Winners from "Teams of Christmas Past" giveaway!

Thanks to all 15 folks who put in claims for my Festivus giveaway of old teams. After assigning everyone a number, the Random.org sequence generator kicked out these top 5!

• Captain Canuck (Milwaukee Braves, St Louis Browns, Montreal Expos)
• Chris Stufflestreet (Washington Senators, Seattle Pilots, Houston Colt .45s)
• Dan (Philadelphia Athletics, St. Louis Browns, Washington Senators)
• Jeremy (Brooklyn Dodgers, St.Louis Browns, NY Giants)
• Mad Guru (Montreal Expos, Wilmington Quick Steps, Louisville Colonels)

Interesting to see 3 different St. Louis Browns selections make the cut, with a good smattering of other options. Not sure about finding Guru a Wilmington Quick Steps card, but props to him for picking a team I'd never heard of! I'll contact winners for their mailing addresses by this weekend.

Le Grand Orange thanks everyone for participating!

1971 Milk Duds Baseball #5, Andy Messersmith

Do Milk Duds make you think of movie theaters? School recess? How about baseball games?  Candy makers M. J. Holloway took advantage of the MLBPA's taste for player licensing income with this 72-box set; each one pictures an active player from 1971 and originally contained a dozen or so of their chocolate-dipped caramels.

Card front

The lower-right corner text, "Don't Forget! SLO-POKE," promotes another caramel created by Holloway in 1926. Most candy stores still offer Milk Duds, but Slo-Poke switched makers after 1971 and isn't seen much anymore. Find them these days at OldTimeCandy.com and similar retro sites.

Hand-cut version, no box

Holloway printed three players for each number from 1 to 24; Andy Messersmith (Angels), Billy Grabarkewitz (Dodgers), and Thurman Munson (Yankees) share #5. Most Milk Duds baseball "cards" survive as just a trimmed portrait--the only baseball element of its package--but trimming away the box panels removes its number and cuts resale value by at least half.)

Messersmith made four All-Star teams, but served the players union more significantly as a key part of the end of baseball's Reserve Clause and free agency's ensuing growth. Check out the history at Andy's Wikipedia page.

Card back

In my mind, Milk Duds remain locked in an eternal war with Whoppers, and I prefer the former's caramel over its competitor's malted chocolate. (This side of the box cross-marketed "BLACK COW," a sugar sucker since retired by Holloway--just another casualty in their war for candy supremacy.)

Value: Most trimmed singles cost a dollar or two and up to $20 for stars like Clemente and Rose. Full boxes start about $10 and that's what I paid for Messersmith on eBay in 2006.

Fakes / reprints: Don't know of any reprints, but there's an entertaining discussion of "refilling" boxes (and any change in value) at Net54Baseball.com.

Merry Christmas!

Best wishes to everyone and good luck to folks already entered in my Festivus 400th Post Give-away of Free Stuff with their "Teams of Christmas Past." Rusty Staub's our honorary Santa, since he played for not one, but two different former teams.

A Young Colt .45

Le Grande Orange

If you haven't chosen your "ghosts" yet, entries accepted at the Festivus 400th Post Give-away Contest of Free Stuff post through Dec 27th!

Festivus 400th Post Give-away Contest of Free Stuff

Yesterday's post on Honus Wagner marked #400 for the Number 5 blog. As thanks to everyone following along, let's give away some cards! It's the giving season, whatever your holiday background. (For non-Seinfeld-watchers, "Festivus" is a noncommercial winter holiday observed on Dec 23.)

The (aluminum) Festivus Pole

Of the three hauntings from Dickens' A Christmas Carol, I ruminated most over its Ghost of Christmas Past. Would Scrooge see his old self in a new light? Could he put the wisdom to good use? In that spirit of our past becoming a better future, I'm giving away cards of teams gone by. Brooklyn Dodgers! Seattle Pilots! St. Louis Browns! Les Expos!

That Browns logo is something else

HOW TO ENTER: Add a comment listing 3 favored MLB teams that no longer exist in their original city or under the current name. For example:

• 1: Seattle Pilots
• 2: Brooklyn Dodgers
• 3: Montreal Expos

This contest accepts entries through Monday, Dec 27th. I'll randomize them all and send cards from one (or more) of their teams to 5 lucky folks. Probably can't find them for super-old teams, but be creative! :-)

WHAT YOU WIN: Cards for one (or more) of the 3 former teams you listed! It's a Festivus Miracle.

