... it's much smaller. That's the situation I found myself in this morning, when I had a pleasant dream of pawing my way through somewhere between 1,200 and 1,400 cards priced at 89¢, or maybe 83¢, perhaps depending on the Good Vibes I could radiate while visiting my wonderful Friendly Local Card Shop.
Alas, pawing my way through scores upon scores of Chrome Mojo Bowman cards of players who might as well just be random AI mockups since most of them will never reach the Majors and become known to Humanity, well, that is a little time-consuming. Particularly when one makes it past all that Bowman nonsense (every pose the same because photo-shopping the MLB uniform on would be too challenging with unique photographs) - only to realize I had already pawed my way through this particular 91¢ box a few weeks back, because there ain't no 84¢ box like an 87¢ box loaded with seemingly every Ken Griffey card ever made, except of course for all the expensive ones.
So that was a little deflating, with a clock ticking.
Fortunately I remembered another box on the ever-growing shelves of wonder down at the LCS - a simple '2 row' box of "Vintage, Priced as Marked." That would be far quicker to search, and just possibly more fun, too. Let's see what happened...
I won't be labeling these sets. If you don't know them, you may have stumbled onto the wrong blog, even though I rarely post "Vintage," which is because I can very rarely purchase it, in-hand, like I could today. Such a delight.
Aurelio Rodriguez is 100% for sure my favorite 1970s Detroit Tiger. Mark Fydrich was cool and all, and listening to Al Kaline call games on the TV not long after his retirement was pretty sweet too. Ron LeFlore's life story is endearing, and then those 1978 Rookies all came up together and we know how that turned out...
But none of those will ever knock Aurelio off my pedestal. When I found this classic 70s card shot at Yankee Stadium it went in the Buy pile instantly, dinged corners and just exactly perfect 1970s centering and all. The back is perfectly readable, and that's a big part of what counts.
Aurelio is my favorite because when I was just a young lad, there was a trivia question on the Tigers ballgame every night, Ernie Harwell / radio edition. And somehow I knew an answer to a certain question was: "Aurelio Rodriguez." A result of Baseball Cards? Likely.
And even better, this first-time caller down to my local radio station (still humans working in them, way back then) was - the first caller! And I got the question right.
My prize was a pair of tickets to a game at far-away Tiger Stadium. This seemed of course monumental to us living in a small town in northern Michigan, but today I know the tickets probably weren't even $20 back then. My Dad heroically fathered-up and agreed to take me on the 5 hour journey to deepest Detroit, even though he never really cared for pro sports, at all.
When we had managed to find the big ole Stadium easily visible from the freeway even though the exits were confusing, managed the chaos of PARKING HERE, and made it inside, we discovered we were on the opposite side of the stadium from our ticketed seats, necessitating a long journey through the concourse.
Partway through, my Dad stopped and got my wide-eyed attention - here came a Detroit Tiger, in full uniform. For some reason a player had to traverse the concourse full of fans. As he approached, it proved to be: Aurelio Rodriguez! I was, and still am, in total awe of seeing a 100% live professional Major League Baseball Player, in full uniform, walking right past me just a few feet away.
The free seats proved to be not that great. Well underneath the upper deck, way out in the outfield, and with a post involved. Such was life in ancient Baseball stadiums.
The game itself, against the Chicago White Sox, was also anti-climactic for a First Time, Kid? It was a classic "Pitcher's Duel" with just one run scored. Although such games can be very interesting to serious Baseball fans, for a ten year old that could barely see the action, it was a little less than exciting.
But my main man, Aurelio, made several key plays at the Hot Corner along the way. And the one run? That was scored by the Detroit Tigers for a Victory - with the GWRBI knocked in by, of course, Aurelio Rodriguez.
Now that I am all grown up and I can deliberately collect Aurelio Rodriguez Baseball Cards pretty easily, well, it's time, which was marching on this morning -
Now this - is a celebration card.
