Friday, August 25, 2017

Al, Norm, Roger, and The Mick


Another day, another post that's starting off with Mr. Tiger (and company). For those of you at home keeping count, that's 3 out of the last 9 now.

Until recently, while finally making a real effort to clean out all of my old picture files chock full of never gotten to items for the blog, I had no idea how many of Al's cards that I was fortunate enough to get last year on COMC. I have been trying to sort everything into similar groups (usually by set), which means, in theory I could start off at least two more featuring Mr. Kaline, as there are still cards of his from '68 and '69 patiently waiting for a public showing.


This was a last second addition to the post, hence the terrible picture.
In the early days of this blog (back when no one was reading it yet), I mentioned that it was my coming across cheap 1972-73 basketball singles on Wensy (god, how I miss that site) in or around 2010, that brought me back to card collecting, which at that time, was only going to be vintage basketball.

But I have never mentioned, that it was the finding of a large amount (at least 100) of '67 & '72 Topps baseball in a dime box, at my first show at the Mall 205 (Portland) in over a decade, that led to me starting to collect baseball again as well. I really thought I would be further along with both of those sets by now, possibly even have them finished, but of course that was also before things got out of control, i.e. before I decided to start working on the insane amount of sets that I currently am.

Now we're getting to, what I consider to be one of my top five vintage baseball gets from last year. It seems like Topps must have started production on the '67 set, or at least the fist series, before Roger's trade to St. Louis, thankfully he didn't end up getting one of their hastily done airbrush treatments.

Considering the overall condition of the card itself, and knowing that it was his second to last, $10 in earned credit seemed like it was almost a steal of a price for this one.

As an aside, I saw a recent article in which Giancarlo Stanton mentioned that he considers Roger Maris' 61 home run's to still be the single season record, despite the fact that the records show three drugged up cheaters ahead of him. It was very refreshing to see a current big leaguer espouse such an opinion, as even if they believe it to be so, most guys usually wouldn't offer up that kind of "hot take" for public consumption. Kudos to him for being willing to do so.

Even if it's just a card featuring his disembodied head, it's always nice to check a Mantle off the list. I may look to replace this one for a non-partially checked/erased version at some point, as of now though, I'm just glad to have this one.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

8 comments:

  1. Love the '67 multi-player cards. Cash and Kaline are iconic. I'm with Stanton. It's great to hear him say it. Makes me root for him. Even though I'm a Cubs fan I was glad to see Albert Pujols pass him on the all-time HR list.

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    1. I thought the same thing in regards to rooting for him. Now if I ever hear/see him say that Hank Aaron is the true home run king, I will probably have to start a Giancarlo collection.

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  2. 67 is my favorite set. Knocked it off last year. Love the multi player cards

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    1. I remember when you mentioned that you had completed it. Even after some time has passed, that must still feel like a major accomplishment (at least as far as collecting goes).

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  3. Nice! I found that same Mantle in a quarter box at a card show a few years back, but then again that was because someone drew all over it with a pink marker (including scribbling a little pink mustache on The Mick).

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  4. Love the floating head Mantle! Like Nick... I was fortunate enough to find mine for a quarter. Although mine was in a binder at the flea market.

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    1. I remember seeing yours when you posted about it a while back, that was definitely a good buy for only 25 cents.

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