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Blogs

Tops Reads of 2018

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I’m glad to finish documenting my favorite blog reads (for myself but sharing since it may interest others). Have a Happy New Year 2019!

8. Joe’s nightmare of Heritage 2024 is also mine (from different angles including the fear of about 6 more Yount and Brett rookie reprints before 2024).

7. Shoebox Legends’ Frankenset series where he considers which cards to add is some good casual reading. This one had a 1975 card that stayed in – so that’s a win.

6. Bob’s post about nothing is very apropos as I’ve recently been watching a lot of Seinfeld reruns.  I relate to the Allen card on the desk making you happy.

5. I’m a sucker for good vintage stories with a card/photography angle. Bo had a good one here with Rico Petrocelli, who’s in the 1975 set.

4. Duff retired – congratulations and thank you for your service! Everything about this post was cool. I wonder if he ever figured out what he was going to do with that Nascar tire he won in a prize drawing at a hockey game. If not, maybe now he’ll have time to work on that 🙂

3. 2018 was a year where at least a couple of bloggers reassessed there collecting approach. I expect it’s something many of us think of occasionally. Night Owl wrote here and Tony took stock earlier in the year.

I also felt naive when I started collecting 1975 cards again. Defining your path is full of twist and turns. Placing limits is hard at first, but for me it permeated my habits to a point where I know I can’t have it all. You grow wiser. And now I can usually jedi-mind trick myself out of buying yet another Yount or Brett rookie reprint (but I do like that poster in Tony’s post 🙂  It also feels like many of us got parallel overload in 2018. How does this play out? We’ll see.

2. Night Owl’s seventh favorite non-sports card put this on the list. That was the card I just posted for Christmas – a 1975 style Kris Kringle. Reading his post turned into one of those “I didn’t know this existed moments” wherein I immediately started surfing the web and bought the card that day. He’s also got a Beanball reprint card in there – also up my alley.

1. I liked Bo’s now & then post about a Flashback card and Paul’s look back at card companies from the junk wax era. These are in the same category as the typical fare in the Topps Archives blog, which easily in my Top 5.

Toppcat writes about Topps history like in this post or tough to find hobby artifacts. My favorite post of the year snuck into the list just a few days ago. It’s about the 1975 Topps Sports club. I happened to start collecting mail-in collectibles recently and ended up with an extra of the Topps baseball and football Sport Club newsletters (so if anyone’s interested drop me a line).

These are about as direct a connection to my childhood as 1975 cards. To a kid, mailing in for stuff in the 70’s was like seeking supplies from some remote island in the 1880’s. Could you just picture your kid self on that island? I’m picturing a Seinfeld-esque bit… What should we order next, sir, flour… coffee? No! Cancel all the flour. Cancel all the sundries! We need more uncut checklists. More Sea-Monkeys… and Sports Club newsletters!

Blogs

Top Reads of 2017

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You’ll find more Top Reads of 2017 at Athletes with Phones.

Here are some of my favorite blogs posts from 2017…

8. Joe Shlabotnik combined haiku and cards the result is a creative post.

7. P-Town Tom wrote a great 6th anniversary post with a bit of everything. I like the baseball coach angle.

6. Many have pondered how old people look vs. their actual age. Paul’s post covers that topic for baseball cards. The Bad News Bears reference gets bonus points.

5. Sometimes nobody’s asking for a thoughtful analysis of on subjects that haven’t been considered. But Night Owl’s there to provide said analysis. Sometimes includes cards like 1975’s ERA Leader card with its Buzz Capra and Catfish Hunter nickname match-up. The only thing better than the nicknames are the expressions.

4. I’m a sucker for good stories like one where Tony got a bat signed by Robin Yount. Like the Ron Cey lamp story, there’s also a wife involved 🙂

3. Julie’s Summer of ’74 post is a great nostalgia laced read – an intricate blend that hits the right notes.

2. 42 years later, someone observed the 1975 Cubs team card had a face that was whited out. Who was it wondered Paul (and now me)?

