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Thursday, July 02, 2009

Topps National Convention cards look sensational ...
Posted by T.S.

   For a company that used to give short shrift to its heritage, seeing the transformation of the Topps mentality over the past 25 years has been nothing short of refreshing.

   Ours is a hobby based on yesterday; Topps was quite reasonably a business based on today and maybe tomorrow. Back in the late 1980s, I used to be startled that inquiring to Topps officials about their vintage stuff used to elicit a kind of bemused indifference. While nobody said so explicitly, the message was that they were in the business of selling that year’s product – and maybe planning next year's. It wasn't active antipathy to the hobby, but merely an acknowledgement of differing priorities.

   The first blip of a change of course came in 1983 with the reprinting of the 1952 Topps set, then it stepped up in the early 1990s with other reprintings. By the time we got to this nifty new millennium, Topps had fully embraced its often glorious past, most lustily with the Heritage Series that has celebrated its early card designs by reviving them in ever-improving detail and nuance.

   And so this year’s Topps National Convention VIP cards (shown here) look like winners once again, with five gems in the 1959 Topps design. I think the Mantle left- and right-handed versions are supposed to be a fun nod to the 1957 Topps Hank Aaron flipped negative, plus there are cards of Roger Maris as a Yankee, Roy Campanella as an honorary Dodgers coach and Jackie Robinson as a New York Giant. That’s just cool all the way around.

   The Campy card looks to me like one of those flexichromes from back then, the colorized black-and-white photographs that looked odd at the time. Robinson as a Giant may give a few people a bit of acid indigestion (he retired rather than accept a trade uptown), but the Maris is just terrific.

   Roger wasn’t a Yankee in 1959; he didn’t arrive in the Bronx until 1960, but it’s fun to imagine if the addition of his name to the lineup card in 1959 might have been enough to propel the Yankees to the pennant that year (probably a stretch, since they ended up 15 game in back of the White Sox). A 1959 pennant would have made it 10 in a row and 15 in 16 years.

   Who knew celebrating yesterday could be so much fun?

Thursday, July 02, 2009 4:00:19 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Favre is a Viking and Pujols is NOT on the List ...
Posted by T.S.

   On the same day that somebody e-mailed this cool picture of Brett Favre in a Minnesota Viking uniform, somebody else posted online what is supposed to be the list of 103 names of PED users from the Mitchell Report. I am able to say with some degree of certainty that the reliability quotient for both of these new flashes is identical, roughly zero.

   Speculating about Favre unretiring again and going to the Vikings strikes me as reasonably good, clean fun, since it presumably hurts no one, save for a few thousand Packer fans who have to reach for an antacid every time the very idea of Brett wearing purple gets floated.

   But the List is another matter (I capitalize “List” because I suspect that when all is said and done it’s going to be a proper noun). I can’t pretend I was surprised when I learned the unofficial list was posted online; that should have been expected.

   I am, however, old fashioned enough to insist that it’s just plain wrong that it’s been done. I can’t tell you how anguished I would be if I played any role in tarnishing somebody’s good name in that fashion. The fact that so many in cyberville don’t see anything wrong with it points to serious flaws either in the fundamental underpinnings of the online world or similarly egregious gaps in the ethics training of the individuals involved, or more likely, both.

   I know that the List is going to be “outed” one of these days; hell, it’s a miracle that it hasn’t happened yet. And even when that takes place, it’s going to be nearly as deplorable an ethical violation as the unofficial outing(s). But until that day comes, I won’t be a party to pushing forth any of the names into the public square. Not gonna do it.

   The only concession I’ll make to such boiler-room nonsense is to point out that one Albert Pujols is not on the online version. But there are so many major stars and otherwise likely Hall of Famers on it that offering a big sigh of relief about Albert’s exclusion would seem to be damning with faint praise. If/when the List gets out – and assuming it looks anything at all like the unofficial ones – taking note that the greatest star of his generation is not among the names is going to be small consolation.

