1972 Topps Posters #5, Mickey Lolich

Today's highly skilled guest set the gold standard for Detroit Tiger pitchers and, for a time, lefty pitchers in general. From 1964 to 1974, he annually won at least 14 games, topping out at 25 in 1971. That year's performance included a league-leading 308 Ks and placed him a close second in Cy Young voting to Vida Blue. He pitched even better in 1972, lowering his ERA to 2.50 and raising his K/BB ratio to a career-best 3.38. A world champ with 1968's squad, he memorably threw 3 complete game victories in the World Series, the only lefty to do so in MLB history.

Poster front (10" x 18")

Mickey's Wikipedia article gives an interesting story about his handedness. While born a righty, a childhood accident pushed him to favor his left side. This continued into his baseball life, where he worked as a southpaw pitcher and switch-hitter. (It doesn't say which he use to serve up the donuts.)

Topps used above-average photography in this 24-count set of 10" x 18" posters, a nice change from the questionable choices made in other 70s sets. (Really? A half-shadowed Hank Aaron tracking a pop fly? That's the best you got?) Companies should remember that collectors appreciate more than just the name on the card.

1972's better set quality probably explains the higher values, as they cost more than most contemporaries. (Only the super-sized, full-team posters from 1969 price higher.) I bought Mickey Lolich in an eBay lot of 3 posters for $25 total, which included Tom Seaver and Willie McCovey. Philly Sports Cards' stock page (no personal connection) pictures a good chunk of the set and currently lists #5 at $10.

1978 O-Pee-Chee Baseball #5, Victory Leaders (Carlton, Goltz, Leonard, Palmer)

Today's card serves up a treat, four players for the price of one, and two Hall-of-Famers to boot. All of them made at least 36 starts and logged 280+ innings. Pitchers at the top of leader boards almost always rely on above-average teams, though the 1972 version of Steve Carlton managed to win 27 times for the 54-97 Phillies, an astounding 50% of all team wins. (Let's agree that doesn't happen very often.)

Card front

The Yankees took home rings in 1977, but didn't play the only good baseball that year. Putting each "leader" in context illustrates better who did what for whom.

• Carlton, PHI: No longer saddled with a team that sucked, Steve won 23 games for the 101-61 Phillies. His 153 ERA+ easily outdistanced the other four starters, none of whom reached 100. 17 complete games also totaled more than the rest of the staff put together. As thanks for all this work, the Dodgers knocked him around twice in the NLCS en route to the pennant.
• Goltz, MIN: Tied Palmer for AL lead in starts. More worryingly, led league in hits allowed. Twins go 84-77 mostly on his indefatigable arm and Rod Carew's pursuit of .400. Otherwise unheralded "closer" Tom Johnson wins 16 games, second-most on the team, as starters 2, 3, and 4 make "average" look good.
• Leonard, KC: Best pitcher on only Royals team to win 100+ games. Shared the love with Colborn, Splittorff, Bird, and Pattin, all of whom garner at least 10 victories. Dennis struck out 244 batsmen, by far his best yearly total, and serves up a sweet 'stache.
• Palmer, BAL: Led AL in complete games, innings pitched, and underwear ads. Unfortunately, Orioles finish 2.5 games behind Yankees, a team now linked to "disco" performance enhancers. (Speaking of unmentionables, BareNecessities.com sponsors Jim's Baseball-Reference page. Stay classy, Baltimore.)
  

Many O-Pee-Chee sets copy their Topps contemporaries card-for-card, adding only French flourishes and occasional "NOW WITH" notes for players on new teams. 1978 OPC mixed things up a little by shortening the checklist to 242 cards and swapping the Record Breakers, typically the first several cards, with the League Leaders. That turned 1978 Topps #5 into a Pete Rose card (RB for most lifetime switch-hits), while Canuck collectors got today's barbershop quartet of Winners. Zut alors, I like the choice to show LLs first.

Card back

Value: OPC versions come in short supply compared to Topps, but values don't differ significantly. Leader cards, even those with HOFers like Carlton and Palmer, only cost a few dollars ungraded. Sellers that highlight them as "signficantly rarer" and "brimming with investment potential" should, IMHO, switch to decaf.