1. In another flea market visit by Fuji, his $10 find of Star Wars and Star Trek cards is one of my favorite discoveries. And spelling out Chronicles of Fuji with the stickers was creative. But there was an even better post – a sentimental Father’s Day post. Certain things do get better with age, including Fuji’s blog in 2017.

Blogs

Top Reads of 2016

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This is a continuation of a list I started on Athletes with Phones. Below are some of my favorite card collecting-related reads from 2016…

5. Wrigley Wax’s creative re-telling of the Christmas story according to St. Luke is appropriate for this time of year, plus it has a 1975 card in it.

4. Shlabotnik Report wrote about Tom Dempsey. I didn’t know Tom’s story – it’s inspiring. He was born with no toes on his right foot, yet held the record for field goal distance for 40 years.

3. Tony got lucky in 2016 – he was invited on a tour of Suntrust Park under construction. His write-up sharing the experience with the rest of us was both well written and fortified with photos. It was one of the best posts of the year. The stadium would open to the public on March 31, 2017 for an exhibition game (the Braves won).

2. This forum post led to my discovery of an audacious Topps product called the Transcendent collection. It’s an outrageous Gordon Gecko concept – get a ticket to a VIP party where you meet a baseball star and get limited edition cards all for 20 grand. That’s not in my league. But it contained something that I was able to pick up – this Kris Bryant 1975 theme card numbered to 65. I eventually upgraded it, so this one’s available to anyone who’s interested.

1. My favorite post of 2016 can be no other than Bob Lemke’s last post. I wrote Bob late in 2015 and he replied about some future projects. About a year later I discovered Bob died. Collectors lost a friendly, helpful voice in the community. And you can still see his custom cards online. His 1975 customs included a Duke Snider and an Orlando Cepeda.

1975 Topps, Oddballs

5 Things I Learned from Bob Locker, a Major League Baseball Player

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In June of 1975, a Chicago Spring was wrapping up and so was Bob Locker. At the Cubs clubhouse, he shook teammate’s hands and wished them well.

“Everyone was kinda shocked,” Bob recalled. “When someone’s released they just pack their bags and get out of the clubhouse. So they’re gone before anyone knows what happened.”

Meet Bob

I first knew of Bob Locker by way of a 1975 baseball card. He’s sporting a look Tom Selleck imitated years later on TV in Magnum PI.

 

Then I discovered something unusual. Eight years ago Bob and former teammate Jim Bouton, both in their 70s, teamed up to promote Marvin Miller’s election to the Hall of Fame. Bob published a website called Thanks Marvin.

What’s the motivation for someone who last played 43 years ago to spin up a web site in their retirement years for no personal gain?

That interested me, so I dug in and read about Bob:

  • The back of a 1968 baseball card mentiones he was “nothing short of sensational last season.” He led both leagues in 1967 for games played and was third  in saves.
  • By the end of 1972, he earned a World Series Championship ring.
  • He’s ranked as an all-time Top 50 relief pitcher by Paul Votano in Late and Close: A History of Relief Pitching.
  • Bob persevered twice as long as the average player.

Usually that’s where my research stops: athlete, nice stats, end of story.

But the more I read, the more I discovered a broader impact and lessons I could learn from. First about Marvin Miller’s impact on sports players and of Bob’s own contributions. Then about things that go beyond stats and rings.

Bob played in the World Series with the Oakland A’s . Bob’s journey  is full of lessons that transcend baseball…

1. Focus on Your Strengths

Improve what you can to be a contender.

Bob had a depth perception problem so he couldn’t field or hit very well. So he focused on what he could do better.

“I always felt like I was not the most talented athlete. I was physically fine and could throw hard and could run,” Bob said. “Which led me to believe boy I’d better run as much as I can to be in better shape than anybody else because I don’t have all the tools.”