   But I will be willing to dish about the idea of Favre being a Viking, but I’ll save it for another day. I just wanted an excuse to run that cool picture.

Wednesday, July 01, 2009 2:57:09 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Looking for 1975 Minis at the National in Cleveland ...
Posted by T.S.

   I gotta tell you, I was absolutely fascinated by the idea of Robert Edward Auctions selling so many unopened cases of 1975 Topps Minis in the auction this spring. Pioneering collector Charlie Conlon had all but cornered the market on those colorful little hosers 30-plus years ago, so when REA ended up with the Conlon Estate, I was intrigued by the prospect of 26 cases of something so cool selling all at one time.

   Now that they are all sold, I am just as enthused about seeing precisely how these gems end up being dispersed in the hobby. The 26 cases sold for more than $300,000 in that REA sale a couple of months ago, so they ain't gonna be cheap. I assume some are going to turn up at the National Convention in a few weeks in Cleveland, and I’ll let you know how that goes.

   I vividly remember the last time I saw a pile of unopened 1975 Topps, I suppose it was about 25 years ago at one of Bob Schmierer’s Music Pier shows in Ocean City, N.J., when Alan “Mr. Mint” Rosen had a big pile of them at that unique show.

   I say unique without much fear of being accused of hyperbole; the show was held at this marvelous “Music Pier” over the Atlantic Ocean, making it just about the coolest place I’ve ever set up at for a card show.

   With Brett and Yount rookies smokin’ hot at the time, Rosen was hawking the packs with a zeal and efficiency that electrified the room. It was the kind of stuff that makes old geezers like me long for the hobby’s giddy heyday, and if any of that frothy pandemonium can be re-created this summer in Cleveland, I hope I am on hand to see it. Even without the cool breeze of the Atlantic Ocean.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 3:46:00 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Monday, June 29, 2009

Aaron smelled something fishy even 10 years ago ...
Posted by T.S.

Nobody has been any classier about discussing the odd surge in home runs that took place during the steroids era than the guy who took the biggest hit, in a manner of speaking, from that curious period.

   After the news about Sammy Sosa’s name appearing on that infamous “List” of those who tested positive for PED’s in 2003, I looked back at an interview I did with Henry Aaron 10 years ago as Major League Baseball was celebrating the 25th anniversary of Aaron’s passing Babe Ruth on the all-time home run charts.

   Ever gracious, there were still little hints that The Hammer knew something was out of whack back then. “The game is watered down a bit. Some players are capable of hitting home runs year-in and year-out, but you’ve also got guys who will hit 10 home runs one year and 40 the next. You’ve got to start thinking, ‘Is it real, or what?’ ”

   Turns out, it wasn’t, but unfortunately the legion of sportwriters and MLB officials who might have been thought to have noticed something amiss just as Aaron did weren’t exactly performing at their peak efficiency.

   One of the other things I was struck by was the realization in 1999 that it was Ken Griffey who was thought to be the likely challenger to Aaron’s record, not Barry Bonds. At the time, Bonds was 36 years old and had 445 home runs, and Griffey was only 47 behind him and was six years his junior, pardon the pun, again.

   I wonder what would have been the response if somebody had predicted that a 36-year-old, even a Hall-of-Fame-bound one, who had hit 37 and 34 home runs in his last two seasons, would add another 317 home runs to his lifetime total from that point on?

   The only thing goofier than Bonds hitting 213 home runs over the four-year span of 2000-2003 was Griffey socking 83 over the same span. Of course, The Kid missed roughly 260 games over than span as he continued a struggle with nagging injuries that has plagued him for virtually the entire second half of his career.

   Gee, if only they had some kind of synthetically created substance that would help athletes recover from injuries more quickly and more effectively.

Monday, June 29, 2009 4:28:26 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Tell us about your first National Convention ...
Posted by T.S.

OConnell Sons.jpg

   I blogged yesterday about the coming National Convention in Cleveland, noting that every collector finds different things about the annual event that make the return to the next as inevitable as the arrival of the new cards every spring.

