Tristar Card Show Vintage Bowman

One of the goals I had going in to the Tristar card show was to pick up vintage Redbirds, in particular Bowman Redbirds. I think the issue I had is I got sucked in to so so dime boxes and neglected to look too deep for the Bowman cards on our want list. However, there was one dealer that had a file box full of Bowman and early Topps. I was able to pick a 1949 Bowman (our first), 4 1950 Bowmans, and one 1951 Bowman. The 1949, one of the 1950, and the 1951 were George “Red” Mungers. Red was born and died in Houston  October 4, 1918 & July 23, 1996 he was a right-handed pitcher who was with the Birds 1943-1944 and 1946-1952. Red would then go on to the Bucos for 1952 and 1956. Red had a career win-loss record of 77-56, ERA of 3.83. He was a three time All-Star and pitched a complete game win in the 1946 World Series (Game 4).

Another 1951 Bowman was Max Lanier who was born August 18, 1915 in NC and died in FL in 2007 at 91 years of age. He was a lefty who had a career record of 108-82, and ERA of 3.01. He was with the Cardinals 1938-1946 and again 1949-1951. He was with the Giants 1952-1953, and ended his career in 1953 with the STL Browns. He was a two time All-Star and was the winning pitcher in the 1944 World Series as well as on the World Series Champion 1942 team. He is also the father of Hal Lanier.

Johnny Lindell spent one year (1950) with the Redbirds. Because of hitting (.186), or lack thereof, he was sent to the Bird’s Columbus Redbirds then traded to the Dodgers’ Hollywood Stars minor league team.

 The last 1950 Bowman is of Bill Howerton. Bill was a native of California’s Central Coast and came up with the Birds on September 11th, 1949. He would spend 1949-1951 with the Cardinals but then was traded along with Howie Pollet, Ted Wilks and Joe Garagiola, to the Bucos. He had a lifetime batting average of .274, 22 home runs, and 106 RBIs.

Next up I will posting the Vintage Topps I picked at the show.

No Es Bueno

All was going well in the Birds-Brewers game last night until we saw this.

A simple pop up could end Waino's season and give hope to Cardinals' rivals and haters. We knew it didn't look good-he could barely walk and the first words that came to our mouths were "no es bueno". Hopefully the Redbirds can weather this storm, use some of their pitching depth and win for Waino-on the bright side I rather see this now that at the end of August or beginning of September as the Birds would be hopefully heading to the post-season. Sure will miss this,

and this,

and this,

and last but not least this. 

Yadi #600 and the first in a series of Tristar Card Show posts

I made it to the annual Tristar Card Show at the Cow Palace a few yards from the San Francisco City line.  The Cow Palace is owned by the CA Department of Food and Ag. At various times it has hosted the Philadelphia/San Francisco/ Golden State Warriors, Republican National Conventions in 1956 and 1964, the San Jose Sharks 1991-1993, and Roller Derby. However, this day it hosted the Tristar Show and Hempcon. The crowds couldn't have been more different-one side was mostly middle aged guys like myself-the other dreadlocked dudes, attractive alternative women, and white college guys-even saw a guy carrying out a pot plant.

I was able to meet up with my fellow blogger Fuji of The Chronicles of Fuji over some dime boxes. It was great to see you and thank you for the massive amount of Cardinals' cards! For me the thing I regret the most is not reducing my vintage Cardinals want list even more which would have the been the best move. I will be posting the Autos, Relics, Inserts, non-Redbirds, and Vintage I picked up this day. Next year's show my focus will be finishing up some Redbird vintage Topps and Bowman team sets. 

However, the biggest pick up was our 600th Yadi-here he is in all of his glory-2014 Topps Chrome X-Fractor.

New title for this Blog-at least for now.

I have been pondering a name change for sometime. As the focus of our collection has expanded to cover all Cardinals' cards including a few STL Browns I thought it made more sense to have the title reflect this. I hope this doesn't make the blog drop off the blog roll of folks. I will see you tomorrow at the Palace Fuji. Yadi is excited about the change.

Autos, Autos, and more Autos

As the Cardinals go through the first full week I wanted to show off some reasonably priced autos of Cardinals' of old and new. I love the Topps Archives Fan Favorite Autos and they are pretty reasonable. I picked up the following for our collection with the goal of picking up certified card autos of all of my favorite Redbirds.

2013 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Vince Coleman

2014 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Terry Pendleton 

2012 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Jack Clark 

2004 Donruss October Legends Lou Brock Authentic Auto & Jacket Swatch #10/100

1997 Donruss Signature Series Ray Lankford

2014 Topps Tier One Michael Wacha Auto # out of 399.

Last but not least I picked up this beauty from Thorzul over at Thorzul Will Rule as part of his pull the trigger 8.1. 

Love to get Jimmy Ball Game, Scott Rolen, Willie McGhee, Tommy Herr, and Ozzie Smith.

The day I have been waiting for has arrived...Opening Day 2015

Of course I am excited to see the boys get in the action with the Cubs tonight but it isn't going to be fun for them. Having played March/April baseball in Missouri it is going cold as balls in Chicago. Who thought it a good idea to have opening night in Chicago! 

I have concerns about the 2015 season; the Bucos continue to improve, especially having probably the best outfield in the MLB, the Cubs now believe they can win which is scary-if they could go 150 years without winning I would be OK with that-I would be 91 years old for me to see that,

the Birds pitching isn't as solid as it has been-Garcia is hurt-again, Waino is getting older, Marco has been sent down, and Rosenthal scares me with his inconsistency, and Yadi isn't getting younger and if he goes down again then is Tony Cruz going to be the savior?

Can Carpenter bounce back in the runs and power department?

What the heck is going to happen in the outfield? Too many folks out there with too few spots. Will Mike's managing improve? I am still not sold on his abilities-though I really like him as a person.

Will the Boys find their power, ever? Will Adams ever be able to hit to his potential? Or will we see the last of him as a Cardinal this year?

My NL Central predictions;

1-Pirates (not sure if their pitching will take them to this spot, but they are going to hit)

2-Cardinals (possibly optimistic)

3-Cubs (Reds and Brewers haven't done much to improve)

4-Brewers

5-Reds

NLCS

Pirates vs Cardinals

ALCS

Seattle vs White Sox

World Series

Seattle vs Pirates

Winner

Pirates

There you have it-my two cents.

So long Turkey Red?

I am not sure if anyone was paying attention because I know I wasn't but is Topps done with the Turkey Red line? Not that I will miss it, but I will miss the rush to buy directly online from Topps. Too bad I pulled a lame arse auto from my one box-What further aggravated me was seeing 2014 Topps Turkey Red Football at my local box store-WTF! Some Cardinals Turkey Reds in memoriam.

Then there was none.

After a "vacation" to Dallas with my wife I am back in the saddle.  I have really slowed down card purchases because I am waiting for the annual Tristar show at the Cow Palace just outside of San Francisco. However, one of our collecting goals is to complete one vintage Bowman Cardinals team sets. This goal has been reached with the pick up of this for an OK price. 1955 Bowman High Number #296 Bill Virdon rookie card. I could use a better Red Schoendienst, but with this the 1955 Bowman team set is complete.  The rest of the Birds.