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.  

 

Another Raleigh-Durham Post

Second 1975 Topps Mini post of the week.  I feel like I have been regaining some momentum in my writing life over the past two weeks.  So, when I last left you earlier in the week, I had a total of 11 out of the 23 players in the 75 Mini set who appeared on the Durham Bulls at some point during their career.  I have a few more cards to post today, plus a few more this weekend or early next week. 

Four new cards for today.  First up is a former Raleigh-Durham Triangle.  There weren't any Minor League teams named the Sod Poodles or Trash Pandas during the 1970s, but the Triangles team name was some attempt to make the Durham Bulls sound like one of those odd nicknamed teams.  

Just a quick review, but Durham is a city in North Carolina.  Raleigh is another city in North Carolina.  Raleigh-Durham is an airport located in between Raleigh and Durham.  

This is quality picture of Raleigh-Durham. 

The words Raleigh-Durham also appear on the back of Cliff Johnson's 1975 Topps Mini card, but he never played a game at the airport.  Only a few different stadiums around the Carolina League.  

The top of the card is not bent, or creased, it just has some weird discoloration along the top.  We will make it a place holder for the moment and consider a replacement at a later date.  It's not like this is a very expensive card.  Cliff's career is usually remembered for all of his pinch-hit home runs, but he was an everyday player for the Astros early in his career.

Here is the Raleigh-Durham stat line.  Cliff did very well playing for the "Bulls", or Triangles.  The .332 batting average was the best in the Carolina League of anyone you might have heard of, 6 points ahead of Rennie Stennet.  The 27 home runs and 91 RBIs were more than anyone else in the league.  

Moving along.  

Ken Singleton is up next.  He was on the 1968 Raleigh-Durham Mets, which had a solid group of future Major Leaguers including Jim Bibby, Jon Matlack, and Ed Figueroa.  I like the powder blue Expos uniform on this card, and Singleton's big hard and sideburns.  

The edge of the card is cut a little weird.  Whatever card was printed next to this one is missing a little bit of paper.  Considering making this a place holder too, but for the moment I am happy to be filling in the checklist.  

Next.  

The "Red Rooster" was towards the end of his career at this point.  His first year in professional baseball was spent with the Bulls in 1965, but he was not in the Minors for very long.  Good career, think he would have been a bigger name if he hadn't spent his career with the Astros and Padres  I had cards of him as a kid since he managed the Rangers and Angels, but had no idea about him as a player.  

It's too bad the Astros weren't wearing the rainbow uniforms at this point, they would have been quite the combo with the colorful borders on these cards.  

Last one. 

You don't get much cross over between the Cardinals and Durham Bulls during the 1960s and 1970s, but here is one of the few players who appeared for both: 

Folkers appeared on the 1967 Durham Bulls while he was in the Mets organization.  It was the last year before the team name was changed to Raleigh-Durham Mets.  Folkers Minor League career was interrupted after he did a stint with the Army in Vietnam.  When he reached the Majors, Folkers was a spot starter and long reliever for most of his career.  His final season with the Cardinals in 1974 was the best of his career, with a 6-2 record and an ERA of 3.  

He would end up on the Padres later in his career where announcer Jerry Coleman was told his audience one evening that Folkers was "throwing up in the bullpen", rather than warming up.  Given his numbers for the Padres, it's always been debatable whether or not this was on purpose.  

Alright.  Let's check out the updated checklist.  

#44 - Pat Dobson

#89 - Jim Ray 

#90 - Rusty Staub 

#98 - Rich Folkers 

#125 - Ken Singleton 

#143 - Cliff Johnson 

#155 - Jim Bibby 

#165 - Doug Rader 

#180 - Joe Morgan 

#245 - Mickey Lolich 

#282 - Jerry Morales 

#286 - Mike Jorgensen 

#290 - Jon Matlack 

#342 - Leroy Stanton 

#343 - Danny Frisella 

#351 - Bob Boone 

#371 - Gates Brown 

#441 - Bob Heise 

#476 - Ed Figueroa 

#615 - Pat Darcy 

#621 - Rawley Eastwick 

#630 - Greg Luzinski 

#637 - Ted Martinez 

One more groups of cards to post this weekend, or early next week, but I am now down to just 8 cards to complete the set.  Feels pretty good.  