   I’d be interested in hearing the readers’ recollections of their first Nationals, or maybe their favorite ones, and would ask that they be sent to my Sports Collectors Digest e-mail address at: thomas.oconnell@fwmedia.com.

   I don’t recall if I even knew about the very first National in Los Angeles beforehand; I was newly married in the early 1980s and wasn’t exactly flush, so the idea of going to LA wouldn’t have even been on the radar screen. The next three were all in the Midwest (Detroit, St. Louis and Chicago), and while I knew about them beforehand from SCD, my job with the Empire State Games meant that there was no time off for much of anything during the summer months,
   But by 1984 I was no longer under the iron grip of New York State employment, I was living in Delaware and actively promoting my fledgling O’Connell & Son Ink mail-order business. Parsippany, N.J., sounded doable.
   I was already on Bob Schmierer’s waiting list for the famed EPSCC Philadelphia Show; I don’t recall if I tried to get my own National table or not. I might not have, since I already had an offer to share table space with a dealer from Florida. Believe it or not, I can’t remember the name of the company, despite the fact that I was extremely grateful that he had provided me the opportunity to get exposure for the O’Connell & Son Ink artwork.

   What a thrill! In the hours leading up to the show’s opening, I met a dozen or more of the hobby pioneers, guys I had only read about from their advertisements in the magazine-sized biweekly Sports Collectors Digest. Biweekly is one of my all-time favorite words, since it means either once every two weeks or twice a week. I would think that if you were talking about getting fed, or waterboarded, for example, it would be fairly important to try to figure out which definition was being employed.

   I do remember there were also a lot of auxiliary events taking place at the hotel in Parsippany, like seminars, exhibits (HOFer’s jerseys, the T206 Wagner, etc.) and even a Strat-O-Matic tournament, but once the show got going, I hardly got to go anywhere at all, because roughly half of the table was mine and I had to stay and man it.

   I remember I had constructed a giant wood display that held I think about 18 plastic frames (8-by-10) of the various prints I was selling at the time, along with the Baseball Greats set (shown) that was my initial entree into the hobby. I am to the art of fine woodworking as Pamela Anderson is to molecular biology, so that particular bit of plywood finery remains as perhaps my finest creation in that arena.

   In doing research after I finished this blog entry (I work in mysterious ways; most writers do the research before they hit the keyboard), I found the National Convention issue of SCD. I had a full-page ad in that Aug. 3, 1984 issue, and a “See You at the National” note included – along with the National logo – near the bottom of the page.
   Turns our, I was at Table B-22, along with The Baseball Card Stores of South Florida. Thanks for everything, even 25 years later.

Thursday, June 25, 2009 4:20:10 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

National excitement is different but still very real ...
Posted by T.S.

   I had a neat interview the other day with Mike Berkus, one of the three co-managers of the National Sports Collectors Convention, and one of the elements that came through with great clarity was the reminder that the vast majority of the people involved at that level bring with them a genuine affection and commitment to the hobby.

   In the case of Berkus, easily one of the most articulate hobby spokesmen around, I was struck by the fact that despite the enormity of the National undertaking every summer, he remains a hobby guy at heart. Just like the rest of us, he longs for the anticipation and excitement that has always been a hallmark of the annual event, but unlike us, he’s in a position to have an impact on just how much buzz accompanies each show.

   I thought it was pretty cool when Berkus told me he spent about $3,000 on vintage cards the last time the National found itself at the I-X Center near the Cleveland airport two years ago. If you’ve ever seen Berkus (or co-managers John Broggi and Bob Wilke) during the five-day extravaganza, you’d understand how much of a true hobbyist he would have to be to find time to scout dealer tables during that stretch.

   In the interview, which will appear in the July 17 issue of Sports Collectors Digest and on the www.sportscollectorsdigest.com website, he waxed nostalgic about the passion for collecting that has always been present at the annual event, though he concedes that as each year passes it becomes more of a challenge to find ways to stoke those fires.

