Ginter Project: Stanley "Doc" Glenn

This is the second most recent of the ttms I've gotten in the past few weeks: Stanley "Doc" Glenn. Mr. Glenn was a catcher in the Negro Leagues who caught Satchel Paige, so this is the second auto I have of one of Paige's former catchers, the other being Larry LeGrande. An unexpected story is that he made a cameo in Gene Conley's bio. Mr. Glenn was a catcher in the Braves minor league system when Conley was coming through, and even compared Conley to Paige when Conley threw a 1-0 shutout against Wilkes-Barre during to win his 20th game in 1951.

He put out a book a couple of years ago, and I hope to order it after the first of next month.

The scans won't come through. There are actually two cards there, but the scanner keeps cutting them in two. So here's a pic of both and neither of them.

This is also a really sweet card, from the follow through to the wry smile he's wearing here. Really, really well done, and a great sig. Thanks Mr. Glenn.

He was also gracious enough to answer a few questions. Favorite player growing up: Josh Gibson. Best moment in baseball: hitting four HRs in one game. AND, why is his nickname Doc? He is a physical therapist. Cool.

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

Don't Mess with the Mule: Mail from John "Mule" Miles

This is the first card I received from the 2007 Ginter Negro League project:

If I can complete the whole thing I'll put them all together in one big post.

There is tons of info out there on Mr. Miles if you Google it, so I'll just link to the search. He's probably most famous for hitting HRs in 11 straight games (eleven!), because of which his manager "Candy" Taylor said Miles "hits like a mules kicks"....and so a legend was born.

He was kind enough to also take the time to fill out the little question sheet I send out, which is always a pretty awesome gesture. Favorite player growing up: Babe Ruth. Toughest Pitcher he had to face: Satchel Paige. Favorite current player: Ryan Howard with the Phillies. If you are like me and semi-desperate for a reason to root for the Phillies against the Yanqis, I think that's sufficient reason right there: the image of an elderly gentleman famous for hitting like a mules kicks pulling for Ryan Howard.

He also included two sheets with further info one his career, which I scanned and have included here. A click and they should go full-sized.

And #2:

Finally, Mr. Miles said his favorite teammate was Clyde McNeal. I've done some research on Mr. McNeal, but am coming up empty so far. Any advice on where to look would be great appreciated!

A big "thank you" to Mr. Miles, opening up your letter was awesome! Have a great one, everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

Trading Post: Epic Part II: Freds Thanks to Great Sports Name HOF

First, we have a Cy sighting over at Mark's Ephemera. Go check it out!

Also, a great contest over at Play at the Plate.

So, having declared myself a Fred McGriff player collector, I got an email from Great Sports Name Hall of Fame. I've already had great experiences with other player collectors like Troll and Chris OK and our pursuit of CCs, and HOF was pretty stoked to meet another McGriff collector. Surprisingly there are very few out there. He sent me a link to his Crime Dogs, and only asked for me to send him any thing I had not on the list. Between my recent acquisitions from Chris OK and Play at the Plate I had about 5 I could send (including that sweet '87 Fleer Glossy) plus another 5 I have from my original old-school collection, 10 in all. To send or not to send?

I mulled it over, but ultimately bowed to the awesome thoroughness of that list and decided to cut my Crime Dogs loose. In return, HOF hooked me up with a whopping 39 (!) Crime Dogs I'd never seen before. Keeping it simple, these are the highlights.

Fred being fan friendly. Nice card, nice shot, nice guy, pretty much how I have always imagined him: a fan-accessible HOFer.

This is actually a 92 UD that my scanner decided didn't need a white border and would look much better cropped, photo-to-border, like Stadium Club. Nice call cheap scanner! Love the ump, love the crowd, the ball and the baserunner arriving at the bag at the same moment. People remember Crime Dog for his offense, but he was also a defensive whiz at 1st. Dude here says Eddie Murray is the only HOFer with a high fielding percentage, and yet Fred never won a Gold Glove. Go figure...

Here we have photographic evidence that Derek Jeter is not the only player to have ever chased a ball into or towards the stands in the last 20 years, much less in the history of baseball. Fred's chasing one into the camera well gives this card a pretty cool, mis en abyme feel to it. Cameras at both ends, infinite Freds and the meaningless of it all in between...nice touch. Don't worry, the one guy in the stand with his hands on his head is also just a spectator, miscomprehending like the rest of us.

Speaking of which, this card sums it up nicely, doesn't it? "A Tale of Two Players"...two potential HOFers, one guy who played his way out of every town he ever played in, including Atl., and a guy who showed up every day to the park, took his position out at first, and just played. Two players, indeed...you'd need staples like those in the middle of the card to pull together any coherent narrative comparing their careers, that's for sure...

