Charmed Auto Alyssa Milano Times Two

This is a super duper quick post as I have less than 10 minutes to publish. OK I'll do a publish and then edit later to make my self appointed monthly deadline. I also had to do this with the January post for my Nationals "Curly W Cards" Blog. It is cheating a little bit as the meat of the post was not published just basically the title and a little bit of blah, blah, blah to get in under the wire.

Phew now my archived postings will not have a blank for January 2021. Where was I? Oh yeah a couple of Alyssa Milano on card Autographed cards from the television series Charmed. These were not pulled autos but after market signings probably done in mass before or after some convention through the company that produced the COAs for them Alpha Memorabilia. Both cards have a matching COA and a holograph sticker with certification number. Yeah, yeah an autograph with a COA big deal, doesn't mean it is legit. Maybe they are maybe they aren't for these I don't care. I got them from Ebay a few years back I forget exactly when or the exact cost of them. I know because of my cheapness I would not have paid more than $30 a piece not including shipping (shipping might have been free but I'm not sure as I don't recall exact prices here or when I got it. I might be able to research it and track down that stuff but I don't want to it isn't necessary. I think they were actually $20 or less I think possibly even $15. The cards the autos are on are not huge sought after cards from the series so I doubt they were too much. People want the certified autos that have the "A-#" numbers. The certified autograph cards of Alyssa and the other sisters from these Charmed sets that were distributed in the boxes and packs go for way way way too much usually at least 3 digits sometimes auctions start at OK price so it might be possible to get one for maybe $50 sometime, but I doubt it the way autograph prices for anything on cards are now-days. 

Both are from the 2006 Inkworks "Charmed Destiny" card set. The set consists of 72 base cards, which these cards are from, 11 Autograph cards, 9 Costume cards ("jersey"/Relic), 6 "Bad Karma" cards looks to be villians, 9 "Unforgettable" cards, which is a 9 card puzzle picture, 3 box loaders cards, a 1 card case loader autograph card of Brad Kern Executive Producer, and 5? Promo cards which I have a few of (at one time I had planed on making a post of those promo cards I do have. Maybe sometime I will). I might not have all the promo cards I'm not sure it's been a while since I've looked at what I have and TCDB doesn't list promo cards very well anymore. I have some promo cards from the television series Warehouse 13 that used to be there but are not there anymore. But I digress.

The first card is card number 20 Ask Phoebe

2006 Inkworks Charmed Destiny - 20 Ask Phoebe

Second card is number 25 On Ice

2006 Inkworks Charmed Destiny - 25 On Ice

Here are the backs of the cards with the backs of the COAs

So yeah it took me about 1/2 an hour to actually compose this post. I started the scanning of cards for this post (and my "Curly W Cards" January 2021 blog post) at about 10:30 PM on Sunday 31 January 2021 and it was 10 til Midnight when I was ready to start drafting these posts.

A Six Pack of Sports Books

When getting ready to do a review on a book I read now about 2 years ago (OK so I'm really behind in lots of things) for my personal non-card blog I realized I had a couple of old sports related books, then I thought of a couple of other sports books I had read within the last year or so. I decided to at least mention and show the books. OK so it's not card related but Its a fun sports thing.

The list started growing and next thing I know I had six sports related books I wanted to talk about. Then I realized that three of them were on Baseball and three of them Football. 3 of them are vintage books and 3 are more modern or new. One of the vintage ones I haven't read yet but the others I have read. I just haven't reviewed them yet.
Onto the books first the "Veterans":

The Year The Yankees Lost The Pennant

by Douglas Wallop

 The Year The Yankees Lost The Pennant covers

In the above picture Top: Original Dust Jacket and actual spine/front cover of book. Bottom: various paperback covers over the years. Includes the more recent "Damn Yankees" cover (blue with kissed baseball from the 1994 revival).

The Year The Yankees Lost The Pennant was written in the mid 1950s when the New York Yankees were all but unstoppable and were the Kings of the baseball diamond. It was first published in 1954. The story is the typical "Faustian bargain" of making a deal with the devil. In this case a diehard Washington Senators fan Joe Boyd meets a Mr. Applegate (aka: the Devil) and makes a deal with him to get the Senators into the pennant race Applegate turns frumpy middle-aged Joe Boyd into young studly Joe Hardy the super player that the Senators need to pull them from the division cellar and put them on top of those "Damn Yankees".  Yes this is the book that inspired the Broadway musical "Damn Yankees".  Some of the later printings (Like the one with Gwen Verdon on the cover) have updated the year the story takes place from 1958 to 1964. 



 Original Dust Jacket for Year Yankees Lost Pennant

Very rare (and super duper too damn expensive) dust jacket

advertising the Broadway musical "Damn Yankees"

In 1955 when the musical "Damn Yankees" opened a special flyer was inserted onto (or a sticker put on) the book's dust jacket. I think these were only produced in May 1955 for the musical's opening (I haven't found any good info on this rare gem). Due to the rarity of this advertisement on the dustcover (which in themselves are somewhat of a rarity now) the copies with it on the cover are very expensive. I would love to get a copy of it, but I don't think I ever will due to the price.

