Today is St. Paddy’s day, but really…it’s the birthdate of the greatest Quarterback of all-time.
Samuel ‘Slingin Sammy’ Adrian Baugh.
Well, the greatest quarterback if you ask a Washington Redskins fan. Another notable note is that Sammy Baugh was born in Temple, Texas, just a mere 145 miles from my hometown of San Antonio…so, yeah. Why not, let’s go.
Slingin’ Sammy was beyond impressive on the gridiron. He led the way in transforming the game of football from a bruising sport led by fullbacks pounding the pig skin to downfield aerial attacks with wideouts. The game went from three yards and a cloud of dust to the greatest show on turf, mainly due in part to Sammy. His ability to re-imagine the forward pass as a means of attacking made the game exciting, action packed and brought greater scoring to the game, well…quicker scoring. Other QB’s did it at this time, but no one did it quite like Sammy. Sammy was the best.
Beyond being a tremendous quarterback, Sammy was also an accomplished defensive back and quite possibly, his most impressive feat (bad pun…sorry) of being a tremendous punter. Leading the league in all three positions during the 1943 season. That year he was the leader in pass completions, punting yard average (46) and interceptions (11). Who the hell does THAT!!??! Sammy was truly a three way player, offense, defense, special teams. Whatever he did, he did it well, well…he achieved greatness in the game that has been unmatched. Not too many guys in the history of the game have managed to excel on opposing sides of the ball, but Sammy did. Sammy was the best.
Baugh came to the Boston Redskins via the ’37 draft from Texas Christian University where he excelled at football and baseball. (Something, I never knew before was that he got the nickname ‘Slingin’ while playing baseball and not lighting up the Giants and Eagles on Sunday afternoons.) He was the 6th pick overall that draft, an epic slide for such a phenomenal talent. He fell behind Sam Francis, Ed Goddard, Buzz Buivid, Ed Widseth and Mike Basrak. Now, I have no idea where Mel Kiper had him going, but I gotta think his draft slide was kind of a shock for everyone. He didn’t have that Aaron Rodgers kind of slide, but for five other teams to pass on a franchise quarterback must’ve caused a huge stir at the time. To that, I say the Redskins franchise were incredibly lucky that day, because…Sammy was the best.
During his 16 year career (1937-1952) he led the franchise to four football championships winning two of them in 1937 and 1942, both against George Halas’ Chicago Bears. He was also a seven time all-pro and two-time player of the year, in back to back seasons of 1947 and 1948…essentially consecutive MVP’s. Pretty impressive, again…Sammy was the best.
The greatness of Slingin Sammy can’t be stated in this blog, but hey, I’ve got some sweet cards to show off and it’s his birthday. So hope you enjoyed the brief bio and remember…Sammy was the best.
Thank you for reading and sticking with me, deadlines and life get in the way but man I love this blog. Mostly for personal reasons, but l love to share as well. Hope you all enjoy reading.
Let’s go, one more for the road…Slingin’ Sammy Baugh ya’ll!
-Cardboard Hogs
You know who is also the best? Jay-Z. Maybe not to the level of Sammy’s greatness, but excellent in his own right. So, here’s a video of Jay-Z…wearing a Sammy Baugh jersey…because Sammy was the best.
Man. Deadlines and real-life work can be a huge time suck…all that work just to pay some bills and a mortgage. My apologies for being less available on the blog here. I was really hoping to be more inclined to write daily…well, not daily but at the very least weekly, and that hasn’t happened. But, hey I’m here and spring training baseball games start on Sunday. It’s a great time to be alive! (despite the title of this post).
I’ve mentioned many times that I deal with stress in a very specific way and that way is to sort cards…who woulda guessed that having read my blog over the years. With that in mind, when I have moments to myself and can duck down to the basement, I sort…crush, kill, destroy, stress…or more appropriately…sort, organize, sleeve, file…maybe that’s a better title. Less depressing.
How do I sort and collate you ask, well let me tell ya!
