Washington Wednesday: R.I.P. Wes "Mr. Bullet" Unseld

R.I.P. WES UNSELD 1946-2020

On Tuesday 02 June of this year 2020 while doing my daily routine of checking out the main page of TCDB (Trading Card Database) for the random card of the day, new forum posts, born on today and then finally In Memoriam I saw the image of a familiar RC. (I don't have the card but am familiar with it). That of perhaps the most iconic Washington Basketball Player of All-Time Wes Unseld. I was beyond shocked another of my childhood sports idols passed from this Earth. I think it was during the years between his playing career (1981) to his coaching career (1988) that I drifted away from being a basketball fan and would eventually stop caring about the sport until a few years ago. Plus I was more attached to football at the time, as the Washington Senators were long gone, and the Washington Capitals were not very good yet.

1969-70 Topps Basketball: 56 Wes Unseld Baltimore Bullets

Image from comc.com

OK so his rookie card was when the Bullets were still the Baltimore Bullets, but the man would play his entire career with the Bullets Franchise, work with the front office and then later return to the court as Head Coach. He then moved onto General Manager for the team on into the transition to the name change to Wizards and a few years after that.

Here are some (but not all) of my Unseld Cards as a tribute to one of my childhood Icons. For the most part I have already shown these cards on this blog sometime previously so I don't need to explain them.

The following items are a few gems in my collection:

Next is a "card" in my collection that is more of a mini poster than a real "card" it is from 1969-70 Topps and they call it a "ruler" it is only 10 inches by 2.5 inches so not a true ruler but hey it is only paper. I got it from Ebay I think some years back for I forget how much I might have mentioned where and when some posts back a few years back.

1969-70 Topps Basketball Ruler: 22 Wes Unseld Baltimore Bullets

Finally here is a photo of an item I have from my childhood, the photo is actually from an image search I did a few years back and from someone's Ebay auction for which they had I think the whole set was listed for of course way too much money. I forget if they sold or not. Anyway as I said this is something that I actually have but not my copy in the image (I haven't scanned or photographed mine). It is a mini poster that was available from McDonald's in 1976. The size is 12" x 16" One of those premium things during the basketball season that year. Each week they featured a new poster that had two caricatures of Washington Bullets players. There are a total of 4 mini posters. This is the one with Wes and K.C. Jones.

1976 McDonald's Washington Bullets mini poster: K.C. Jones and Wes Unseld

Say Hey Hey Willie

I got a great deal on an excellent card in a Sportlots auction. Not sure if it is a true White Whale or not. It is a vintage card of a Super Star of the game. I am a little surprised I didn't have to fight tooth and nail for it. It is that classic 1959 Topps Baseball design, based on the 1958 Topps Football. When I first started looking back to vintage cards before my time I discovered the Baseball version first I think. Well whichever I found first I like the overall design. I don't remember how old I was when I first saw the design but I think I was kind of young and it may have taken me a year or two to realize that they are in fact the same design. OK so the football is oval and the baseball is a circle so what?

Of course it isn't in the greatest of shapes but it is good 'nuff for my collection. So the financial damages were $15.50 plus $3.95 shipping. Not bad. The low starting bid of $15 was what drew me to the auction. I think I put $25 as my max bid, maybe just $20 due to lower condition. For some cards I don't mind well rounded super soft corners.

1959 Topps Baseball: 50 Willie Mays Giants

300 Posts? You Are Kidding Right?

To take a little break from my group break I am making this Blog Milestone Announcement. This post is Post #300:

I don't normally even bother with post counts, but I do check it out from time to time along with some of the other stats of the site. Usually though it is disappointing. To reach #300 It only took 5 years, 7 months and 11 days to be exact. Well technically one of the posts in my draft queue is number three-hundred, but I won't get that technical especially since I'm not sure which one would be the exact number three oh-oh.

In thinking of what I was going to post for this announcement I first searched for some kind of generic 300 image to use but 99% of the pictures to pop up in a search for 300 are for that movie about the Spartans made a few years back about the Ancient Greek Battle of Thermopylae. If you don't know the movie I'm talking about lookie here.

