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Staying in '79

  Two straight posts on 1979! Hey, I guess I'm old! Forty-five years ago tonight was Game 7 of the 1979 World Series, when Willie Stargell clinched the Series for the Pirates, the most recent championship for the Pirates. That Series is notable for Stargell stars, "We Are Family," and some of the most colorful uniforms to appear together in a single WS. It's also the first World Series that I watched almost in entirety and the first Game 7 I saw to the end. Because of that, it's been one of my favorite World Series, and it helped that it came immediately after experiencing the Dodgers lose to the Yankees in back-to-back years. Finally, I had a relaxing series to watch in which the team I rooted for actually won. (This is still a rarity). I looked forward to 1980 Topps when I could see a few cards devoted to the '79 World Series as Topps had done in previous years. But, to my surprise, there was no recognition of the Series at all. It was the first time that To
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Back to the book

  A month into this blog, I featured my copy of the 1979 Sport Americana Baseball Card Price Guide, which is the first of the James Beckett/Dennis Eckes annual price guides that I purchased all through the mid-1980s. I don't remember when I bought the '79 copy. I'm guessing 1980. It's shown up a time or two on the blog since. It's a cool peek into the past, starting with the cover, which looks nothing like the price guides to come -- no photos, just drawings. (The book is the rarer white-cover version). As you can probably tell, I've handled this book a lot -- pages have been falling out for years. Probably most of the damage happened in the first year because, let me tell you, there was nothing cooler than someone assigning prices to cards. What a concept -- which ones were ones that I had? Answer: In 1979, almost none.   I brought up this book a couple days ago over on the House of Cardboard Discord site because the topic came up on "when did the concept

Rapid return, pokey posting

  I've been sitting on a COMC order for two weeks now. With the card show and the postseason and regular life stuff, just haven't been able to do my usual speedy posting. I ordered some cards off COMC on Sept. 14 and they showed up at my house on Sept. 30. Sixteen days! Then, I realized that I still had some cash left over on the COMC, so let's finish that out. I ordered on Sept. 21 and they appeared Oct. 1. Ten days! With that kind of return, if I had a little less self-control, I'd be ordering off there every week! Quite the turnaround from COMC's delivery habits three or four years ago. But I mentioned that in my first COMC order this year. Unlike the first order, this one was not all Dodgers and OPC. It is a little more varied, though you'll see both of those in this one, too. Also, I'll break it up nicely into little categories, for people with no reading patience (that's like everyone).   RANDOM DODGERS   A staple of every night owl order. No expl

The 1975 Topps countdown, worst to best (No. 40-21)

  I would be remiss if I didn't mention on a post devoted completely to cards issued in 1975 that we recently lost two key members of the 1975 baseball postseason. Both Pete Rose and Luis Tiant were critical parts of the two teams that reached the 1975 World Series. Both wily veterans by the '75 series, their abilities were trumpeted all over the playoff telecasts that year. At least that's what I have learned. I've mentioned several times that the 1975 postseason is my first memory of baseball on TV. But I only remember glimpses of the ALCS and the World Series, specifically Game 6. There's nothing I could cite specifically except I do remember Luis Tiant on the mound doing his thing.     In the first few years of my baseball viewing, Tiant was a popular topic in our discussions as kids, with Red Sox fanhood dominating my family. When Tiant, his skills declining by this point, ended up on the Yankees in 1979, it was truly the end of an era. Except for his Yankee Fr