1968 Sports Cards for Collectors Baseball #5, Honus Wagner

Sports Cards for Collectors (SCFC), progenitor of the previously-profiled TCMA, produced this 82-card set of retired greats for (and marketed them to) regular buyers of memorabilia, rather than casual baseball fans. They shopped directly to collectors for two reasons: first, few kids would know pre-WWII retirees like Honus Wagner and second, SCFC already knew those "serious" buyers through their newsletter. This audience awareness made a big difference in their success, compared to Fleer's relative failure with Baseball Greats sets in 1960 and 1961.

Card front

SCFC co-founder Mike Aronstein contracted with his uncle Myron for this hand-drawn set, though (according to this interview) aunt Margie also contributed art at some point, so the MSA signature on Wagner's collar could be either one.

Quick recap of TCMA's hand-drawn sets, with links to the numbered #5 set profiles.

• 1968 SCFC Baseball: Honus Wagner - artists Myron and Margie Aronstein
• 1970 SCFC "Sports Stuff": Bobby Lowe - artists Myron and Margie Aronstein
• 1973 TCMA Autographs: Pie Traynor - artist John Anderson
• 1977 TCMA Stars of the 1920s (unnumbered checklist) - artist John Anderson

Card back (with date stamp)

Look closely to see a reversed image of Wagner on the back. SCFC used glossy fronts and plain paper backs, so this "ghost" is ink transferred from a stack of printed sheets. Cards from the set's second half included stats and a player bio on the back, with this checklist breakdown.

• #1 - 36: Picture front, blank back
• #37 - 78: Picture front, stats on the back
• 4 unnumbered checklists

Value: This Wagner cost $5 eBay in 2008, a nice find given the small number printed. As with most sets, Ruth and Cobb likely cost more.

Fakes / reprints: According to Mike Aronstein, no one reprinted their sets, so I don't expect to find any in the marketplace.

1973 TCMA Baseball Autographs #5, Pie Traynor

Card collector and publisher Mike Aronstein designed and printed several hand-drawn baseball sets between 1968 and 1977, using two companies, Sports Card for Collectors (SCFC) and The Card Memorabilia Associates (TCMA). "Art cards" represent a small part of TCMA's total output, but the huge 1970s growth in direct-to-collector issues and other "oddballs" trace back--at least in part--to Mike's success selling both fans and minor league teams on small-run, local-interest subjects. (UPDATE: TCMA's also a combo of both founders' initials, Tom Collier and Mike Aronstein, details in this interview.)

Card front

Card artist John Anderson drew today's 12-card set in a smoother style than Mike's uncle Myron used on earlier efforts like 1968 SCFC Sports Stuff (#5 profile here), and added a look-alike signature. Some collector catalogs call this the "Drawings and Autographs" set.

Card back

Many consider Pie Traynor history's greatest third baseman and SABR placed him at #70 on their all-time top 100. He recently reappeared on the US Post Office's baseball series as part of their All-Century Team.

USPS All-Century Baseball Stamps

Given their matching pose and uniform details, I assume both artists (TCMA and post office) used the same source image.

Value: I picked up this TCMA #5 for $6 on eBay. All 12 cards in the set feature HOFers, but demand and prices remain low.

Fakes / reprints: Doubt anyone faked this set--just make sure not to confuse the drawn autograph for a real one.

1973 O-Pee-Chee Baseball #5, Ed Brinkman

If I were to describe any batting stance as "conservative" or even "modest," this half-crouch by Gold Glove shortstop Edwin Albert Brinkman might be the one. His focused anticipation and classic 70s glasses even give the impression one can outsmart incoming fastballs, rather than hit them.

Card front

O-Pee-Chee finally matched Topps card-for-card in 1973, with the same number of players (660) and no checklist changes or on-card variations. Whiter card stock and a PRINTED IN CANADA tag line mark the only obvious differences--(UPDATE: plus French text translations on the back)--though it does seem OPC's print runs dropped off during the mid-70s, making those years harder to come by than singles from 1970 to 1972 and 1978 on. (Building complete sets from those years is not an easy undertaking.)

Card back

Brinkman placed ninth in 1972's MVP voting, an amazing finish considering the .203 batting average and .279 slugging. Ed did play every game for AL Eastern division-winning Detroit and won the aforementioned Gold Glove, good enough to outpace better-known guys like Jim Palmer and Reggie Jackson. (Full results at B-R.com.)