And then we have some more excellent cards of Fred at the bat...

Can't get enough of that swing, even if it has apparently spawned a vortex that threatens to tear the universe asunder, with you, me and Fred in it. Wow.

This swing is pretty awkward, but check out what it says there on the front...yep, Fred's no longer with the Braves, as pictured on the card. Instead, he's now with the:

Devil?!? Man, someone really dropped the ball on that one. Unless, of course, Fred really DID sell his soul to the devil to squeeze in a few last years of ball and make a run at 500 HRs, in which case listing his team on the back of the card as "Devil" is entirely appropriate.

So there you have it, and those are just the highlights! Thanks again, HOF! Hope you enjoyed the Freds I sent over.

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

The Crime Dog Collection

35 from Great Sports Name Hall of Fame

11 from Play at the Plate

1986

Donruss, #28

1987

Donruss, # 621

Donruss HIghlights, #39

Fleer Update, # U-75

Topps, #74T

1988

Score, #107

Topps, #463

Topps, Team Leaders #729

1989

Bowman, #253

Donruss, #70

Donruss, DK-16

Donruss, MVP #BC-19

Fleer, #240

Score, #6

Topps, #745

Topps, mini #77

Upper Deck, #572

Upper Deck, Team Checklist #671

1990

Bowman, #513

Donruss, #188

Fleer, #89

Leaf, #132

Topps, #295

Topps, AS #385

Upper Deck, #108

1991

Donruss, #261

Topps, #140

Upper Deck, #33

Upper Deck, #775

1992

Donruss, #283

Fleer, #614

Score, #7

Upper Deck, #344 (thx HOF!)

1994

Donruss, Long Ball Leaders #2

Topps Stadium Club, #180

Upper Deck, #197

1995

Donruss, #232

Fleer, AS #15

Topps, #355

Upper Deck SP, #30 (thx HOF!)

1996

Score, #84

Upper Deck, #380

1997

Pinnacle, #8

Score, #9

Topps, #352

1998

Donruss Preferred, #54

Fleer Tradition, #130 (thx HOF!)

Score, #195

Skybox, #6

Topps, #349

Upper Deck, #730

Upper Deck Player's Choice, You Crash the Game #CG8 (thx HOF!)

2000

Fleer, #153

Topps, #31

2001

Fleer Platinum, #127

Fleer Tradition, Team Checklist #441

Fleer Triple Crown, #173

Topps Finest, #4

Topps Gold Label, #190

Upper Deck, Black Diamond #12

2003

Donruss Diamond Kings, #86

Topps, # T99

Upper Deck, #169

2004

Donruss Throwback Threads, #187

Trading Post: Epic Part 1: Crime Dogs Thanks to Play at the Plate

This will be a two parter full of intrigue. When I first put up that I was interested in McGriffs things picked up a bit trading wise, and Play at the Plate was quick to respond. I sent over a stack of Rangers, and he sent me a bunch of McGriffs, some neo-vintage Pops, and a couple of Rays. Here are some of the awesome highlights.

I'm also something of a Pedro collector, so this card is doubly awesome. It's a card commemorating the Crime Dog's posterizing of Pedro back in the day to a tune of a 462 foot HR. I hope at some point they also did a "Big K" series, of dudes like Pedro owning hitters back in the mid-1990's...but I get a feeling there is no such series. At any rate, it'd be awesome to see.

Now, there will be a trend here among the Freds I pulled. Along with Darryl Strawberry, he's got one of the most majestic swings I've ever see. It's also made for some consistently beautiful cardboards that show him having just raked another massive HR. This one's got Fred following through on a monster HR for the Rays, with what looks to be a Yankees catcher (Posada?) and by the looks of his barrel chest José Canseco lurking in the background. A couple of nice, scene setting details that really add to a great baseball pic. That said, what with the blurring and the letters and the logo, the design infringes a bit on the shot for my taste.

I'm thinking this ball went upwards of 500 feet. It's obviously a no-doubter. The catcher (looks to be a Cub) is standing up, his glove slightly betraying a sense of "WTF" was that pitch disgust. I like the bats in the dugout in the background, but again the design is intruding on a great shot. We have a mugshot of Fred top left, and massive lettering blocking the catcher. Man I wish I could see the look on his face as that 0-2 fastball he called for heads for the fringes of Fulton Co.

