Packing the Hall: Frankie Frisch

With today's unsurprising results in the Hall of Fame elections, let's look back to the late 1960s and early 1970s when Frankie Frisch and his cronies packed the Hall of Fame with Giants and Cardinals from the 1920s and 1930s, primarily based on their ability to know Frankie Frisch.



If you look at some of the weakest hall of famers, many were elected by Frankie Frisch's Veteran's Committee during this time frame.  When you think of Hall of Famers, you don't think of High Pockets Kelly, Pop Haines, Chick Hafey or Freddie Lindstrom, unless you are asked who are some of the worst Hall of Famers of all time, but all happened to be former teammates of Frankie Frisch and elected during or just after his tenure at the head of the Veteran's Committee.  In many ways, it was the exact opposite of what happened today, where a bunch of legitimate Hall of Fame caliber players were denied entry into the institution.  Of course, Pete Rose can attest to not being a Hall of Famer being good for your career.  (Actually, Pete Rose is in the WWE Hall of Fame, but that doesn't get him access to Cooperstown.) 

As to the card, I like Frankie Frisch fielding a grounder in an office park.  An office park with a dark red sky in the background, almost as if he was sentenced to live a horrible fate, playing baseball in a nightmare world with a fiery sky as his sole escape from office drudgery.  Plus, he is developing back trouble from that awkward angle he needs to work in.  Perhaps it is his pennance for Pop Haines induction into the Hall or perhaps it is my overactive imagination putting poor Frankie in imaginary afterworld peril.  Either way, the strong colors of the card speak to me and I'm glad to have found this card at a very reasonable price. 

Cam Neely's Knee

With hockey returning sooner rather than later, I decided it was time to show off some cards of the greatest game on ice.  To be honest, hockey, up close to the ice is the best spectator sport there is.  Lots of action and speed, but on top of the ice you can follow the action.  One of my two favorite sporting events I've attended was a 6-6 tie between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New Jersey Devils.  Mario Lemieux scored two goals and assisted on another, while Claude Lemieux scored two goals and assisted on another for the Devils, keeping things even.  It was just a crazy, wide open, offensive oriented game. 

While I've always been a fan of high scoring defensemen, there is always a soft spot in my heart for Ulf Samuelsson, the enforcer.  He came to the Penguins in the Ron Francis trade, putting the Penguins over the top and sending the Whale to Carolina in the longer term.  The Whalers were not the only team damaged by Samuelsson.  He is most famous for the hit which destroyed Cam Neely's knee.  Sometimes those things happen in hockey. 

Occasionally, you get to sign a hockey card 20 years later.  I actually heard there was a new Samuelsson signature card, but I only won that one today.  In the interim, we can look at one of the very few autograph cards I've purchased and the only hockey autograph I deemed must have.  I am a big fan of the Swedish uniform and to be quite honest, I was a little surprised that Samuelsson played internationally, but not every Swede can be Peter Forsberg.  And someone has to protect him from the likes of Ulf Samuelsson. 



I imagine the person who pulled the card from the box felt the odds beat them.  I, on the other hand, thought I hit the jackpot when I paid something around $2 plus shipping for the card.  I also felt that I was beating the previous owner, like he was Cam Neely, going down clutching his wallet instead of his knee.  Another data point in why I stopped buy unopened boxes of product, since I can't control getting the cards I really want, nor can I get in the range of not wondering, "Why did I spend all that money on these cards and all I got was a lousy Carlos Ruiz relic?" 

So, let the games and hits begin. 

10 Packs, 12 Dollars, What Could Go Wrong?!?!? (Part 2)

So, I opened more packs.  We all know that opening packs can be very soothing.  There is something to sort, a small amount of excitement and the knowledge that something new is awaiting us.  With that being said, I opened two more of the ten packs found in my repack box.

Pack 3 - 2012 Topps Opening Day

48 - Adrian Beltre
116 - Josh Hamilton
125 - Matt Cain
127 - J.P. Arencibia
181 - Clayton Kershaw
183 - Cliff Lee
SC-5 - Joey Votto - August 28, 2011: Votto Bookends Big Day with Bombs (The work of a frustrated or former newspaper headliner writer.  Definitely not up to par with what I expect on the back of the Daily News or New York Post)

I recognized every player pulled from this pack.  While I'm sure the family and friends of the Rockies' second lefthander out of the bullpen is thrilled and ecstatic there is a card devoted to him, as more of a casual fan, I could care less.  I like the idea of opening a pack of cards and say, "Hey, I've heard of these guys and would recognize them as baseball players without the assistance of a card."  For me, that is the downside of the Topps base set.  If you stick to what people know, it works.  I secretly suspect more people like this set for this reason alone...well, that and mascot inserts.

