who wants to deal for vintage?

despite acquiring and posting some pretty nice vintage stuff lately (here's a 1953 bowman color billy herman card that i picked up on the cheap),

i am still in need of quite a bit.  and, since i not too long ago pared down my sampler vintage topps sets to just dodger team sets, i've got a lot of spare vintage.  so, why not make a trade?

now, i realize that dodger cards from the 1950's sometimes command a pretty penny. i'm not suggesting that you trade me a 1952 topps roy campanella card for a 1954 bowman fred baczewski, but you are certainly welcome to if you'd like.  what i'm offering is a minimum of five-for-1 vintage deal.  my top priority here would be the 1955 topps card that i'm missing.

that would be ed roebuck, because i've recently obtained the joe black,

clem labine,

and gil hodges

cards from the set.

i find it interesting that the cartoon on the back of hodges' card

is pretty much the same as the one on the back of jackie robinson's 1953 topps card - the subject, anyway.  i guess topps figured that kids would forget that nugget of information within a couple years' time.

i found the hodges online, and picked up the black and labine cards at the card show i went to recently.  when i told the dealer i was working on a 1955 topps dodger team set, he said 'hey - just like rocky.  you know, the kid from the movie 'mask''.  i did not know, as i had not seen that movie.  a quick check of imdb does indeed show that the character was working on a '55 topps dodger team set, and while i need ed roebuck to complete the set, he needed rube walker.

anyway, i've updated my 1950's want list, and added it below.  i've also updated my nefarious 9 list on the sidebar.  even though there are some decidedly modern cards on the nefarious 9, i'm willing to trade vintage for them - say a minimum of 3-for-1 for the non-vintage nefarious 9 needs.

here's how it works.  you find one of the cards listed below from your collection, on ebay, comc, sportlots, or uncle bill's attic and let me know that you'd like to trade.  i'll send you a minimum of five cards from the 1950's (or 1960's if you prefer) in exchange. we can work out specific teams or cards if you prefer.  again, if you have a high-dollar card from my list, the bounty would be higher.  condition is not too much of an issue, although the labine above is probably as bad as i'd want to go on some of these cards.

here's the list of cards i need from the 1950's:

1950 bowman - 21 reese, 22 robinson, 23 newcombe, 58 furillo, 59 branca, 75 campanella, 76 barney, 77 snider, 112 hodges, 113 hermanski, 166 hatton, 167 roe, 194 cox, 222 morgan, 223 russell, 224 banta

1951 bowman - 7 hodges, 31 campanella, 32 snider, 56 branca, 80 reese, 117 miksis, 118 roe, 189 palica, 190 hatton, 260 erskine, 299 king

1951 topps red and blue backs - blue 42 edwards, blue 48 cox, red 16 roe, red 38 snider

1952 bowman - 8 reese, 44 campanella, 128 newcombe, 224 schmitz, 240 loes

1952 topps - 1 pafko, 20 loes, 36 hodges, 51 russell, 66 roe, 188 podbielan, 198 haugstad, 250 erskine, 273 palica, 314 campanella, 319 walker, 320 rutherford, 321 black, 326 shuba, 333 reese, 342 labine, 355 morgan, 365 lavagetto, 377 dressen, 389 wade, 390 nelson, 394 herman, 395 pitler, 396 williams

1953 bowman black & white - 26 roe, 52 branca, 60 cox

1953 bowman color - 14 loes, 46 campanella, 117 snider, 124 dressen, 129 meyer, 145 shuba

1953 topps - 76 reese, 134 walker, 255 howell, 258 gilliam, 263 podres, 272 antonello

1954 bowman - 10 erskine, 58 reese, 90 campanella, 122 furillo, 138 hodges, 154 newcombe, 170 snider, 186 meyer, 202 shuba, 218 roe

1955 topps - 195 roebuck

and you can see a sampling of the cards available for trade by checking out these posts and looking at the non-dodgers in them.  here are some other cards from 1953 and 1954 that would be available as well.

what say you? can you help a blogger out?

sunday morning target dodgers

lots of good dodgers on this week's sheet.  these 14 shared space on the same sheet as double dipper lloyd waner.  let's have a look.

first up, is the penguin - ron cey

what can i say about cey that i haven't said before?  not too much, i don't think.  he is one of three dodgers from the team of my youth to appear on this particular sheet.

eddie ainsmith

ainsmith was born in russia, and while not the first russian born player, he enjoyed the longest career of any to date.  he caught walter johnson as a member of the senators for 9 seasons from 1910 through 1918 before moving on to a number of different teams.  one of those teams was the brooklyn robins, for whom he appeared in 2 games in 1923, amassing 10 plate appearances and 2 hits.

joe black

black won the nl rookie of the year award in 1952 thanks to his 15-4 record and 2.15 era in 56 games, 54 of which he appeared in as a reliever.  he also finished third in the mvp voting, although he received as many first place votes as did hank sauer, the winner of the award.  he pitched for the dodgers in both the 1952 and 1953 world series, but unfortunately for black, he was traded to the reds during the 1955 season and missed out on brooklyn's lone world series title.

