The Old Arbitrary Presents: Pirates Week (1950s Vintage)

You may have already seen the news, but Matthew of Bob Walk the Plank is retiring from regular blog updates. In recognition of his contributions to the blogging community, I'm converting this to a Pirates-centric blog for a week, highlighting some of my favorite Pirate cards.

This is a 1949 Bowman, but we'll call it close enough the 1950s. One of my favorite things about early Bowman (and about Major League Baseball in the 40s and 50s in general) were all the great nicknames. 1948 was Rojek's best season-  he led the league in games played, plate appearances, and at bats. He had a career high 186 base hits and stole 24 bases.

I've always loved this card. Law looks 20 feet tall, throwing down fastballs from the treetops.

The back of this 1952 Topps card has an incredible tidbit of info- Verne was recruited by none other than crooner Bing Crosby! That's about as 50s as you can get. The last sentence has some odd implications - do all Mormon ministers know how to play the harmonica?

Another personal All-time favorite Topps card, this time featuring a double play tandem that were actually twins!

The first MLB twins teammates were also standout college basketball players.

1955 Bowman - Vic Janowicz was the Bo Jackson of the 1950s, playing both baseball with the Pirates and pro football with Washington,

Similar to Bo, Janowicz had his career cut short due to injury. Janowicz was in a tragic car accident in 1956, which partially paralyzed him. He eventually made a full recovery from the crash, though he never played again. He turned to broadcasting and covered Ohio State football games.

I couldn't pick a favorite from the 1956 Topps set, so here they all are, starting with the starting position players.

The starting rotation and the key members of the bullpen.

And the bench!

The Pirates finished last in the National League in 1955, but they were a talented young team that would soon be knocking on the door for the Pennant.

I really like the backs of these Team Cards, with the home stadium specifications and team records.

The 1957 Topps set has some strange entries, and I'm leaning towards building it if I finish the 1959 set. Paul Smith is shown here in front of a radio broadcast tower (I'm guessing it's radio and not televison).

Whammy was in the 1958 and the 1959 sets, though he only pitched in one MLB season. He was part of a big trade from the Pirates to Cincinnati in 1958 that included the original Frank Thomas and Harvey Haddix. And of course, he had one of the great 50's nicknames.

All 4 of these 1959 Topps cards came in a big lot I purchased from a vintage dealer I've been doing business with since I came back to collecting. Even though he's moved out the North Carolina, he still has family in MN and he contacted me recently to help me make some progress on my set build.

Matthew, thanks for the years of great blog posts, and on a personal note it was your kindness and generosity when I first started out that kept me in the blogging game. My very first blog trade was with him, and I can't thank him enough for that.

Classic Car(d)s Weekend

There's a big classic car show at the MN State Fairgrounds this weekend - people from all over the region show off their custom rebuilds, classic vehicles from the last 100+ years. The 1950s and 1960s are usually very well represented, like the 1958 Corvette above. I picked up a few 50's of my own this weekend, but you can't drive them.

Also from 1958 in that deep blue,  it's Willie Mays! I think it's probably a bad idea to compare people to cars, so it's enough to say that Willie Mays was a perfect mix of speed and power, grace and strength.

See? Topps knew what was up, along with the Editors of Sport Magazine. Willie was really good at baseball.

not exactly Dodger Blue on this 1959 GMC Pickup

I am making progress on my 1959 set build. You could probably compare rebuilding a classic car with building a vintage set. Finding all the parts in good condition at a fair price can be daunting. This Duke Snider has been through the ringer, but it still runs ok.

The big crease in the corner by the card number doesn't bother me much. It's almost invisible on the front of the card.

There were 4 different copies of this card at the shop, and this was the best bargain. The color has faded a bit, the corners are rough, and the back is miscut - but it's still a gorgeous card!

I do really like the cards in the 1959 set, especially when they all feature the same team on the card. I decided to organize my 1956 set by team, and I'm starting to do the same with the 1959 set. There are a couple pesky duo cards that have players from 2 different teams on them... not sure how I'll handle that!

How do you organize your sets?

LIVING in a Material World

Topps has launched The Living Set, which is an online-only set that in theory will never end. Topps releases 3 cards a week for this set, including both current and retired players.

