Senators Singles: 1959 Topps Hal Griggs

 

1959 Topps Hal Griggs

OK so here is a single card post. I got this card from a Sportlots auction for the 25 cents opening bid. I won 3 other auctions and mentioned the hole lot over at my regular card blog. So here we go 1959 Washington Senator Right Handed Pitcher Hal Griggs.

1959 Topps Baseball 434 Hal Griggs

Senators Singles: Another Bob

Another Bob: 1958 Topps

OK so here is the Bob card I was going to post about last month when I was looking to see if I had scanned the card in preparation to make a post about it. As with many Senators that played with the club way before I was born I don't know much in the career specifics of this player.

The player for the card of this post is Bob Malkmus who began his career with the Braves in 1957 they were still in Milwaukee then. This boy is All American being born on the 4th of July in 1931 in New Jersey. The autumn of '57 he was sent to the minors by the Braves and picked up by Washington for the Rule 5 Draft. Then at the end of the '59 season he was once again put in the Rule 5 Draft and picked up by The Phillies. His playing career ended in 1962 with Philly. He was a scout for a few clubs and also managed a few farm teams including the Expos. His career batting average is .215 with 8 Homers and 46 RBIs.

 1958 Topps Baseball: 356 Bob Malkmus

Interestingly his Minor League lifetime stats on the back of the card look a bit better than his overall Major League stats.

Senators Singles: 1955 Bowman Style

1955 Bowman Bob Porterfield

Some readers may have already seen this card when I showed it on my regular card blog for reference while showing some retro Rams football cards that used the 1966 Topps Football design which in turn is an homage to the original 1955 Bowman Baseball design. I'm not sure why I chose this particular card for that other post when I really should have reserved it here were it belongs.

1955 Bowman Baseball: 304 Bob Porterfield

Upon studying this card the blurb on the back is awesome. It reads: 

MY BIGGEST THRILL IN BASEBALL

by Bob Porterfield

Baseball is a game of many thrills, but my own came on May 5, 1953. You know how they always say a pitcher remembers his hits, well, this was the day I hit a home run, and with the bases loaded. Not only was it a thrill hitting my first homer, but there was also the added thrill of having it a grand slam. I'll never forget it.

Wow! Awesome achievement for any player, but remember Bob was a pitcher in the AL years before the designated hitter position was created. Extra awesome.

By the way, I was going to scan and show a completely different card for this Senators Singles post. Oddly enough it was another Bob. In searching my scanned baseball cards folder looking for the other Bob card to see if I had scanned it (I had not) I came across the '55 Porterfield. I then checked my blogs to see if I had posted that card already, or if it was a waiting to be blogged scan. It had been posted already on my regular card blog, but not here.  

Senators Singles: 1954 Topps Wayne Terwilliger

1954 Topps Wayne Terwilliger

I should do this feature more often. I have considered a few times to try to do a daily single card posting thing with this feature along the lines of the blog Orioles Card "O" the Day (he only shows the card front), but I don't have the blogging stamina or the motivation to do it, even just the front. I think it would be fun to do though. Of course 99% of it would have to be planned well in advance and the posts drafted up and placed in the scheduled posting queue. I certainly have more than enough cards to post about. Some of the posts would appear to be "quick and dirty" posts since some of my cards I have no real back story for. I just collected them because I needed them for the collection. If I did do it I might have to yet again make a new blog, divide this blog in two or double post. UGH I already have 3 blogs to keep track of and organize. That is at least 2 blogs too many. OK so no new additional blog, just expand the scope of this blog to include more frequent single card posts. Since I really don't feel like taking the effort to post daily I'll settle on trying to post single card posts more often. Heck I need to just post more often. I will also try to make them all interesting.

Ah found a card that had been sitting in my pictures/baseball cards folder on my ancient XP laptop. From the looks of the scan it was also saved before I started using PhotoScape to finish up my scanned images a year or two ago. I don't think I've talked about this card anywhere.

