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BBHoF: The First Class (March 5, 2008)| Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth and Walter Johnson were the first ballplayers voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936. Their plaques are placed at the head of the hall. Here are some of their cards which I have collected. |
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Favorite Cards etc. (March 5, 2008)I first set foot inside a major league ballpark, the Polo Grounds, in 1956. Half-a-century later I still remember that stunning green expanse and I am still a Giants fan, although they bailed for the West Coast the following year. Ended up seeing a lot of Yankees games as a result. My nine year old brother and my ten year old self would take the subway for fifteen cents from 86th Street up to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx (allowing this today would get a parent arrested for child endangerment but in 1959 the world was a cooler place) and we'd pay a dollar-fortynine for grandstand tickets. We'd watch Mantle, Ford, Berra and the rest of Casey Stengel's boys clean up on the American League then wait outside the clubhouse on 157th Street to get the players to sign our scorecards. The first baseball cards I collected were the 1957 Topps series- flipped 'em, traded 'em, stuck 'em in my bicycle spokes, and as the old refrain has it, Mom threw 'em away, along with all those autographed scorecards. Way to go, Mom.
I took up collecting vintage baseball cards seven or eight years ago. One of the first cards I picked up was a Zeenut of Henry Oana of the San Francisco Seals, who was my father's ballplaying hero when he was a kid in the Mission in the twenties. Oana was one of the first blood Hawaiians to play in the big leagues. Dad saw the DiMaggios play, all three of them, but he liked Prince Oana. Said he had an arm like a rifle. My favorite ballplayer was Bill Skowron. Saw all those Yankee HOFers but I liked Moose. Go figure.
Thanks to eBay I was able to put together a few of the fifties Topps and Bowman sets and from there I just started working back in time. I next collected the '33 and '34 Goudey sets plus the 1941 Playball set. Then I got brave and went after a couple of pre-WW1 sets, to wit, D304 Brunners Bread and T3 Turkey Reds. That effort coincided with the rise to the stratosphere of the price of vintage baseball cards; I henceforth have sworn off set collecting. My focus now, although broad and eclectic, is to seek cards I like with an emphasis on cabinet cards and type-card collecting, and a tendency toward certain players such as Christy Mathewson, John McGraw, Home Run Baker and Joe Wood.
Here, then, are some of the vintage baseball cards I have acquired, as well as a mix of scorecards, photos and postcards. There are photos of Hawaiian ballplayers, Victoria Bees and Vancouver Beavers Obaks, a subset of players named McDonald, Cuban Billikens, a bunch of Japanese cards, (and, last but not least, Moose Skowron's New York Yankee cap, for real). Like I said, broad and eclectic. Some are familiar icons of the hobby, others just little cardboard gems. I love 'em all! |
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Moose Skowron (January 11, 2013) | 65 Visits
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D304 Brunners Bread (March 6, 2008)| A small but tough set to collect. Lots of star power: Matty, Cobb, Wagner etc. |
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T3 Turkey Reds (March 12, 2008)Turkey Red cabinet cards are considered by many collectors as one of the most beautiful sets ever produced. Each 5-3/4"x8" card is a little work of art, a colorful lithograph of bygone heroes of the diamond. They were offered in 1910-11 as mailed premiums redeemed by coupons found in Turkey Red (and Old Mill and Fez) cigarettes. The set comprised 100 baseball (catalog designation T3) plus 29 boxing (T9) images.
Herein is my humble T3 Turkey Red player set. These cards are "collector grade". There are no blazers here. Even so, it cost a very pretty penny to assemble but so be it. Feast your eyes on Big Six and The Big Train and on Speaker and Cobb. Watch Bugs Raymond firing a spitter and Bob Bescher having a rip. Admire the grace of Merkle and Chase. Take some stink eye off Eddie Collins. Check these beauties out!
