Vintage Variety From Project '62

I really haven't posted any vintage cards for a while, and that's mainly because I haven't been fortunate enough to acquire many lately. That should change this year, because one of the things I want to do is collect more vintage Topps team sets. Based on what I've seen so far, the prospects for 2010 releases don't look very promising. Old school is going to be the way of the samuri for this year's collective Tao.

All of the great cards in this post come courtesy of a trade with Project '62. Chris emailed me with some amazing vintage scans, and was kind enough to send them over even though there wasn't a whole lot of vintage I could send back in return.

1972 Topps Eddie Watt

A psychedelic tombstone of a pitcher I know very little about. A little research reveals that his career was marginal at best. That didn't stop me from picking up his 2004 Upper Deck Legends autograph card from checkoutmycards. It's amazing how many retired players have autographs in modern sets, including some you wouldn't expect, like Eddie Watt.

1962 Topps Earl Robinson

If you blinked, you may have missed the career of Earl Robinson in it's entirety. It only lasted 170 games, just barely more than one modern season. After breaking through with the Dodgers in '58, Robinson spent 3 seasons in Baltimore. '61, '62 & '64. I wonder what happened to him in '63?

1962 Topps Milt Pappas

Most people only know Pappas as the guy who brought Frank Robinson to the Orioles. Well... before being that guy, he was a pretty good pitcher, and at one point was the ace of Baltimore's staff. Pappas would have an All-Star season in '62, the first of his career.

1962 Topps Marv Breeding

Marv Breeding was another guy with a short career, playing just 4 seasons in the major leagues. I guess with a last name like that, you are destined for other things.

1962 Topps Dick Hall

Although I wasn't alive to see or hear about Dick Hall, the numbers don't lie. Over 16 seasons Hall earned himself a respectable .554 winning percentage, and a 3.34 ERA mostly as a reliever/occasional starter. It's the contributions of guys like Dick here that go largely unnoticed over the course of a season, but have a huge impact on it's outcome. Underrated? Perhaps. Under-appreciated? Most definitely.

1958 Topps Joe Ginsberg

Judging by his career numbers, Joe spent all but 2 of his seasons as a back-up catcher. He hung around the majors for 13 seasons, but only played in 695 games. Ginsberg also qualifies as a bit of a journeyman, having spent time with 7 teams over his 13 seasons. He came to Baltimore in '56 via a trade with the Kansas City Athletics, who had in turn acquired him from Cleveland a season earlier.

1958 Topps Al Pilarcik

Pilarcik is yet another early Oriole with a less than remarkable career. He played 6 seasons, 5 with Baltimore after debuting with the Kansas City Athletics in 1956. If I had to guess by just looking at stats, I'd say his best season had to have been 1959, in which he played in 130 games, and hit .282. The '59 Topps Pilarcik was one of the first cards I came to possess in my quest for the '59 O's team set.

1958 Topps Hal Brown

Another journeyman pitcher, only this time a guy who was mainly used as a starter. Over 14 seasons and 4 teams Brown moved on with a career record of 85-92 over 211 career starts.

1958 Topps Gus Triandos

Triandos was a solid catcher for a number of seasons in the mid-late fifties, and would have an All-Star season the year this card was printed. Gus was originally signed by, and made his debut with the Yankees, which is something I didn't know until looking him up on Baseball Reference to write this post. I almost feel bad for the guy now, knowing he had to play on some pretty miserable Oriole teams in the fifties.

Thanks for the old-school O's Chris. I had a lot of fun looking at these cards, and even more fun looking up some of these players on Baseball Reference. You've gotten me off to a pretty good start on both the '58 and '62 Orioles team sets, and I will definitely be putting together a vintage want list in the near future. Scratch that, future. "Near" implies that I plan on not being lazy in the immediate interval following my typing of this post, and that is already highly improbable.

Thank You Topps!

I'm going to warn you that this post contains extremely positive commentary on the only company currently licensed to produce MLB trading cards in 2010.

