Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown has relaxed his condition requirements on his 1970s setbuilds, so I was able to send some cards his way to help him on those.
In return he sent me a really fun mix of vintage cards. Starting off with 18 cards from 1980 Kellogg's. Some big stars there. I'm not concerned about the curling, these get packed tightly in a box and straighten out eventually.
When you think of baseball's Wizard of Oz, you probably think of Ozzie Smith. But it looks like Ozzie Virgil was also known as "WIZ".
This was by far the most unusual newspaper in the stack of papers I bought at the flea market last year. This was an English-language newspaper for Pinang, one of the largest island provinces in Malaysia. The audience was primarily English, Australians and Americans who were living there. This newspaper, which as it's title indicates was a merger of two separate papers, operated from 1946 to 1972.
Two weeks earlier, the capital city of Kuala Lumpur was rocked by widespread violence, with post-election tensions between Malays and ethnic Chinese leading to riots, leaving hundreds dead. Pinang saw some minor violence, and presumably that is what caused the implementation of curfews.
A few incoming cards this week.
Starting with a PWE from a very nice trader on TCDB, someone whom I've traded with before and would do so again. I am keeping him nameless this time, to show how pointless some of the things are people do when trying to "protect" cards in a PWE.
The cards arrived in a nine-pocket page with the superfluous cereal-box cardboard on either side. I find the cardboard doesn't add extra protection (that is what the plastic pages are for), but the corners of the cardboard are great at poking holes in the thin paper of an envelope. The sender also stamped "Photos - Do Not Bend" on the envelope. The post office clearly took that as a challenge and the whole thing had been folded lengthwise - across all three pockets - at some point in the process. Whether it was a human that read the stamp and didn't care, or a machine that had no way to recognize the stamp, who knows.
Fortunately I don't care about condition so I don't mind that every card in the envelope arrived with some creasing in the middle, some more than others. I just wanted to note that the so-called "correct" way to pack a PWE doesn't actually work the way some people on TCDB seem to think it does.
Luis Robert and Jake Cronenworth are both set-killers. A great Maury Wills photo and a random building in downtown Manhattan are other highlights.
As you can see there was one 2024 card snuck in there. The opposite was the case for this trade with Hebron Reds Fan, sneaking in a 1983 Fleer sticker with these 2024 cards.
Finally, some cards from Canada from a collector in Canada, Andrew Goguen. A couple of vintage hiding among the '80s cards.
Once again we have a spring training shot . . .
. . . with a dubious date.
On Tom Seaver's card the photo was exactly the same time as his 1973 base card. For Simmons, the photo is different but was clearly taken at the same time. You can even see the same bats in the background.
Simmons was in Series One in 1973, so this card was certainly out already by April 3, 1973. My guess is that the photograph was April 3, 1972. Maybe in the Topps photo archives, the date was written on the photo but not the year, and whoever was editing the deckles assumed all the photos they were using were from 1973. Nope - there was a baseball strike going on and players were locked out of their spring training ballparks. I have no other guesses, but it seems odd that Topps would just make up a date.
Greg Harris came up with the Padres in 1988 and was great in his first four seasons, going 27-22 with a 2.34 ERA in 152 games. Unfortunately, his career stalled at that point, due to injuries and subsequent malpractice (for which he later won $6 million in a court case). Overall in 243 games (109 starts) for the Padres, Rockies and Twins from 1988 to 1995, he went 45-64 with a 3.98 ERA. He is now a youth baseball coach for Rawlings Prospects NC.
RIP former Yankees pitcher Fritz Peterson. He shared his thoughts on baseball cards with this blog in 2014.
The back: Soto pitched two scoreless innings in Game 3 of the NLCS.
The player: Mario Soto was one of the NL's best pitchers in the 1980s. From 1980 to 1985 he won at least 10 games each year, topped by an 18-7 mark in 1984. He had low ERAs for most of those years, and topped 200 strikeouts three times, including 274 in 1982. Injuries, perhaps due to a heavy workload, quickly reduced his effectiveness, and he retired after the 1988 season at the age of 31. He had been traded to the Dodgers late in the season but never appeared for them, despite his 1989 Score card appearing to show him pitching for them. Overall in 297 games, all for the Reds, he went 100-92 with a 3.47 ERA.
The man: The temperamental Soto was involved in several brawls during his career, earning two suspensions during the 1984 season. He had no incidents after his playing career, and has had a long and successful career as a coach. He opened a baseball school in the Dominican Republic in 1991, and he has spent many years in the Reds organization working with their pitchers.
My collection: I have 40 of his cards, from 1978 to 1989. I would be interested in trading for 1978 SSPC #117.
cwpetro on TCDB is doubly rare - not only is he unconcerned about condition, but he is willing to trade vintage for junk wax! I was able to find about 100 cards for him, mostly 1990s, and this is what I got in return.
Starting off with some oddballs, including two Cardinals stars in unfamiliar uniforms.
The player, in brief: Gary Nolan came up with the Reds in 1967 and had a great rookie season, going 14-8 with a 2.58 ERA. He remained a mainstay in the Reds rotation for several years, topped by a terrific 1972 season when he went 15-5 with a 1.99 ERA. Injuries limited him to just two games over the next two seasons, but he returned to form in 1975, and in both World Champion seasons for the Reds he went 15-9. He was a solid postseason pitcher, going 2-2 with a 3.34 ERA in October. Arm problems recurred for him in 1977, and the Reds traded him to the Angels the day they got Tom Seaver. After five games for the Angels in '77, Nolan retired.
Post-playing career, in brief: In 1978 he started work as a blackjack dealer at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas. He went on to a long career as a hotel and casino host in Las Vegas, most recently at the Gold Country Casino in his hometown of Oroville, CA.
My collection: I have 16 of his cards, from 1968 to 1977. I would be interested in trading for 1977 Hostess #113.
Looks like it's been three weeks since I did one of these posts. Three weeks of Greg Morris poor/filler star card auctions.
I'm finding these to be the most effective way to add vintage star cards, older cards, high numbers and oddballs. Some are around $1 each, others more in the $3-5 range.
This particular week I had to split into two photos . . .
. . . because of all the Post cards.
Usually the biggest stars are still out of reach in those, but I managed to acquire a couple of big ones for the 1970 set. Aaron in particular looks like a wallet card that got laundered.
Vintage singles from other sellers are harder to come by, perhaps because the more I get, the less I need. Managed to find a good price on a Joe Torre rookie card in a lot with two other Braves. I needed Joe Adcock too. He was quite a good hitter himself. Shaw is available if anyone needs him.
