Night Owl Cards

  I pulled the trigger on this Harmon Killebrew second-year card a few weeks ago. Not only is it a significant card because it's Killebrew, but it's notable because this is the card that gets me down to needing 10 more cards to complete the 1956 Topps set. That's amazing to me. If you went back and found night owl when he was just starting this blog in 2008 and told him I'd be this close to finishing the set, you'd get a lecture on spewing nonsense. But it isn't nonsense. Here is what's left that is not in my collection: 20 - Al Kaline 33 - Roberto Clemente 113 - Phil Rizzuto 121 - Pirates team card 130 - Willie Mays 135 - Mickey Mantle 194 - Monte Irvin 288 - Bob Cerv 292 - Luis Aparicio 324 - Rocky Bridges OK, OK, I'm not as close as I seemed when you first started reading this. The Mays, Mantle and Clemente cards will take me a long time to retrieve and have probably gotten a lot harder to own now that a whole bunch of people have discovered baseball ...

  Have you ever been amazed by the return address on the envelope carrying a card you ordered?   It could be something exotic, like a mailing from another country. There could be something interesting about the person's name or the street name perhaps.   My example is none of those but it did cause me to stop and pause.   I don't live that far away from where I grew up. It's only a two-and-a-half hour drive down the interstate, but it is far enough that all of the people I knew from that place are only connected to me through social media, if that. But a couple of years ago, I found myself going back there time and time again. My mom was sick and it wasn't a simple disease. My dad couldn't care for her much and so my brothers and I made repeated trips. It was too chaotic to prepare meals during those times, so we'd often order out. One of my dad's favorite places was a diner in town a couple miles away. We used to go there when we'd visit my parents duri...

Even though I have been collecting the 1956 Topps set for more than a decade now, the pursuit has never felt real to me. I wouldn't even be collecting this set if I didn't receive a jump-start back in the early 1980s when my dad brought home a grocery bag filled with mid-1950s baseball cards, mostly 1956, that he received from a co-worker. I ended up with around 110 cards from the set without doing a thing. Although I didn't add a single card to that stash for years, I held on to them and always thought "someday." Then, over the past dozen years, as I added a card here and there and fellow collectors sent me a card here and there, I became acquainted with exactly what I needed to do to truly commit to collecting the set. I would need to buy cards of legends who I had only read about in books and magazines. Mantle, Mays, Koufax, Williams, Clemente, Berra. Just ridiculous cards. So the set was always "up there" and "out there," and I cou...

If you are tempted to skip this post because it's a single-card post, or it's a player you don't know, or it's "just some old card," perhaps this bit of trivia will keep you here: In terms of every player to play in major league baseball, listed alphabetically, George Zuverink is the third-to-last name on that list. According to baseball-reference, you would have to read 19,687 names before finally arriving at: 19,688. George Zuverink 19,689. Dutch Zwilling 19,690. Tony Zych Until Tony Zych came along in 2015 (Zych pitched in 70 games for the Mariners, you can find him mostly in prospect sets and Team USA sets), Zuverink was the penultimate name on the MLB list with only Dutch Zwilling, who played from 1910-16, holding down the rear. Let's delve a little more into the Z's of Major League Baseball since you have told me by reading to this point that you are fascinated by this topic. So am I! Let's go! Just 96 players with a last name ...

Right now, this is one of my favorite cards in my collection. I can see you staring at me aghast. A Yankee card? One of your favorties? Yes. Calm down. First, it's a Yankee from a long time ago, not one of those annoying ones from the last 45 years. Second, the reason it's my favorite doesn't have anything to do with him being a Yankee here. No, it's one of my favorites because Eddie Robinson happens to be the oldest living former major league player. He is 99 years old, and took over the "oldest living" title last November. God willing, he will turn 100 in December. I don't know how often I've had the oldest living former major leaguer in my collection, but this is the first time I've been aware of it. I think I've been paying attention to that "oldest" list more often since we're losing players from the '50s at a rapid rate now. These were the first "old" ballplayers that I knew, thanks to the gift of ...

"It's amazing what you can find on the internet" is an often-repeated line that has some truth to it, especially for us folks who remember what it was like to spend not even a second of a day staring at a computer screen. But as a card blogger who has conducted countless hours of research to the blogs I've written, it's also pretty frustrating how little you can find on the internet. For as much as people like to talk up the wealth of information online, there is a shocking lack of it when it comes to some baseball players. A few days ago, Don Larsen died. There is no shortage of information on Larsen. He pitched for the Yankees, he threw a perfect game in the World Series, he put together a long major league career. You can find bios and tributes and "look at all the cards I have of Don Larsen" everywhere online. But let's go to another pitcher that can be found in the high numbers of the 1956 Topps set, in fact, just 25 cards away from N...