True story, I chose a 1982 Donruss set as the one set I really wanted to purchase, not for the Cal Ripken Rookie, which I could care less about, but the San Diego Chicken rookie card, which is a true classic.  I think I even still have the set somewhere in my house, sans puzzle, with poorly cut, off-center cards. 

Pack 4 2008 Topps Cello Pack (Series 2)

The cello pack always sounds like a good idea, but is a complete failure in the modern, insert-driven world we live in.  I will ruin the surprise of this pack, because I haven't seen anything like this since 1991, but the entire pack is base cards.  Nary an insert to be found. 

443 - Greg Dobbs
469 - Brian Bocock
658 - Kerry Wood (Look, a player we've heard of!)
468 - Gregor Blanco - (There is a five line paragraph, which both lacks a topic sentence and logical construction.  It hurts so bad, I can't even inflict it on you as a means of paying it forward.)
482 - Kazuo Fukumori
361 - Wesley Wright - ("He's a very athletic left-hand pitcher, a really good competitor,"says Astros East Coast supervisor of amateur scouting Clarence Johns." Look, we are six cards into this pack, I read Baseball Prospectus every year (I even own the original one from 1996 that was self-published.), read BaseballThinkFactory.org everyday and am fairly knowledgeable about the sport and I've heard of only three of these players.  And the quote is shorter than the official title and name of the person who provided the quote.  This card made me angry enough to ramble and merge two paragraphs into one without rhyme or reason.)
458 - Brad Hawpe
408 - Edinson Volquez - (5 years of professional ball, 13 different year/team seasons to report on, one organization.  At this point, he was traded to the Reds, who provided nothing but a spring training picture on the front.)
435 - Torii Hunter
635 - Michael Young (The answer to the question what would Derek Jeter be if he played for any other organization.)
412 - Joel Zumaya
498 - Matt Chico
585 - Brian Bannister
465 - Huston Street
550 - Curt Schilling
480 - Matt Cain ("Though poorly supported with runs (two or fewer in 21 starts) and by his bullpen, he led the Giants in ERA.")
513 - Rick Vanderhurk ("he's now revealed there is no gap between the "n" and the "h".  I've watched enough Premier League soccer to wonder if there was also once a gap between the "n" and the "d" as well.  And what frustrated novelist thought that this was a reveal, worthy of the use of such a verb.)
378 - Ozzie Guillen
520 - Vernon Wells (Spell check strikes again!!! "Vernon has been the hub of the Toronto office.  He owns nearly twice as many hits as anyone on the club since then, and also the most HRs and RBIs by far." The reference to hub of the office threw me so that I almost missed there is no time frame during which Wells has twice as many hits on the club.)
659 - Vincente Padilla
422 - Erick Aybar
406 - Takashi Saito

So far, the best card I've pulled is the epic 2011 Jeff Mathis, though the 2008 Vernon Wells is also a keeper. 

As to the real winner so far, Unintentional Comedy.  The loser is everyone who taught English to anyone who wrote any part of a Topps baseball card in the last five years.  Those people should be ashamed at the basic lessons they failed to impart about the usage of language.  Forshame, poor English teachers and/or professors, forshame!

10 Packs, 12 Dollars, How Could I Go Wrong?!?!? (Part 1)

I was at Target for legitimate purposes, like the acquisition of paper products, when I stopped in the card aisle.  To be fair, I stopped in the card aisle twice.  Once for a quick pass over of the picked over remains of those sturdy red shelves we all know and secretly love and a second for some targeted searching of every pack and box that remained.

During my second set of searching, after being tricked into picking up the Justin Bieber cards for the fourth time in a Target, I see some of our beloved repacks.  Most of the repacks were football, which makes sense given the time of year, but there were a few baseball ones.  The promise was 10 packs with 40% off retail.  In the front slots were two rack packs, 2009 Goodwin Champions and 2007 Upper Deck. I like rack packs, I think Goodwin Champions has some interesting designs, so I take the box over to the price scanner. 

At $20, I was clearly priced out, since I cannot fathom what packs inside might be worth over $3 each, but at $12, I might be priced in.  So, the scanner turns up $11.99 and off to the register I go.  Now, if you've seen Trainspotting, there is a scene towards the end where they are going to make the big score and Mark hears the story and goes, "Mike Forrester.  Russian sailors." in a tone clearly indicating the high probability of failure that is about to befall everyone.  Despite hearing this in the back of my head, I still forward with the purchase. To date, I've only opened two of the packs from the box, with the other 8 remaining in my car.  This way, I only break wax at my steering wheel, rather than opening all the packs up front and slowly bleeding out what I want.