Value: Low-grade singles cost a dollar or two and OPC's rarity only seems to impact top-condition stars. (For example, CheckOutMyCards lists a mid-grade Bob Boone RC for $12, the same price as Topps versions.)

Fakes / reprints: Don't know of any OPC reprint issues and doubt someone would fake the set, given its low profile.

1972 O-Pee-Chee Baseball #5, John Bateman

Wow, check out that front. Bright yellow over lime green with a baby blue sky? O-Pee-Chee copied Topps' 1972 design as-is, so all those funky American combos carried right over into their Canadian version. 40 years later, these 1972 card borders still look psychedelic crazy! (Ow, my eyes.)

Card front

After matching Topps card-for-card in 1971, OPC stopped at #525 in 1972, more than 200 short of the full 787-count (!) American checklist. Canadian editors made one prominent change, adding a "deceased" note to #465, Gil Hodges, who passed away on April 2. (See details at Oh My O-Pee-Chee's article.)

Card backs include French translations of player bios, stats, and even cartoons, which Canadian law mandated on printed materials starting in 1970. This also taught English-speaking fans a whole pantheon of new phrases like grands chelems (grand slam) and fiche comme frappeur (batting record).

Card back

In Dec 2010, Baseball-Reference.com posted a fun article called "How many clicks to Babe Ruth?" (If you haven't seen their player stat pages before, each and every one features a Top 10 Similar Batters list, helping us understand how that guy performed relative to others, independent of year.) The "how many clicks" idea is like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon for baseball: start with any player and follow Similarity Score links until you reach Babe Ruth. (Hank Aaron and other historic sluggers are one step away.)

One B-R submitter said he's never failed in linking a player to Ruth, though it can take dozens of in-betweens. Unfortunately, medium-power, low-average catchers like Bateman seem to be their own world and it's tough to break out to other, higher-performing positions. (I reached the underrated 60s backstop John Romano quickly, but stalled out getting any closer.) Have you successfully linked a favorite player to the Babe?

Value: OPC printed far fewer cards than Topps, but non-star singles come relatively cheap at a dollar or two. Higher-grade superstars often cost more than American equivalents because they're both rarer and harder to find in nice shape. (OPC used cheaper, easily dinged card stock.)

Fakes / reprints: Haven't seen any OPC reprints in the marketplace.

Poll wrap-up: Would you pick up this card?

Thanks to everyone for "picking up" results for last Friday's poll. 14 folks chimed in on what cards they'd rescue from the dustbin, with these rough percentages of yes votes.

• 1964 Torre: 90%
• 1975 Tiant: 75%
• 1984 Ripken: 50%
• 1992 Sierra: 15%
• 2003 Gwynn: 30%

Good to see folks haven't lost their goodwill toward modern cards. Of course, I didn't include this fine fellow, on display over at the Ugly Baseball Cards post "A Word From Our Sponsors."

1992 Fleer #708

Oy vey.

1967 O-Pee-Chee Baseball #5, Whitey Ford

1967 marked both O-Pee-Chee's third baseball set (adapted from Topps, anyway) and a growing interest in Canadian big-league baseball. Prominent businessman Gerry Snyder successfully proposed a Montreal franchise to league owners at their December meetings and the team ultimately used Expo 67 as its naming inspiration.

Card front

You might find this pose unflattering for a future Hall of Famer, but Topps used a lot of follow-through pictures on their Whitey Ford cards. (Page through them at CheckOutMyCards.com.) In my opinion, they pale in comparison to his exuberant and artful 1951 Bowman rookie.

1951 Bowman #1

I love the 1951 and 1952 Bowman sets for work like this.

Card back

OPC's 1967 set reprinted Topps' first 196 cards, same as the previous year's total. Fronts and backs match up almost exactly, save for the tiny PRINTED IN CANADA tag line.

More than 40 years after his retirement in 1967, Ford remains baseball's all-time leader in World Series starts (22), wins (10), and strikeouts (94). Whitey broke the scoreless innings record in 1961--surpassing Babe Ruth's mark set with Boston in 1916 and 1918--and only stopped there because of an injured ankle in game four. (His two scoreless victories also garnered series MVP honors.)

Value: Low-grade Ford cards cost several dollars and move up quickly from there. He starred for a lot of pennant and World Series winners, so remains a high-demand player.

Fakes / reprints: Topps used Whitey on a number of reprint and throwback cards, but I don't know of any OPC reissues.