Ken H, a loyal reader who swears he never misses a post asked if he might send me something. I said Sure thing and forgot about the couple cards that were likely in the mail. In fact a full on card box showed up with all specimens penny sleeved in new sleeves and properly ordered numerically by year (does nobody else sort their cards Alphabetically according to height). So the total ended up being about 115 cards from 1957-62 including some 62 Posts, many of which were cut nicely and many that were not. I used this stack in an earlier post to talk about my process a little bit without sharing much about the actual cards. I'm going to continue that a little bit here by taking all of the cards that are trashed enough to fill an empty slot (or even replace something) and show them off in order (I normally show stuff off long before it gets to the binder stage in random order). I ended up with about 35 cards to add so I may split this into a couple posts. So here we go by number:
#42. We start off with one of those Sophies Choice cards. There is '68 Larry Haney in the catchers stance that has been punched with an upside down heart directly on his nose that looks like a nose hole on a skeleton, with the rest of his face stretched over it. That's tough to beat and were it not for this brilliant defacement Roseboro would have been a clear fave on condition alone, even though Haney is worn and creased. So I'm gonna backside Roseboro so he can appear in my future parallel set of trashed cards.
#76 Not all the cards look as bad in the picture as they do in hand. Not the case here so Bill goes right into an empty slot
#77 This is one of those that doesn't quite show up in the picture, but it's got so many microscopic creases on it that it is no longer smooth like Zimmers's head. The Zimmerness of it will likely keep it from being replaced outright by another card.
#78 Now, a 58 Ernie Johnson with paper loss and no corners to speak off is tough. At this point it's a draw and Bob Grim gets backside. I could have gone either way with this and thought about putting Grim on the front to avoid 2 consecutive 58s but remember that other 1960 at 76. Sometimes when I'm perusing thru the pages I'll flip 2 cards just to see how it looks.
#88 There are much worse cards in the set but the current 88 from 1973 has actual corners and a couple light creases on the bottom half so this is a pretty clear upgrade. Or Downgrade, such as it is.
#112 No longer empty. The Creases across the middle are much more prominent in hand.
#137 Another creased 1973 resides there but I have no problem pulling it for Bob Rush. In fact, Bob then gets backsided to accommodate the defaced Dick Rickets in a recent post.
Bob Rush has a 1950 Bowman card I desperately want for the Ivy set. He is standing in front of the far off Ivy wall, and you can see the grey house that had a paint billboard on it in the 70s-80s off in the distance. There was a really trashed version on eBay a while back that I let go. There are some other 50 Bowmans that have the Ivy and such in the background that would be nice pickups if I could trade for them in any condition.
#144 Jerry Walker helps me kill 2 empty slots on the same page. (I don't have any idea what is meant by this statement. -Editor)
#172 For the 3rd straight time I've pulled a card out from the 1973 set. I've been building that set and someone was kind enough to lay a bunch of them on me, so a bunch of the rough dupes ended up going into the first binding, so to speak, as much as placeholders as anything. So Goodbye "Sunshine".
But I've got 2 candidates.
This 1962 Fred Hutchinson would normally be a solid candidate with the couple major creases and so forth, but the 1960 KC TC takes this cake.
#176 The picture doesn't quite do it justice as the top third of the card seems to be rolled around a finger leaving fine creases and the big one diagonally across his first name. I expect something will come along but I don't have to actively search out this number anymore.
#187 This is the 3rd Virgil Trucks card in this set. I've got a 57, 58, and 59. Each one is successively worse condition than the year before it (1960 anyone?). For that reason it probably won't be replaced and certainly not easily. If I ever do a trashed set by consecutive years these will be a crucial page run.
#191, 193, 194. These 3 I wanted to check against the current occupants slots. The 62s just don't quite overtake what's already there, but I might backside them. Roger Craig would win many battles, but not against a card that has been cleaved in half across 2/3s of it's face. That is the card is only connected by 1/3 while the rest of the crease has totally split and disengaged from its other half. Plus there are already 4 1958s on the page (all of which are pretty gnarly)
#203 Big honkin crease across the middle is worse than it looks. It woulda been cooler if the "Ossie" version I had was this bad, but I seem to have traded that one because it didn't meet my very Loooooooooooowwwwwwwwww Standards.
#228 The Crease coming out of Smoky's shoulder has split along one edge and folded back going into the binder slot. Sometimes I'm kinda ruff and jamming them in there to get this sort of thing.
#253 The current slot holder of this one is going to be backsided for this. I know it's a marginal card, as far as this set goes, but the look on his face towards the next card wins the day. Right now he is looking at a 1968 Cleon Jones with some creases that separated its front from its back. Maybe that's good enough, but really, I want to find the most heinously defaced card #254 of all time that is so obscene that it couldn't be shown in a family blog like this. Chiti will forever stare in disbelief at....something.
You gotta get me something better than this!