Pack 1 - 2009 Goodwin Champions

Rather than spoil my thoughts at the whole process of opening the package, let's just jump into the packs themselves.

Top Half

2 - Derek Jeter
23 - Kevin Youkilis
28 - Brian McCann
51 - Carlos Beltran
67 - Josh Beckett
86 - Brooks Robinson Mini

This looks like a strong product with some interesting cards.  All baseball to start, but that is never a bad thing.  The mini was a nice touch and to date, the best card I've opened in this box.

Bottom Half

54 - Kosuke Fukodome
60 - Matt Garza
88 - Peggy Fleming
108 - Tim Lincecum
114 - Michael Jordan
141 - Bobby Orr

What a great set of players, why there is even a crease on Bobby Orr.  Wait a minute, that's not an action shot of Bobby Orr and that crease runs right through the middle of the card.  That's right, the entire bottom half of the pack was creased in the middle.  Quite disappointing actually and presumably a sign of the epic fail which is surely going to follow this box to its final resting place in a 4,000 count box.

Pack 2 - 2011 Topps Series 2

339 - Alexei Casilla
363 - Aaron Rowand (With a tremendous quote from Aubrey Huff "He'll play if he's 10 percent.", which is incredibly true, given his production in the orange and black, about 10% of a quality centerfielder.  I can here, "Put me in coach, I'm only sub-replacement due to my eroding skills and injuries.)
377 - Esmil Rogers
405 - Ian Kinsler
474 - Jeff Mathis (Whose card starts with "Jeff is a defensive catcher, but can rake when it counts." I see his professional gardening duties have gotten in the way of learning to hit.  Otherwise, there is an outright lie on the back of this card and completely beneath Topps.)
505 - Tommy Hanson
542 - Mike Pelfrey
554 - Cedric Hunter
579 - Jeff Niemann ("Jeff just wins.  Dating back to July 24, 2006 (when he was in Double-A), his "Ws"outnumber his "Ls", 55 to 27." What an amazingly useless and seemingly error ridden stat.  First, I can only find 53 total wins from 2006 to 2010 for Jeff Niemann.  Second, in order to make the stat look good, they needed to lop off the first five decisions of 2006 for Niemann, all losses, before he wins five straight.  Third, it ignores the differences in competition and removes part of his Major League career, since he went 2-2 in 2005.  As you can tell, I love these amazingly awful writeups.  If they were just basic stats pulled from a list or an event, I could move on.  But the way they wrote these cards is phenomenal and even stunning.)
603 - David Murphy
TDG-12 - Diamond Giveaway 1974 Mike Schmidt (It might be 1952 Mickey Mantle or it might be expired...I'm going with expired.)
581 - Fernando Rodney Diamond Parallel

While no cards of note were found in the pack, the tremendous value in discovering what Topps thinks is a good write up made this pack more than worthwhile.  Almost enough to see what else is written on the back of the other Topps cards in my possession. 

Completing the Monster - 518 T206 Cards in Hand

Over the last week or so, I've hinted at the fact that I had completed purchased to complete my T206 set to 518 cards in just under 31 months.  After waiting for a money order to make its way to Buffalo, the last two groups of cards I ordered arrived today.  One card was MIA for about a week, leading me to conduct one search of my apartment and two searches of my collection, in the fear I didn't realize it arrived.  Fortunately, as I was about to start looking for a replacement 518th card, it arrived today.  We will show old Solly Hofman later on.  Today, is about the last card I purchased for my set.



Fred Merkle Throwing.  Merkle, as you likely know, was most famous for failing to touch second base in 1908 on a force play which scored the winning run against the Cubs.  A tussle ensued and amidst a crowd on the field, the ball was retrieved by the Cubs, and Merkle was forced out.  The play became known as Merkle's Boner, forced a replay of the game at the end of the season, allowing the Cubs to win the National League pennant and their last World Series. 

The card itself is in spectacular condition, with only some weakness in the corners.  As the last card in my set, I went a little higher in grade.  I talked about doing so with myself a few weeks beforehand, finishing the set with a bang.  Also, I figured I would get to one card left, only be able to find overpriced versions of the card on eBay, priced at three times the grade or one that was a fair deal higher in grade than the rest of my set at the same price. So, I bit the bullet and finished my set with flair and the far nicest card in my set. 