PREFACE:
For me, organization is critical but consistency is vital. I like to begin with a general idea or template for what the overall collection would look like together then move forward with a plan that hopefully satisfies all the known requirements. That involves lots of deep thinking whilst drinking bourbon. The ideas flow way better with brown water, you know.
For this blog post, I’ll be focusing on stars and Hall of Fame players for baseball. I’ve done the same for football and basketball players as well as team sorting. Those may come at a later date if there’s more interest in how I do what I do.
STEP 1: Materials
I’ve decided that space between my cards is important. I like to give the rows some room to breathe and grow as my collection grows. Having room also allows to be able to grab the cards as I need and look through them without having to pry them out with a shoe horn. The best material I’ve utilized for this is foam core, white in this case. Now, foam core isn’t really great for the environment long term, I know. Living in Portland, I’m constantly reminded of the horrible things I learned growing up in Texas, but at least I’m aware and try my best. I do lay the boards out in a way that utilizes the whole sheet as efficiently as possible. Whenever I have scraps I always find uses for them and am able to make something from them rather than tossing them in the trash can.
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I typically buy 30” x 42” x 1/8” sheets and start marking them up with guidelines spaced out to 2 3/4″ along the 30” side (14 columns) and 3 3/4″ along 40” side (8 rows). That gives me 112 pieces with some scraps that work well for shipping or spacing out other projects you may have.
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***If you’re unaware of foam core, don’t want to be presumptuous, It’s easy to find at any art shop as well as most grocery stores. Everything I purchase is from Blick Art Supplies here in Portland (they’re a national chain so find your Blick!)***
STEP 2: Labels
The next step is the label creation. For this process, I use Adobe InDesign and have created a layout that lets me type in a name easily and move on to the next one. This does take some time the way I have it set up, but I like it and it works. Plus, I don’t really update this very much after the initial setup. I had actually created these labels prior to purchasing a printer and did them on 100lb white card stock. I wanted something a tad more rigid that would be great long term. In hindsight, I don’t think this was necessary and regular paper works fine…plus it’s easier to cut.
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Next step was to, very lightly score the top and bottom line above the name. This part is going to be folded over the labels, so the scoring makes it easier to get a nice bend…told you, I was particular about these things. Next I cut the columns out, then cut the rows out of each column. That worked best for me…this part does take some time and patience. Music or a great podcast helps make it move forward quickly…so, definitely do that…also, bourbon. Four Roses works best with Queens of the Stone Age.
STEP 3: Adhesion
Third step is the attachment process of the labels to the foam core. I used white masking tape for this. You can find this fairly inexpensively at just about any store that has a hardware department or an art store. Mine came from Blick. I set up strips of the tape on a cutting mat, following the lines for a nice alignment then cut off the jagged ends. Next I cut the tape to a length that would be able to wrap around the foam core one complete pass, 6” seem to be a perfect length.
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After the tape has been cut and the labels are stacked and ready to. Start taping amigo! Make sure you get the tape tightly wrapped around the four sides and that it hangs down enough so you don’t see the tape. My goal as to not have any visible tape when I look through the cards. The very tiny amount of thickness on the tape also provides a bit of space for each card as well.
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Then voila! You have a Cardboard Hog label! And it only took 4 weeks! Just kidding…this is a great Sunday afternoon task if you’re so inclined.
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APPENDIX: Sorting
Now that you’ve got the labels ready to go, it’s time to get your cards sleeved and in the boxes. I like to use the 5000 count boxes for this activity since it holds the most amount of cards. It does tend to get a little heavy, but also requires fewer boxes…so, just weigh what you want and need.
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Hopefully everyone is doing this, but I just want to remind you that your cards should all be in penny sleeves…that is if you care about them. Especially mid-90’s cards. I’ve lost so many great cards as they’ve turned into bricks. Leaving me with spotted hall of famers and snowy, beautiful cards like this gem. Penny sleeves are cheap…like, a penny…or less if you buy in bulk. Don’t be cheap. Protect your cards!
