Keep Durham Odd

It's been a little slow the past two weeks looking for additional color variations of the La Pizza Royale cards I have been collecting of former Durham Bulls players Rusty Staub and Gene Mauch.  The cards have multiple color variations, I have picked up a few already......

but the remaining cards are going to be tough.  The Staub cards are especially going to be tough.  A little disappointing, but along the way searching to find these Canadian pizza cards, I ran into a few other oddball cards of some former Durham Bulls players.

I really like this group of cards.   

The first card comes from a Bob Parker set.  He did a bunch of hand drawn picture sets, but I do not know much about him beyond the style of cards he made, and several of them were of the Reds.  This card is from his 1977 Cincinnati Reds set.  The orange card stock is unique to say the least.....

Frank McCormick played for the Durham Bulls during the 1936 season.  He went on to win the National League MVP for the Reds in 1940, and as it says underneath his name on the card, is in the team's Hall of Fame.  The Reds also won the World Series that season.  The little pictures around McCormick remind me a lot of the cartoons on the backs of Topps cards.  Definitely something different.  I believe there is a card in this set of Johnny Vander Meer, who was also a Durham Bulls player, so I might need to find that one.  

Speaking of Vander Meer....

This is from the 1976 Laughlin Diamond Jubilee set, which celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the National League.  The cards all have this style of cartoon picture.  Vander Meer is not a Hall of Famer, but is a notable former Durham Bulls player because of the consecutive no-hitters in back to back starts during the 1938 season.  

The back of the card gives out some details about the two no hitters.  There are also other former Durham Bulls players in the Laughlin set, along a Cardinals player or two that might be worthy of some effort in the near future.  

Last card.  

This is from the 1947 Signal Gasoline set, which featured players from the Pacific Coast League.  From what I have read about Minor League Baseball during this era, the PCL was the most competitive and talent rich league outside of the Majors.  Some really good names played for these teams during the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.  

This card reminds me a lot of the Frank McCormick card minus the orange card stock.  

Albosta pitched for the Durham Bulls during the 1941 season.  He won 15 games in just 23 games started, and had an ERA of only 1.74.  His time on the Durham Bulls actually gets mentioned on the back of the card.  He made it up to the Dodgers that same season where he got two spot starts.  

Albosta did not have much of a Major League career, but he missed several years for World War II.  He pitched the 1942 season for the Montreal Royals, who were a top Minor League affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers, but entered the Army at the end of the season.  He ended up pitching for the Pirates briefly after the war, but than played the rest of his career in the Minors.  

He played the last several years of his career with a semi-pro team in Saginaw, Michigan.  I drive through that town seemingly every year.  It's got the giant curved bridge in the middle of I-75.  

It's not the Mackinac Bridge, or the Ambassador Bridge.  Still unique.  

I wish I knew something more about this set, but I do not.  There are not many old Minor League cards, but the PCL seems to have quite a few.  This is my second PCL cards that is more than 50 years old.  I also have a manger card of long time Giants great Met Ott managing the Oakland Oaks.  This is from an early 1950s Mothers Cookies set.  

Always nice to find some interesting cards for the collection.