#263 Not a bad card at all. I mean the gum or wax residue can be cleaned off and it might make a very nice decent card for someone's set. But then there's the razor slit above "Athletics" at the bottom right corner. It must have been a really new perfectly sharp blade because the cut is so smooth it could be mistaken for just a light and tiny crease. It's like arguing some bubble guys for the HOF. Yeah, Clemens had some good numbers but should he really be there? For now, it goes in the book because I don't wanna take the time in refiling it somewhere else and surely something will come along and give us a reason to take Roger, our buddy, out
#274 Someone has got it in for Tom here. Last card I had look like he'd been punched really good in his eye and now someone drills a hole in his head.
For those that missed that post (TLDR) I have 2 cards with same print defect but had never seen a 3rd card so figured they all had it or maybe he had a bad night before card picture day.
#312 Another one where it looks like someone rolled the top 1/3 around their finger or a pencil. Someone Scroll up and look and tell me what the other card like that was. Was it also a '62? was the same kid up to no good with his cards one summer? I mean what would possess someone to do this to 1/3 of a card? Clean the wax off a bit and it could have been a perfectly passable card. It's cards like this that make me want to win the lottery so I can submit this entire binder and have it graded and slabbed and then put up in some kind of custom built room with all the cards in order by strips on the wall and you can pull the card off the shelf to look at, but it is attached to one of those wires that they connect iPhones to at the apple store so you can't run out with them. Because I value my trash cards and don't want someone running off with em.
#329 It's funny this card is in Green. I wrote in an earlier post how turtles are really sensitive about being naked, that is without their shells, like when they have to take it to the shop for a couple days. They have this very wrinkly skin that is at once, smooth. Like this card. It feels like turtle skin. I know this because my sister is a turtle rescue person. Like how other people are with Dogs or something normal.
#352 I never go looking for star cards, RC, big cards, whatever that entails. It is kinda cool to have a few scattered around so in cases like this we will probably keep him solo unless some kind of knock out comes along that can replace him. He further solidifies his case for inclusion by filling up the very last blank page. Now there is at least one card on every single page of 74!
#364. At least this time someone wrapped the whole card around their finger and didn't tease us by only doing the top 1/3. I wonder if he ever controlled his Wildness.
#376. Normally a gum or wax stain is not enough to gain you entrance into this Hall of Shame. For a card that's 70 years old it's got decent corners and edges. There may have been a bit of gum residue, and the kid was so desperate for that extra little kick of sugar that he tried to lick it off the card and really just smeared it all over the place. I'm hoping he wasn't also a runny nosed little tike, but I only handle it very carefully around the edges. He also backsides a 58 Charley Rabe with other players names written all over.
#386 Now we are getting to that nice wide open space of the high numbers where we find lots of free slots as long as we can find the precious high number cards, to say nothing of the semi high numbers, which are not actually SP because they were in a different series altogether but the dealer wants you to pay more than you should. Lyle Just seems happy to fit in any kind of way he can.
#395 See comments RE: Robin Roberts. Elston gets in all on his own, but he may stay in against a dog eaten golf cleat stomped nobody just by the virtue of who he is. In this case he actually backsides a 68.
#411 Yup he slots in. Whitey appears tickled by his wholly unexpected good fortune.
#412 Don't usually like to have consecutive cards of the same year, but this guy's mouth is so lopsided full of chew that it may have caused all these creases by weighting the card so much it folded over on itself. At least they are not on the same row.
#451 Not unlike Chiti, he wouldn't get in just on looking funny alone, but the crease across his nose and his nostrilless expression of his face make it work. At least until something better comes along.
#464 I've been waiting to get to this one all night. I had already flipped the quite trashed 1972 Jim Roland to the backside in anticipation. And not many cards in this condition would backside a card. But this is Curt F'in' Flood. This is Curt Floods RC no less, thanks to my new BFF Ken. Every ball player of today who has now makes generational wealth should make a pilgrimage to Mr. Flood's Gravesite, whereupon they need to hurl themselves on the ground In front of his stone and pound the dirt with their fists while wailing and shrieking, rending their clothes and so forth until their tears mix with the dry packed dirt into soft mud for the Sacrifice that Curt Flood made so they could get rich. He died nearly penniless and insane from paint thinner fumes without ever getting to ring the Free Agent bell that so many ball players since take for granted. And that is why he stays in the set.
#532 Kind of anti climactic to be the next card after that, even if you are bent in half.
#548 No corners to speak of, but I could go either way on it. At least til something shows up that's better.
#581 Did not come from Kens collection, but as long as I'm this far out in the binder I might as well slide in the only attempt at a wallet card I've ever tried. I won't be trying it again. Despite it being trashed it is somehow not trashed in the same way as this terrific stack Ken sent me. It's like the new cards have reinforcements that cause it to crease only in very straight lines to and fro, back and forth. The glossy finish doesn't even crack or split across the whole card. I've been trying to find cards, with little luck, from more modern sets that have been trashed, but either they hold up better or people take better care than the glue sniffing JDs of yore. I think I may have finally found some modernish cards that will actually fit in the binder, but I'll save that for another night.