dick egan

egan pitched in 20 games for the dodgers in 1967, his last of four seasons in the major leagues.  he has remained in the game as a coach and scout, mostly for the marlins and tigers. i like this card because of the angle of the photo, which gives a good view of the left field pavilion.

kirk gibson

gibby!  gibson won the mvp award in 1988 and hit a big home run for the dodgers as we all know, and that absolves him in my mind from trying to beat the dodgers as the diamondbacks' manager.

bill hallman

hallman appeared in 134 games for the bridegrooms in 1898.  he also played for the phillies, browns, a's, quakers, and something called the cleveland blues.  according to baseball reference, he is the only player to have increased his batting average 9 years in a row.

gene hermanski

hermanski played for the dodgers in the 1940's, debuting in 1943 and returning to the majors in 1946.  he was a dodger until 1951 when he was traded to the cubs in the andy pafko deal.  aside from helping the dodgers win pennants in 1947 and 1949, hermanski's career highlight was likely the three-home run game he had as a dodger in 1948.

tom lasorda

lasorda was the manager of the team of my youth, as well as the team of my early adult years.  from late in the 1976 season until the middle of the 1996 campaign, he was at the helm of the team.  i do not know why he had tom niedenfuer pitch to jack clark.

rick monday

monday was the center fielder on the team of my youth, and like cey up top, i have written about him quite a bit.  he may well be the only player honored with a solo bobblehead giveaway in which he is wearing a different team's uniform.

jerry nops

the orioles traded nops to the superbas prior to the 1900 season.  he was 4-4 in 9 games for brooklyn and then returned to baltimore for the following season.

harley payne

payne pitched for the bridegrooms in 1896, 1897, and one game in 1898.  he was 29-33 in 75 games, 67 of which were starts.  it's hard to see in the photo, but he also had a fine moustache.

jerry royster

royster was signed by the dodgers as an amateur free agent in 1970, and made his big league debut for them in 1973.  he had cups of coffee with the dodgers in 1974 and 1975 as well, amassing 13 hits in 29 games over those three seasons.  prior to 1976, he was dealt to the braves in the dusty baker deal and had several productive, or at least full, seasons there.  he retired after the 1988 season and eventually went into coaching.  he later replaced former teammate davey lopes as the brewers' manager in 2002.

bill singer

singer won 20 games for the dodgers in 1969, and later won 20 for the angels after being dealt in the andy messersmith/frank robinson trade.  he also threw a no-hitter in 1970, and was the first pitcher to earn a save after the statistic became official in 1969.

woody williams

woodrow wilson 'woody' williams was named for the 28th president of the united states - woodrow wilson - although he was born prior to wilson winning the white house.  for the dodgers, he played shortstop and third base in 1938, hitting .333 in 51 at bats.  williams returned to the minors and returned to the major leagues in 1943 with the reds and was their regular second baseman in 1944 and 1945.

my pared down 1954 topps sampler

earlier today i (hopefully) posted my 1954 topps sampler.  since scanning and writing that post, i have extricated the non-dodgers and reassembled the remaining cards.  so, my 1954 topps sampler is now a 1954 topps dodger partial team set.  here's how it looks:

as with my 1953 topps sampler to team set, i have added a card in between.  this time, it's duke snider's card

i picked this one up at the last card show i went to.  my vintage bargain bin guy was there and gave me a good deal on duke.

i think all of these players have been featured on the blog before, except charlie thompson.

thompson was better known as tim thompson, and his big league career as a dodger began and ended with a 10 game stint in 1954.  he was later traded to the kansas city a's and also spent some time with the tigers.  welcome to the blog charlie.  i mean tim.

i only need three dodgers to complete the 1953 topps team set, but one of them is jackie robinson.  if anyone has an extra jackie, or a ben wade or jim hughes card to spare, please let me know!

my pared down 1953 topps sampler

i've removed all the non-dodgers from my 1953 topps sampler set.  here is what i am left with.

that's 12 of the 21 dodgers in the set.  i just need some guys named robinson, reese, campanella, etc.

for those of you with eagle eyes, you've noticed that there are 12 dodgers instead of 11 that were included in the sampler set post earlier today.  that's because in between the time i scanned the cards and got around to posting, i picked up a charlie dressen card.

sorry, that's chuck dressen.  i also mentioned earlier today that my approach to the sampler sets was to not worry about position differentiation, just team, color combos, and subsets.  that meant that i didn't have a manager card in the 1952 set (dressen is a high number), and until i picked up this card, i didn't have one in the 1953 set either.

seeing things at the lcs

if you've ever wondered what pete rose, ryne sandberg, and steve garvey would look like if their faces were somehow combined into one, then go pick up a copy of this 1986 sportflics card.

