Alien? Man Baby freak? You be the judge

Sitting here paging through the Bay to see what is out there to tick off our needs list. I came across 1963 Topps #533 Bobby Shantz. Using the little looking glass to scan the card for condition I noticed this.

Is it an Alien? Man Baby? Are there other Aliens or Man Babies in the '63 set? I scrolled trough several pages of Google Images of the '63 Topps and found one other possible Alien/Man Baby-The Hammer.  

To Know Bo is to love Bo

I bet you think I am referencing this Bo? 

No it is this Bo that is the topic of this post.

A couple of years ago we went to an antique “faire” in Alameda, CA just across from Oakland. Of course I was trolling for baseball items and with some exceptions such as boxes and boxed sets of junk wax there wasn’t much. I did run across a guy who had an open box of 1981 Fleer Here’s Bo cards selling $1 a pack-so how could I pass up two packs? The set used photos and stills from "The John Derek Scrap Book", John being her husband. Each box held 36 packs and each pack was a whopping 30 cents. and had 8 cards and a poster. A set of Here's Bo was 198 cards in total. 

Fast forward to yesterday when I decided it was time to open them. I wasn’t saving them for any purpose I just put them away and my great organizing party of 2016 uncovered them. 

As one would expect the gum waaassss a little stale after 25 years,

Each pack contained one poster, 

I wouldn't say the card stock was poor and it did remind me of the early Fleer baseball issues which isn't a shock. So what cards did the two packs yield? How about my "favorites"first, if one could have favorites. 

Now the rest,

e 

The backs are pretty bland but what would one expect? Though, some have puzzle backs that you can put together. I couldn't find what a completed one looks like.

1957 Topps Redbirds

I have been going through and filing the last 2 years of Cardinals’ cards that we have acquired and have been knocking off singles from our needs list. During this process I have become interested in the 1957 Topps. This isn’t because I find the first real photo Topps issue all that interesting, in fact it is fairly poor in photo quality and all have one of a few lame poses or portraits. No, it is but because I find the uniforms the Birds are, for the most part, wearing fascinating. What you mean? I mean the uniform is one that isn’t seen these days-no Birds on the Bat-that iconic uniform mainstay was absent for two years.

For two years, 1956 and 1957, the Redbirds wore a jersey that simply had Cardinals in script on the front sans birds except on the left sleeve were there was one that was in a batting stance.

The swoosh on the Wilmer Mizell is a good example as is the Bird on the left sleeve on the Willard Schmidt card.

However, not all of the 1957 Topps Cardinals are wearing this uniform, which means the pictures were either taken in 1955 or perhaps they were given unis to wear for that photo shoot. These players appear in the 4th Series  (256-352) not sure why, seams like they would be in the first series since it was released early in the card season. Those players wearing the Birds on the Bat and not the “swoosh” are #304 Joe Cunningham, #350 Eddie Miksis, #359, Tom Cheney, #363 Eddie Kasko, and #380 Walker Cooper. There are a couple of players that I am unable to determine if they are wearing them or not.  As for the 1956 issue, unsurprisingly, it looks like the painted images do not indicate the 1956 unis being worn even in the last series.

The “swoosh” is also seen in the 1958 issue-cards #97 Larry Jackson, #143 Billy Muffett, #273 Hal Smith, and #366 Gene Green. But if you think you have seen the last of the “swoosh” on the Redbirds, think again. In 1959 #211 Bob Blaylock is seen sporting the “swoosh”. Alas, that is all I could find. So this means that the above 1958 and 1959 cards featured players whose pictures one could assume were taken in 1956 or 1957.

What made this research easy was the “world famous” Surf Baseball Card Collectables Topps Team photo book. OK, not world famous but the image of every Redbird Topps card from 1952-1987 was of great use.

TriStar Fine (the end)

I have a bad habit of not finishing a series of posts-I seem to get on to another subject and never go back to wrap the series up. So, I thought I would wrap up my series on the TrStar show last month. One of the goals I had was to hit some solid dime boxes-well there were bargains galore.  One dealer had refractors and other numbered parallels at 3 for $1. So how couldn’t I dig in? Again being a Redbird fan has its advantages when these boxes are available. I picked up several, 66 to be exact-including this Oscar Taveras 2014 Bowman Chrome Dueling Die-Cut Refractor and the same but Stephen Piscotty.

So walking down the aisles I came across a dealer that had, I would say was 50 5,000 count boxes-all sports, but I am only interested in baseball and I was in luck as they were organized by team!!!! Booya! So he had 3 ½ boxes of Redbirds at 10 cents per. Though I got a better deal since I bought nearly 650 cards-though ended up only needing 500 or so and this really included some really nice cards including nearly a full run of 1999 Fleer Tradition Stan Musial Monumental Moments inserted 1 in 36 packs I was able to pick up nearly all of them.