Bob emulated other specialist ball players. “Hoyt Wilhelm was absolutely amazing but of course he couldn’t throw hard and didn’t need to because he absolutely mastered the knuckleball.”

He pushed himself to be the best player he could be – not just physically, but also mentally. He kept index cards with other players’ batting habits and how umps called his pitches.

“I never thought I’d be a major league player but once I got an opportunity, I tried to maximize it and I think that’s why I ended up in the majors and was able to stay there and do reasonably well.”


Bob at age 31 with his first team, the White Sox, in the 5th year of his MLB career (from an unpublished negative that was considered for the 1969 Topps card set)

2. Think Different

Follow the crowd or do something completely different – as long as it works for you.

There are references to Bob as a unique a free spirit or an oddball. He did “odd” things like run with a weighted vest.

“It had sacks of BBs around the vest so you’re running with 20 pounds more than you weigh. And they thought that was pretty weird,” Bob said, “And maybe I was but I’m sure that’s the reason after doing that for about 10 years that I was still able to outrun almost all the players on the team.”

Bob also trained with Bill Bonham, a Cubs teammate with the same mindset.

“We did arm strengthening exercises, which probably prolonged my career,” Bob recalled. They also stretched their arms. “Most of the players are saying what the heck are you doing?” Those asking were told arm stretching was bad.  “That was the only reason I was an oddball because I did things that to me at least made sense.”

Thinking different leads to trying new things even if nobody else is doing it. Sometimes you fail, but you’ll also succeed sometimes. In the long run, that’s what might make all the difference.


After a rough start in 1969, Bob was sent to the Seattle Pilots where he played with Jim Bouton (from a postcard)

3. Be Confident

A positive mindset leads to confidence. And with confidence, you’ll achieve more than you thought you could.

“I grew up in a small town in Iowa,” Bob said. “My mother was an amazing person and she certainly influenced my life. And I think she created this kind of positive attitude just by her own demeanor.”

Everyone has doubts or gets nervous, from sports players to someone speaking up in a work group setting.

“It’s a matter of believing in yourself, self-confidence,” is how Bob sees it. “If I went in and they started to hit the ball hard. I’d say to myself I’m better than that, I can get this guy out. I think that’s very important. There were many very talented minor league players that never made the majors because they ran into a slump and couldn’t get out over the hump.”

Kyle Schwarber, rehabbing for the 2016 World Series, was quoted by 60 Minutes as saying, “I just tell myself over and over again that you know, I’m a good hitter, like I can do this.”

But back in the 70’s players didn’t openly talk much about it. “Players would just never talk about the fact that they weren’t on top of their game and that they had to do something to correct it,” Bob said. “They were pretty much a macho group but I knew what they felt like underneath, they just didn’t really admit it.”

Everyone struggles at some point. Confronting it with confidence is how you can get past it – by believing in yourself.

“[Bill Bonham] was sagely enough probably the only guy that I met in baseball who did exactly like I did. He admitted his forthcomings, he was not ashamed to say hey I was scared,” Bob remembered. “And he had a very successful career because he had a lot of guts and determination. We kind of fed off one another.”

4. Be Persistent

There are times in life when it’s excruciating to keep going. Some call it the grind. That’s when persisting matters the most.

“I gave up runs in consecutive ballgames,” Bob said. “I just kept pushing on and fairly soon after that I got a little bit more comfortable.”

Bob pushed through the grind in workouts and rehab and in thinking of ways to improve to get an edge.

“When I ran into a hard day”, Bob remembered, “I tried to analyze and come back whenever my next opportunity was with that completely out of my mind and using what went wrong to my advantage. And by doing that repeatedly I didn’t fall into those protected slumps. I saw a lot of players even at a major league level have a really good year and then go back and have a horrible year.”


The Pilots transformed into the Milwaukee Brewers where he played briefly (from a 1994 Miller Brewing card). Tony at Off Hiatus Baseball shared Bob’s McDonald’s Brewers card here 

5. Help Others

Help others when you can. One day you may need help yourself.

