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Those missing managers

  This is not a post about Topps' decision a decade ago to drop managers from card sets. But what a fateful decision that was. I know I would be able to identify current managers -- heck even know their names better -- if they were still featured on baseball cards.   This is about a different time when managers went missing, and it was only a couple of them. And I sure did notice.   I started collecting in 1975. So I didn't know stand-alone manager cards, which were commonplace in the years prior. I knew managers as showing up as little head shot insets on the team card. That's where they appeared in the 1975 Topps set. Every team card came with a manager head shot in the lower corner.    This means that the manager in most cases showed up twice on the team card because he's also seated with his players and coaches in the team photo. But I didn't know that at the time. It was too tough for my little mind to figure out who was who in the mass of people. But I did...
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Father's Day break

  Unlike the last couple of Father's Days, I'm posting on the actual day today. I took the last couple days off to refresh, so now I'm ready to go with just a small pack break.   Like last year , for Father's Day I received a hanger box of Heritage and a gift card (which shall go toward cards. Unlike last year, I'm not trying to complete the Heritage set, so the stakes are not high, which is key for this day. Absolutely no stakes on Father's Day. No stakes, only steaks!   Let's see what kind of box my daughter picked out this time around, just the highlights (and lowlights):     I do like the Record Breaker cards in this set. Yes, "XBHS" takes me out of 1977 but the overall vibe of the card reminds me of pulling the Minnie Minoso and Jose Morales Record Breakers back in '77.     The guy who tried to smite the Dodgers in last year's World Series. I haven't heard a whole lot about him this year -- admittedly I'm not paying too much at...
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Minding my p's and q's ... and r's and s's

    I'm long overdue in showing off the latest card bombing from Johnny's Trading Spot . Per usual, he's been updating his collection alphabetically and finding the guys no longer of interest to him and using me, and others, as the circular file.   Judging by what I received, he's recently gone through the P's and Q's ... well, there were no Q's, but that's how we get to the R's and S's (essess), which were also in the box.   I should have shown these earlier because my pattern is to post them to the blog before I file them away. But I just completed a big Dodgers binder sort (there's about two of those a year), so now these are going to have to wait until the fall to get added.   Oh well, something for everyone to look forward to -- the cards, me, and you, the reader, who just loves to read "here's more stuff I got" posts!! You know you do!   To keep this manageable, I'm just showing off 12 key cards for the collection, tho...
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All that yelling

  I posted this card on my 1993 Upper Deck blog yesterday . If you're in the habit of reading that blog maybe you missed it as blogger just got around to getting it on the reader list nearly a day after I uploaded it.   When I wrote it, I noted that the shot of Navarro yelling was a precursor to the cards of today, in which it seems there's a guy shouting in every pack. And just to be sure, I checked the 1993 UD cards I've already posted and at card No. 237, it's the first yelling shot in the set.   I didn't check the rest of the set but I'd be surprised if there are more than five cards of guys shouting in the set. It's definitely a more modern thing.   As someone who grew up in the '70s and also someone who recoils at the thought of drawing attention to myself, the performative yelling that pro athletes do is still foreign and unnecessary to me. I'm a quiet guy, mostly, who doesn't mind sitting by myself in the quiet -- in fact, I prefer it. I ...
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Why I go to card shows

  As much as I've complained about the pokemonification of card shows the last couple of years, when they are right, they are very right. Nothing else can compare, certainly not the online options that I rely on way too frequently.   This past Saturday's monthly show was quite right and I think not be able to get to it last month is only part of the reason I enjoyed it so much.   I know I've gone through the plusses for card shows before but I'm doing it again because it was very apparent this time.       1. OFF-CONDITION VINTAGE   Can you get off-condition vintage online? I don't know. Maybe. All I know is that I've stopped trying because it either stopped being available or the prices got mind-numbingly stupid.   But at a show that's not the case. I go to one table all the time and great vintage cards are waiting for me every time. This is what I picked up this time. The Ron Fairly I thought was an upgrade in my team set but it's not so now it'l...
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Autograph exceptions

  Since I don't prioritize autographs in my collection, I don't have a lot of them that aren't Dodgers.   The ones I do have sit in the back of my autograph binder, filled with 99 percent Dodger scribbles. There are a handful of Bills and Sabres scribbles, too.   But those autographs have meaning, too, and every once in awhile I will come across one that I need to include in my collection.   One of those times happened yesterday. I went to the monthly card show -- I'll have a post all about it tomorrow. The last card I picked up there was an autograph card. I saw it at the first table I was at -- and I told myself that if I still had money left and the card was still there -- I'd add it on my way out the door.   And that's what I did.   I had to -- it's The Mad Hungarian! This is one of the exceptions. Al Hrabosky is from my early days as a fan. I remember seeing him when the Cardinals played the Mets in the mid-to-late 1970s. Hrabosky, as you may know or h...
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