Go East Young Men, Go East

One of the unexpected pleasures of the Cardinals' Hall of Fame was the very, very large display of items, baseball goodies, and other cool and priceless items that documented the Cardinals and by extension MLBs Asian connection-in particular the four tours of Japan that MLB and/or the Cardinals went on. A little research for this post "discovered" that we were lucky to see the special collection as it is only going through the 2018 season. There is a really good over view of the exhibit here at Cardinals Museum to debut special exhibit examining goodwill tours to Japan. Included was Moe Berg's jacket-Moe freaking Berg! If you aren't familiar with him please check this out Moe Berg SABR. Also some great Japanese players were involved especially the legendary mr. Oh.

The MLB link tells us that there was a World Tour of Baseball Tour of Japan 1913-14 and below is John McGraw's actual uniform. A 1934 All-American Tour with Moe Berg, and a Cardinals only tour in 1958 and 1968. Fuji I hate to say it but if I find these items I may have to keep them.

1958

 Stan's Jacket

1968

I've been Fujied! Lost Post #1-post drafts I "Discovered"

I have been Fujied. A few weeks ago I received a care package from Fuji and since it was the week that my wife and I were preparing for a getaway I haven’t been able to blog the goodies I received from him. What did I receive? First up a 2013 Topps Finest Yadi Refractor! Niiceee. 

He also included some Cardinal autos from Jon Jay (2007 Tristar Signature Moves). This is my first Jay auto. I really hope he is able to stick around with the logjam in the outfield for the Birds. Another auto this one a Topps Archives 1954 Cot Deal. I can’t say I was familiar with Cot before this card arrived. Cot played a few years with the Red Sox and the Cardinals. He spent many years coaching in several organizations. This is what I like about cards you get to learn about players from the past and the present.

Sticking with the old-timer theme Fuji included a Johnny Mize from the 2011 Topps Champions of Games and Sports insert. Johnny played 15 seasons in the Majors with the Cardinals, the New York Giants and Yankees and has 5 World Series rings to show for it. 2010 Topps Legendary Lineage insert with Stan “the Man” Musial and Albert Pujols. Nice looking card of two of the greatest Redbirds. It will be interesting to see whose cap Albert chooses when he enters the Hall of Fame.  Another Stan card in the stack is a 1977 TCMA #16 Stan Musial. I really like this card as it has a really cool picture. Last of the oldies but goodies are a 2009 Topps Legends of the Game Rogers Hornsby. He was a two-time Triple Crown winner, NL MVP X2, and 1926 World Series champ with the Cards.

Fuji also included some gold Joe Kelly, Mike Perez, and Bernard Gilkey.  I have to say the Topps Cards Your Mom Threw Out is one of my favorite inserts. My dad told me bout his mother throwing his baseball cards out after he moved out. Bummer really I could imagine the Bowmans and early Topps that he must have had. I am pretty sure Fuji noticed this but the two blue serial numbered 2011 Topps Opening Day Albert Pujols and Colby Rasmus (how is Toronto treating you?) are both #1025 out of 2011. What are the odds!

The best card of the bunch? Drum roll please is….Many thanks Fuji!.

Nacho Grande's Most Recent Break Results-Lost Post #2

Thanks again to Chris over at Nachos Grande for his most recent break here is what we were lucky to land.

2015 Topps Opening Day

Blue Foil Holliday

Stadium Scenes

YAADDDIII

We were able to land 10 other base Redbirds which completes the base set.

Next up 2015 Bowman Paper & Chrome

We received 11 base cards including Marp above and the one of prospects I think will make the big club Robert Kaminsky

He is currently in the Florida League's Palm Beach club where he is 3-2 with an ERA of 3.19 and with 34 Ks.  What even more Rob?  Gold ice?

The Bowman also yielded an auto of Edmundo Sosa the 19 year old Panamanian the website Viva El Birdos says has the highest ceiling of the young Redbirds. Nice hit. 

 The Musuem Collection box yielded but one Redbird, yeah I know Cry for Me Argentina.