Then I had to be a bit more specific in my searching and thought about modern baseball players and cards since this is a card blog. I thought maybe I'd show card number 300 from this years Topps Baseball but I didn't want to show the Mike Trout card. Then I thought about players who are in the 300 Home Run club. I didn't know who to feature then I looked at the Top 300 Home Run Hitters and sitting at number 137 with exactly 300 Home Runs is HOFer Chuck Klein. He is the only guy on the list right now with exactly 300.

Mr. Klein known mostly for being with the Phillies also played on the Cubs and Pirates. Looking to try to find a picture or a card of Chuck whetted my appetite for some vintage cards.

Booty From A Baseball Group Break In The Zone

Back in January of this year (2014) I got my Booty from a Baseball Group Box Break over at TCZ. My chosen team was the Nationals. I used to have the Orioles in the group as well, but finances (mostly frequent major car repairs) have made taking two teams in groups difficult. This was one of those breaks were unfortunately I didn't get much from my own team. The only card I did get was a two player card, both players prospects fortunately the other team was unclaimed. I'm not a big fan of prospect cards, many of the guys never make it to the bigs. The rest of the cards I got were random base from unclaimed teams and a randomized hit. I think that card almost makes up for the lack of my homie team. It is from one of my PC 1970s childhood HOF guys.

2012 Panini Elite Extra Edition Baseball: (These 6 cards are for trade/sale/giveaway)

14 Brian Johnson Red Sox
23 Tyler Gonzales Blue Jays
65 Kolby Copeland Marlins
73 Dario Pizzano Mariners
77 Rio Ruiz Astros
100 Andrew Lockett Padres

Next the only Nationals card from the break:

Building Blocks 16 Richie Shaffer Rays and Spencer Kieboom Nationals

Next a HOFer from the Golden Oldie age:

2013 Topps Triple Threads 82 Jimmie Foxx Red Sox

Special Randomized HIT:

2013 Topps Tier One: Legends Relics TORL-GB George Brett Royals GU Bat #d 49/99

Add To The 1993 Ted Williams Set: Johnny Mize

One of the many sets I am trying to finish that will probably never be finished since I have so many of them to complete is the 1993 Ted Williams Baseball set and some of it's sub-sets/inserts. On 13 January 2014 (hey a month ago, see some of my posts can be fairly recent and dust-free) I got a couple of cards from two separate sportlots auctions from a seller in Canada for the opening bid of 25¢. One of those cards is the one I'm showing right now, the other I think will be a "Card of the Whenever". So for the shipping of two sportlots cards of $3.14. So here is the nice Hall of Famer from the 1993 Ted Williams Baseball set.

1993 Ted Williams Baseball 66 Johnny Mize Yankees

(Front and Back)

I either have to adjust some settings on my scanner (yeah like that is gonna happen) or get a new scanner (ditto) some of my recent scans have had these wavy lines which are more noticeable when the images are enlarged. Anyway for those who have extra cards from this set, or just don't collect this set and have some here is my need list to finish it up.

1993 Ted Williams:
Base: 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 57, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 68, 69, 71, 73, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 83, 84, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 123, 126, 127, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 142, 148, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159,
Brooks Robinson: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Roberto Clemente: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

A Berra Full of Yogis

For as long as I can remember Yogi Berra has been an icon of Major League Baseball. He is one of the classic vintage players that I keep a lookout for to find a deal on his cards. Most of the cards issued during his playing years and somewhat his managing years are bloody expensive. Anyway I thought it would be fun to show some of his cards that I have. So I will just show some of them mostly because I don't have all of them scanned (and I noticed one of these I didn't have the back scanned silly me)

First here is a card from when he turned coat from New York Yankee to New York Met. It is his 1965 Topps card. This is also a fortunate but sneaky way to mention my "Strive for '65" Goal to have that entire set by April of 2015. I got it from Ebay for a steal back in 2012 for $7.95 + $2.25 shipping. (here is my mention of the card on the TCC forum Steals board. The thread lies because it has been scanned since then).