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

1980 L.A.P.D. Dodgers #5, Johnny Oates

As mentioned in the 1980 S.F.P.D. Giants #5 post about Mariner manager emeritus Jim Lefebvre, local police departments started printing baseball sets in the late 70s as a way to connect positively with fans (and mostly likely kids). Typical police issues show a posed shot, position, handedness, and other basic player info. Backs have public service tips, warning kids not to take candy from strangers, play with matches, or root for the Cubs (South Siders only).


The pictured card shakes up "typical" police issues with a heady action shot, as a Houston Astro (Cesar Cedeno?) arrives at home plate in a cloud of dust. Somewhat unflattering to Mr. Oates, the ball clearly got away and probably bounced to the backup. (If I had the following of Rich Lederer's Foto Friday, the Internets would no doubt ID the players, game, and score by 5pm Eastern Daylight Time.)

Though a lefty batsman, Oates fielded with the more backstop-appropriate right hand. He fashioned a decade-long career with six teams by being, it seems, quiet and easy to work with. In Johnny's own words, "I still don't know how I got to the big leagues, because I wasn't that good...I kept my mouth shut. I couldn't throw. I couldn't throw a lick." Catchers hit even less in the 70s than they do now, so a .250 slap hitter shouldn't be seen as an aberration. With apologies to today's guest, there were many more of his caliber than equals of Thurman Munson, Darrell Porter, and Ted Simmons.

Johnny Oates won AL's Manager of the Year award in 1996 after leading the Texas Rangers to their first playoff appearance. He rode a lineup of sluggers to division titles in 1998 and 1999, but resigned in 2001 after poorer finishes due in part to management choices, such as signing Alex Rodriguez for 50 million Rocky Colavitos. The franchise retired his #26 in 2005.

1963 Bazooka All-Time Greats Baseball #5, Herb Pennock

Winner of 240 career games, Mr. Pennock's career highlights include three World Series titles with the Yankees, spread across a decade of decent-to-excellent performance. He received MVP votes for three straight years, 1924-26, perhaps due to the sheer number of appearances (40, 47, 40) and innings pitched (286, 277, 266) for such a well-known team.

High-innings pitchers create a classic dilemma for managers. Do I stick with the hot-armed guy? Is he just going to burn out at a younger age if I do? Writers like to harp on Dusty Baker for abusing young pitchers, which might or might be the case. Pennock clearly dropped off in total innings after that pounding from age 30 to 32, but who doesn't decline by 35? Herb remained effective as a reliever and spot-starter into his late 30s, even if his .500+ W/L record seems buoyed by that killer Yankees lineup.

1963 Bazooka cards came in two flavors, the regular photo set (that #5 features Warren Spahn) and the pictured foil treatment of "olde tyme" baseballers. Buyers of the large 5-piece gum boxes got active players printed on the package and (bonus!) All-Time Greats cards as inserts, most with a gold background and some with silver. (The latter's somewhat rarer.)

These card backs feature the only player bios from any Bazooka set (the rest came printed on gum boxes) and they helped kids appreciate players long since retired. The card stock's similar to contemporary Topps sets and surface foil scratches easily, but examples otherwise hold up well over time. Don't overpay for the cards, which should be $5 or less for low-grade "commons," if you can say that about a HOFer. There's basically Ruth, Gehrig, and Cobb for ~$50 and everyone else for significantly less.

Kenesaw Mountain Landis, baseball's first commissioner, makes an unusual guest appearance in this set. 1956 Topps printed league presidents William Harridge and Warren Giles on cards #1 & #2, but executives rarely show up on cardboard. After all, did kids want to be a stuffed shirt with slicked-back hair...or did they want to be Willie Mays?

1957 Swift Meats Baseball #5, Ed Bailey

Today's oddball set ranks as one of the most bizarre marketing creations since "snails as food." Available only by mail from Swift Meats, the collection of 18 punch-out cards came in an envelope with a baseball game board.