Merry Christmas to Myself Part One

Before we left for STL for Christmas I bid on what I think was a reasonably priced 1912 T202 Hassan Triple Folder from a seller in the UK, yes the UK. I ended up wining at the opening price. When we arrived home it would be only a few more days till it showed up at the post office. My wonderful wife agreed to pick it up-she asked to open it assuming it was a football AKA soccer card-but alas no. Which one did I win? It is with Ed Konetchy, Arnold Hauser and the Philadelphia A's. I would say it is in Good-Very Good Condition-see pictures from the listing-it actually looks better in person. I mean it is one hundred and fifteen years old, and in England. What is that story?

Who were the Cardinals on the card-can you even call it a card? The lessor known player of the two was Arnold George "Peewee" Hauser who was born 9/25/1888 (same year as my grandfather!) in Chicago and died in nearby Aurora 5/22/1966-as many of you know Aurora was the hometown of Walter Payton. I visited his brewpub there many, many years ago.

Wiki tells us he started with the Cardinals in 1911 and 1912, but had a string of personal tragedies resulted in what we in the mental health field call compound losses-in a short span of time his parents died, two of his children died in a house fire, and his wife died. Not unexpected this seriously impacted his mental health and his career. He would return to the Redbirds in 1915. But he failed to make the club and ended up playing 23 games with the Federal League's Chicago Whales and he ended his career 9/29/1915.

The more well known of the two was Edward "Big Ed" Konetchy, born in La Crosse, WI 9/3/1885 and dying 5/27/1947. He played first base with the Redbirds from 1907 to 1913. He also played with the Pirates, Boston braves, and Phillies of the Major League and the Pittsburgh Rebels of the Federal League. He threw and bated right and hit .300 four times. Wiki tells us that he was known for his consistent speed and his defensive skills and that in 1909 he had 25 stolen bases, hit .302 in 1910, and had 88 RBIs in 1911. He and the Redbirds survived a train crash from Philadelphia to Boston which killed 12 people, thankfully they changed their cars before the trip. I love this quote from him. "I'm the most traded man in baseball without getting anywhere."

For his career he played in 2085 games he had:

• Hit .281 
• Hit 74 home runs 
• Had 992 RBIs. 
• Had 2150 career hits 
• Had 7649 at bats. 
• Had 255 career stolen bases 
• Hit 344 doubles

Below are the rest of the Cardinals in the 1912 T202 Hassan Folders set-given the checklist the one I picked up is the most reasonable as graded copies of others are $300 plus.

• #14 Rebel Oaks and Roger Bresnahan

• #15 Roger Bresnahan and Bob Harmon

• #79 Roger Bresnahan and John McGraw

• #110 Steve Evans and Miller Huggins

Interlude or Deja Vu?

Sitting here feeling a little under the weather with plenty of time to surf the internet I have been skimming through cards from other countries and other sports on some of my favorite, yet obscure blogs and websites. This includes Tony's Sports Cards (UK) on which Tony did a masterful job of showing together various cards from UK, US, NZ, and Australia and the sports we play-this gives one a good look at the "similarities" across continents and sports. I will spare the Topps/OPC issues and the English/Scottish Football Cards discussed below. Images of non-US cards are from Tony's site.

Topps 1968 Football issue

Scanlens 1969 Aussie Rules Football top and Scanlens 1969 Australian Rugby League on the bottom.

1968 Topps Baseball

Scanlens 1970 Aussie Rules Football and 1970 Aussie Rugby. Scanlens would use the same design for 1972  and 1973 Aussie Rules.

1973 Topps Football

Scanlens 1974 Aussie Rules Football and 1974 Aussie Rugby. Scanlens ever so original and with slight modification, would use the design for the Aussie Rules and Rugby issues for 1975.

1978 Topps Football

Scanlens 1979 Aussie Rules Football and 1979 Aussie Rugby.

 1979 Topps/OPC Hockey

Scanlens 1980 Aussie Rules Football and 1980 Aussie Rugby.

That's all for now-I will keep posting these as I find them-I am sure if I did a little "research" I would find a connection between Topps and Scanlens and if we ever find ourselves at an Australian flea market and come across any of these they will be all mine.