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NOTES: Revisiting
I like to revisit these boxes every few months just to get an idea of what I have and to add new items. It’s an awesome way to work through your collection and reflect on all the time and money you’ve spend collecting pictures of young men that do sports better than your or i.
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It’s also just a great trip down memory lane. These boxes contain cards from my childhood. I’ve had most of them since they came out and when I started collecting back in ’85. That time to sit back and reflect on those simpler times helps me put things back into focus. I tend to get caught up in the worst of the worst of a moment. It’s easy and I’m sure most of us do it. Taking a step back and realizing that all things pass and life keeps moving forward is important and something we should all be doing periodically, no matter your medium. Take the time to tell the people around you how much they mean to you and never be too proud to apologize for things you’ve done and are not proud of. Life is precious and can be great. Taking the time to enjoy small bites of how you got to where you are today are important. Even if it means you painstakingly create a label system that can be solved with an off the shelf solution for a quarter the price and time.
Thank you for reading and hope you have a wonderful day!
-Cardboard Hogs
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One of my all-time favorite MC’s is Pharoahe Monch. I’m sure I’ve mentioned that a few times on here, but it needs to be restated over and over. He’s phenomenal. I first heard him in the group Organized Konfusion. Their first album was excellent and I highly recommend you listen to it, but for me? The second album was beyond amazing STRESS: The Extinction Agenda. Here’s the video.
Yesterday was another Super Bowl that didn’t include my Washington Football Team. At times I feel like it will never happen and I should just give up, but then I think to myself…when it does happen (and it will…at some point…it’s inevitable) it will be the greatest thing ever. That’s assuming they win, of course, and not just make it to the Super Bowl.
I know a lot of people really HATE Tom Brady, and I can generally understand it. I just don’t really get why people hate on greatness so much. The guy has been to 10…TEN…Super Bowls in his 21 year career and won 7…SEVEN of them. Just insane. Hate all you want, but that’s Greatest of All-Time material.
Anyways.
When I rebooted the blog, my goal was to make it something more than a “look what I got today” blog. I wanted to be able to find a twist or some other way to make this medium more entertaining or readable…but alas. Work and life. Life is work these days and will be for the next few weeks. So, I’d like to apologize in advance for the dull posts. But, hey. Dull posts are better than no posts right?
One of my favorite guys at our monthly Portland shows wasn’t at the January show. Normally that’s a sign that the guy had decided to give up the hobby or just fuckin died. Well, neither of those were the case with Paul.
Thankfully.
I like Paul. He’s a fascinating guy. Every time I see him, he’s got some new kind of gadgety thing that you get from some mail order catalog. It’s like an Inspector Gadget of card collection. Lots of times he’s there with his kid who seems to be in on the family business. What Paul deals in isn’t your ordinary kinda cards. He’s a parallel man. You know the kind; variations, colors, dots, lasers, patriotic colors, refractors, glossies, not so glossies and super slick glossies. He’s a veritable one stop shop to get your parallel fix. Parallel Paul.
That day, I was planning to spend cash at three tables. Bill, Terry and Paul. Here’s the Paul portion of the morning.
As I mentioned, Paul goes for the gusto on the parallels and all modern stuff. I like going through his stuff because I can pick up Washington guys on the cheap. The majority of his cards are $1. He’s basically charging you for his cost of retail unless there is something really dynamite about the disco parallel you’re picking up. But he’s got ‘em all. Here’s a nice blend of Randy Moss’ kid, Thaddeus Moss.
Ya’ll remember when we used to make fun of blasters and show of a stack of cards for $20? We’d go “…for the cost of a blaster, I got…” Well this stack of cards (minus the baseball and relics) cost a tick under that price point. The sad truth though, if you can find a blaster in the wild it would cost you $20…but you ain’t finding no blasters in the wild. They’re gonna cost you at least $75 for a box of Prizm.