All those "modern" cards with mounds of players waiting at Home Plate for the guy who just hit the Walk-Off can't hold a candle to this one.And the star isn't even the two 70s Superstars captured together, but rather Third Base Coach Alex Grammas running to Home in victorious ecstasy.
This however is a celebration that I should kinda frown on, as it knocked out my pre-Michigan 2nd favorite team, the Pirates, out of the playoffs. But that's something I wouldn't be aware of until a couple years later and was just too young for this one.
I also quite like the caption: "Foster's Run Decides It." We only occasionally see Playoffs cards any more in the Topps Baseball set but on "modern" versions the back of the card would pointlessly have the "line score" showing how many Runs each team scored in each inning, as a sum total of statistical information, capped off with a sentence that would say something like "George Foster's key hit in the bottom of the 9th produced a win in Game 5 for Cincinnati" even though we already knew that from the front. And all that would be surrounded by a bunch of useless white space.
This card presumes that all the Baseball Card collectors knew perfectly well what happened in the dramatic 1972 NLCS and didn't need to say anything more than the simple 4 word declarative on the front. Leaving the back to be filled with the 1972 NLCS stats for the Reds, both Hitting and Pitching. And that's how Baseball Cards commemorating a playoff series are supposed to work.
This card has a somewhat better back - the game's Box Score, though without revealing the Pitcher's key details, nor who had the RBIs, but oddly including the fielders' Put-Outs, Attempts, and Errors.
Anyhow we all see infinite amounts of Pitchers Pitching cards these days. But back in 1974, they were still just occasional highlights on the checklist, making them more dramatic. To pull an "In Action" type card from a World Series game was the most dramatic of all.
I particularly like a Pitcher Pitching card that shows the complete Pitcher, and one at this point in the delivery supplies its own visual momentum so much better than a cropped torso does.
I was of course in awe of the Oakland A's as my Baseball awareness began, so I had to have this for many reasons, that being just one. I always collect "World Series" cards whenever I can, though without shopping my way into a whole pile/binder of them, but rather just casually. Looks like I will have to get in gear on finishing off a set of 1974 postseason cards (have a few already) sooner, rather than later.
Another very casual collection is of Topps Rookie Cup cards. I would thoroughly enjoy owning a set of them all the way through the very long run of this concept, but doubt I will ever manage that, from the 20th Century at least. 2011 on is looking pretty good for this, though Topps semi-routinely boofs the requirements of their own endearing subset, which always cools my enthusiasm for these somewhat when it happens every 3rd or 4th year any more.
I am also currently quite rueing a decision to try for completing a collection of these from 2013 Heritage, started innocently enough by just putting the Cup cards on a binder page when I found one. Little did I know that the Mike Trout and Bryce Harper cards in that set were each part of the infernal Short Prints that year. Oh how I hate the product I should love the most.
But when I was a kid I thought these were great. How else were we supposed to know which of the Rookies on those few 4-way Rookie Cards back then turned out to be any good? The Cup appearing on their card the next year, that's how.
So this morning I had a comforting realization. I may not ever have the time, money, and Baseball Card prioritizing in place to make one of those full runs of Topps Rookie Cup cards, which certainly must exist. But what I can do instead, is collect one such card from all the pre-2011 sets I am not completing, which is the vast majority of them.
now I've got 66 covered, too
Do I deliberately collect Pete Rose cards? No, not really. They do sometimes appear in my hands however, usually from repacks. And, I have several saved from my youth in my "Players" box also, on the way to 9 nifty ones, eventually. He may have been a flawed Human Being, but man, that guy could Baseball.
That someday future page of Pete Rose cards isn't why I bought this one however. Amidst card after card of posed Spring Training and Yankee Stadium sideline shots, this must have been an eye popper, in the wax. As I gazed upon it, I had to wonder - is this the first "Bunt Card" ever made? Seems possible. Some day I will scroll through 71-74 Topps and find out.
I do however deliberately collect Tommy John cards, so this was a nice +1 to that still barely-off-the-ground effort. A 71 Topps fits any Player Collection perfectly, for one, and that was of course the year Action! finally appeared on the Baseball Cards, though in still very limited amounts of course.