I'm sure we all remember the unfortunate announcement made a few weeks ago that Topps was not going to be producing the 2009 Allen & Ginter's Cat Osterman relic or autographed cards. Well, a lot of people were upset by the fact that Topps, instead of telling people in advance, and working on individual solutions that would keep collectors happy, instead sent out random cards they claimed to be of equal book value. I held an autogrpah redemption, and out of the blue received a Greg Louganis autograph, which while quite nice looking, was not a card I wanted, and certainly was not one that I had asked for, nor was it worth what the Osterman redemptions had been selling for on eBay, prior to the news that it would not be produced.

Well, I fired off an angry email to Topps about it, and heard back the next day. In my first email I may have been a bit to upset, and actually went as far as to call Topps liars, for promising me a Cat Osterman card, and sending something else entirely, without warning. I emailed back and forth a few times with their VP of customer service, and with a much cooler head was able to explain my frustration in a way that Topps must have been able to relate to. They had asked me if they could send me something that perhaps might make me feel better about the whole thing. I replied that they could send me whatever they'd like, as long as it came with an acknowledgment that they understand how they handle certain redemptions is unfair to their loyal customers.

I was absolutely blown away with what arrived at my door yesterday, and must admit that Topps went above and beyond here to satisfy a customer and a collector. I want to say thank you to Topps for not only sending me some incredible cards, way more than I would have ever asked for, but also for hearing me out, and taking the time to explain their side of the story. At the end of the day, it's nice to know they care enough to do something about it.


Here's what they sent:

A nice start.

Getting warmer. This one has a nice patch, and is the only '09 Triple Threads card currently in my collection.

I'm not a basketball collector, but thought these cards always looked cool. Now I have one, and they are cool, but would be much cooler with a hard signed autograph. Any Maggette fans out there who need this card?

Oh my! A real 1959 Topps card with a real autograph signed directly on the card. Now we're talking! Oh, did I mention it's also of a Hall of Famer? Did I mention this is also my favorite set of all time? Did I mention he was also an Oriole? This is one of those cards that would look like a fake on eBay. If it didn't come directly from Topps, I'd think this one was fake too.

Ummm... HOLY MARY MOTHER OF MATT WIETERS!! Another Hall of Famer autograph on a real vintage card, only this time numbered out of 10! Topps, you are too kind!

Yeah, the Brock totally made my jaw drop to the floor when I flipped it over. Once again, thanks to the Topps Company for hearing me out, and doing what they felt was right to satisfy a consumer. I never asked for anything, so to receive a package as awesome as this in the mail was quite a surprise.

2 More Trades

I've got a bunch of stuff to post about this week. I went to Gettysburg yesterday and picked up some interesting cards, along with a random grab bag o' fun. There's a few trades in the works that should be arriving this week, a box break on Weds or Thurs, and I want to do one of those 6 in 30 things too.

I'm going to start by getting last week's trades out of the way. Some great cards came my way, one package is from an old trading buddy, Mojo Hand, and the other is from first time trade buddy Jim, from the Phillies Room.

We'll start with the cards I received from Mojo Hand. He is one of my favorite people to trade with because he always has cards that I want, and isn't shy about offering them up if he sees something he likes. We're working on a monster trade that should be completed this week (at least on his end, but more on that later). I sent Mojo a WBC gold refractor, and some shiny A's prospects. He sent me the following:

2009 Upper Deck Piece of History Brian Roberts blue parallel

2008 Topps CoSigners Nickk Markakis red parallel

2008 Upper Deck Legendary Cuts Cal Ripken/Nick Markakis dual jersey

2 sweet Markakii, one featuring a Cal Ripken jersey bit, and a nice Roberts parallel. Great trade all around, thanks again Mojo. There was one more card included in this package, but it was a prize for winning a trivia contest Mr. Hand held last week. It's very shiny.

2003 Topps Tribute Nolan Ryan game jersey

Once again, thanks Mojo. This is an awfully nice card to just give away, and I'm glad I was able to win it.

Next up we have Jim from the Phillies Room. He emailed me about having one of the Creatures cards off of my want list. I sent him a Ryan Howard refractor, and a couple of other numbered Phillies, and he sent me the following:

2009 Allen & Ginter Creatures of Myth, Legend & Terror Kraken mini

2009 Allen & Ginter Adam Jones mini

2001 Fleer Greats of the Game Cal Ripken

1971 Topps Don Buford

1985 Donruss Larry Sheets

2001 Topps Archives 1970 Boog Powell

2001 Topps Archives 1977 Mike Cuellar

2005 Donruss Studio Brian Roberts Diamond Cuts

Jim, thanks a lot for the great cards, and for getting me one card closer to completing the Creatures of Myth, Legend & Terror mini set.

