter" Kell was George Kell's brother, but wasn't even nearly as good. 1952 was his only major league season, and he hit .221 with zero homers. I think it's funny how the top left border was drawn in by some kid.

Clockwise, these guys are Bob Addis, Ted Gray, Gil Coan, and Roy McMillan. Nothing special, but they're nice.

It's easy to forget that Johnny Pesky played for the Tigers. Actually, he also played with the Senators in 1954. Now that's weird. 

1952 Topps, even beat-up no-names, is always cool.

Peanuts Lowrey is a member of the Elmer Valo family, as a .273 hitter who hit just 37 homers and struck out just 226 times in 1401 games. Members of the Elmer Valo family are utility outfielders with no power who walk about twice as much as they strike out. Another member is Greg Gross.

I love 1953 Topps!

Morrie Martin was #227, a high number, and the cheapest copy on COMC is $13.08. 

I love the 1954 Topps cards with white backgrounds. They just look so calm and peaceful, and it's nice how you can't tell where the border begins. They're minimalist. 

Luke Easter was a really cool player. He was 31 when he started his pro career, but played until he was 48. He had some very good seasons with the Indians, but spent most of his career in AAA. 1954 was his last season with the Indians. He played just six games with them before going to the minors, where he continued to hit great for almost ten more years. He hit .279/40/128 at 41 with Buffalo, and .307/38/109 at 42. At 46 with the Rochester Red Wings he still hit .281, with 15 homers and 60 RBIs in 249 at-bats.

The head shot on Bob Turley's 1954 rookie card was also used for his 1955 and 1956 Topps cards, when he was with the Yankees. 

Carl Scheib was a very interesting player. He came up with the Athletics in 1943 at sixteen, and was a very good hitting pitcher. For his career he was 45-65 with a 4.88 ERA, but hit .250 for his career. In 1951, he hit .396 with 2 homers in 53 at-bats. He pinch hit 64 times in his career.

Warren Spahn is in pretty terrible condition (most of the back is missing), but I'm not complaining.

I'm also happy to get another Wally Moon. Moon had a difficult time in St. Louis, as he was replacing Enos Slaughter. Here's an interesting story from the New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract:

"According to Ray Robinson in Baseball Stars of 1960, Moon made a catch in 1957 of a drive by Willie Mays that was the equal of anything Willie himself might have done. A Cardinal fan, applauding half-heartedly, remarked that "Terry Moore would have made it look a lot easier." 

This is my first 1955 Topps Double-Header. Here it is, unfolded:

It didn't want to stay open, so I had to put two piles to weigh it down.

I'm trying to get every card from The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading, and Bubble Gum Book. It might happen, someday. 

I was surprised to see Richie Ashburn in here. Warren Spahn and Robin Roberts were mentioned in the listing, but not Ashburn. 

I'd been wanting a card of Vernon Law for a while, so I was glad to see this. Also happy to get another card of Hoyt. 

Clockwise, starting with Zernial, these guys had nicknames of "Ozark Ike", "Vinegar Bend", "The White Rat", and "Scrap Iron" / "The Toy Bulldog". 

There were plenty of 1959 Topps cards, over fifty new ones, but I wasn't that excited about them. Unlike the earlier sets, I do have some condition standards for 1959 Topps, so I'll want to upgrade a fair number of them. 

I'm at 268/572, or 46.9%. 

I like how someone stamped "Aug. 13, 1964" on poor Ernie Broglio. 

I also got a very generous present from my sister, a 1958 Topps Whitey Ford.

It has some wax staining on the back, but is in very nice condition otherwise. My sister usually gets me good presents, but this is the best in memory. 

Overall, I probably had my best Christmas ever. I hope all of you had great Christmases too, and will have a happy new year. 

My COMC shipment has come

 I got my COMC shipment last Saturday. I'd been buying cards for a year, so there were 178 cards, most of them vintage. I requested it 11/29 and received it 12/18, so it seems like they've fixed their shipping problems. 

I got many of them on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Actually, I was able to get better prices on 1959 Topps and related sets on Cyber Monday. Lots of them between 50 and 65 cents. 

Here they all are, organized by set:

1959 Topps towers over all the others. I got about 100 1959 Topps cards, and breezed past the 200-card goal I set back in early November. 

Casey looks like he's showing Larsen how to throw a knuckleball. 

That's Virgil Trucks' sunset card. He started out 1958 with the Athletics, but was traded to the Yankees and had a 2-1 record with a 4.54 ERA for them. 

Hall of famers are usually more expensive than what I want to pay, but these were reasonably priced and in good shape. 

Long live black-bordered cards!

Whammy Douglas and Dutch Dotterer are both amazing names. 

I focused mostly on high numbers. I was able to get most of the ones pictured for less than $1.25, and I now have 27/66 of the high numbers, so it worked well. Of course, I'm still missing all those $$ all-stars like Mantle and Aaron, and Bob Gibson, Norm Cash etc. 

