Big news: As of the time I am writing this I am obsessively checking the tracking status of a personal grail card that is en route to my doorstep. I have a small player collection focused on cards of Charlie Bishop, a distant relative who played a few partial seasons with the Athletics in the 1950s. The full checklist has just three playing days Topps cards (1953, 1955, and 1955 Double Headers) and a handful of much harder to find regional issues. One of those has been identified by hobby publications as far back as the 1970s as being particularly hard to find, having been pulled from the presses before the full run of cards was completed. The only full set of 1955 Rodeo Meats cards in the Registry is in the process of being broken up and I was able to snag the Bishop card not too long after the listing went live.
Other arrivals this month include pick-ups for three of my other projects. Six '52 Topps commons came in, including a trimmed high number that set me back less than the cost of a pizza. A Luke Appling card was checked off my '49 Leaf checklist. I also added five Jose Canseco cards with the highlights being a '91 Topps Desert Shield and a '94 Bowman's Best Refractor.
Newly Posted in May
I'm down to the last dozen profiles of the 199 cards that make up the 1993 Finest Refractors checklist. This month highlighted a pair of constants from the American League, both of which played some of their final contests in short-lived stints in the rival league. Despite this residency in the DH-enamored AL, a pitcher found himself unexpectedly called to bat on multiple occasions. The second coming of Luis Aparicio likewise didn't find much success behind the plate, but he and his knee brace somehow managed to become (according to Immaculate Grid results) the most well-known White Sox shortstop.
Profiles of '52 Topps are rolling along. In May I took a look at "Muscles" Upton, a slightly-built infielder who seemed to make a career out of being used to balance out trades. The 1952 Red Sox had their own player with a BMI reading below 22 - one who gained amateur fame when he struck out 27 batters in a 7 inning game. The winner of a 1999 Seattle Post Intelligencer ranking of the greatest Seattle area athlete wasn't Ken Griffey, Jr., but rather a Detroit Tigers' player/manager who could apparently wrestle bears just as well as play baseball.
Blog Bat Around: Decades
A few weeks ago Baseball Cards Fan posted a Blog Bat Around idea. The challenge was to identify a favorite player for each decade for which you intentionally acquired cards. Each of the cards shown below are cards I specifically sought out either in my current collecting pursuits or during my obsession with all things baseball in the 1990s. The key is I had to have actually owned the card shown and have actively sought items bearing the likeness of the player shown.
1930s
Jimmy Foxx is the player I most sought from this period, though I have never owned a playing days card of the slugger dubbed "Double-X." In the '90s I once found myself out of cash at the end of a card show when I came across a beat up Foxx in my price range from 1934 Goudey, so a 1960 Fleer example would have to do.
Instead, the player I found myself actually chasing was Heinie Manush. I didn't know anything about him other than he was a Hall of Famer when I picked up a 1939 Play Ball at a mall show. Learning more as I studied that card, his story grew on me. Ty Cobb more or less taught him how to hit as a pet project. He appears multiple times through some of the decade's best card issues. Manush played for a half dozen teams, giving his cards a rainbow of uniforms to see and making his career arc mimic those of the free agent players that I enjoyed following in real time. There's also the added benefit of his having a name that is fun to pronounce (Heinie Mah-noosh) and the knowledge that the plot of the 1942 film Obliging Young Lady is frequently moved along by an unhinged man who can't stop saying "Heinie Manush" in time with the sounds of the steam train in which the cast is being carried along.
1940s
The '40s again feature a player that I would love to collect but simply have never had any cards of his from the period: Bob Feller. Seeing as how his 1949 Leaf card is one of the toughest numbers in the checklist, it will be a while before I get around to doing something about that. The same goes for another favorite, Pete Reiser, who likely had more concussions than cards during the decade.
In the interim, I can satisfy this area of my collection with cards of Johnny Mize. He was pretty much the National League equivalent of Jimmy Foxx and stands well beyond most contemporaries when it comes to his advanced batting metrics. I specifically collect '49 Leaf cards and he was the very first Hall of Famer I added from this issue. It doesn't hurt that his '52 Topps card is one of the best looking, visually and statistically, within my other vintage set building focus. Couple that with the fact that the Ruthian Mize actually looks like Babe Ruth and is related to both Ruth and Cobb and you have some special cards.
1950s
This is an easy one. Since the day a random letter showed up at my house, I have been on the lookout for any new Charlie Bishop cards (see the intro to today's post for confirmation). Bishop is a distant relative of mine and is featured on a relatively small number of cards from the 1950s. Not bad for a guy whose minor league contract was once traded away by the New York Giants for a player locked away in a psych ward.
1960s
Frank Howard picks up the trail of slow-footed power hitters that featured names like Foxx and Mize. Growing up, I knew a handful of military neighbors who caught the occasional baseball game when traveling to DC. Frank Howard was their favorite Senators player and quickly became mine when we discussed this era of the game. His '62 Topps was my favorite from the decade. My first 1969 Topps card was a Frank Howard like the one below and quickly became the first step in an abandoned attempt to build the full set.
1970s
Two players were stalwarts of my searches through stacks of cards from the 1970s: Willie Stargell and Bert Blyleven. I credit the Stargell interest to my opening countless numbers of Donruss wax packs when they came with puzzle pieces featuring the new Hall of Fame inductee. The Blyleven searches stayed with me as time passed. I found myself wondering why so many were passing over the cards of one of the best pitchers in history - equal to Nolan Ryan in my view of the game. Picking up Blyleven cards was a way of making a statement to those collectors: I value things differently than you, even if, like everybody else, I seemingly only pick good players or relatives as personal favorites. Blyleven's '75 Topps bubble gum bubble card is in my running for card of the decade, and his '71 rookie card scratches that itch to chase an unreasonable level of obsessiveness with condition. Today I have a limited number of cards outside of my primary set building interests and this is one of them.
1980s
Although the majority of my favorite player's games took place in the 1990s, most consider him a name from the 1980s. Jose Canseco was the only name I recognized when I opened my first pack of cards in 1991 and would be a staple search of every wrapper opened afterwards. The 1989 Topps All Star below was visually my favorite.
1990s
Cards of another home run hitter, David Justice, were a staple of my card collection binders in the '90s. Canseco was still the player I most wanted to find in any given pack of cards during the decade, but a Justice card was always a fine consolation prize. He played the full decade and is my choice to represent the '90s over Carlos Delgado who didn't really get going until the end of the period.
2000s and Up
The most recent pack of cards I have ever opened was from 1996. By 2000 I was selling off my collection and didn't come back to the hobby until taking care of higher ranking life goals. I only have two post-2002 cards in my collection and only one features a player active at the time of production. By that definition you can say I chase Shohei Ohtani cards though that would be quite the exaggeration.