Upon further review (well after purchase) I am quite pleased to see that he signed his name as "Thomas John" here, although his actually autographed cards produced well after his career read 'Tommy John' on them I believe.
Now this - is one of my All-Time Favorite Baseball Cards.
Though not the GOAT, mentioned because every Internet discussion must end in a declaration of GOAT-ness, by someone.
I love this card so much I own a "Topps Wall Art" version though I have been unable to frame and display it yet, in the 'man-cave'. My Man Cave is a crew-cab Pickup Truck, which is a terrible place for Baseball Cards.
And I own that piece of Art even though I am not a Dodgers fan, although they were protagonists on my first ever cards from the World Series, man, back in 1975. Those cards were incredible, to me. And of course their cards always had stars all over them, like the Reds cards, due to all the All-Stars they always had on their team, so you couldn't just put them in the bicycle spokes like you could with Bucky Dent cards. And I'm also not a fan of Steve Garvey, at all.
But this card is positively haunting; I've written about all this before, but hey. It looks a heck of a lot like Steve just Struck Out. In front of thousands and thousands of people, possibly millions more on live Television. Pretty heavy thing to play a sport with all those people watching. The blurred crowd just adds to the pathos, just exactly perfectly.
And it is the game of "base" and "ball," neither which of appear on the card. But you can't play Baseball without The Bat. Another eerie component of this card, given its prominence.
Sometimes, heck, 7 out of 10 times for the best players ever, The Bat doesn't get it done, and you shrink a little, and get stuck looking at the ground for a moment, while all those other human beings look directly at: You.
So although I already own this card, I figure a slightly worn, diamond-cut version will look just fine while a couple thumb-tacks can't really hurt it when I stick it up on a wall in an RV or something, someday. No way I could let it just sit there in the Vintage Box, priced as marked. Three bucks, in this case. Worth every penny at three times the price.
Now this one, just doesn't fit really fit in any of my collections at all, for the most part. I have zero personal connection to the Mets and have not a lot of interest in 66 Topps either. The only names I could recognize on the back were "McGraw" and "Spahn" - what? Really?
I do have an ever growing affinity for horizontal cards at least. But full floating team cards don't really appeal to me, either. I am seriously considering starting to collect all the horizontal cards from the glorious 71 Munson onwards - what fun that would be - and know full well that 55, 56, and 60 sets will never fit my financial abilities, in completion.
So why this card? I doubt I will ever see another Baseball Card that points out "10th Place" right on the front of the card. How would you like another reminder of -that- the next year when you opened a pack of cards?
Where will I put this card? I have no idea. Will it make me figure out who finished in 10th place in the A.L. in 1965? Oh, dear.
A big reason pawing through a box of 1,000+ Baseball Cards is a little slow for me is because I don't do it by looking for just certain last names, or a certain team. (The Tigers have their own big ole box at my LCS, anyway). So I can't just skip names really fast like many people would approach boxes of singles.
Even though I generally find 69 Topps on the uninteresting side, this card has a bunch of great elements, starting of course with other Baseball people (Manager?), Yankee Stadium (most likely; the Angels didn't play at Shea) again. and a not-common-at-all frontal view of the batting helmet, an unusual card element that has been popping into my 87¢ and 43¢ box scores, too, lately. The original California Angels logo is not particularly common on cards. This 1969 Topps Baseball Card absolutely destroys most of 2018 Topps Heritage.
All of those deets might have rescued this card from the Vintage, Priced As Marked box, anyway. But what really moved this one over to the little Buy pile was that ... undershirt? A future What IS That? post is very, very slowly being constructed. Was it a wind-breaker? Did anyone besides Baseball players wear these .... What IS That?, anyway?
But now, we have arrived at the station, alas. Family, is more important than Baseball Cards and my time at the LCS couldn't be stretched today. But not before one final SCORE!
I may not ever be able to hit a Grand Slam with 56 Topps.
But I can poke out some singles, sometimes.
Happy 250th!
