New Baseball Card Clean-Up: 1955-1970

Dating back to February of this year, I've been scanning the new singles as they arrive. Via card store purchase, usually Pal's Sports Cards, or whatever. Of course my intentions were to write about them quickly and get the story online in a somewhat timely manner. But that didn't happen... So all the card scans and notes piled up until it became far too much for one single story. Especially at this time...

So I'll break it up!

I moved my collection into the new house in October, 2018. Stacking the card albums on the floor until I could get shelving to hold them, along with the rest of my baseball cards and memorabilia. I'm glad to not have to move them around anymore. Heavy and unwieldy.

Once sorted and placed, the shelves of 3-ring Binders consist of my favorite cards from each set by year and brand. Those albums not dedicated to housing my Twins, Expos and Rockies team sets. I'm trying to keep a good representation of each set. Whether that encompasses 9 cards, or over 200. Stars, semi-stars, rookies and commons I like, all find permanent homes in these albums. If I like the picture on a card, it goes in the album.

And why have simple 3", D-shaped, three ring binders become so expensive over the last few years? What is it about the materials and effort to produce this product, that says $10 (or a lot more) is a reasonable price to charge for it?

Anyways... The width of pages in my albums from 1973 and earlier are drastically thinner than 1974 and onward. So a big part of my collecting goals are to pad those 1957-1972 binders. (The oversized cards of 1956 and earlier are housed in Top Loaders.) Which means I'm on the lookout for inexpensive commons and minor stars from these years. Topps cards from this era consist of a lot of boring head shots or basic poses. So I like the cards with more to offer. Stadiums, batting cages or other strange things going on in the background.

This will be the first post from those scanned cards of the last 6 months. A selection of vintage cards from 1955 through 1970! All on their way to the yearly album shelves.

1955 Topps - Senators

Why did Topps cut Tom Wright's last name by a third? It would have easily fit the way it was... 

Terwilliger was the Twins first base coach for a few seasons in the late 1980's. Including the 1987 World Series winner. I'll always remember him snubbing me as a kid, when I asked him to autograph my ticket stub from that night's game. "That doesn't even have my picture on it." He told me.

Yeah... Well it looks like someone peed on your picture...

Wayne...

1957 Topps

I've always liked 1957 Topps. While it has a great deal of bland mug shots for pictures, there are some nice stadium backdrops scattered throughout. Old Yankee Stadium is nice, but I never tire of seeing the Polo Grounds on cards.

1959 Topps

Or Shibe Park for that matter.

The blue background on 1959 Topps was highly underused. Correct color choice makes this Washington Senators card look even better. (Hmmmm... Black however...) Although that 3D block W is pretty bad ass! And that's also some pretty bad negative cutting over Jim Lemon's face... And odd cropping... I love it!

1959 Fleer Ted Williams

I didn't have any cards from the 1959 Fleer Ted Williams set, so I needed one. And as soon as I saw this awesome picture, I knew I wouldn't find a better one for me. One day at the LCS, I was informed of a box of 1950's and 1960's cards that had just come in. In addition to a nice selection of stars and commons, there were a bunch of 1960's Post and Jello cards (which will be covered at a later time). Of the bunch of 59 Fleer Williamses, I only wanted one card. Just something to represent the set in my collection. While I will never deny Williams for any of his accomplishments in the game. He is a Boston Red Sock. And I can't bring myself to collect them...

1960 Topps

Still trying to figure out what ballpark this is... Spring Training?

1961 Topps

I seem to run into a lot of 1961 Topps these days. Not complaining, it's a simple design that holds up. Among those I picked up were three nice pictures with Shibe Park in them. One of them features Billy Martin!

Joe McClain (and his cartoon Senators uniform), Billy Consolo (a Twin I needed), and Fred Green (great Polo Grounds shot!).

A couple more Twins needs. Two players who have not yet earned their TC's...

1962 Topps

1962 Topps is a fairly underrepresented set in my collection. However, the Pascual is a duplicate, because I like the picture. Ray Moore is a need, and nice Yankee Stadium shot. Callison has so much great Shibe Park going on behind him that I didn't care there was a big thumbtack wound, next to that Speck billboard.

1963 Topps

My limited collection of 1963 Topps took a big leap this Spring. Up first we have Baltimore Oriole in the wrong clothes, Pete Burnside, with a then brand new RFK Stadium behind him. Foiles and Oldis are giving collectors a nice look at the Polo Grounds during it's final season.

Just as Moeller and Sievers are doing.

The number of 1963 Topps Twins cards were very low in the team binder, so I was happy to find a bunch I needed. Except the team card. I now have 4 of them. But it rules, so I plan on buying them whenever I find a copy.

Even more 1963 Topps Twins!

Couldn't turn down Uecker's second year card, which is in pretty nice shape.

Of all the 1963 Topps cards I picked up, none ranked higher on my want list than these rookies. Sammy Ellis, Ray Culp, Jesse Gonder and John Boozer comprise one of the most iconic cards in my collection. Unfortunately, this is the second copy I've owned of this card. I don't know where I lost the first one, likely some point in the mid-1990's, but I've been looking to replace this card ever since I first knew it was gone.

It came into my hands thanks to a school bus trade, back in Junior High School. A kid on my bus really wanted a 1988 Topps Matt Nokes card for whatever reason. Told him I had one and he agreed to trade me the 1963 Rookie Stars for it. There were a couple small creases in it, and the corners were fuzzy, but my current oldest card at the time was a 1981. It was 1988. Agreed!

I didn't understand that trade, but was happy to make it!

