A Giant Project: Update #4

I have slowed down a bit this month with my 1964 Topps Giants project.  I am nearing the half way point with the set, but still need a few more cards to get there.  This past week, I managed to track down two more cards for my set.  One Hall of Famer, the other would be considered a great player of the era. 

The Hall of Famer is up first.  

The small cost of these cards amazes me, but I was surprised to land a clean card of Harmon Killebrew from the prime of his career for less than $5.  It's not Billy Ripken, but the number 29 caught my attention when I saw this card.  Killebrew wore 3 with the Twins.  After digging into the 1963 Minnesota Twins roster, this bat likely belongs to long-time Reds outfielder Wally Post, who ended his career with the Twins.  

The write-up on this back of this card is actually incorrect.  In 1963, Killebrew did win his second consecutive home run crown, but it was his third overall.  He led the American League in home runs during the 1959 season, but missed out in 1960 and 1961 to Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris.  Killebrew won the home run crowns in 1962 and 1963.  Unless, they are not counting the 1959, because he tied with Rocky Colavito.  

Last card.  

I always think of Frank Howard as a Washington Senator.  It's easy to forget about him on the Dodgers during the first half of the 1960s.  Those teams had so much pitching, but Frank Howard was the Dodgers  best offensive player.  He won the 1960 National League Rookie of the Year and hit more than 20 home runs in every full season he played with the Dodgers.  That does not sound that impressive, but the National League was loaded with pitching at this point in time.  

The back of this card is another where half of the space is spent on his Minor League career, but I still found it interesting.  The fact that Howard was in the Minors for a season, hit .333 with almost 40 home runs, and the Dodgers let him play a whole season there would never happen today.  Topps mentions the high batting averages in his second season, but he got up to 43 home runs.  Crazy to think about those sorts of numbers in a single Minor League stop these days.  

Updated checklist.  21 out of the 60 cards.  

1 Gary Peters
2 Ken Johnson
3 Sandy Koufax SP
4 Bob Bailey
5 Milt Pappas
6 Ron Hunt
7 Whitey Ford
8 Roy McMillan
9 Rocky Colavito
10 Jim Bunning
11 Roberto Clemente
12 Al Kaline
13 Nellie Fox
14 Tony Gonzalez
15 Jim Gentile
16 Dean Chance
17 Dick Ellsworth
18 Jim Fregosi
19 Dick Groat
20 Chuck Hinton
21 Elston Howard
22 Dick Farrell
23 Albie Pearson
24 Frank Howard
25 Mickey Mantle
26 Joe Torre
27 Ed Brinkman
28 Bob Friend SP
29 Frank Robinson
30 Bill Freehan
31 Warren Spahn
32 Camilo Pascual
33 Pete Ward
34 Jim Maloney
35 Dave Wickersham
36 Johnny Callison
37 Juan Marichal
38 Harmon Killebrew
39 Luis Aparicio
40 Dick Radatz
41 Bob Gibson
42 Dick Stuart SP
43 Tommy Davis
44 Tony Oliva
45 Wayne Causey SP
46 Max Alvis
47 Galen Cisco SP
48 Carl Yastrzemski
49 Hank Aaron
50 Brooks Robinson
51 Willie Mays SP
52 Billy Williams
53 Juan Pizarro
54 Leon Wagner
55 Orlando Cepeda
56 Vada Pinson
57 Ken Boyer
58 Ron Santo
59 Johnny Romano
60 Bill Skowron SP

Antiquing

I made a trek to Missouri last week for the holidays.  I lived outside of St. Louis growing up, so I enjoy making return visits.  After spending the better part of the day in the car with a three year old, and a nine year old, there is no better feeling than driving the last few miles of Illinois and seeing the Arch. 

My parents actually no longer live outside of St. Louis, so it is now just a dinner stop before we drive two hours further west.  At some point on every trip we make time to do a few things around town.  

I used to always make stops at card shops in St. Louis, but those have dwindled since my favorite shop in South County has closed.  I am also pretty sure that my kids would riot if I made them sit in the car for 12 hours, and then took them to a card shop.  It would not be pretty.  