From The Company That Brought You The Oreo Cookie, Comes Canadian Baseball Cards

Nabisco makes some really good stuff.  

There is the Oreo Cookie, Ritz Crackers, Chips Ahoy!, and Fig Newtons just to name a few.  

Nabisco also made baseball cards.  I know a lot of collectors don't like the off-brand food cards from the 1990s for the same reasons that they do not like the current run of Panini cards.  The logos are airbrushed out on the players uniforms.  

I generally agree, but it's Nabisco.  I put them ahead of Panini because of their delicious snack foods, but they also they also make a much better baseball card.  Nabisco has come up with some quality cards in the past.  Logos or not, the 1993 All-Star Legends autograph set has a really strong checklist.  Honestly, I don't care that Don Drysdale doesn't have a Dodgers logo.  I don't care that they made the Dodger blue a little darker.  This is a great card.  

Well, in my quest to find some cards of former Durham Bulls players this summer, I ran across several who appeared in a Nabisco set from Canada.   The set is called Nabisco Tradition.  No word on whether Fleer ripped off the name from Nabisco later in the 1990s when they rebranded their base set.  I am a little unclear on all the details behind the product, but there are a total of 36 cards in the set that is divided evenly between Expos  and Blue Jays players.  All of the cards featured players from previous Expos and Blue Jays teams, no current members of the teams were included.  

As far as the Durham Bulls cards that I picked up, there were three cards in all.  Each a name the average baseball fan from the 1970s and 1980s would recognize.  The two appeared for the Bulls in the 1960s, the other in 1970. 

Let's look at the cards.  

The lone Blue Jay in my trio will be first.  

Not always a fan of "cartoon" cards, but these are really well done.  I am impressed that the card designer was able to squeeze the notable accomplishment of Cliff Johnson onto the front of the card in both English and French.  A little busy, but not too bad.  

Back of the card, also in French and English.  

Cliff Johnson was on the Blue Jays at the end of his career, which was in the mid 1980s.  I remember getting his cards as a kid.  Always on the Blue Jays, maybe a Rangers card or two in there too.  He appeared on the Durham Bulls while the team was in their weird late 1960s/early 1970s phase.  By weird, I mean Cliff Johnson actually played for the Raleigh-Durham Triangles.  

If you are unfimiliar with this area, Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill make up the Triangle.  Raleigh-Durham is actually an airport that is halfway between Raleigh and Durham.  Renaming the Durham Bulls the Raleigh-Durham Triangles would be like renaming the Yankees the LaGuardia Big Apples.  

Dumb.  

Anyway, since moving to North Carolina, I have learned a little more about Cliff Johnson's baseball career.  I always assumed he was some bench player who occasionally hit home runs based on the baseball cards of my childhood.  It turns out Cliff Johnson was a catcher, first baseman, and DH who won two World Series with the Yankees in the late 1970s before he became a pinch hitting home run hitter.  

By the way, Matt Stairs passed Cliff Johnson as the all-time pinch-hit home run leader, but it took him almost an extra 200 plate appearances to get there.  

Next. 

Favorite thing on this card is that the artist has Rusty Staub choking up on the bat.  Small detail, but something I learned about him when he passed away a few years back.  Not really surprising that he is in this set focused on older Expos players.  He had some great seasons during the 1960s and 1970s, several in Montreal, also really popular with Expos fans.  

Back of the card.  

I like that there is an explanation of the Expos logo. 

Staub appeared for the Durham Bulls in 1962 after the Houston Astros drafted him out of high school.  He was the Carolina League MVP that season.  The Bulls had Joe Morgan pass through town the following season, and the team retired his jersey.  Wish the team would do something similar for Staub.  At least give him a bobblehead.  

Last card.  

This is the part of the post where I advertise something.  

Do you like podcasts?  

I like baseball podcasts, started listening to them about two years ago.  One of my favorites is Baseball Beyond Batting Average.  Basically, it's two knowledgable baseball fans talking about all things baseball with a heavy lean on numbers.  If you don't like statistics, you're a big fan of the game-winning RBI, it's probably not going to be your cup of tea.  