1954 Topps Baseball: 73 Wayne Terwilliger

Senators Singles: Dick Hyde 1959 Topps

1959 Topps Dick Hyde

Once again I face the end of a month without having a single post. Forcing me to have a quick and dirty post. This card I got from a Sportlots auction for the minimum 25¢ opening bid. I vaguely mentioned this card in my latest Strive for '65 update on my regular card blog but didn't identify it.

Since this is a quick and dirty end of the month post I'll just show the card:

1959 Topps Baseball: 498 Dick Hyde

I also have Dick's 1960 Topps card at one time I think I had 3 or 4 of that card. I probably still have a dupe or two of that '60 card. Not sure but I know I have sent at least one to another collector.

An Ancient Contest From Trading Card Central

In trying to come up with a fun post I recalled a semi-annual contest that the Trading Card Central (TCC) forum used to have. I forget if it was done last year or not. I would occasionally participate in it even though it often stresses me out trying to come up with what to show/post in the limited time given. The winner of the contest would usually get a cool predetermined prize or a huge lot of cards for their PCs. Sometimes all of the above. The contest was called "The Battle Royal" and was a free-for-all elimination type of contest, any forum member could enter the contest. The structure of the contest was that once a week there would be a challenge to post cards from whatever the head judge came up with. Post your best game used card, best on card autograph, favorite player, favorite odd-ball card etc... The contestants then had a specific amount of time to post cards from their collection that met the requirements for that round's challenge. It was usually like 48 hours from the time the challenge was posted. After the contestants posted their entries, other members could vote on what they liked, but usually the head judge would choose which he liked best. Contestants were awarded points for each round. I think the eliminations began either before or after round three. The total number of rounds would depend on how many contestants there were and how the "ring leader" of the contest judged or scored things and how many contestants got eliminated each round.

For the 2015 TCC Battle Royal I managed to stick it out til the final 3.  The first challenge was a difficult one to decide on. Here is the challenge instructions:

Round 1- Field A Team

Cards/Team can be from any team sport and of any type. There must be a card for each position and the player depicted on that card must actually play or have played that position. If you choose baseball and use cards from an AL team, you must have both a DH and a P as well as the other positions. All players must have the same team on their uniforms.

Entries must be posted by 11:59 PM on Tuesday August 4th.

Let's Rumble.

Yeah OK. My first thought was to do a Redskins team, but Football requires too many offense and defense players. I'm pretty sure I could cover all the positions, but trying to decide on some of them would be difficult and for QB would I go with Sunny J. or Sammy B.? I also thought about the Capitals  My problems with them would have been to decide on some of the representatives for some of the positions. I also thought about using the Nationals but I had to make sure I had them in Nats uniforms, some of my Nats guys at the time I didn't have them in a Nats uniform. Long story short I decided to field a vintage Senators team. In the end it is sort of my Fantasy Pre-Expos All-Time Senators/Nationals Team.

I only showed the card fronts on the forum. I'll add the backs here as a bonus. I had scanned any backs and fronts I was missing at the time of the contest, but due to the image limit on the forums I had to leave the backs off. Note some of these cards I have already shown previously on this blog somewhere.

Here is my (two post) entry pretty much how it was posted (with the exception of the backs added here and slightly different format):

Dang what a way to start this thing. Sheesh. OK so I'm gonna kick it old school with my Homie Senators.

Da Pitchman: Tomorrow
Walter "The Big Train" Johnson

1994 Ted Williams Baseball 89 Walter Johnson

Da Catcher: Today
Paul Casanova

1969 Topps Baseball 486 Paul Casanova

INFIELD:
1st Base: Who
Mike Epstein

1970 Kellogg's 3-D Baseball 24 Mike Epstein

2nd Base: What
Bernie Allen

1970 Topps Baseball 577 Bernie Allen

3rd Base: I Don't Know
Eddie Yost

1950 Bowman Baseball 162 Eddie Yost

Short Stop: I Don't Give A Darn
Ed Brinkman

1968 Topps Baseball 49 Ed Brinkman

Uh Oh almost forgot the image limit. It's what only 10? 6? 5? Been ages since I've posted tons of pics here. [For the record the image limit at the TCC forums is 10 images per post. That was post 1 now post 2]

