Procrastination Post

I am supposed to be creating a portfolio of everything that I did this year as a virtual and hybrid (50% in-person and 50% online simultaneously), but I am finding it hard to get started.  I have a large stack of cards on my desk at the moment since my blogging is down to almost nothing.  So many to choose from, but I decided to go with some random old 1960s, 70s, and 80s cards of former Durham Bulls players.  

When summer hits, I am going to work on putting together the Durham Bulls cards from the 1960s or 1970s set, similar to what I did last year with the 1975 Topps Mini set.  In the meantime, it's fun to just find some of these old cards for cheap.  This group of cards cost me more than $10 after shipping, so roughly a dollar per card.  Hard to pass up.  

Here's what I found, in sequential order by year.  

 

  

 

First up is a 1960 Topps of long-time Major League catcher Clint Courtney.  His claim to fame was starting several fights with the Yankees during the 1960s.   I believe he was a Yankees farmhand at some point and held a grudge against them.  Clint Courtney ended up on the Bulls at the end of his career.  He was the old guy on a Carolina League team.  

 

 

 

This is a 1974 Topps Rusty Staub card from the World Series Highlights subset.  The Mets did not win, but Rusty hit .429 during the 7 game series against the Oakland A's.  Always good to find a Rusty Staub card.   Easily one of my favorite Durham Bulls players from the early 1960s.  

 

 

Next up is a 1976 Topps Ken Singleton.  This set has really grown on me over the years.  I have already found a few of the other Durham Bulls players in this set, plus I have a bunch of the Cardinals too.  I have never put together a full 1970s baseball card set as a project on here.   This would be fun.  Great looking Singleton card with the cartoon Oriole bird uniform.  

  

 

 

Another 1976 Topps card, only this is from the Traded set, which is famous for the Oscar Gamble card.  That airbrushed Tigers logo is terrible, but I still like the card.  This near the end of Rusty's career as an everyday player, also his last year making an All-Star team.  

 

 

 

 

 

Last Rusty Staub of the post.  He was everywhere at the end of his career, including the Rangers for the 1980 season.  He ended up going back to the Mets as a free agent after this year where he played out his career as a bench player.  I remember getting a few of his cards as a kid.  He was the token old guy on the team.  

The last two cards are from the same set.  

 

 

 

 

 These are both from the 1981 Topps Scratch-Off set.  I have one or two of these hanging around somewhere, but not many.  There have been a few other bloggers who have posted some of these cards over the last few months.  Seemed like a fun pair of cards to add to the collection.  

 

Project Durham Bulls #51 - Clint Courtney

1962 -1963 Durham Bulls

Background- 

Clint Courtney spent the better part of a decade playing in the Majors as a backup catcher, appearing in games for the Yankees, Browns, Orioles, Senators, White Sox, and A's. Seems like a pretty good player off the bench, but I really like that he was nicknamed  "Scrap Iron" while playing for the St. Louis Browns over two fights he incited with the Yankees.  During one incident he spiked Billy Martin, and then proceeded to punch him when the Yankees infielder protested being spiked.  The following season Courtney spiked Phil Rizzuto, while trying to stretch a single into a double, which resulted in Billy Martin jumping on him during a fight that ensued.  For years, the fight held the American League record for fines.   

Clint Courtney played his last game in the Majors in 1961 for the Baltimore Orioles.  He would spend the next three seasons in the Houston Colts Minor League system working with younger players.  Courtney was 35 and 36 years old for his two seasons with the Durham Bulls.  The Bulls were an Astros affiliate at that time, and they had some good Major League quality talent on the roster.  By the mid 1960s, the Astros used Clint Courtney as their bullpen coach.  He had been considered for several managing jobs along the way.  

After leaving the Astros in 1970, Clint Courtney spent the rest of his life working as a coach in the Minor Leagues.  He managed the Richmond Braves on several different occasions during the 1970s, before he passed away playing ping pong against some of the team's players on a road trip in 1975.  

Card- 

There are not a ton of Clint Courtney cards, but they are all from really good sets.  It was honestly sort of a hard decision to choose which card I should add to my collection.  I ended up narrowing it down to trying to find a St. Louis Browns card, and then after that I decided to go with his 1953 Bowman card.  There are far too few St. Louis Browns cards in my collection.