Assembled card

Once opened and splayed onto the table, they must've looked disturbingly like a pile of butchered baseball players. Kind of like Re-Animator, you'd breathe new life into them by popping each piece out of the frame and following the tabbed instructions. In the end, you get a 3-D version of a 2-D tradition. I think it's very weird, and it would completely creep me out if the figures smelled at all like lunch meat.

Building both 9-man teams no doubt took some time, but Swift's tasty plan didn't stop at skeletal reconstruction. Plant your zombie baseball army atop its diamond-shaped game board and follow the instructions for a lite version of the spinner-based, Cadaco All Star Baseball experience. Unfortunately, there's no indication any single player performed better than another. Cadaco paid careful attention to each player's career performance and rendered it differently than all the others. This gave you a reason to pick different lineups and personalized the game. Swift's generic treatment of both it and the player pictures don't compare favorably. But hey, packaged meat products!

Card front (unassembled, blank back)

Credit Marty's PSA Graded Cards for the flattened picture of #10 Junior Gilliam and see a 2006 Robert Edwards auction for pictures of the unpunched set, envelope, and "field." My only example's the looming figure of #5, Ed Bailey, complete with hand-written digit above his name. Discarding the paper frame meant losing track of the checklist order, a curious design choice with all that extra space next to the player name and position. I'm sure it made sense at the time, when you're already dealing with the chopped-up bits of Frank Robinson. Oh, the humanity.

1961 Golden Press #5, Bill Terry

Today's card shows a Hall-of-Famer taking a nice, artistic cut with good follow-through. As a southpaw, Mr. Terry gets an extra step toward first base and probably used that edge to beat out a few of his record-setting 254 hits in 1930. Bill holds the all-time lefty record with a .341 average, but don't discount his power—the 2193 hits included almost 400 doubles and more than 150 homers.

(My own left-handed bat probably yielded an extra hit or two at the Little League level. It also helped that most 10 year-olds struggle to throw from third to first without a cutoff man.)

Card front

Although Bill's swinging at an imaginary ball in front of empty stands, the colored retouching makes the charade seem pastoral, like Kevin Costner playing catch with Joe Jackson in a corn field. “Build it...and Bill Terry will smoke line drives off the wall.”

This Golden Press set, their only issue, came in a 33-card album and featured exclusively retired HOFers. Big names include Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Cobb, though students of the game should recognize the whole checklist. Cards from the front and back pages show more wear and command slightly higher prices, but it's relatively easy to build the set or find individual players. A friend gave me this #5 after finding it in a $1 bin in 2004.

Card back

Don Mattingly HOF supporters often mention today's guest as a comparison case. They both played well, but overall, it's a tough case to make. Their hitting stats match up well enough, but Terry also won multiple pennants (and a title) in NYC during his run as player-manager. You can't blame poor Yankee performance in the 80s on Don, but Bill gets an extra measure of respect for simultaneously handling strategic duties and logging big numbers at the plate.

No - L@@K eBay card buying

One of the baseball blogs I follow, A Cardboard Problem, wrote on May 6 about card 'rare-ity' on eBay. To summarize, "RARE" shows up so frequently in card listings it means almost nothing these days. As a buyer, you're better off ignoring it entirely, like a "FINAL CLEARANCE" sign at a foreign rug merchant.

ACP's posting spurred me to consider eBay terminology and how it's thrown around these days. Isn't it obvious to sellers that they're shooting themselves in the foot? That somewhere beyond the critical mass is a critical detritus driving buyers away? (It's not just the lousy economy.)

The problem lies in what the seller's saying about their audience. Are they looking for sports buyers? Collectors? Investors? My money's on "people waiting in a supermarket checkout line."

Listing cards as "rare" (9,399 listings) or "L@@K" (1,622 listings) or "OLD" (842 listings) sounds like something culled from "eBay for Dummies." It made sense back when in-your-face marketing still worked. Today, a single minus sign will get your shouting out of my face.

As a buyer, I want rare stuff--indeed, that's my whole wantlist--but on eBay the term almost guarantees you're trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. All of my wide-ranging searches specifically omit it and look for set names instead.