I’ve watched a lot of folks rip those Prizm boxes and to be honest, if I paid more than $20 for them I’d be really really really upset. The hits are rare and the ones you get aren’t that amazing. I like to stand on the sidelines and wait for disgruntled box break investor flipper guy run through a bunch of Washington guys, toss ‘em to the side so I can grab them for a buck.
Like this group of disco sparkles
Prizm does a nice job of the parallels and including a wide variety of great guys from the past. I was able to pick up the Theismann from Paul today, which i hadn’t added to my collection yet. This one is green…i think…
Also picked up some laser show zippity zappity zoom prizms…stupid dad jokes man…
I was able to chat with Paul a bit. Again, super friendly guy and incredibly helpful. I overheard him saying most of what he rips is retail…or something like that. Maybe there was some percentage I missed in the conversation. The point is, he’s got the small sales from small investments dialed in quite well. I doubt he makes a killing each show, but can imagine he’s doing far better than recouping his table and boxes cost. Nice little income for him.
Along with the parallels paul sells, paul puts pride in presenting player worn garments…i really tried to keep that alliteration going.
There were also a few baseball cards ready to be sorted through. I took a quick pass and found a few gems, these were not included in the “…cost of a blaster…” portion of the story, they were a little more than that, but part of the PC. So, felt compelled to grab them.
Honestly, at this point i’m picking up each and every single Rickey Henderson card I can find these days. I’m never certain if he’s incredibly popular or unpopular, but the cards of his that i don’t already have are hard to find.
As always, thank you for reading and extra special thanks to those that comment to let me know your reading. I really do appreciate it. The last few weeks of work have been rough and i don’t see them getting any easier. I’m very happy that i am fully employed, but sometimes…it’s just more difficult to get motivated to something that doesn’t quite interest you.
Thank you,
Cardboard Hogs
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This video is a few years old, but really cool. Made with 100% Solar Power…take a look.
I hate it, but it’s a part of my brain that grabs a hold of me and won’t let go.
Do you remember that car commercial from 15 years ago or so, the one where the woman wanted a new car and it became an obsession for…a car was growing on her forehead. Every time she saw a car, the forehead protuberance enlarged to a point that she bought a damn car. Well, that’s how I felt about Project 2020, or more slickly branded as MMXX by The Topps Company, Inc.
Roman Numerals for the masses. Honestly, the Roman Numerals looked great for that mostly forgettable year.
So, the draw for me to this specific set was the infusion of sports and art via the medium of a baseball card…in a magnetic holder. I love all of those things and think they are fantastic. Those three things fill the parts of my life not given to family, work and rest.
When the news of the cards were released around this time last year (…I believe…) I was already on board and decided I was going to pursue this set until I realized the cost + the quantity of cards.
400 cards and $20 each is $8,000. That’s a couple cases of cards, well one case in today’s market…but you get the idea. So I changed my focus about 20 cards into the set. I decided I was only going to buy the PC guys that were released, along with Mike Trout…just because he’s Mike Trout. So, what that meant was that every release of:
Rickey Henderson
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Don Mattingly
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Derek Jeter
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Mike Trout
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I was in. I had to be in.
I have to admit, it was fun to see the cards roll out. Almost became a burden on some days. If 2020 was a regular year, I’m not sure I would have pursued these cards so diligently. Vacation would have gotten in the way. Deadlines would have distracted me and I would have missed a date or two. But I was home every day in front of my computer every day and the forehead swelling didn’t go away. In fact, it’s still there.
Now that the frenetic ebb and flow of the MMXX cards is in full ebb mode, you can get them pretty cheap on electronic Bay. Like $5 in some cases. So, I’m going to nickel and dime my way to a complete set, well five and ten my way to a complete set and infill with my Rickey’s, Donny’s, Jeet’s and Trout’s. Luckily (I’m sure there’s a better word than lucky…) I picked up the more valuable and popular guys from that set already, so I’m hoping I can work through this fairly efficiently. Also, hoping to make some trades with a few folks on twitter to get the ball rolling.