 1965 Topps Baseball 470 Yogi Berra Mets

(Front and Back)

Next up: From 2005 Donruss Signature Series. I forget if this was a purchase or a trade. Purchase I think along with a handful of other HOF cards. I might have overpaid but I don't recall.

2005 Donruss Signature Series HOF-32 Yogi Berra Yankees

(Front and Back)

Now one of those modern retro cards from 2009 Goodwin Champions made by Upper Deck. I have two of these I think one I had bought and the other I either pulled from a pack or traded for it. I think at one time I might have had 3 of these. Anyway I was lazy a few years back when I scanned it. I had scanned it in the toploader and never got around to scanning the back so the back image appears "Courtesy of COMC.com"
 

2009 UD Goodwin Champions 62 Yogi Berra Yankees

(Front and Back)

Ooh this next one is pretty darn cool. I got this one back in the day from the original source of how you normally got them. It is a food product card. It is card number one from a five card gimmick "pop-up"card set of Hall of Fame players. The idea was to pull the tab on the top up and the card "pops" open. I never to my best recollection "popped" mine. I took it out of the original plastic wrapping. Maybe a bad move there. To think at one time in the late 90s I was tempted to sell it, but NOT NOW. I plan on keeping it I was insane then and didn't remember who was on the card. The number is on the front "1 of 5" but it is not a serial number 1 of 5. I want to get the other four cards some time (hmm I noticed a full set on the bay I started watching it). In 1995 Stouffer's food included these "Legends of Baseball" cards in some of their frozen dinner products. Hmmm back in '95 they might have still made "TV Dinners" for standard ovens with the aluminum foil with special instructions on if you wanted to microwave the meal. I forget exactly what product it came in. Was it meat loaf, or turkey w/ gravy?

 1995 Stouffer's Legends of Baseball Pop-Ups 1 Yogi Berra Yankees

(Front and Back)

Yogi has three sons two of which went into professional sports like dad. Dale followed dad's footsteps into baseball. Here is a father/son card from Topps 1985.

 1985 Topps Baseball 132 Father Yogi Berra Yankees Son Dale Berra Pirates

(Front and Back)

While son Tim decided to go into Football:

 1975 Topps Football 301 Tim Berra Baltimore Colts

(Front and Back)

Washington Wednesday: Wes Unseld Hall Monitor

WASHINGTON WEDNESDAY: Wes Unseld Hall Monitor

In early January of this year 2014. I bought this sweet shiny card from a fellow member form the TCC forums for just $5 delivered. A Wes Unseld Bullets card number 22 It is from the 2013 Panini Prizm Basketball set The "Hall Monitors" 25 card Hall of Fame Sub-Set. I might try for a partial rainbow of Wes Unseld but with two 1/1 "black parallels" (Black Prizm and Black Prizm Mosaic) a full rainbow is next to impossible. There are enough of the other colors to make even a partial rainbow hard. I might try to get the base cards (and maybe some parallel colors) of a few of the other players: Moses Malone, Earl Monroe. Not sure if I'll try for a full base set of this sub-set.

 2013 Panini Prizm Basketball: Hall Monitors 22 Wes Unseld Bullets

(Front and Back)

Card of the Whenever: 1959 Topps Baseball Roy Campanella

After coming up with an idea for my Curly W Cards blog of showing off one Washington Baseball Card and calling the feature "SeNators Singles", I have decided to do something similar here. If you read enough card blogs you will notice that some of the bloggers have a "card of the day" or a "card of the week" feature where they feature a random card from their collection on a regular basis. Some blogs ARE that feature. Due to my posting nature I won't be able to do a daily feature, and sometimes a weekly feature I get lazy so for this feature it will be "whenever".  It won't necessarily be "regular" in the sense of having a fixed schedule. It will just happen when it happens. So Deal with it. Speaking of deals...

I keep surprising myself with cards that I have failed to mention on this blog but I had mentioned in some of my very seldom "mail day" posts on various card forums. This card is one such card. It is a highly sought after card that often sells for ridiculously over inflated prices even for vintage cards and even for a Hall of Famer. I can understand high prices sometimes for vintage and super Hall of Famers. What I can not understand those ridiculous overinflated prices for a brand new card that has an autograph, on a sticker I might add, and/or a tiny piece of what is supposed to be part of a uniform they supposedly wore at one time. Sometimes for a player that hasn't even played a single professional game yet. OH come on seriously people? Yeah I am a bit of a cheap scape.