2006 Topps '52 Rookie Edition Pack Break

This is another one of those random hobby packs I grabbed at the card shop last Friday, and another one that was loaded with goodies. I picked up 2 packs of of this stuff, and here is the better of the 2. Pretty much every pack I picked up that day had a hit in it, with the exception of the second pack of '52 Rookie Edition, and the one pack of '09 Legendary Cuts that I snagged.

I'm also going to be posting this over at A Pack to be Named Later. This is the last time I'm going to tell you to check out that fine site. Bookmark it if you have to, add it to your blogroll. Do whatever you have to do, just make sure to check it out.

#224 Jose Capellan. Known on wikipedia as the "right-handed Jose Capellan".

#162 Jason Windsor. Former 3rd round draft pick who made his Major League debut pitching against the Orioles. Wonder if he won? For some reason the Orioles struggle against Minor League pitching.

#525-TJB T.J. Bohn autograph. Woo-hoo! An auto of a current free agent! He was also a 30th round draft pick!

#DF-20 Ivan Rodriquez. Guess these are rookie reprints on the '52 design. This is the second one of these I've pulled, the other is Jorge Posada. Both catchers... weird.

#190 Cory Morris. Never heard of this guy, and he's an Oriole. Kevin has some info about him though, and it explains why I've never heard of him.

#311 Mickey Mantle SP blue variation. At first I was all like "oh great, another Mickey Mantle card". Then I did a little research. This is the most valuable (haha) of the 5 Mantle short prints in this set. The others are basically the same, but with different colored backgrounds. Really, I just wish this were a real '52 Mantle.

#124 Joey Devine. I initially drafted this guy on my fantasy team. He was a late round pick, and I was hoping to get some saves and K's out of him. Too bad he's out for the season.

#217 Jonathan Broxton. Night Owl, I'm putting this in your pile.

So yeah, good pack, with the auto and Mantle SP. If anyone sees anything they need or like, all cards are for trade.

Cards from Night Owl

So I'm still alive, and feeling a bit better. The other day I mentioned a bubble mailer stuffed with cards from a fellow blogger, and now you know that blogger is Night Owl. A few months ago I just happened to pull a Matt Kemp auto from a box of Allen & Ginter. Night Owl and I had already made one small trade, so I figured I'd drop him a line and see if he was interested. Boy was he ever, and in return I've gotten a lot of sweet Orioles cards. This is actually the second batch Greg has sent me.

I've chosen some of my favorites to show off, so sit back, relax, and let your mind go as I take you on a journey through The Land of Pleasant Living.


1992 Baseball Enquirer Fun Stuff. It's pretty obvious this is supposed to be an homage to Billy Ripken and his famous 1989 Fleer card. The original might possibly be the hobby's first "gimmick" card, and will be featured in a future Wish List Cards post, since I've wanted one for about 18 years now. Poor Billy is still living in his brother's shadow, and these days he's the "brains" behind Ripken Baseball, while Cal is the face of the organization.



1979 Topps Rick Dempsey. One of the sweetest moustaches in O's history, and a fine catcher to boot. These days Dempster is an analyst, and co-hosts the Orioles pre & post game shows on MASN. His nephew, Gregg Zaun is serving as the Orioles placeholder at catcher until #1 prospect Matt Wieters finally gets his call-up.



1997 Pinnacle Rafael Palmeiro. Speaking of sweet moustaches... I was so naive in my youth I actual thought Raffy was Italian, like me. I mean he's named after a ninja turtle, who were named after Italian Renaissance artists for god's sake! And Palmeiro, well that sounds pretty close to Palermo, right? Not only is Raffy not an Italian, he's a juicer and a cheater to boot! What a shame really, he was pretty easy to like in his heyday.



