Postcards From The Hall

The lovely wife and I bought new bedroom furniture recently, and before it was delivered, we cleared out all the crap that was under our old bed.   (As an aside, we splurged and bought a tempur pedic mattress.  Holy crap, it is the best money I have ever spent!)   I found a few boxes of stuff I had kind of forgotten about, and SURPRISE, most of the stuff was related to baseball.

Before we had children, the lovely wife gave me the gift of a lifetime by booking a trip to Cooperstown NY, (and some time in NYC) to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame.  One of these days I'm going to post pictures from the trip, but that is not my purpose today.  I also won't spend a lot of time explaining that if you have never been to the Hall, you absolutely should.  Because you should.  I am chomping at the bit to go back, and when the kids are a little older, we're going.

No, today, I just wanted to show some cool postcards I bought while at the Hall, including the above postcard of the Hall of Fame itself.  I also picked up a handful of other really beautiful post cards of paintings by Arthur K. Miller.   I don't need to wax poetic about these, other than to say I really wish there was a card set based on these paintings.  (Who knows, maybe there is.  Is there one, you experts?)   Here are the ones I have:

Babe Ruth

Ty Cobb

Joe Jackson

Jackie Robinson

Honus Wagner

I don't remember buying these, as the trip was almost 10 years ago.  But I sure wish I had bought more of them.  I'm going to have to do some searching and see if these are available anywhere else because they are incredible.

Cleve’s Auction Night- Theyrrrr'e Great

My winnings were great, that is, and they happened to be all Kellogg's vintage 3D cards.

Actually, I came home with far less that I anticipated this week.  When I went to Cleve's on Saturday to scope out the auction fodder, I was interested in quite a bit of stuff.  There were complete sets of 81 and 82 Topps in albums that I was targeting, as well as a goodie album that had about 4 pages of very interesting Perma cards from 1982 and 1983.  I don't know much about these cards, but I thought I might be able to get the album for around $5 to $7.  Unfortunately, it wound up going for $11 and I chickened out.  The $11 was a write in bid and I could have had it for $12.  It had all the great 80s stars too:  Brett, Yount, Rose, Schmidt, etc.  I'm kind of kicking myself now.  

The complete 81 and 82 Topps sets in binders went for about $25 each, and I'm kind of kicking myself for not getting one of them too, especially the 82 set with the Ripken rookie.

But, no use crying over it.  As the great Nolan Richardson used to say when the Hogs would lose out on a top recruit, "You can't lose what you don't have."  Man I miss Nolan.  But I digress.

But I did come away with a few consolation prizes and only spent $12 on the night, which was a pleasant surprise to the lovely wife.   Here's what I picked up:

I love this 1970 Kellogg's set.   It's loaded with Hall of Famers, and, as I've mentioned, I'm a sucker for 3D and other gimmicks on cards.  And, anytime I can get an Ernie Banks vintage card on the cheap, I'm going to do it.  I got this one for $4.  I like that it's graded, even though the actual grade doesn't mean much to me.  There's something about a slabbed card that I dig, even though I know it's a vulgar practice to many of you.
I also picked up 2 other non-graded 1970 Kellogg's cards:

These were the only other two 1970 Kellogg's cards available at the auction, and they both happened to be Twins.  I think these are my first Killebrew and Carew vintage cards, making these purchases that much better.  I got both for $2 each.

Finally, I scored this lot of 3 from the 1972 Kellogg's All Time Greats set:

This set also features 3D styling, but the cards are slightly smaller.  $4 got me a Gerhig, Wagner and Hornsby.  Nothing wrong with that trio.

Grades:
Ernie Banks 1970 Kellogg's $4:  A  This set is just cool, and so is Ernie Banks.
Rod Carew 1970 Kellogg's $2:  A-  I'll take a vintage star like Carew for $2 every time.
Harmon Killebrew 1970 Kellogg's $2:  A-  My first Killebrew card, and again, this set is just cool.

3 Card Lot 1972 Kellogg's ATG $4:  A+  It's Gerhig, Wagner, and Hornsby for crying out loud. 

2004 Sweet Spot Classic Patch

At the recent auction at Cleve’s, I mentioned one of my best wins was a box of screw down/magnet card holders.  I always need these in general, but I had a specific purpose in mind for buying these.  I have a handful of very lovely Sweet Spot Patch cards from 2004 that are too thick for pages. 

I understand manufactured patches aren’t universally loved.  I know one exception.  Make it two, because I really, really like these cards.  There are about 90 in the set, but I have no business trying to build it.  But I do periodically look for one to slip through cheaply on eBay, and there are a few players that I definitely still want to get.   Here is what I have now:

Here are two of my favorites, front and back.  The scratch on the Robinson is the case, not the card.

Booknotes: Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History

Cait Murphy, 2008

One of the silver linings to traveling so much lately is that I have been able to catch up on some reading.   A recent trip to Toronto gave me plenty of time to read “Crazy ‘08” by Cait Murphy.  If you are at all interested in baseball in the early 1900’s, or the history of baseball at all for that matter, this book is must reading.    It is extremely detailed, researched, well written and funny.    

The bulk of the book focuses on the three team race for the National League Pennant in 1908, which was fought between the Pirates, the NY Giants and the Cubs.  Yes, the Cubs at that time were not only perennial contenders; they were a juggernaut featuring the famous double play combination of Tinker, Evers and Chance and the pitching of Mordeci “Three Finger” Brown.   The Giants were also a perennial power, starring the gentlemanly pitcher Christy Mathewson and the un-gentlemanly manager, John McGraw, as well as the ill-fated Fred Merkle.  The chapter about the “Merkle” game is enough to warrant reading the book.   The Pirates, meanwhile, were not necessarily a great team, but had perhaps the greatest player of the time, Honus Wagner, who carried them on his back.   Being a card nerd, I know all about the famous T206 Honus Wagner card , and had an idea of how good of a player he was.  Crazy ‘08 really sheds light on not only what an incredible all around player he was, but also one of the decent men of the game, which after reading this book, looks like was the exception and not the rule.

 It seemed like every other page of this book included a fight, threat of a fight, or some sort of heated argument.    These were wild, agitated people:  players, coaches, umpires, fans and all.   1908 was a significant year in the history of baseball, and after reading Crazy ‘08, it’s hard to argue it wasn’t baseball’s greatest.