Here’s a couple newer ones I’ve made deals with to procure for the set:
Jackie Robinson
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Ted Williams
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Mark McGwire
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With all that in mind, I’ve started a new tab at the top of the page for the set. It’s up there, to the right…second row…on the end. Click it. I have a google doc of the cards that I’ve already purchased and the ones that I’ve picked up on eBay the last couple of weeks.
So, the big question…will I participate in P70?
Thanks for reading as always!
-Cardboard Hogs
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I don’t buy clothes often…but i got a new hoodie and i love it. I got it from the guy on the left. He’s Masta Ace. One of my favorite emcee’s of all-time. Next to him is Craig G, followed by Kool G. Rap and lastly, my favorite emcee of all-time, Big Daddy Kane. They were part of the Juice Crew back in the ’80’s and made a posse cut call ‘The Symphony’. In my mind, that’s the greatest posse cut of all-time and it ain’t even close. Here’s the hoodie along with my scruffy chin and the video.
History has always been something I was fond of, something that I actually did well in when I was in school. As I’ve gotten older though, my focus and ability to research has decreased significantly. Life gets in the way. Between work, tending to our eight year old, taking care of our two cats, a dog and of course, spending real quality time with the bride. I have to prioritize extracurricular hobbies and interests. That includes my interest in researching baseball history. Almost to the point where I’m just stuck attempting to remember what I watched when I was a teen and going from there. The attic has gotten a little dusty my friends. My memories have faded to questionable facts and made me hesitant to believe baseball truths that I once knew. It’s all diminished, really.
Every once in a while I’ll read a baseball book. I finished a couple over the summer and have plans of getting at least three – four more baseball focused books in before the end of the year. But plans are tenuous when you’re busy adulting in life. One thing I do find time for is a card shop visit every couple of weeks. I’m lucky to have two so close to me, Hoody’s and The Sports Room. They balance each other nicely. The Sports Room is the closest, oldest and the one I’ve gone to the most, but their selection is a little limited for the way I collect. Our other shop is Hoody’s. It’s the place I go to pick up items I won from their eBay shop. I do the in-store pickup to avoid shipping costs and it gives me a chance to see what they have new in store.
I stopped in a few months ago, around June or July…sometime over the summer to pick up a few Washington Football Team cards and noticed they restocked their junk wax shelves. The shelves are a great way to buy something to open with little guarantee and most importantly, little cost. You can get all of your junk wax box needs filled for Baseball, Football, Basketball and Hockey for an appropriate price…read, less than $30. When I stopped in there back over the summer they had about five boxes of the 1991 Conlon Collection cards. Each box was a mere $15. The cards aren’t noteworthy or overly exciting, but they do have a great place in baseball history…something that I love and enjoy. I’ve seen these cards over the years and thought they were decent and somewhat attractive. Simple and clean. Something that piqued my interest from time to time, but never thought about purchasing, that is…until that day. I had an itch to rip something and the price was right so I grabbed the box that was in the best shape, picked up a couple supplies and headed home. When i got home, i’m sure there was some shit going down in the house. So, the box was stored in the cabinet and forgotten about. Forgotten until i stumbled across an older Cardboard Connection article from 2014, by Ryan Cracknell.
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When you open a $15 box of cards, you certainly don’t expect much. I surely did not.
No hits.
No parallels.
No redemptions.
No frills.
Just 36 packs of 18 black and white cards.
That’s it.
And I loved it.
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My first impression of the cards was that they were far nicer than I had ever thought they would be. My second impression of the cads was why in the hell would they wrap them in cellophane without any way to rip the packs open. Seriously, what in the hell. I had to grab a pair of scissors to get into these cards. I’ve never used scissors to open a pack of cards ever…EVER! First world issues I guess.
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As I mentioned, the cards were no simple. No frills. That said, I thought the photography was phenomenal. I loved the portraits from the sets namesake Charles Martin Conlon. A skilled photographer from the first half of last century. The images capture the look and feel of the time along with some great history. Conlon’s collection was purchased by The Sporting News (1888-2012 as print) and therefore, the now defunct sports magazine (they gotta website though!) has its name associated with these cards.