Wahoo Sam Crawford and Breezy Point

I was going to post about the Johnny Evers Portrait I purchased a few weeks ago, but realized it was part of a group of cards I had yet to scan into my computer.  Suffice to say, the card is very nice and in a few days or weeks or whenever I get around to it, you will see that as well.  When I was purchasing my Evers and by purchasing, I mean repeatedly jamming on my refresh button on my Blackberry to see if I won the auction on eBay.  Needless to say, the auction was won and other than forgetting to pay for three days, a rarity for me, the card arrived safe and sound.  

As the Evers was one of the last cards I needed for my set, I started to think about the last time I almost purchased a Johnny Evers card.  Someone who I had gotten to know fairly well was looking to move one he upgraded in July.  The price was more than I wanted to pay for an Evers, but less than I ended up paying last month.  But with the National on the horizon, I wanted to keep my powder dry and passed on the card.

Normally, such a card would be remembered but unremarkable.  However, at the time, I was thinking that had I purchased the card, it would still exist, since the seller was located in Breezy Point, NY, which suffered tremendously during Superstorm Sandy.  I hadn't actually heard from or seen the seller on the forums in quite some time, and despite not being a "people person", I was genuinely concerned about what happened to him.

So, flash forward to just before Christmas.  I posted the last ten cards I needed for my T206 set on Net54 and heard from quite a few people, knocking off Solly Hofman, Foley White, Art Devlin and Phil Poland in short order.  Checking my E-Mail the Saturday before Christmas, I saw it was from our missing seller, offering me a Sam Crawford Batting at a reasonable price.  He couldn't send me a scan of the card, as his scanner suffered in the storm, but fortunately, his T206s survived, leaving him 20 cards short of completion.  Without hesitation, I purchased the card, sight unseen, which you can do with someone you know and trust and even more, I was happy to hear from him and glad to know he and his collection were safe and sound...well, as safe and sound as anyone in Breezy Point could reasonably be.



As I reach the end of my journey collecting T206s, I think about the cards themselves, which are beautiful, historical artifacts of a century ago.  But more so, I think about the journey and the people I've met along the way.  Whenever I think about upgrading my T206s, I'm always stopped, because while many of the cards could have nicer copies, they wouldn't have the same stories or be from the people I've met along the way.  In a sense, buying an entire set is fun and easy, but it lacks a story and character.  So, any time I look at my Sam Crawford Batting, I'll always get the sense of relief of knowing that someone who helped me along the way was safe and sound as well. 

Where to From Here?

I feel I am at a collecting cross roads.  I am waiting for the cards I need to finish my T206 set to arrive from various states of the union, which was brought me back into collecting about two and a half years ago.  In my youth, I always loved tobacco cards and the players of the deadball era, so it was a natural fit.  I started with an Orval Overall which had seen better years, like 1913 and 1982, missing some borders and likely overpriced for the card, but it evoked a joy in me and got me started down the path.  The card I am closing my set with is fantastic and will be here by the weekend and looks nothing like the Orval Overall seen below.



I thought the project would take me somewhere between five and ten years if everything went right.  Well, things went a lot better than right and now I need a new focus.  I thought about T205s like the McGraw seen below, but I find it hard to be captured by them.  The other major tobacco offering of the era is the T207 set with an odd list of players and off-putting brown backgrounds.  I suspect, aside from hunting down every last Orval Overall issue I can get my hands on (a new one is on the way for the none of you who care about Overalls), I will wander through a lot of different sets.  I might finish my 1973 Topps set, which will almost certainly take me longer than my T206 set.  Motivation is critical and while I love putting cards in albums, I don't necessarily love the 1973 Topps set the way I love the T206s.



I also want to finish my 1910 Hassan Animals set.  The first set I finished when returning to the hobby was a set of 1910 T59 Flags of the World.  It took about two months and you would be surprised how many people were spoiling to move these cards.  I found almost every difficult back and aside from one card, I had no trouble getting everything together.

I also think I will fill in some more cards of deadball era players on modern cards.  I bought two Christy Mathewsons to close out the year, including the one below and entered a group break solely to add to my Ty Cobb collection (almost unsuccessfully).



Beyond that, we will see Diamond Stars.  The set is small enough to complete in a year, has cards with great color and images and is the only set from the 1930s which interests me, especially as it doesn't have incredibly cost prohibitive Ruths, Gehrigs or DiMaggios to chase.  For example, below is a Hall of Famer I picked up as part of a lot of three about a month ago. I'll show the other two when I need something to fill up some column inches or internet white space.



So, in conclusion, you might see less T206s and more Diamond Stars, but most likely you will see a great deal of purchases which just kind of happened.