Miggida miggida miggida Mack: With apologies to Connie

Matt over at the Number 5 Type Collection had an awesome contest where if you guessed the cards, you won them. From the rubbings Matt posted I got that they were from the 1963 Bazooka All-Time Greats, but I still had to know who they were.

I guessed a Connie Mack was at stake and put my head on figuring out who the other guy was. In short, I won and landed these cards:

I'm a HUGE fan of the Connie Mack A's and am stoked to add this to my collection. Believe it or not, Mack is in the HOF despite losing more games than he won, a distinction he shares with Buck Harris. Hopefully one day Gene Mauch will join that club, but I digress. The really cool thing (actually about all three of them!) is that they were OK-but-not-great ballplayers who, despite their not-so-greatness, learned enough about the game they went on to become All-Time-Great managers.

The other HOFer here is Harry Heilmann, nicknamed "Slug" (for his hitting prowess or blinding speed, who knows?). The awesome thing about this card is that I had no appreciation for Slug until looking up his stats: he hit .400 once and flirted with it several times, had a lifetime OBP of .411, and 183 HRs in the dead ball era which is even more impressive in the context of his OPS+ of 148. 

After today's Lions game I may have to send Harry over to a certain Detroit fan I know to cheer him up!

Thanks again for the contest, Matt!

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

Headhunting Part II: Coming Soon?

I'm now rolling with some guys over FCB with regard to some EJs. Being a Rays collector, I don't have a ton of quality non-Rays to offer in trade. So... if things work out the second edition of headhunters will be coming up shortly.

First we had this Jackie Robinson relic claimed by GCRL (who'll have a post coming soon, and to whom I definitely owe more Dodgers for the additional Rays he threw in!). 

What'll be next? It'll be something from the pc, and something good. Hint: Get your Phillies ready.

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

Double Duty: Bender and Oldring 1911 T201 Mecca Double Folder

I picked this card up about a year ago. It's an awesome twofer of HOFer and CCC favorite Charles Bender and the less known Rube Oldring.

First the whole card with Bender:

Overall it's a pretty classy shot of Bender at, I'm guessing, an early version of Shibe Park. Being a guy who digs on some vintage, I'm often disappointed by how current brands (ahem, Topps) will take something like this and go waaay crazy with it (T206, I'm looking at you!). Cards from the actual era were pretty straightforward and not all all self-conscious like the C. Kershaw in The Shining-type cards you pull nowadays.

Anyway, Oldring and the stats are on the back.

Sure enough, if you fold Oldring over he lines up nicely with Bender's legs in kind of a fielding pose. 

The coolest thing is that, according to a Bender bio I read, the two were roomies back in the day. When was the last time two baseball roomies were on the same card? Anyone else know of any cases?

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

The Best of Topps Photoshop: Carlos Peña

So I'm sitting there the other day going through the compa's Peña collection. Who knows why, but the following two card jumped out at me.

As everyone knows, card companies recycling photos is nothing new. I'm guessing I never noticed these two before because a) the cropping makes for a radically different card and b) because someone photoshopped the bejeesus out of one of them (my vote is for the second). 

Unlike other (well, most) airbrush/photoshop jobs you see Topps take on, this one is well done 

enough. You don't get the feeling that Los just emerged from a nuclear reactor, that his jersey is melting off, or that part of him is floating in the aether. Like I said, I never noticed the photoshop until I noticed these cards were identical.

So, Topps, well done here!

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

Regular Programming: Brien Taylor

I've written about Brien Taylor before. He was "the next big thing." A true "can't miss prospect" from NC.

For a time, the biggest card after the 1989 UD Griffey was this 1991 Topps Gold auto:

If I remember correctly it was included in "special" complete sets and at one point booked for well over $100. I got this copy for about $7 shipped. 

Some folks have used contemporary stats to argue he wouldn't have made it anyway, but that's all part of the mystique of this story, of guys like him and Prior and countless others. Baseball America had him as a top-20 prospect from 1992-4, #1 in '92 and #2 in '93. 

Who knows what would have been? There's only what was.

Have a good one everybody and good night Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

¡Solidarity!

General strike Wednesday, November 2 in Oakland, CA.

Poster by Eric Drooker.

2009 Topps Ethier/Soria Walmart black error

Has a Soria back. Weird, huh?