Now for the steal: Before I won this card I had seen some auctions for it go for a little less than (but not much) what I ended up paying and I missed bidding on them or was outbid cause I was low-balling a little. The price I ended up paying hits close to my upper limits for an individual card, but for a card like this I might have even gone a little over my top price. The card is in what I would say is Pretty Good to Very Good condition, the dealer had it marked as being in Fair to Good condition.

THE CARD:

1959 Topps Baseball 550 "Symbol of Courage" Roy Campanella

Here is the back:

Nope didn't get it for that little, but I would love to have. That is the price sticker that was on the penny sleeve it was in, it was also in a toploader but I scanned it "naked" without the glaring toploader. I also scanned the back raw so all the info can be read.

I received the card on Wednesday 06 March 2013 (This year? Really I thought it was last year). I got it for (hold on to your seat) $24.99 Shipping was FREE. I have seen it listed on Ebay with starting bids of twice or three times as much sometimes in much worse condition. Copies in better condition I could see paying a bit more heck I might have even gone up another 5 bucks but $30-$40 is my upper limits for a single card at this time, even vintage cards of Hall of Famers. I am glad I found one at an affordable price. It makes trying to complete these vintage sets that much easier.

Happy Birthday Number Nine!

23 August 2013:
It is NFL Hall of Famer Sonny Jurgensen's 79th birthday. Happy Birthday Sonny! Here is what was on Facebook this morning on the Redskins Page:

image from Redskins page at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/redskins

Another birthday mention is on the blog "Can't Have Too Many Cards" with some cool Sonny pics, some of which I hadn't seen before.

Sonny J. is one of my All-Time favorite QBs if not my favorite. He is best remembered as a Redskin, but he started his NFL career in Philadelphia with the Eagles.

1958 Topps Football 90 Sonny Jurgensen RC Eagles

In 1964 Sonny was traded to the Skins in a trade that involved QB Norm Snead. That meant that a few of his late 1960s trading cards even though they were labeled as him being on the Skins, used  an old photo of him in his green Eagles jersey.

1968 Topps Football Stand-Ups Insert 10 Sonny Jurgensen Redskins

A couple of my fave Sonny cards I have scanned. There are a few more in my Sonny PC but I don't have them scanned or at least don't have the scanned images online anywhere yet.

1970 Kellogg's Football 53 Sonny Jurgensen Redskins

1970 Topps Football Mini Glossy Insert 20 Sonny Jurgensen Redskins

OK this last pic is not a card but it is cool memorabilia. In 1971 (and '72) The Mattel Toy company made little battery operated "toy" record players with 2.5" discs of the popular sports figures of the day. Called Instant Replay I got this Sonny Jurgensen one off of Ebay for $6.99 + $2.00 shipping.

Happy BirthdayGood old number Nine, I'm not sure why the Redskins have not retired his number yet. They should before some hotshot kid claims it and has a terrible career while wearing it, or someone from another team that wears the number like Mr. Romo gets traded to the Skins. Oh I did a quick Google and technically not retired, The Redskins have a sort of non-retirement policy, his number along with several other Redskins legends like John Riggins are "Unofficially" retired.

Dualing Hall Of Famers

This is one of these just because posts. I really need to start doing this sort of post more often especially on my other blog Curly W Cards since that one I have made fewer posts on than on here.

In 2008 Upper Deck made a very cool set of cards Baseball Heroes. It is a nice set and I like it but there are a zillion and one parallel cards. What else is new in card collecting pains?

Anyway here is a card from that set of one of my fave all-time players Cal Ripken Jr. Orioles with his Hall of Fame Classmate Tony Gwynn Padres. Both players are now oddities in the sports world for playing solely on one team their entire careers. I think I have a few duplicates of this card. I forget if I have any of the different color parallels to it.

 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes 180 Call Ripken Jr. Orioles and Tony Gwynn Padres

(Front And Back)