Years ago, Bob went to a baseball reunion in Florida. There he met players having a tough time financially. By then, pensions had become a thing in baseball, but these guys weren’t eligible because they finished playing before 1947.

In 1994, The Chicago Tribune wrote about Bob’s petitioning of the Player’s Association and the Commissioner’s office. His petition was for a small benefit payment to about 130 former players. There was a pension surplus so the impact would’ve been minimal.

There was general support from retired players at the time, but not enough support among the active players to approve it. “They had no reason to go want to out there and ride their Palomino trying to get something that didn’t help them but it certainly seemed very logical to me,” Bob recalled.

In situations like that, it’s easy to do nothing.

In the Cubs 60 Minutes news story, Theo Epstein said “players that tend to respond to adversity the right way, and triumph in the end are players with strong character. If you have enough guys like that in the clubhouse you have an edge on the other team.”

That’s critical so I’ll repeat it. When you have people like Bob in your clubhouse or in your life, you and your group ends up with an edge in baseball or in life. This is the type of person I want to be my friend or my mentor. The strength of that person’s character builds you up and makes you better and stronger.

These are people that’ll do the right thing even when nobody’s watching. For most people, that gives them a true satisfaction that money can’t buy (to use a cliché).

Those retired players did eventually get a pension. “And that was during a time when baseball was striking and owners and players were at loggerheads,” Bob recalled. The Player’s Association didn’t do anything, but the Owner’s Association stepped up to make a difference. “Eventually they did it fairly quietly… but at least it happened.”

It happened in part because people like Bob stepped up and did something.


Bob played with Oakland from 1970-72 (from team photo before the 1972 Mustache Gang)

Principles

Towards the end of our discussion, Bob shared some principles he lives by. He didn’t recall who told him about these. If you’re to believe the Internet, they originate in a George Washington Burnap book, and I think they apply to anyone.

Here they are in Bob’s words:

  • “You need something to do — that’s very important”
  • “Something or someone to love — and that can be some thing, it doesn’t have to be someone but for many of us that’s the case”
  • “And then something to hope for”

“If you have those three things in front of you. It’s kind of like baseball, if you have those to keep you strong you can get through many adversities including a slump.”

I appreciate Bob’s generosity in sharing insights that inspire and reinforce these lessons and principles for me.

Summary

Bob showed up with the some of most historically interesting teams and places during the 1970’s:

  • Seattle Pilots in their only year of baseball and at the epicenter of Jim Bouton’s Ball Four epic
  • Milwaukee Brewers in their inaugural year
  • The Oakland A’s dominant period and in a World Series
  • The Cubs, who hadn’t won a World Series for so long, but were on the verge of their best pennant run since 1945

It wasn’t just Forest Gump right-place-right-time luck that landed him there. I think luck plays a big role for everyone, but more is needed. Teams sought out his skills because Bob persistently built up his strengths and confidence, and he wasn’t afraid to experiment to find what worked. He was the best player he could be.

After 10 years in the major leagues, he left the clubhouse and got on a plane destined for the Bay Area and a different life. He’d continue to be the best person he could be.


Bob at the Cubs clubhouse circa 1975 (from a postcard). There are many more details to Bob’s baseball career that you can read out here and here.

©2018 1975BaseballCards.com All Rights Reserved

1975 Topps, 1976 SSPC, Card Compared to 75

Card Spotlight: 1976 SSPC Countdown Carbo 411, Rader 59, Cowens 175 (#15)

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Facial Expressions.

This set is chock full of facial expressions. Random fact – Chock full o’Nuts is a brand of coffee. The story goes: a guy owned nut store in the 1920’s and those morphed into a chain of coffee stores that morphed into coffee sold in grocery stores. At some point Jackie Robinson worked for the company with the oddball name.

I haven’t counted, but I’d bet this set has more nutty, oddball expressions than most others.