Even if you don't decide to listen to the podcast, the two guys who make the Podcast have great baseball card related accounts on Twitter.  One is Baseball Card Backs and the other is IDrawBaseballCards.  

The last episode of Baseball Beyond Batting Average was all about underrated players from the 1970s.  They did a great job of picking out two players at each position who need a little more appreciation for their career numbers.  They won me over at Gene Tenace, but Ken Singleton also came up as one of those players.  I completely agree, more people should pay attention to Ken Singleton.  Not sure you could convince me he's a Hall of Famer, but he's at worst in the Hall of Very Good Players.  Maybe if he were playing today, with the heavier slant on advanced stats, more people would appreciate him.  

Singleton briefly played for the Durham Bulls.  (Checks notes)  

Singleton briefly played for the Raleigh-Durham Mets.  

He also had three great years playing with the Expos in the early 1970s.  Singleton was originally on the Mets, but was traded to Montreal for Rusty Staub early in his career.  Apparently he set the team RBI record in 1973.  You learn something new everyday.  

The artist did a good job with the details on this card.  The old 1970s Expos uniform has a lot of good and accurate detail, along with Singleton have the giant sideburns.  

The back would be better if they had included a fact that had something to do with Ken Singleton.  He was not on the Expos in 1978, so he did not hit one of the 8 home runs against the Braves during that game.  If Nabisco can come up with a Cliff Johnson specific highlight, they can come up with something for Ken Singleton.  

More 1970s Durham Bulls next week.  

Antiquing

I made a trek to Missouri last week for the holidays.  I lived outside of St. Louis growing up, so I enjoy making return visits.  After spending the better part of the day in the car with a three year old, and a nine year old, there is no better feeling than driving the last few miles of Illinois and seeing the Arch. 

My parents actually no longer live outside of St. Louis, so it is now just a dinner stop before we drive two hours further west.  At some point on every trip we make time to do a few things around town.  

I used to always make stops at card shops in St. Louis, but those have dwindled since my favorite shop in South County has closed.  I am also pretty sure that my kids would riot if I made them sit in the car for 12 hours, and then took them to a card shop.  It would not be pretty.  

We spent the majority of our time in Columbia, Missouri.  If you are not familiar with Missouri, it is halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City, just north of Jefferson City.  The University of Missouri is there.  I toured the card shop scene in the town a few years back, and I just avoid it altogether when I go there.  There is also a Target, but it's in the mall.  It's a hot mess.  

Luckily, my parents like antiques, and my father spotted a bunch of baseball cards in one of the local antique malls.  I spent a little bit of time visiting one morning, and found some pretty good deals on some vintage cards.  If you are a Missourian, or nearby, it's the Veranda Antique Mall off of I-70.  

There were some non-vintage cards there too.  Plenty of junk wax era cards that were being sold in binders, football and basketball cards, and all sorts of other nicknacks.  This was the sweetest non-baseball card item that I found at the store.

I should have looked up my old Durham Bulls team sets to see how much the Steve Avery cards were worth back in 1989.  Probably a pretty penny.  Some other time.  

On to the cards.  

Again, I mainly checked out the vintage card boxes, which had a lot of 1960s and 1970s baseball cards.  Many of the cards were $1, a few were slightly more.  I think I spent a total of $25 in the store, and walked away with roughly half a dozen cards. 

Here is my haul.  I scanned both the fronts and backs of the cards.  

Curt Simmons.  Cardinal.  

Tommy Harper.  Seattle Pilots.  

Wilbur Wood.  White Sox.  Raleigh Capitals.  Strikeouts.  

Rich Nye.  Cardinal.  Bird expert.  

Walt Williams.  Durham Bull.  

Doug Rader.  Durham Bull.  Part of Bill McCool's card back.  

Gates Brown.  Durham Bull.  

Ron Santo.  Hall of Famer.  

Dave Kingman.  Strikeouts.  

Mickey Lolich.  Strikeouts.  

Ken Singleton.  Durham Bull.  Actually, Raleigh-Durham Met.  

Jim Bunning.  Hall of Famer.  

Mickey Lolich.  Durham Bull.  

Harmon Killebrew.  Hall of Famer.  

This was a pretty good haul.