This is actually the back of a card (front to come). It's pretty awesome, but wait....follow his eyes...looks like this is a shot of Fred popping up to shallow left. Not quite as heroic, but still a shot of heroic failure, which has its own charm. And then the front:

Now, I know Mickey Tettleton played several positions in the OF, calling a guy who made his mark as a hard hitting catcher an "IF" is a bit much. It's like listing Fred as an "IF," when in fact the ONLY IF position he ever played was 1B. Why not just list him as that? There's no sin in being one-dimensional defensively, especially when some guys (I'm not listing names, you know who you are) don't even have that dimension.

And finally, the Goodwin Champions Upton.

This card says nightmares. This man isn't Bossman, Jr., he's THE Bossman. The stare, the gathering red storm behind him...this dude is just plain scary. Awesome, awesome card...almost so much that I came close to caving on the no-wax policy and buying a box at Target this afternoon.

Thanks again for the trade, Play at the Plate!

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

Trading Post: Many Thanks to Wax Pack Relapse

I came across Wax Pack Relapse while surfing Troll's Blog one day. Dude's pretty organized with what he has to trade, and I had my eye on some cards in his extensive spreadsheets when he mentioned he had a few David Prices he could send my way. In fact, 8 total. I'm planning a post on my Price cards in the near future, but if there's one thing that's certain it's that Prices on the 'bay command value based more on hype than performance. I know, he's a big prospect, but still...it means folks that just want to collect his cards get priced out of the market pretty quick.

Long story short, it was AWESOME to get these in the mail:

I'm really digging these. I like the photo in general (BIG comeback year for Topps in that category) and will also cop to preferring the old school paper stock of the Target Exclusive on the left. Just something for the old schooler in me.

Then: Price as a collectible postage stamp:

Nice card, captures his intimidating mound presence. It's also pretty weird, given the United Peoples of Baseball-type feel to it. Almost like I could use it in lieu of international postage or something.

And these:

The card on the left is just plain goofy. He's waiting on a throw back to the mound, I get it, but it's the only card I can think of that depicts the pitcher waiting on a throw. Wild stuff.

But that's not all he sent. I also scored this Delmon Young:

That's another really great shot. You have the OF wall, the foul line, lots of color, the drama of the pick-off move...just a really well-put together picture. Moreover the design of the 2008 Stadium Club gives the photography plenty of room to just be itself. Nice card.

And then, this gem of The Legend, Jonny Gomes:

Being a Gomes fan, this card represents a lot of what I really dig about him. Dude is listed at 6'1'', 225 lbs., but he's one of those guys who, when you see him in person, has a looming presence. He's massive. That's only increased by the fact he seems to prefer outsizes jerseys, as seen in this photo. The crop makes him seem even bigger and again, the design stays out of the ways and cedes ground to the great photo. And he plays all-out, all the time. Jonny Gomes: Elmer Valo for the new millennium.

Finally, Kevin Slowey.

Slowey was the winning pitcher in the game the compa and I went to for our anniversary this year, he laid a great sig (with anniversary wishes!) on a card for us at the Twins auto day, and he went to the same school as my Moms, Winthrop College in Rock Hill, SC. He's also a heck of a pitcher whose year this year was sidelined by injury. Next year with Slowey back healthy the Twins should be that much better!

Thanks for the cards Wax Pack Relapse!

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

Trading Post: Priceless Gems from the Priceless Pursuit

So, a while back I caught this post over at the Priceless Pursuit. He had pulled this CC in a pack, and I left a comment asking if he's be willing to part with it.

He was game, and we got the deal done! Now, I really appreciate his willingness to part with a #'d card without asking for a king's ransom in return. I don't have too many #'d CC, and my collecting budget just can't hang with the guys who will throw down for #'d cards on the 'bay. Long story short, I don't actively seek them out or feel compelled to, but I'm INCREDIBLY stoked when a fellow blogger passes one along.

BUT that's not all sent sent. He also sent along a two more Peñas for someone else's collection:

For all the HRs one tends to forget that Peña is also a Gold Glove 1st Baseman, so the Fleer Platinum is a +1 in the compa's book.

Next, three Delmons, all of which actually sport pictures of the man in question, without any mystery men popping up.

That's my first Delmon #'ed card, and was an incredible bonus to get. Don't forget to check out the bottom of this post and help me figure out with this person NOT named Delmon Young could be.

Finally, he included a RC of the man, the legend, the off-again, on-again pro-wrestler and CCC fave, Jonny Gomes. Nice shot of Jonny running the bases in what looks to be a Spring Training Game.

Thanks for the Trade, Priceless! Hope you enjoyed the cards I sent as much as I enjoyed these.

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