Briefly put, eBay's growth as a selling platform meant death to its former pool of accidental bargains. Away with the poorly described (but original) cards found in an attic that you won for no money! Here to stay, overproduced 80s and 90s cards listed as "eBay's greatest baseball card find!" Purchasing from a gaudy, overwrought listing doesn't guarantee a bad deal, but isn't the Internet here to save us from used-car salesmen? Cheap shoppers better serve themselves by looking for specific needs, side-stepping the vast, murky pool of description dreck.

If you're determined to tease out cards with bad descriptions, develop your search-fu to a fine, razor edge of misunderstood card text and malapropisms. Of course, whether you share them with others--your bidding competitors--is up to you. My favorite's the "T C G" abbreviation (for Topps Chewing Gum), printed on its older card backs in lieu of the full name. That search usually yields a grab bag of 50s, 60s, and 70s cards from all sports with well-meaning (if low-knowledge) sellers. It hasn't netted any bargains lately, but gives me a refreshingly small bin to sift through, compared to, say, "LOW POP" (2,106 listings).

1950 Bowman #5, Bob Kuzava

Bob Kuzava pitched professionally for 20 years, about two decades more than most of us. Cleveland signed him in 1941, but three years in a US Army uniform delayed his appearance in the major league version. He finally pitched regularly for the White Sox in 1949, going 10-6 and earning this first card, 1950 Bowman #5. As you can see from the image, someone did a number on this guy, rendering him The Man Without Eyes. I picture a back pocket trip through the clothes washer or many, many games of flipping.

Card front

Collecting maxim #23: “When you see a card with a messed up front, don't count on a pristine back.” As seen in the back scan, a previous owner tracked Bob's progress through the majors with his ink pen, updating the White Sox name on the card back to “Yankees.” He pitched there from mid-1951 to late 1954, netting three World Series titles, including game 7 appearances in both 1951 and 1952. Unfortunately, New York saw his last effective years as an MLB spot-starter and long reliever. Bob mopped up with the Orioles, Phillies, Pirates, and Cardinals, leaving the bigs for good at age 34 in 1957.

Card back

As of May 2009, Kuzava's still with us, and re-appeared as a signatory for the 2004 Bowman Heritage set, which replicates his 1955 color TV card. Many old school players rely on card and appearance-related revenue to bring home the bacon and I doubt Bob's an exception. When you meet older players at shows, make sure to give them your best and consider how much work it is to spend your golden years traveling between convention centers. If you see today's guest, ask about his disposal of the mighty Brooklyn lineup in 1952. As Don Larsen said when asked if he got tired of talking about his World Series perfect game: “Of course not! Why would I?”

1937 Goudey Thum Baseball Movies #5, Wally Moses

In the early 20th century, many Americans stereotyped movies as low-class entertainment, rife with sex and violence. (Perhaps that's changed and perhaps not.) Evolving camera technology and filming techniques allowed Hollywood to move further from small stage settings and put the people and situations right in your face.

This fast-paced change in entertainment style garnered negative attention from conservative groups, notably the Legion of Decency. Many large cities, including baseball towns Boston, New York, and Chicago, proved receptive to its influence, paving the road for industry change. (See the 1910 Tip-Top Pirates #5 for a similar story with the Temperance folks.)

The LoD's coordinated social and political pressure led movie studios to make concessions on script and film content, primarily via adoption of the Hays Code. Prior to its 1934 enforcement, studios tackled a wide variety of issues, from race relations to the ambiguity of crime and justice. Dozens of “classic” genres, stars, and directors established themselves prior to the Great Depression, but soon felt the pinch of behind-the-scenes censors who reviewed all American-made scripts and films. Out went racy scenes, language, and sympathetic bad guys. In came screwball comedies and the G-Men. Movies didn't stop being good, but they had to tap dance around major issues with ever-increasing subtlety.

Content enforcement lasted for some time, enough that studios completely remade several existing films in order to work around problems with their pre-Code version. Filmgoers know Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon as the classic 1941 film starring Humphrey Bogart. The little-seen 1931 version practically disappeared under the code's influence and picked up an alternate name (Dangerous Female) to avoid later confusion between the two.