Kicking off the month in style! I've never been so eager to create a new '56 of the Month post. This 1956 Topps Ted Williams card has been on my mind for months. It finally arrived in the mail on the final day of my vacation earlier this week. What better way to close out a fun two weeks! In fact, the timing of the arrival of this card couldn't have been better on a variety of levels: 1. This card is dedicated to my dad. I have been planning to purchase a playing days Ted Williams card since when I first knew my dad was on his way out of this world back in May. No other card would do except for the 1956 Topps Ted Williams. Dad was the one who got my appreciation for the '56 set started when he brought home a brown grocery bag of 1950s cards -- the vast majority from the '56 set -- given to him by a work buddy when I was a young teen. Williams was my dad's favorite player and the Red Sox his favorite team. It's still difficult to comprehend that ...

I've written a handful of posts about Frank Smith, a former major leaguer from where I live who was a relief pitcher for the Reds and Cardinals during the 1950s. I had the thrill of writing some stories about Smith, long after his playing career had ended, both before and after his death. It is still one of my greatest honors as a writer to have written Smith's "sports section obituary" after he died in 2005. I got to know Smith a little bit between 2002-05 and that made me want to know some of the other people that spent time with him during the majors. Smith mentioned that some of his best friends in baseball while he played were Ken Boyer and Harvey Haddix with the Cardinals. But probably his best friend of all was Andy Seminick with the Reds. That makes sense because Seminick was a catcher and caught Smith when the two played together from 1952-54. When Smith mentioned Seminick when I wrote that first story, I had never heard of him. I figured he was ...

Hey, look, it's another one of those pesky team cards from 1956 Topps! I've mentioned before how tricky these can be, but I recently received a nice bunch of cards from reader Jonathan again and it included three 1956 team needs, Washington, Cleveland and the Kansas City A's. Woo! I'm down to needing five more of the team cards from this set. This also happens to be the first year that Topps included team cards in the set, which makes these extra cool. But let's focus on the Washington team card. It is key for a couple of reasons. First of all, if you didn't know, the first version of Nationals/Senators, which operated from 1905-60, was abysmal. "First in war, first in peace, last in the American League" and all that. This makes acquiring Washington ballplayers from the '50s exceedingly easy. They just magically find their way to me without me even knowing it. With the arrival of the team card, I just need two more Washington players to...

To have an inexplicable attachment to a baseball card seems like such a part of childhood. It's not adult behavior. We adults know exactly why we like a card or a player. We can recite the reasons for anyone who asks: I like how he plays the game. He's on my favorite team. He plays my favorite position. He signed an autograph for me. He doesn't beat his wife or take drugs. He ascribes to my political affiliations/beliefs (this is a new development that is weird to me). Back when I was a kid I'd like a card for absolutely no reason, or at least not a reason that I can grasp as an adult. I would have no idea who the player was. That player could play for any team. The player could be shown in action or merely staring into space. Who knows why I liked that card! If only I could get into 9-year-old night owl's brain. But I'm long past being 9 years old. And still there is this card here to which I have an inexplicable attachment, that I like for absolutely ...

Bobby Shantz is a familar player from my childhood. No, I'm not 72 years old. But I did collect baseball cards in 1975 and as you know that was one of the first Topps flagship sets to feature players of the past in a current set. The '75 MVP subset, as Topps congratulated itself for making it through 25 of years of creating baseball cards, displayed a card of the AL and NL MVP for each year between 1951 and 1974. This is one of the cards I pulled during my first collecting year in '75: Well ... that's not entirely accurate. THIS is one of the card I pulled during my first collectin year in '75: Even with the thoroughly rounded corners, you can see Bobby Shantz on the left. He was named the MVP after winning 24 games for the Philadelphia A's in 1952. This is what the card said about that season: I am impressed with the mention of the walks-per-inning on a card from 43 years ago. All in all, certainly a great year for Bobby Shantz. Bu...