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Here are a few of my favorite cards from the sets. I combined them into a couple different groups based on noticeable things to me. But maybe if you’ve worked on this set, you have some other favorites. Of course, i have to start with the Yankees and one of the most famous trips to the injured list, Wally Pipp and Lou Gehrig.
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George Herman “The Bambino” or “The Sultan of Swat” Ruth. One of the great things about these beautifully simple cards is their backs. They offer up a full career of your basic baseball stats, along with the basics of the guy and in some cases a great little story. Well, the Babe’s career was pretty illustrious, that they were only able to reference Roger’s summer of 61 homers in 1961 to surpass Ruth’s 34 year old record. When you start to review the stats on the back of these cards, you really get an idea of how dominant a player Babe was…albeit against white players only. If our country wasn’t so deeply rooted in racism, it would have been a wonderful thing to see what Babe could have done against Satch, Bullet Rogan or Ray Brown.
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The nicknames and this cards set willingness to embrace those nicknames is great. The thing i noticed right out the first pack though was the amount of players with Chief associated with their names. In two of the three cases below, the players were indeed Native Americans and i would only assume that the guys were ok with the nicknames, but who knows. The perception with a 2021 lens would never allow this to happen. Different times. Apparently, Chief Wilson was not a Native American…but some felt he resembled that of a Texas Ranger Chief and adorned him with the mildly inappropriate nickname. Can’t imagine that ever happening again.
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We also have a General that wasn’t quite a General. He was at least in America’s Army…so there was some kinda connection to the military based name.
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OK, I’m very familiar with Walter Johnson…Jimmy Austin, not so much. The thing that drew me to these two cards though was the similarity…at least to my minds eye…to Robin Williams. Maybe Williams from ‘The World According to Garp’ or ‘Mork & Mindy’ even…not so much the ‘Ms. Doubtfire’ days. But seriously, don’t these two photos look like Robin Williams…come on!!??!?!
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Lefty’s. Lot’s of Lefty’s. Grove’s, Gomez’s and a Stewart to name a few. I understand why a Lefty gets his nickname, but i wondered if a Righty has ever been called Righty? What about the new ambidextrous guys taking the mound these days…do they get a nickname?
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The next group of photos starts to get into the portraits that I loved with these cards. The eyes. The facial texture and our ability to get a sense of their emotions or concerns through the photographers lens was powerful to me. The Connie Mack cards really had me taking time to look at his portrait. You can see the age in his face, the stress. He’s a man that led one of the most dominant baseball franchises in history.
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One of the other spectacular things about these cards were the Great Stories portion of the set. Each card in this section has a paragraph or two from ‘The Glory of Their Times’. I’ve owned this book for a couple years now, but never got around to reading it. (adds to my Goodreads list…)
All Time Leader cards pick up near the end of the set along with some great descriptions about the players. I do appreciate that they didn’t highlight the number one guy, but rather the second or third one in some cases. Besides, who doesn’t want a Spud Davis card?
After seeing this card, i thought it would be great to do some kind of small set with players from different generations that had the same name. I would imagine Bill “Spaceman” Lee and this guy would have some opposing views of the world if they were able to discuss them.
The last couple of cards were my favorite from the set. Paul “Big Poison” Waner’s photo is just simply majestic. The baggy pants. The snarly look. The long knobless bat held at the waist line. Everything about this cards speaks to the great history of the game. Waner is one of those past time greats that get lost in the history of the game, but his tremendous career brought him to the Hall of Fame in 1952. The last card is one of my all-time heroes, Lou Gehrig. One of the books i read over the summer was the ‘The Lost Memoir’, which was a collection of stories that Lou has partially written for the Times when he was playing with the Yankees. Some of the stories were ghost written by a more formidable writer, but you get a great sense of the humility and self-lessness he had as a player and as a person. Definitely one of the all-time great players and humans.