   This year, he points to the addition of a new manufacturer, Panini, to the corporate section, a nifty Pepsi Party of a Lifetime promotion and the usual anticipation that surrounds the dozens of cool promotional cards that the card companies create every year just for the show.

   And here’s a dollop from my end: the folks who produce the exotic Sportkings cards (shown here), which are modern versions that brilliantly capture the essence of the 1933 issue of the same name, will unveil their Series C in a couple of weeks in Cleveland.

   I’ll admit I’m biased, since their principal artist, Paul Madden, is a friend and frequent contributor to SCD, but I just love those cards and am looking forward to seeing the next batch.

   Much has changed in the hobby/industry in the three decades that the National Convention has been around, but one underlying thread runs through all those years: collectors find those parts of the hobby that tickle them each and every summer when the big show comes to town.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009 4:07:55 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Winners of the Auravison Records Drawing ...
Posted by T.S.

   A couple of months back when we ran a cool two-part feature on the 1960s Auravision Records, we included with the article a couple of paragraphs explaining how collectors could enter to win samples of the 1964 Auravision Records in a random drawing.

   Well, I am a little bit late doing the random drawing part, but better late than never. A number of readers sent in their entries for a chance to win any of the three prizes, and the winners picked out are as follows:

   First Prize (5 records: Rocky Colavito, Frank Robinson, Warren Spahn, Whitey Ford and Pete Ward) – John Wopershall of Youngstown, Ohio

   Second Prize (4 records: Jim Gentile, Ernie Banks, Ward and Robinson) – Jim Newsom of Virginia Beach, Va.

   Third Prize (3 records: Gentile, Ward and Banks) – John Maiorino of Woodhaven, N.Y.

   Congratulations to all three, and, as they say, thanks for playing. We also thank former major leaguer pitcher John Gray, who was featured in the two-part article about the Auravision Records, and donated the dozen records for the drawing.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 2:18:57 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Monday, June 22, 2009

New Hall of Fame Game sounds better than the old one ...
Posted by T.S.

Bob Feller.jpg

   Did you ever have occasion where a situation was kinda forced on you for any number of reasons and it turns out that the “solution” was so cool that you wonder why you didn’t do things that way in the first place? I raise the hypothetical after reading the official press release from the inaugural Baseball Hall of Fame Classic in Cooperstown last weekend.

   This blog will poach in spots from the PR release (italics), the gist of which is that the new arrangement with having Hall of Famers and retired ballplayers square off for the exhibition game at Doubleday Field sounds like it should have been the way we were doing this all along.

   With 90-year-old Bob Feller (Hall of Fame Class of 1962) starting the game on the mound for Team Wagner, the 7,069 fans at Doubleday Field were treated to a Hall of Fame matchup right off the bat when Paul Molitor (HOF Class of 2004) came to the plate for Team Collins and singled to center.

   Hall of Famer Bob Feller delivers a pitch during Sunday’s Baseball Hall of Fame Classic in Cooperstown, N.Y. (Milo Stewart Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum)

   “We made a deal – he said no bunting and I told him I’d keep line drives out of the middle of the field,” Molitor said after his hit.

   Bobby Grich followed Molitor – and promptly brought the house down by half-heartedly charging the mound after a Feller offering came a little too close for comfort. From that point on, the laughter coming from the stands was just as prevalent as the cheers – as the players made sure the fans had a good time.

The inaugural Hall of Fame Classic Weekend was presented by Ford Motor Company, and the game featured Hall of Famers Bob Feller, Fergie Jenkins, Paul Molitor, Phil Niekro and Brooks Robinson along with 21 former major leaguers.

   The new arrangement follows decades of having actual major league teams travel to Cooperstown for a mid-summer exhibition, but the difficulties of scheduling that annual game led the Hall officials to find an alternative. The last game under the old format, in 2008, was perhaps fittingly rained out.

   Feller left the game soon after facing Grich, signing autographs for fans – many of whom were not born when he threw his last major league pitch in 1956. But more than 50 years later, Feller’s legend remains larger than life.