The Jim Thorpe Story: America's Greatest Athlete

by Gene Schoor

The Jim Thorpe Story: America's Greatest Athlete by Gene Schoor. Is a truly fascinating biography of one of the greatest if not THE GREATEST all-around athletes of the 20th Century. Originally published in 1951 when Thorpe was still very much alive it ends on a happy note. He died in 1953. The copy I read and have pictured here is the 4th printing from 1969 but still maintains the original text so there is no mention of his death.

My Greatest Day in Football

by Murray Goodman and Leonard Lewin

My Greatest Day in Football by Murray Goodman and Leonard Lewin. Of the books I'm mentioning in this post this one I have not read yet. Originally printed in 1949 the copy I have at the back says it is a reprint that faithfully reprints the original 1949, but I have no idea when it actually was reprinted by Bantam Books my guess is about mid '50s up to maybe mid '60s. My copy is in pretty rough shape as you can see by the scan. The condition of the cover and the golden brown yellowing of the pages leads me to believe my copy is closer to the '50s than '60s. I am worried about trying to read it, just as I was worried when I read my copies of the two books above (The Jim Thorpe Story and The Year The Yankees Lost The Pennant)

Next The "Rookies":

Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee

by Allan Barra

Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee by Allan Barra. I have never been a New York Yankees fan, but I have almost always had a soft spot for Yogi. This biography makes him even more likable and tells a lot of the Yogi stories that led to a famous Yogiisms. A "Yogiism" is a strange quote that is credited to Yogi as being something he said at one time. Like "It ain't over till it's over". As many baseball historian/fans know many of the sayings that have become a Yogiism are not necessarily what Yogi really said. "I didn't really say everything I said". Some of them he remembers saying and can verify others he said maybe likely that he said it or something similar that was twisted to become a Yogiism. I think there are more of the latter than the former. After reading this book I have more respect for the man and realize that his neanderthal image was just that. He really is quite an intelligent guy and over the years made some wise investments.

The Book of Deacon: The Wit and Wisdom of Deacon Jones

by Deacon Jones and John Klawitter

The Book of Deacon by Deacon Jones and John Klawitter. This book is a super quick read as it is just basically a book of collected quotes and zen-like sayings. No doubt many of the things in there are things that Decon Jones has said over the years, but a few are so common sense and logical that I have a feeling anybody could write them down in a collection like this and say they originally said them. It is a very enjoyable book.

Safe At Home: Confessions of a Baseball Fanatic

by Alyssa Milano

Safe at Home: Confessions of a Baseball Fanatic by Alyssa Milano. This book doubles as an autobiography and a guide to baseball history and slang for becoming a well versed baseball "fanatic". If you thought Alyssa was just a pretty face you are only half right. She may have same silly ideas and occasionally come off as being a California Air-Headed Girl she really knows her Baseball.

Bonus book: Tug McGraw's Scroogie

A Scroogie comic strip clipped from the Washington Post (or maybe the Washington Star)

 Scroogie by Tug McGraw and Mike White. In 1975 a fun comic strip hit the newspapers. I was going to make a separate post about this comic strip and book but when I started this post it seemed like a cool thing to add. Scroogie was written by baseball's Tug McGraw based on his career with the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies thus the name for the fictional team depicted in the strips the Pets.

Two books were published of the strips in 1976 and 1977. It seems that the second book is the rarer of the two rare books.

 

Front of "Scroogie" book 1976

Back of "Scroogie" book 1976

There is a second Scroogie book titled "Scroogie 2: Hello There, Ball!"  I don't have a copy but I would love to get one.

Cover of Scroogie 2: Hello There, Ball! 1977

The image of the second Scroogie book I found on the webpage The Comic Treadmill. I have seen several sites make reference to it but they don't have a cover image.

Bonus Non-Sport Promo Cards

I forget when I got these promo cards but they came as a FREEBIE bonus from some seller I think from sportlots.com but it could have been from Ebay. I'm fairly certain though that my purchase had been some sports cards so why they included some Non-Sport cards I don't know. That is another of my little pet peeves of card sellers the inclusion of a "Bonus" card(s) that are not related to the card you purchased. If I buy some football cards then give me some football cards as a bonus preferably the same team, not baseball or basketball or non-sport. If I order non-sport cards either send cards from these same series, a similar series or something that is non-sport don't send me no baseball or football cards with my TV or general entertainment cards. I think it is better to not include a bonus than to include something totally unrelated.

Now onto the cards I received all of them are TV or Movie related and are made by Inkworks.

The first two are for sets from the TV show Charmed which starred Alyssa Milano, Holly Marie Combs, and Rose McGowan (who replaced Shannon Doherty). I haven't gotten the Charmed sets yet, but I would like to and maybe try to find some of the other promo cards, but not any of the costume cards those are the non-sport version of a jersey card. I have never liked the idea of cutting up memorabilia into little 1" squares to glue onto 2.5" x 3.5" pieces of cardboard.

 2006 Inkworks - P1 Charmed Destiny Promo Card

 2004 Inkworks - CC1 Charmed Connections Promo Card

2004 Inkworks - CC1 Charmed Connections Promo Card Back

This final card is from a family movie The Golden Compass by New Line Cinema. It is for trade or I might sell it for like 2 bucks.

2007 Inkworks - GC-P1 The Golden Compass Promo Card