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Well, i hoped you enjoyed that recap. As you may have guessed i will be putting this set together. I’ve done some additional research and see that this set is a continuously numbered set going over 1200 cards and through 1994. The one rub though is that some of the photos, well…a bunch of the photos get reused. So be it…once i’ve started, i must continue. I am a completionist!
thanks again for reading!
-Cardboard Hogs
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And now, time for something completely different…well, mostly. It uses baseball as a metaphor for police brutality…so, yeah…baseball.
I’ve never been one to join a group, not really a group joiner. Never wanted to be associated with a specific cohort or any kind of click. I felt it was unnecessary or just really not for me…partially due to anxiety, partially due to an unwillingness to interact with people I felt might not click well with me. I’ve always been like that, well, I’ve mostly been like that. The past few years I’ve shifted a bit and have opened up to others. There have been a few catalysts for this. The bride for one, of course. But also realizing that connecting with people that share your interests is important. I’ve been able to make some of that happen with the card show guys I stop by each month, well…each month prior to 2020.
Earlier last year, I was asked to attend a group meeting with other card collectors by Terry Kneis. He’s been my go to vintage guy through the years. Not because of his charming personality…because, that isn’t his M.O. I like to stop by his table because he is crazy organized. Possibly over the top organized for a card show table at times. There is a definite sense of needing to ask permission to see his cards. I think that tends to push people away most of the time…but for me, I love it. I LOVE that he controls his product to a point that it doesn’t get disturbed by randos. All of his cards are in order by year. Every card has a price on the back. The lesser expensive ones come in penny sleeves and the expensive ones include top loaders. For me, it’s a time saver that I cherish…plus, he offers up a chair for you to sit and go through your items!!! That’s right a chair at a card show!!! I can sit down with my phone, go through my google doc spreadsheet and check off the cards I pull as I put them aside.
HUGE TIME SAVER YA’LL!!!
When I get home, my checklist is updated and all I have to do is remove the penny sleeves and drop the cards in their respective binders. Have I mentioned the time saver aspect?
Back to the club part of this wandering story…Terry invited about 25 gents and ladies to his house earlier last February for the Oregon Sports Card Association meeting. It was a quaint gathering with a wide variety of vintage card collectors. I was definitely out of my league, as far as baseball knowledge but had a great time. At the end of the gathering, Terry hands out a manilla envelope with a special gift for the days participants. Me being a newcomer to the group, Terry handed me a $100 off any card that he was selling from his house that day. The caveat was that it had to be from an assortment of cards on a special table. Well, this was on that table and I had to grab it. I could not pass this beautiful card up. It was phenomenal. Sensational even.
1956 Jackie Robinson – #30
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I haven’t really dug into the ‘50’s sets yet, so this is about as nice of a first card as you could get…in my mind.
One of the activities during the meeting was a trivia party where I was teamed up with an older gentlemen, Steve. Steve has won many of these competitions and wasn’t overly thrilled to have a new jack join his team, but I think I held my own. We didn’t come in first place, but we did finish tied for second. Which was great if you ask me. Having come in second place, were granted the choice of one card from a 1950’s binder with semi-stars and could pick one card under $80. I went with this beautiful Monte Irvin card…mostly because I had just wrapped up reading Willie Mays biography and Monte was heavily involved in much of that storytelling…plus I thought it seemed appropriate to pick a Dodger and a Giant on the same day.
1954 Monte Irvin – #3
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Today also marks the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. I hope everyone has had a chance to listen to one of his important speeches or read an article about his life. He was a great man that fought for change that people are still fighting for today. Maybe one day, we’ll get a chance to see past our skin color and political viewpoints and move forward as humans. It’s a lot to ask for, but it’s also something that is very well achievable in our lifetime. I sure hope for my kids sake that we can get there. So, Happy MLK day everyone. Fuji shared a couple of his favorite MLK cards over at The Chronicles of Fuji and i wanted to share the first three i could find today.