(Once you open a thumbnail you can get a closer look at the cards if you click on "Original" at the bottom of the page). |
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1909 Obaks (July 8, 2021) | 20 Visits
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T205 Gold Borders: New York Giants (January 24, 2009)The T205 set was issued in 1911. The cards are known for their rich gold borders which, when intact, frame colorful player portraits in classic style. Although the intent was for the set to comprise 400 cards (per the back, "Base Ball Series 400 Designs"), only 209 distinctive cards of 198 players were issued. Someday I might have a go at collecting a player set but for the time being I have settled on a sub-set of my favorite team, the New York Giants. Twenty NY Nationals, the bulk of the line-up, were included in the T205 series. Of that number only reliever Dickson was not on the team in 1911. As well, Buck Herzog, a mainstay third baseman on three consecutive pennant winners, is depicted in the series in the uniform of the Boston Rustlers; he was traded to New York in mid-season. Poor old Bugs Raymond was out of baseball the next year and soon dead following a barroom beating. Jeff Tesreau missed the set by one year; the big right-handed ace broke in to the Bigs in 1912.
McGraw's men won the pennant in 1911 led by Mathewson (26-13) and Marquard (24-7) although they fell four games to two to Home Run Baker and the Philadelphia Athletics in the World Series. (The same squad won two subsequent pennants only to lose to Boston in 1912 and the A's again in 1913). |
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E93 Standard Caramels (November 8, 2008)So much for swearing off set collecting.
November 2009: The last card, Rube Waddell, has fallen into place. Might upgrade a few, particularly Lajoie which came to me in a USPO busted slab, but otherwise this HOFer-rich set is pau. |
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1933 Goudey (March 12, 2008)| Please forgive the page format; wasn't up to scanning 240 cards one by one. Click on "Original" and the scan will come up big as sin. |
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Goudey Sport Kings (July 12, 2008)Nineteen sports ranging from baseball to golf to dog sledding are represented in this 48 card issue from 1933 and 1934, and there is a diverse mix of immortals such as Babe Ruth and Knute Rockne and forgotten heroes like Charles Jewtraw and Joe Lapchick. (A little googling revealed that each of the 48 was indeed a legend back in the day. Jewtraw, for instance, was the first recipient ever of a Winter Olympics gold medal; hoopster Lapchick starred at every level over the course of 50 years, and is in the Basketball Hall of Fame). Even so, the set is loaded with athletes who are still household names 75 years later: Ty Cobb, Jack Dempsey, Jim Thorpe, Red Grange, Johnny Weissmuller, Babe Didrickson, etc.
The set is esteemed for its beautiful artwork, rich colors and smart layout. (I especially like the art deco-ey sport silhouettes at the base of each card). Check out Grange or Thorpe. You ever seen nicer football cards? Bobby Jones. Gene Tunney. Just friggin' beautiful.
This was a fun set to put together. Have a look . . . |
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1941 Play Ball (October 13, 2008)This 72 card set was issued by Gum, Inc. (later Bowman) in 1941. It was the year that Williams hit .406, DiMaggio streaked across the summer, and Lou Gehrig died. The Yanks won their Subway Series against Brooklyn in five games, and two months later our fathers went to war. So did the ballplayers. Even the cardboard would be put to better use in the war effort. Play Balls were the last pre-war baseball cards.
This grand little set has a lot of star power led by the iconic Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio cards-there are 15 Hall of Famers-but one wonders at some of the absentees such as Feller and Musial. There's not even a single player from the roster of the Chicago Cubs which included Dizzy Dean, Charley Root, and the venerable Stan Hack. (Seems Goudey Gum was sticking it to Wrigley Gum). Even so, it is hard not to love the colorful artwork nor to smile at some of the amusing nicknames like "Soupy" Campbell and "Gunboat" Gumbert and "Stormy" Weatherly. Plus ya gotta love that there are three DiMaggio brothers represented. Although this set's production precedes my birth by a decade many of these players were still active when I was a young ball fan. Saw Williams play many times when the Red Sox visited New York. Henrich and Dickey were Yankee coaches and Pee Wee Reese was a fixture on The Game of the Week along with Ol' Diz. I collected the cards one by one off eBay a few years ago. None are blazers but the set is a sentimental favorite.
Appended to the collection is Upper Deck's retro-Play Ball set, issued in 2003. I am generally disdainful of modern cards, shiny crap as it is known, but once in a while they get it right. |
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