He also dubbed me a copy of U.S.A. for M.O.D. One of the most gloriously in-poor-taste metal/punk albums one could ever listen to. I love it! On the cassette, he and a friend had recorded a bit about a New York Mets relief pitcher selling deodorant. His name was Alicia Flimfooky... Okay... (I made an .mp3 of it many years ago!)

The kid that made the trade me was a strange one. He'd tried really hard to be a Gutterpunk for the rest of the time I knew him. Did the egg white and Elmer's glue mohawk for a while, getting strange looks and behind his back comments, every day at the CRJH. Then he suddenly disappeared. Heard he was expelled from school for some reason I don't remember. His dad worked with my dad, and their family lived just a few blocks north of us. I'd occasionally hear stories of his antics for years after I last saw him. He'd dropped out of school and left home, drifting around the country.

I'd go onto to pull still more 1988 Topps Matt Nokes cards than I'd ever need.

At some point in the late 1990's, I was told he had been killed while hopping trains in Arizona. I wasn't surprised, some people are just like that. He was nice to me, very strange and misunderstood... 

Back to 1964...

1964 Topps

A Twin and 2 Yankees, Popeye at RFK and 2 shots of the Polo Grounds in it's final season. For some reason, I've become a Clay Dalrymple collector. After buying a few of his cards over 20 years ago, starting with a 1963 Fleer I really liked, I now buy any I find that I don't have. His cards usually have interesting pictures.

Speaking of great photos that fill multiple categories on my checklist of favorite features... Catcher's gear, batting cages, and a stadium backdrop all add to it's appeal. I wont even subtract too many points for it being an Angels card...

Billy O'Dell either had an unfortunate birthmark or herpes...

And this card has "ASS" on it! I wonder if there was any outrage back in 1964 when children were pulling this from wax packs... Seems like it may have been early 1960's style controversial...

1965 Topps

I also don't have many 1965 Topps, so finding a bunch of singles I hadn't flipped through before was cool. It brought another Pascual League Leaders card, Steve Boros posing a weird looking ballpark (I don't think that is Crosley Field) and Chris Cannizzaro, who should have put on his gear before this photo. At least he's posing in front of a batting cage!

Mis-cut Dick Howser and Dick Green. Both in sleeveless vest jerseys. Kind of an ugly trend for the mid-1960's. Though the KC Athletics uniforms uses the vest look a lot better.

Six Twins... Some needed... Some already had...

1966 Topps

I may have to become a Phillies collector because of the great Shibe Park shots on the cards. At least If I do, I can stop at 1971 Topps...

Six 66 Topps Twins, all needs...

1967 Topps

Not sure why the Orioles would ditch the script team name for block letters, but there you go. Heheheheh... Brabender... Weird looking dugout behind Pagliaroni, almost like a sauna. And hey! Shibe Park again!

Six 1967 Topps Twins... Some needs, some additional wants...

1968 Topps

This block of 9 shows a good sampling of what I'm looking to fill vintage albums with...

Two team photos that couldn't be more different. I'm almost positive the Pirates are against the outfield wall of a very old Forbes Field. While the Braves are hanging out in the brand new Atlanta Fulton County Stadium.

Future Seattle Pilot and another great photo.

Heheheheh... Dick Lines...

(With water damage!)

Great shot of Frank Quilici, with a 99 Spillihp cameo in the background.

Grabbed Ollom's rookie card from 1967, so I have to get his first solo card!

And here's six more of his friends for Ollom and Quillici to hang out with. Finally, 1968 Topps isn't one of my least represented Twins team sets.

1969 Topps

I didn't pick up many 1969 Topps cards, only two that were not Twins, Expos or Pilots. I love the photo of Jerry Grote hanging out at some campground. And Fritz making a happy pitching pose at old Yankee Stadium. I had to look close at the Tom Hall rookie, since I missed him being a Twins need. No wonder last year's Heritage changed the cropping so the giant gumball doesn't cover up the logo.

Then you have this year's Heritage... 

1970 Topps

When I reviewed my Hobby Box of 2019 Topps Heritage, I mentioned that my actual 1970 Topps collection was really short, I wanted to improve on that. So I flipped through the 1970 box, and pulled out a great selection of water towers, catchers equipment, odd team cards, bat racks and the Spaceman's rookie card.

Batting cages, palm trees, mountains, high-numbered series, bad eyeglasses, Pilots and Dick Such's rookie card. (The longtime Minnesota Twins pitching coach, who was terrible at developing pitchers, but was Tom Kelly's best bud, so he had a job for YEARS...)

I really need to figure out which cards I'm still missing from my 1969 and 1970 Topps Seattle Pilots team sets...

That mountain in back of this, and that other Pilots card, is at Tempe Diablo Stadium in Arizona. Where the Seattle Pilots trained in 1969-1970. The Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles California America Earth, still train there every Spring.

Here's four more Twins that I needed.

Six Expos that I needed...

And then two (or three) more that I need!

These Expos, along with the cards picked up from the next few years of Topps sets, have added some several completed pages to my 1970's Expos albums.

My 44th birfday took place in March. So I have to mention some of the baseball related stuff that came my way. Sticking with the Expos theme, Laura gave me a couple of books...

Up, Up and Away by Jonah Keri

Au jeu / Play Ball by Norm King

The first book being biography of stories about my favorite defunct franchise. The second book consisting of write-ups about the top 50 games in Expos history. A few of which I remember.

Very anxious to dig into them, once I get some time to read!

But for now, those books, and the new old Expos cards have a comfortable home on The Expos Shelf, in New Baseballcardland.

Stories of new scanned cards from 1971 through 2002 is coming soon?

Maybe?