I held out as long as I could, but there was no way I was passing up on Ichiro. This week has a Bartolo Colon card, but I have to be honest and say that it looks rushed. That one is the first card in the set that isn't a headshot - the Colon card is a waist up portrait. The plan for now is to feature all of these on the 1953 design.

Unpopular opinion time. . . I don't like the 1953 design. I have great respect for the skill that went in to making it, but to me it is boring. With the exception of a handful of cards, they all look like the same card to me. There's a lot more diversity in facial hair, hair cuts, and of course a more diverse population of players, so I guess it will be more visually interesting in The Living Set. But I think they should be willing to break from the headshot only pose more often. I also hope they just change the design periodically (maybe once a year?), because I can't imagine wanting to look at this same design forever.

I ended up getting the whole 3 card set from Ichiro week. The 2nd card is the White Sox Yoan Moncada. I think he's going to be a fantastic player, but I probably will be sending this one to Jeff at 2x3 Heroes as soon as I can get organized enough to send out cards to folks. I've got lots of haphazard boxes with trade bait in them, I think things are finally calming down so I can get some work done. 

The third card was a Twin, so that made the decision easy to get all three. Berrios has been hot and cold this season, all a part of his maturation and development as a big league pitcher. He's one of my favorite Twins and I hope he's going to be leading the rotation for years to come.

I will say that the cards are really nice in hand - they are printed on a vintage style stock, much better than the recent Topps Archives set that used the '53 design. The choice to buy or not buy will rest almost entirely on the player selection. I will more than likely collect the Twins, and will make special trips for players I really like to collect.

Anyone else take the plunge on these yet?

Trading Up North

Friends. Unless you've been under a rock for the last couple weeks, you may have noticed that I've been under a rock for the last couple weeks. Crazy work and home schedules have kept me from blogging again. Keeping up has been tough, but I didn't want to delay any longer in acknowledging the great trade package from Sportscards from the Dollar Store!

Take a look at this sweet 1975 O-Pee-Chee! Roof may seem a little off-center, but the card is otherwise pack fresh. Underwhelming at the plate, Roof was tremendous behind it. Most of his career was spent as a backup, though he was the number one catcher for the Brewers in 1970.  Phil became a manager after his playing days, spending over a decade with the Twins' triple A Affiliates, finishing with over 1,000 wins.

More minor league greatness! The Twins have a good problem on their hands in the minors, as several young arms are making their case to join the big league club, despite a bit of a logjam already at the top once Ervin Santana returns.

Even more Twins from all over the map. I read recently that Topps renewed its exclusive license with MLB, so there will be a tougher road for start ups like Honus Bonus, but I hope the non-Topps card companies don't give up.

Norm Green gave up on the State of Hockey and moved the North Stars to Dallas, and I'm still "not mad" about it. The Minnesota Wild were better this past season than they've been in a while, so there's hope for the future. And who doesn't love a name like Nino Niederreiter?

Douglas sent some hits, too! Tyler Duffey is in that mix with several other pitchers at AAA trying to make a case for a big league job. He might be there now if the Twins hadn't invested in so many free agent arms this winter.

Max Murphy was a 9th Round selection by the Twins, and was Player of the Year in Low-A Elizabethton. He made yearly promotions, but was injured in late 2016. This spring he signed up with the independent Northern League Saint Paul Saints, staying close to his home of Robbinsdale.

Maxx Williams is another Minnesota native, son of New York Giants' Center Brian Williams (member of the Super Bowl XXV champs). His grandfather was a Quarterback at Notre Dame.

Maxx was also sidelined by injury in 2016, and found himself fighting for a spot on the Ravens' roster in 2017. He will again be in a battle this season, as Baltimore drafted another TE high in the draft.

Thanks for the cards, Douglas!

NOW More Convenient Than Ever

Topps NOW can be funny sometimes - I can't say I had any specific rooting interest in any team or player involved in this card, but sometimes the silliest things can be the most appealing to me. Let's check the video:

Kind of a bummer that Topps didn't use a shot with McHugh actually riding in the cart, but it's the thought that counts.

To me, this is a better use of Topps NOW than every single game winner, and every Yankee HR milestone ending in a 5 or a 0 . . . (I have to believe even Yankees fans are exhausted by that) . . .  It's a moment on the field that you don't see every day, and that is something I can support.