As movies entered a decade of behind-the-scenes turmoil, baseball cards bloomed. Goudey even mixed the two with this “card” set, a series of marquee-style flip books. Zip through one to see a "live" player making a quick play, pitch, or batting move. Thum Movies cost 2 cents and included player bios and some commentary on the backside. The writing's pretty close to what you get from their standard card sets, but I liked the unintentionally humorous subscript of "Your Favorite Stars in Action! Pitching! Batting! Running! Catching! etc." (I assume scratching and spitting fall into the "etc." category.)

See the Old Cardboard set profile for a bit more info and Baseball Almanac's version for the full player checklist. It'd be fairly hard to build a full set these days, given the rarity of individual books. This issue also contains one of Joe DiMaggio's earliest appearances, a full year prior to the 1938 Heads Up set.

This scan shows the first page, with bat cocked and ready to swing. Each book zips through exactly 24 images, what folks now consider the standard speed for one second of movie projection. There's a problem with what you see here, though. If that's Wally at the plate, he's pulling a fast one on the movie man and swinging right-handed, even though he was a southpaw hitter and fielder. Personally, I think it's a different player altogether, something that happens from time-to-time on cards.

Update: Old Cardboard added details on a similar flip book set that's 30 years older than this Goudey set. Check out the 1906 Winthrop Moving Picture Postcards profile for details and an animated scan of the subject, HOFer Three Finger Brown's fastball.

Update #2: Red cover variation spotted on eBay.

Value: I bought this Moses book for $10 several years ago. Recent eBay actions are closing between $30-50 for Hall of Famers and probably half that for non-stars.

Fakes / reprints: It'd be a lot of work to fake a whole flip book, but beware of buyers selling single superstar pages, as copying them would be trivial. (I've seen separately graded individual pages of players like Joe DiMaggio, a dubious prospect at best.)

1921-1930 Major League Baseball Die-Cuts #5, George Blaeholder

It took me a while to give in and purchase this card. It’s got a pitching pose, but doesn’t resemble anyone in particular. Generic pants, lumpy shirt, and preternaturally stiff jersey sleeves complete the look of “five-minute sketch of man in woolen uniform.” At least it’s all done in sepia tones, matching the St. Louis Browns’ coffee stain history as an American League doormat in the 30s. Not too motivating, but I eventually found one for $5 and made the deal.

Card front (blank back)

The player in question, George Blaeholder, remained constant on the Browns from 1928 to 1934, taking the ball when asked and annually winning (and losing) at least 10 games. He moved on to the A’s in 1935, “achieving” a decent ERA+ mark but still going 6 and 10. That year, Philly beat St. Louis to the cellar by winning only 58 games under HOF manager Connie Mack. People often speak wistfully about players that play their whole career for one club; Mack served the A’s for half a century, helming the team from 1901 to 1950.

You deserve a more recognizable image of George Blaeholder, so check out his various cards from the 30s and 40s. The Goudeys and Diamond Stars look great as always, but I have a soft spot for the in-your-face color of the Tattoo Orbits. The high-contrast tones and action angle remind me of classic Soviet propaganda posters.

This particular set's actually pieces taken from a board game called "Major League Ball - The Indoor Game Supreme." (OldCardboard.com attributes the set to National Game Makers Company of Washington,D.C.) It kicked off in 1921 with at least five teams and a simpler design, listing only name, fielding and batting position, and team. Perforations, visible in the picture, connected the players horizontally and the maker post-fixed labels with name, position, and other details. Team sets (or label updates) came in an single envelope and were probably available through toy stores. The SCD catalog lists updates throughout the 1920s based on when players suited up for a given team. Blaeholder, for example, started pitching regularly in 1928, so only appeared after that time.

I started seeing these guys at shows more frequently in the last five years. It’s hard to recommend them unless you have a very specific interest, like a certain team, player, or (cough) type collection. The blasé player images and odd set construction do mean relatively low prices. This might be the cheapest way to recreate a classic lineup like the 1927 Yankees, though Ruth still runs hundreds of dollars in good shape. I point people back to the '33 and '34 Goudeys, since they're so much more attractive and informative.