This card has lived in my scan folder for several months. It turns out it was waiting for the right time. It's now going to serve as the jumping off point for two posts. You'll see the other one later this week. It has to do with Rance Pless' position in the 1956 Topps set. At card No. 339, it is the penultimate card in the set. But Pless is also part of a group of cards in the 1956 Topps set that has long fascinated me. When my brothers and I received that treasure trove of mid-1950s cards -- the vast majority being 1956 Topps -- from my father's co-worker when we were kids, I began to notice when first going through the '56 cards that there were precious few cards numbered in the 300s. I had looked up the set in one of those early '80s Sport Americana baseball card price guides (by Dr. James Beckett and Dennis W. Eckes) and discovered that it totaled 340 cards. I didn't know anything much about sets being issued in series at the time, but why so...

I have told the story numerous times of my father coming home from work one night with a large paper grocery bag filled with 1950s baseball cards to give to myself and my two brothers. Overcome with glee but knowing we would have to share and share alike, we set up all the cards on the dining room table, scattering them in a giant pile in the center and took turns selecting them. The few superstars that were available -- I nabbed the '57 Willie Mays with my first pick -- went first. But the majority of cards, around 300 of them, were players we didn't know at all. At this point we were collecting pictures, not names. But ever since I started collecting back in 1975, I have been drawn to certain cards of unknown players for unknown reasons. The 1977 Bob Tolan, the 1976 Steve Renko, the 1975 Jackie Brown. The names didn't matter. The pictures did. I wanted that '56 Elmer Valo card. I had no idea who Elmer Valo was. I barely knew what the Kansas City A's w...

I like it when I discover cards in my collection of players who were Dodgers at another point in their career. I like it even more when I also find a card of that player as a Dodger. Ron Negray is featured on just two Topps cards. He's in the 1956 and 1957 Topps sets as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies. Because the Dodgers were so good at that time and there were relatively few teams, Negray spent much of his time with the Dodgers in the minors. He played seven seasons with Brooklyn farm teams like Valdosta, Newport News, Elmira, Pueblo and Saint Paul. He was traded to the Phillies in June 1955, just four months before Brooklyn won its first World Series. However, Negray did get to play for another famous Brooklyn Dodgers team. He appeared briefly with the 1952 Boys of Summer. Therefore, he received a card in the 1974 TCMA set: Outside of the 1990 Target all-inclusive Dodgers set, it is the only set where you can find a card of Negray as a Dodger. That is a...

Gus Bell's card is here for one reason and one reason only. He is card No. 162 in the 1956 Topps set. He is among the better players to receive card number 162 in a Topps set. Some other notables: Gil Hodges was No. 162 in 1958 Topps. Bob Gibson's excellent World Series card commemorating him striking out 17 batters is card No. 162 in the '69 Topps set. The '72 Brewers rookie stars in which Darrell Porter is misidentified is No. 162. And Ozzie Canseco's first card is No. 162 in 1991 Topps. But in general, 162 doesn't mean as much in baseball cards as it does in baseball. Today, every team has completed its 162-game schedule, save for the Angels and Mariners, who played just 161. The season is now over for the Angels and Mariners, as well as the Orioles and Rays, the Tigers, Blue Jays and White Sox, the Royals, A's and Rangers. And the Mets, Phillies, Marlins, Braves, Pirates, Brewers, Reds, Cardinals, Padres and Giants. Bell, shown making an excel...

Another card arrived in the package of Hollywood has-beens and never-weres from The Five Tool Collector . It was this 1956 Topps Stu Miller card straight off my want list. As '56 cards go, it's not terribly interesting. Miller appears to be pitching on a wide expanse of freshly cleared farm land. No other signs of life except for the watercolor trees in the distance. But Miller's career is more interesting than most people know. Although he will never be recalled as one of the great players of the 1960s, he does rank as one of the greatest relief pitchers of the '60s, and also as one of the most Hall-worthy relievers of all-time, according to at least one metric . Miller, who was still feeling his way at this particular point in his career, would become a junkball relief specialist with the Giants and Orioles, who could pile up the appearances late in his career. He made the All-Star Game in 1961 and that's where his most famous moment happened, when he sup...

There is a card show this weekend that I've barely thought about because everyone picked this week to run around screaming with their hair on fire and there is collateral damage everywhere. Usually by this time I've prepared a card show strategy and a list. I don't live in one of those places where there's a monthly card show. I need to reacquaint myself with the whole scene every six months or so. But I haven't had time to make any list. And I have only a vague idea of what I'll seek out. Let's see if I can formulate some sort of plan in the precious few minutes I have to write this. If I am focused and find the right dealers, I should start with the 1956 set. It's about time I do some real damage with that set. Not Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays damage, because who knows when that time will come when I win the lottery, but damage to some of the pesky pricey cards. Such as team cards. The team cards in '56 Topps are rather vexing. Not o...