1974 Topps Rich Coggins. I have never heard of Rich Coggins. I chose this card to be featured for 2 reasons, #1 that is an awesome O's hat. I really wish they'd stuck with the "cartoon bird". The second reason is teh bat he is holding! It looks like it's from 1874 not 1974. Did players really still use bats with no knob on the bottom in the 70's? Maybe it was Coggin's trademark? He did hit .319 in '73, so the bat must have been working out for him.



Next up we have 2 cards from 1983 Fleer. This was a championship season for the Orioles, and thanks to Night Owl I now have 19 of the O's from this set. I'll definitely turn some attention towards finishing this team set in the future. Anyway, first up we have Terry Crowley who has made quite a life for himself in Baltimore, serving as the Orioles hitting coach, and doing so with great success. What he has managed to do with Markakis and Jones is nothing short of incredible. Jones would swing at anything a season ago, but has shown much more discipline this season, and an average over .300 to show for it. We've also got Al Bumbry up there, and this is the only card of the Bumbry-bee on my collection. It's always cool to have a card of a former rookie of the year, and Bumbry took home that honor in 1973. According to wikipedia, he is also one of only 3 batters that Goose Gossage had admitted to intentionally beaning.



1993 Upper Deck Harold Reynolds. I always forget that Reynolds was an Oriole, and that's probably because it as only for a season. This has to be one of my favorite Upper Deck releases of all time, and was one of the last sets I collected as a kid. Reynolds is a fine analyst (arguably), and after being mysteriously jettisoned from ESPN found himself a gig on the MLB Network. I'm glad for that, cause I like Harold and think he has a good voice.



1990 Fleer Jim Traber. I've probably got as many of Big Jim's cards as I do Adam Jones'. He seems to be in every repack box I open, and included in every lot of random cards I receive in trade. He's probably most popular for pulling a "Mr. Baseball" in Japan, and charging the mound twice in one game. The second time, he fell down on his way to the pitcher, and was kicked in the face. If you haven't seen it, I guarantee it's on youtube.



2007 Topps Chrome Xfractor John Knott. This guy looked to be a top prospect for the Orioles at one point. Now he's a free agent, and out of a job. But hey, this card is shiny and refractory, so I can't complain.



2001 Pacific Christmas Ornament Cal Ripken. This might have been my favorite card Night Owl sent over. I've seen these things featured on several blogs in the past year or 2, and always wanted to own one. I can't think of a better one for my collection than the Iron Man himself. It's still weird for me to look at one of Cal's cards and see 3B listed as his position.



These are 4 Markakii that are new to me. I was pretty psyched to get these, and enjoy seeing my player collection grow. I'll keep the blurb short on these, since I kill my readers with Markakis on a daily basis. and will probably do so again later today.



We'll end things with some more '83 Orioles Magic. This package of cards was pretty '83 themed, and this could be the best of the bunch. I really don't like manu-patches, especially these stupid ones from 2009 Topps, but it's a freakin World Series patch!

Night Owl, thanks a lot for these cards, and the rest that didn't make this post. As always, it's been a pleasure doing business with you.

Motherscratcher happens to have a box of 2006 Turkey Red that is ready to be busted. He has suggested that we do some sort of Zoolander-esque pack rip-off to see who's box reigns supreme. Now, I am a man of the people, and will purchase whichever box gets the most votes, however, this "rip-off" would be entertaining, and if you want to see it, I recommend voting for Turkey Red in the poll. I know Motherscratcher can't turn left, so this one's already in the bag.

More Vintage O's

"The Song Remains The Same" is on VH1 Classic right now, and for those of you that haven't seen it, it's worth checking out if you're a Zeppelin fan. Hell, even if you're not, it's worth checking out for John Bonham's crazy drum skills, and Jimmy Page's matador shirt.

Some more of those '56 Orioles arrived in the mail today. This batch has sharp corners, and no pencil writing on them. If you were paying attention last time, you'll see that I have some doubles, but that's what happens when you get cards in lot format. I'm now up to 13 from the 1956 Topps set! Who knows if I'll ever finish, but I'm at least off to a solid start.

Here they are! Click on the scan for a closer look.




Oh yeah, there's also a new poll question on the top right. I want to do another box break, since they're always fun. It might not be for a couple weeks, since I sort of blew my wad on eBay this pay period, but please feel free to vote. If you there's a better box out there in the $50-$80 range, drop me a comment about it.