OUTFIELD:

Left Field: Why
Roy Sievers

1956 Topps Baseball 75 Roy Sievers

Center Field: Because
Whitey Herzog

1958 Topps Baseball 438 Whitey Herzog

Right Field: Nobody
Frank Howard

1968 Topps Baseball 320 Frank Howard

Even though the Senators (2.0) moved before the DH came about I wanted to have Killer in the lineup somewhere and since I had already used 3rd Base. Killebrew did have some at bats as the DH for the Twins in the last couple of years of his career.

DESIGNATED HITTER:
Harmon Killebrew

1960 Topps Baseball 210 Harmon Killebrew

MANAGER:
Ted Williams

1969 Topps Baseball 650 Ted Williams

COACHES:

Ellis Clary
Sam Mele
Bob Swift

1960 Topps Baseball 470 Coaches

Senators and Nationals mentioned:
Bernie Allen
Ed Brinkman
Paul Casanova
Ellis Clary
Mike Epstein
Whitey Herzog
Frank Howard
Walter Johnson
Harmon Killebrew
Sam Mele
Roy Sievers
Bob Swift 
Ted Williams
Eddie Yost

Updating A Page Or Two

Updates for Apr and May 2016

OK so I did a little updating on a page or two in the last couple of months. My original date for this post was mid February Ouch. Here is what I have done that I remembered doing in preparation for this post.

Something that I should do more often and every time I acquire new Curly W cards is to update my Curly W Teams Checklists. 1950s | 1960s,

?What else have I updated? Not sure as I said I don't update as often as I should and I usually just do piddly little changes that don't amount to much. I also tend to abandon these update type of posts for weeks, months at a time and then have to edit and reedit them. I also need to stop my procrastination of posting til the end of the month. That makes for the dangerous going a month without posting anything.

Once again procrastination has forced me to do only one lousy post to this blog. I also haven't done much scanning. Including scanning an older yearbook I got way back in march that I haven't mentioned here or scanned. It has a cool article on Walter Johnson I was planning on mentioning, possibly reviewing. Dang it now I got to re-read that for a review. Big Heavy *sigh*

Senators Singles: 1953 Topps Les Peden

1953 Topps Les Peden

Just in time to finally do a post for this month. Phew. OK got this card from a Sportlots auction back on 16 Jan 2016 for .75¢ + $1.99 shipping. I jumped at this one when I saw the auction, I think the seller called it a short print. I jumped on it for that plus I needed it. Sure I have the Team Reprint set. I need to scan the reprint and compare. D'oh!

1953 Topps Baseball - 256 Les Peden Senators

(Front and Back)

Senators Singles: Roy Sievers

1956 Topps Roy Sievers

I'm feeling a little down since the Nats have fallen solidly into second place behind the Mets. It looks like it may be the way the season ends with no Post-Season joy, they are too far behind in the wild card race. To cheer myself up a little I'll stare at this vintage Curly W Card for the rest of the evening.

 1956 Topps 75 Roy Sievers (Front and Back)

Senators Singles: Poor Pinholed Pedro

1956 Topps Pinhole Pedro

OK so this card has some damage to it in a top corner but I only got it for a quarter from Sportlots shipping was steep at $4.50 but two other vintage cards rode along with it a couple of Baltimore Birds from '55. 

 1956 Topps Baseball 49 Pedro Ramos Nationals

(Front and Back)

Looking at the front right top corner you can see some crease damage and a pin hole that caused some paper loss. I'm guessing this card spent some time up on a kids bulletin board above the dresser or by the closet. Looking at the back the hole is right smack on the card number making it difficult but not impossible to read the number and Topps above it in the ball design. At the top on the back there is a hand written 12 (it almost looks like a 19) I am guessing it was for the number of wins that Pedro got in that '56 season.