Also 2002  Donruss Elite Career Best Albert Pujols  #0450/1013 was had for a dime. I also had a good conversation, with aghast, a Cubs’ fan. I spent a solid hour at this booth and really enjoyed it.

All in all, I really enjoyed the show this year-I did notice that there were fewer dealers there-especially of modern wearables and SGAs. It was a thrill to have Reggie Jackson a few yards away taking time from signing autos to sit on the table and talk baseball. That was special and it was even twitted so you can see him below. OK, not sitting on table but looked like it where I was at. I hope the show isn’t on a downwards trajectory as this remains one of the few shows in this area.

Checking out of this year's Redbirds and looking at vintage Topps team set needs.

As I have begun to tune out the Redbirds this year as we are several weeks in to the season and Matheny’s managing flaws are apparent and they aren’t fun to watch-they are neither good nor bad. So I have been tuning out. So it is a good time to look at Redbirds of Old.

There comes a time when you hit a bump in the road and you either proceed over it the best you can, or you are derailed and it isn’t possible to do so. I would like to think that we will be in the former position as we try to complete Redbirds’ vintage Topps team sets. This is in large part because I do care about the condition cards we add to our collection-I am condition sensitive. Which of course means this isn’t going to be cheap and will take some time, several years perhaps. I guess in a nutshell I believe that I endeavor to make a solid collection that one day, when needed, I can dispose of and which holds its value. Plus a card in beautiful condition is remarkable when one thinks what must have transpired to be in near mint condition 40-60 years later. A caveat to all of this is pre-war cards-I am a little more forgiving but still try to get the best copy we can get for the right $$. The two big Redbirds of the early to late ‘50s were Stan Musial (1958-1963) and Red Schoendienst (1945-56, 1961-1963). Then the middle period were Bob Gibson (1959-1975), Ken Boyer (1955-1965), Wally Moon (1955-1958), and 1966 Joe Hoerner, George Kernek, Jimmy Williams (try finding a high grade copy of this high number card for less than $40) rookie card. The late vintage period gives us Steve Carlton (1965-1971) and Lou Brock (1964-1979). Also, we have NO 1952 and a few 1953 Topps-these years will be a project in of itself. The key card needs are show below for 1954-1969. I have chosen the card to showcase based on what  a PSA 7 NM Graded card is valued at.So here are the Topps’ cards that will be a challenge.

1954 #158 Peanuts Lowrey, #194 Bill Sarni, and #249 Vinegar Bend Mizell (these three complete this team set).

1955 #125 Ken Boyer (RC), # 183 Tony Jacobs, #191 Eddie Stanky, and #204 Frank Smith.

1956 #55 Wally Moon, #134 Team Photo.

1957 #122Ken Boyer, #243 Team Photo.

1958 #210 Wally Moon, #14 350 Ken Boyer, and #464 Curt Flood(RC) (these three complete team set).

1959 #514 Bob Gibson (Rookie Card).

1960 #28 Rival All-Stars (Mantle and Boyer) can’t imagine why this is a tough pick up?  A tie with Stan the Man #250.

1961 #211 Bob Gibson, #290 Stan Musial, #505 Red Schoendienst.

1962 #50 Stan Musial, #530 Bob Gibson, #575 Red Schoendienst.

1963 #1 Stan Musial and Bill White 1962 NL Batting Leaders, #5 Bob Gibson 1962 NL ERA Leaders, #9Bob Gibson 1962 NL Strike Out Leader, #250 Stan Musial (his last),

1964 #460 Bob Gibson, #543 Bob Uecker (very popular player).

1965 #12 Bob Gibson NL League Leaders Strikeouts, #320 Bob Gibson, #477 Steve Carlton (RC), #519 Bob Uecker.

1966 Though I am down to three cards for us to complete the team set they are big fish, #125 Lou Brock, #471 Bob Skinner, then this beauty #544 Joe Hoerner, George Kernek, Jimmy Williams.

1967 #146 Steve Carlton, #210 Bob Gibson, #236 Bob Gibson, #285 Lou Brock, and #605 Mike Shannon, #330 Roger Maris, #372 Lou Brock, #378  Bob Gibson, #408 Steve Carlton, #445 Mike Shannon, #497 Team Photo, and #520 Lou Brock, and #592 Ron Willis.

..

1968 #3 Orlando Cepeda, #100 Bob Gibson, #200 Orlando Cepeda, #330 Roger Maris, #372 Lou Brock, #378 Bob Gibson, #408 Steve Carlton, and #520 Lou Brock

1969 #85 Lou Brock, #166 World Series Game 5, #200 Bob Gibson, #255  Steve Carlton, #428 Lou Brock, and #432 Bob Gibson.