Carbo played for the Reds previously and still had connections and friendships from his stint with Cincinnati. Then he had to compete with them and lose in the 1975 World Series. Sometime that’s how life works out – right place, wrong team. It’s the journey that matters.

Doug Rader in the first card the looks like he had that second cup of coffee. This card shows him in the new Astros uniform (introduced in 1975 to commemorate the Astrodome’s 10th anniversary). It also has a clear view of a circular black 40 patch. That’s a tribute to Doug’s former teammate Don Wilson, who died under mysterious circumstances in 1975. On the right, aside from his toned down Topps-approved expression, you can see Doug in the 1974 uniform.

And then there’s Al Cowens…

By the way, if you’re looking for SSPC cards from this set, I have many on COMC here and many more that I can mail out. If you want any and write a blog, contact me to work something out.

1975 Topps, 1976 SSPC, Card Compared to 75

Card Spotlight: 1976 SSPC Countdown Milan 536, Mays Score 595 (#16)

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Microphones.

Interviews happen all the time in life and so do speeches. Microphones help with both. When microphones are around, something important is happening. I need to pay attention.

I have no idea how many cards of players with microphones exist. But they’re not common – I can’t recall even one in the 1975 Topps set. But this sets got two.

Is this thing on?

There’s Felix Millan. They didn’t have wireless microphones back then. Maybe he’s in the middle of an interview. Is he talking to Keith Olbermann? He looks a bit concerned on the 75 card.

Willie Mays shows up twice in both sets (though in Topps it’s the MVP reprint subset). In this SSPC checklist card, he’s being interviewed by Herb Score, who was a radio play-by-play announcer at the time. This is a good read about Herb, who may have been one of the best pitchers had it not been for an unlucky accident. Stats never tell you the full story about a person.

If you’re looking for SSPC cards from this set, I’ve got many on COMC here (including a couple of Mays cards).

1975 Topps, 1976 SSPC, Card Compared to 75

Card Spotlight: 1976 SSPC Countdown Doyle 407, Hargan 254, Stargell 573, Hands 253 (#17)

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Candid Photography.

Sometimes what makes photos good is that they’re candid. Maybe the intent was for a posed shot, but what turned out is a candid moment before the player was ready.

The 1976 SPC set has some of those and they end up showing guys that look more approachable. I can relate to those guys.

Unlike Topps which had the luxury of selecting from many photographs, SSPCs likely had a limited selection since they had to get in and out with their photography as fast as they could. And that turned out to be a pretty good thing for us.

Steve Hargan has that split second of surprise. That’s what my face looks like when I forgot to take the trash out (and the truck’s passing by). A good complementary card to Topps Hargan.

 

Denny is lost in thought. A few more seconds and he’d be looking at us, or maybe they’d make him look at the sky. This pensive state is much more interesting. It’s the look I have wondering about upgrading my Topps Doyle card full of print streaks.

 

Here are two different sides to Willie Stargell. There’s no way I could get away with looking as cool swinging a bat as Topps Stargell. But SSPC Stargell seems more like an everyday guy.

And some players look just the same in Topps as SSPC, like Bill Hands. Looks like he’s been ready for 10 minutes and now just annoyed. Will you just take the picture? We’ve all been there… relatable.

By the way, I’ve finally got some extra SSPC cards available on COMC (look here for SSPC or here for over 800 other cards).

Blogs

Cards That Never Were and Topps Bunt

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This post is indirectly related to 1975 cards. It’s about the Cards That Never Were blog that I follow. It houses custom/concept cards including some that resemble the 1975 set.

Today the Topps Bunt app announced card designs from the CTNW blog. Whatever you feel about collecting cards on the app, I think this bit of news is pretty cool.

Update: John Hogan, wrote about it

These are popular. Below is the announcement and all the cards.

Hank Aaron is the award card and these are now sold out.

 

The card backs look like this: