The InternationAlous

While working on building the 1964 Topps Venezuelan set, I have run into several other sets from other countries. I'm not going to even think about building those sets (yet), but every once in a while I see something I can't ignore. I am a big fan of the Alou brothers - Felipe, Matty and Jesús.

I found this 1962 Topps Venezuelan of the big brother Felipe. The original Topps version mentions his brother Matty Alou, but the Venezuelan version only includes the first factoid about Felipe, noting that he's getting better every year for the Giants, and became a "top star" in 1961. It also mentions his PCL betting title from 1958. The cartoon is the same for both, mentioning another batting title, this time for hitting .380 in the D-League in 1956. 

Speaking of brother Matty, after being released by the Padres in 1974, middle brother Matty traveled west to Japan. He played 50 games for the Taiheiyo Club Lions in 74, hitting .312 with 12 doubles and a pair of home runs. This card is from the 1975-1976 Calbee set, and features a full bleed photo like Stadium Club some 15 years later in the States. He actually has a pair of cards in this set, you can read about the other card on the blog "Getting Back into Baseball Cards . . . In Japan" 

Here's the back of the card - I don't speak or read or write Japanese, but I can tell you that this was card #602 in the set. I randomly stumbled across this card while waiting for a different eBay auction to end.

And just for the sake of a full set of Alou brothers, here's an American Jesús. Overwhelming millions everyday, like the song says. 

Jesús may not have had the same statistical success as his older brothers - he didn't win batting titles like Matty, he didn't go on to managerial success like Felipe, but he did manage to win 2 World Series championships while playing with Oakland, more than both his brothers combined. 

I'll continue to keep my eye out for more Alous, no matter where their cards were printed. Thanks for reading!

Throwback Thursday

 

Is there anything sweeter than Sweet Lou? How about Sweet Lou, presented by Coca-Cola? One can of Coke has 39 grams of sugar. That's pretty sweet!

This card is from 1981, and of course it has a pretty much identical design to 1981 Topps, save for the Coke logo in the corner. Of course, Coca-Cola and the Tigers have been linked to each other for a long time. The Georgia-based soda giant was one of Tiger great Ty Cobb's first big investments. 

At first glance, nothing too special about these early to mid 70's cards (maybe you notice that the position "Outfield" is missing from Jesus Alou's card), but flip them over and see... 

O-Pee-Chee! I don't really keep any kind of checklist for these, but I picked these up on eBay for a reasonable price. Everything in this post came my way in either November or December.

My brother pointed out this 1963 Fleer to me, and I sent one to him for Christmas. But I kept the saved search in eBay and eventually found this one to add to my own collection. The buy it now prices are out of control right now, but the auctions are the way to go if you can find one. 

Roberto Clemente - good at baseball.

A Family That Plays Together, Stays Together

Felipe

Matty (sorry, this card is still stuck in its original Topps holder)

Jesus

Moises

Now the family is all together!

Some Oddball Alous!

I am the youngest of three, just like Jesus Alou. This Sports Collectors Photostamp is from 1969.

Any fans out there still have the album? I would like to see that.

Middle brother Matty is featured on Ray Kroc's Restaurant (McDonald's) issue from 1974.

Matty was everywhere from 1973 to 1974 -- East Coast, West Coast, and right in the middle on the mighty Mississip!

This isn't an oddball, really, it's just an interesting variation - Jesus in the Outfield, and Jesus everywhere and nowhere at once!

This one may be the oddest of all - a regional shopping mall issued these photos in 1966 - a little thicker than a poster, but not much.

Here's a size comparison with a standard card - the backs are plain white. Just a few new Alous I added this year!

Something I Alou-ded to Earlier . . .

 Well, it's late in the day and I haven't posted yet, trying to keep coming up with things to post about, there will be another Twins Frankenset post on Monday and the next season of Topps Rookie All-Star will happen some time next week.

With my upcoming move, I've not been buying very many cards. I haven't been doing a lot of trading, either, but I did send out a couple packages today.

So, here's one thing I will be working on in the next few months - Certified autos of the Alou family!

Matt from Bob Walk the Plank alerted me to existence of this Moises Alou auto, and I found a copy on eBay for just 8 bucks. 

This is a terrible image, but I got this Felipe Alou auto at the National. I've got most of my cards in boxes inside of other boxes right now, so this a cropped version of a photo from awhile back.

So, just looking for certified autos of Matty and Jesus at this point, and maybe getting a different Felipe to match up with the other brothers.

More oddball Alous!

I couldn't take the card buying drought any longer and I went onto COMC to do something about it. The result was to pick up a nice collection of Alou oddballs!

 For as much as the three brothers were in the league at the same time, it was actually hard to find oddball sets that features all three of them

 Here's a different 60's game set.

 The Topps Fan Favorites are super classy cards! Pacific before they lost their minds in the 90s made some fairly boring but solid sets of retired greats in the 80s

 This one of middle brother Matty is probably the coolest.

 It's a 1977 Padres Schedule / Baseball card! I think "English Leather Cologne Jacket Night" must have been a hit.

Finally, here's a Moises for good measure.

The Brothers Alou

I've been working on my Alou Brothers collection this summer, and now I can showcase two completed pages of Alou awesomeness.

Big brother Felipe's first Topps card was in 1959, Matty joined the trading card fraternity in 1961, and Jesus rose to the ranks of the big leagues in time for the 1964 release.

 I inserted the Post Felipe Alou so I could line up the brothers starting with Jesus' Rookie Year:

 Honorary Alou Brother Ron Herbel* makes an appearance. These two pages are the first two completed, hoping to add a few more of the short prints (it's like Topps picked a different Alou Brother to be Short Printed every year....)


Enjoy these Matty Alou oddballs:

*Ron Herbel is NOT an honorary Alou brother, as far as I know...

At The National Day Two . . . trying to meet some goals

 I could not find any of the four OPC cards I needed to complete my set, but I did get closer to getting a complete Alou Brothers run from their playing days. This 1965 Jesus Alou was a high number, I had to go to about three different vendors that had '65 albums before finding this copy.

 Four more 1948 Bowmans! Enos Slaughter (top right) was the big ticket card of the day. These four, plus one from Wednesday night brings me to a total of 38 of 48 cards from the set. I might finish it before the next National!

 Ah, Kennys. I asked every vendor in the room if they had a copy of the Vargas Topps Acetate card, and this was the closest I could get.

This one was also numbered to just 10 copies.

 Three more for the 1956 set- I saw several tables with commons for $2-3 each. I decided to hold off on those to save up for meeting some other goals.

 Always room for dime box finds.... some highlights

From this big stack.

This was one big goal for the National - find an unopened pack of something older than I've ever opened before. The 1975 Mini pack was cheaper than the 1976 and 1977 packs, so I decided to pull the trigger on this one. I'll open it up some time later on...