We spent the majority of our time in Columbia, Missouri.  If you are not familiar with Missouri, it is halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City, just north of Jefferson City.  The University of Missouri is there.  I toured the card shop scene in the town a few years back, and I just avoid it altogether when I go there.  There is also a Target, but it's in the mall.  It's a hot mess.  

Luckily, my parents like antiques, and my father spotted a bunch of baseball cards in one of the local antique malls.  I spent a little bit of time visiting one morning, and found some pretty good deals on some vintage cards.  If you are a Missourian, or nearby, it's the Veranda Antique Mall off of I-70.  

There were some non-vintage cards there too.  Plenty of junk wax era cards that were being sold in binders, football and basketball cards, and all sorts of other nicknacks.  This was the sweetest non-baseball card item that I found at the store.

I should have looked up my old Durham Bulls team sets to see how much the Steve Avery cards were worth back in 1989.  Probably a pretty penny.  Some other time.  

On to the cards.  

Again, I mainly checked out the vintage card boxes, which had a lot of 1960s and 1970s baseball cards.  Many of the cards were $1, a few were slightly more.  I think I spent a total of $25 in the store, and walked away with roughly half a dozen cards. 

Here is my haul.  I scanned both the fronts and backs of the cards.  

Curt Simmons.  Cardinal.  

Tommy Harper.  Seattle Pilots.  

Wilbur Wood.  White Sox.  Raleigh Capitals.  Strikeouts.  

Rich Nye.  Cardinal.  Bird expert.  

Walt Williams.  Durham Bull.  

Doug Rader.  Durham Bull.  Part of Bill McCool's card back.  

Gates Brown.  Durham Bull.  

Ron Santo.  Hall of Famer.  

Dave Kingman.  Strikeouts.  

Mickey Lolich.  Strikeouts.  

Ken Singleton.  Durham Bull.  Actually, Raleigh-Durham Met.  

Jim Bunning.  Hall of Famer.  

Mickey Lolich.  Durham Bull.  

Harmon Killebrew.  Hall of Famer.  

This was a pretty good haul.  

Gaggle of Great Graphs

I had posted a Scott Rolen autograph a few days back.  I had actually ended up with that Topps Heritage autograph through a fellow collector who was also trying to get rid of a few old Fleer Greats of the Game autographs.  I really enjoyed collecting those sets way back in the day, liked the autographs that were in the lot, so I decided to jump at the chance to pick up these cards.  I ended up with five in all.  Here's a look at the cards, all from the 2001 Great of the Game set...

I have a bunch of Enos Slaughter autographs, but I had never picked this one before now.  Slaughter had a really nice autograph and this one is generally his roughest signature on a certified card.  At the time this set came out the Roxboro, North Carolina native was fighting Lymphoma.  While it's not his best signature, it's one of his last.  I like the black and white photo on the card too.  These were the simplest design of the Greats of the Game set, but I think the simplicity works well. 

So this is where I am a little bit lost on the design of this set.  The Mazeroski autograph above has a color picture.  The card still looks really nice.  I thought perhaps the color/black and white pictures were based on when they played, but Orlando Cepeda's career lined up almost exactly with Mazeroski and he had a bacl and white photo.  Same with Killebrew at the bottom.  Let's just enjoy the autographs.  Prior to this card, I did not have a Mazeroski autograph.  His signatures are never expensive, nor hard to find, just never got around to picking one up.  

I have other Cepeda autographs, with the Cardinals, but I liked the look of this card.  Obviously a younger version of Cha Cha at the beginning of his career with the Giants.  

This is my only duplicate out of the lot.  Roger Craig is a Durham native, so I have picked up a few of his autographs over the years.  I remember Roger Craig best as the manager of the Giants when I was a kid, but as I have gotten older I have run into him as sort of local sports legend around central North Carolina.  I am pretty sure that three different high school's in Durham try to claim him, he went to NC State, and every baseball fan I have ever met from North Carolina over the age of 65 saw him pitch locally in the minor leagues.  

Not my first autograph of the Twins Hall of Famer, but Harmon always has a nice autograph.  Great looking card.