The only all-stars I got were guys like this. 

I didn't just get 1959 Topps cards, obviously. I enjoyed getting some Yankees, and other favorites of mine.

Johnny Lindell on the left was my first 1948 Bowman. Lindell was a pitcher in the minor leagues, and went 23-4, 2.05 ERA in the International League in 1941. But he was just so-so in the bullpen for the Yankees in 1942, 2-1, 3.76, and was converted to the outfield in 1943. He led the league in triples in 1943 and 1944 with marks of 12 and 16, and led the league in total bases in 1944. After hitting .187 in 1950, he converted back to the mound in the Pacific Coast League. In 1952, with the Hollywood Stars, he had a 24-9 record, 2.52 ERA, and 190 strikeouts. That brought him back to the majors, where he split a season between the Pirates and Phillies. He hit .303, but was 6-17 and led the league in losses and wild pitches. 

I'm guessing that Bob Porterfield is the least known modern player to throw nine shutouts in a season. Unfortunately for him and the Yankees, he was with the Senators then.

This is an 1895 cigarette card which I got for $1.50. Has a big crease, but not in bad shape for a 126 year old card. 

To be honest, I like the back more than the front.

Hoyt!

Unfortunately, Solly Hemus wasn't as good at managing as he was at short stop. He spent two and a half years with the Cardinals, with a record of 190-192.

Marvelous Marv!

That Johnny Romano is the earliest example I've seen of batting gloves on baseball cards. 

Good ol' Wally Moon. I saw him at a card show in 2017. Autograph fees were $7, so I didn't bring a card for him to sign. But the organizer of the card show told us (me, my dad, and my sister) to go over and say hi to him. He was super nice, and signed a Beckett magazine I had with Zack Greinke on the cover. Similar to Don Mossi, Moon is a fan favorite not only because of the unibrow, but also because he was a great guy.

I got Don Mossi, a high number, for $2.65. It isn't in very good shape, but I don't have enough of his cards.

In a bit of sad irony, the last card of Eli Grba actually pictures Ryne Duren. 

With 178 cards, there's too much to fit into one post, so expect a sequel sometime next week. After my Christmas post.

Have a good Christmas Eve!

Worth the Waite

 I was bad at posting cards I got in the summer, so I figure December is better than never for showing good cards. 

In a Net54 purchase, I picked up a 1929 R316 Kashin Waite Hoyt. It's a surprisingly affordable set, for pre-war. You can get commons in decent condition for as little as $10 on eBay, and this Hoyt was $35. It has a stain, but it's in good condition otherwise. Until this Thursday, Waite Hoyt cards accounted for the two most expensive cards I've bought personally, as I bought a 1933 Goudey Hoyt in September 2020.

I also got some pre-war cricket cards. I know most of you all don't care about cricket cards, but I enjoy picking them up occasionally. I got two 50-card sets in good condition for $20 each shipped  -  from Thailand. If I was buying baseball cigarette cards, that might buy me two beat-up commons. And cricket is close enough to baseball that I can enjoy watching and reading about it.

The cards took two months to arrive, but they were worth the wait. The two sets were the 1928 Wills set and 1938 John Player & Sons set. I also got a 1937 British Authors set for my dad, because it had cards of some authors he likes. 

The top two cards, a 1934 Players Jack Hobbs and a 1934 Carreras Herbert Sutcliffe, paired well with their 1928 cards. 

Jack Hobbs was the one of the greatest cricketers of all time, starring until he was 51. His career lasted from 1905 to 1934. Herbert Sutcliffe was his batting partner from 1924 onward.

Cricket is weird because the aging pattern is completely different. Many of the players in these sets were in their 40s, and some were in their 50s like Jack Hobbs and Wilfred Rhodes, on the left. A bowler, Rhodes was 50 when this card was issued, and his career was from 1898 to 1930. 

The card of the late Roy Kilner reminds me of the 1964 Topps Ken Hubbs.

K.S Duleepsinhji was nephew of the great Ranjitsinhji. He may have been as good, but his career was shortened by recurrent illness. The Duleep Trophy, one of the premier competitions in Indian cricket, is named after him. 

This is the only horizontal card in either set.

The 1938 set is annoying because the backs are adhesive, as they were designed to be stuck into albums. I need to put them into binder pages, because I can't get go through them without them sticking to me temporarily.

Don Bradman, an Australian. is widely considered the greatest batsman of all-time. He played from 1927 to 1949, and for his career had a batting average of 99.94 in Test matches, and a 95.14 average in First Class matches. A century, where you score 100 runs, is a great achievement, so averaging almost a century per match for over twenty years is amazing.

I like looking at the player's faces. I feel like you could make up a cheesy story with how they look. The cast:

Norman Yardley: The boy evil genius.

Robert Wyatt: His hired thug.

Peter Smith: Head of Scotland Yard.

I was going to do more, but the cards were infuriatingly sticky so I quit.