when scanned, it looks mostly like rose.  here's the garvey image, or at least as best as i could manage.

i didn't need a copy, but i couldn't leave that card in the nickel box at one of the local card shops, now could i?  i also picked up a better looking garvey - again, no real need, but for a nickel…it's a 2005 topps pristine card for goodness sake!

i mentioned in an earlier post that i had made a few visits to the two local card shops over the last few months, and had some cards to show from those trips.  some of the nickel and dime boxes at these shops included boxes sorted by player - mostly hall of famers, stars, and notable twins.  some of the lesser organized boxes seemed to include bunches of cards of players who were at one time highly collectible, but now are not really sought after - probably moved out of the star boxes to make room for the bryce harpers and mike trouts of the world.  one such player is roberto alomar.

i found a bunch of alomars, including this 1995 topps d3 double play card

as well as base

and die-cut versions

of his 1995 upper deck championship series card.

like alomar, eddie murray seemed to have been moved into the low rent district.  i picked up a 1991 bowman card of the hall of famer

 it mentions his .330 average on the back

which led the majors in 1990, although murray didn't win a batting title.

here's a 1993 fleer vinny castilla card

on which he is shown turning two as a brave, but listed as a rockie.  i had forgotten that castilla was not always a third baseman.  castilla did not start the season as colorado's shortstop (freddie benavides had the honor of being the first ss in team history) but he took over the role in may.  he didn't move to third base full time until 1995.

there were some oddball cards in one of the boxes, many of which i had not seen before.  i picked up a 1992 fleer citgo darryl strawberry card for the dodger collection

it was a joint 7-11/citgo release, apparently.

there were even some ted williams cards floating around - this one of joe black is from 1993.

the tough thing with the nickel and dime boxes is that they aren't getting any new inventory.  i noticed that at both shops, although the lack of new material seemed to be for different reasons.  at one shop, they didn't appear to be busting any new product.  at the other, they seemed to be discouraging people from digging through boxes.  i'll expand on that next time.

dime box heroes

not to be confused with the always interesting posts over at nick's blog, these are actual dime box heroes.  cards from the 1994 upper deck all-time heroes set that i rescued from a dime box at a recent card show.  so what if i already had most of them?  they were a dime apiece.

here's roy campanella and a sprawling billy martin

game 4 of the 1953 world series was (obviously) won by the dodgers.  in the 9th inning, billy martin tried to score on a single by mickey mantle, but was thrown out by the dodgers' left fielder, don thompson.  thompson had just entered the game at the start of the 9th inning, replacing jackie robinson who had started the game in left.  the yankees were down 7-2 but loaded the bases with no outs.  after a strikeout and a flyout, mantle singled to score one run, but martin was out to end the game on thompson's throw.  thompson had also replaced robinson in the previous game (carl erskine's 14-k game), and those two defensive appearances were the only postseason games thompson participated in during his career.  the dodgers should have used him more during the series - they were 2-0 when he appeared in a game, and 0-4 without him!

here's steve garvey's card from the set

i would bet that the photo comes from the 1974 world series.  that looks like future dodger bill north getting back to first base safely.  if the photo is from game 1 of the series, north would soon be caught stealing.

the dime box also yielded many of the set's parallel cards, stamped with the 125th anniversary text.  here's charley neal to tell us all about it.

neal's card is one of many contradictions in the set.  he is shown and listed as a metropolitan, but the inset photo shows him as a dodger.

al oliver received a similar treatment

except the reverse - he's a dodger in name and in the big picture, but an expo in the inset.

let's get back to some world series action, courtesy of johnny podres' card

that's roy campanella and don hoak helping him celebrate the final out of the 1955 world series.  that would be the last time hoak was on the field for the dodgers, as he was traded to the cubs following the world series.  that's ok, however, as he wound up winning another ring with the 1960 pittsburgh pirates.

meet joe black

black pitched for the dodgers in the 1952 and 1953 world series, but was traded to the reds during the 1955 season, and missed out on the dodgers' title run.

back to campy, here's his diamond legends subset card

it features that photo of him at bat that we have seen a bunch of times over the past few years.

and, a post of dodger cards from this set just wouldn't be complete without the don newcombe card

believe it or not, i also picked up a card of a giant.  

i just couldn't leave 'the catch' behind

finally, here's a look at johnny vander meer's second no-hitter

the card features a photo of ebbets field on june 15, 1938.  the photo is not of the last out - the bases were loaded when leo durocher popped out to end the game - but it is from the game which makes this a night card as it was the first night game in ebbets field history.  by the way, that's babe phelps (number 9) kneeling on deck while buddy hassett gives it a go at the plate.

i had purchased this release as a complete set back in the late 1990's (without all the parallels) but had traded away a bunch of the non-dodger cards since then.  it was nice to see so many of them and be able to pick up a lot of the parallels, all courtesy of a dime box.