   Team Collins scored two runs in the first on RBI singles by Steve Finley and Johnny Grubb, but Team Wagner escaped further damage when Hall of Fame pitcher Fergie Jenkins got Mike Timlin to hit into a double play started by 11-year-old surprise shortstop Zach D’Errico of Schenectady, N.Y. D’Errico came to the game with his father, Rich, and was asked onto the field by Steve Lyons of Team Wagner.

   Team Collins added two more runs in the third on a Finley triple and a Kevin Maas home run. But in the bottom of the fifth, Team Wagner cut the deficit to 4-1 on an RBI double by former Reds’ slugger George Foster. The teams were named in honor of the team managers (Hall of Famers Eddie Collins and Honus Wagner) in a 1939 all-star game played in Cooperstown at the first Hall of Fame induction.

   Then in the bottom of the sixth, Team Wagner scored four runs on an RBI double by former Red Sox and Expos pitcher Bill Lee, an RBI groundout by military all-star Corey Davisson, an RBI single by Lyons and what proved to be the game-winning double by former Yankees third baseman Mike Pagliarulo.

   Lee Smith picked up the win by pitching the sixth inning for Team Wagner, and Rich Surhoff got the save. Lyons had three hits for Team Wagner, while Finley and Grubb had three hits apiece for Team Collins.

“The game was a success,” said Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson. “We were happy to see everyone having a good time at the ballpark and connecting families as well as celebrating history today on Father’s Day. Not until next year’s Classic will that much talent be having that much fun on the dirt.”

   I’ve tried to cajole my Midwestern colleagues here in Wisconsin to take a sortie to Cooperstown, and the new tradition sounds like one more reason to continue hectoring them about it. It’s an idea whose time could have come years ago. Watching a game at Doubleday Field is as close as you’ll ever get to replicating Kevin Costner’s “Field of Dreams” euphoria from 20 years ago, followed closely by sitting in the Hall’s absolutely unique baseball theatre.

   I mean no disrespect to the modern players, but the Hall of Fame is just as much (maybe more) about the thousands of guys who came before as it is about them. It sounds to me like the “new” Hall of Fame Game may be even cooler than the old one.

   There. Who says I can never embrace new ideas?

Monday, June 22, 2009 3:18:32 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Thursday, June 18, 2009

With auction closing looming, this is exciting time ...
Posted by T.S.

   I used to have a job where the whole year’s work would distill down to the results of a four-day stretch in the middle of August and a week-long period in February. Fifty weeks of work all directed toward the doings that would take place in 11 days.

   That was when I was public relations coordinator for the Empire State Games in New York, and the 11 days, of course, were those involving the four days of the summer games in Syracuse and the week’s worth of the winter festivities in February in Lake Placid. For a guy who had worked primarily at a daily newspaper where you were expected to come up with tangible results literally every work day, gearing my efforts for two brief periods each year was a major change in the workday strategy.

(Shown is original artwork of Walter Johnson by acclaimed artist Darryl Vlasak, one of three striking pieces he has consigned to the sale.)

I mention this because we find ourselves this morning in a similar kind of situation with the closing of our first auction sometime this evening, or even better, sometime early tomorrow morning. I know that the pressures of business put considerable demands in terms of revenue generation and all that good stuff, but I find myself more taken with the inner workings of the auction business, which I have always found fascinating.

   I have always had enormous respect for the people who do auctions for a living – much as I do for card and memorabilia dealers – because I have a real feeling for how much is actually involved in doing all of those things successfully. Our sortie into the auction arena has only increased those feelings.

   In the same vein, the move into auctions also reminded me of something else from another point in my journalism career, maybe 20 years ago. I had been the editor of a weekly newspaper in Delaware for several years and was, for lack of a better expression, getting pretty burned out on the job. And out of the blue, we started developing our own black-and-white photography for the newspaper, and the process of adding that new skill and chance for creative new tinkering promptly revitalized me for a couple of more years.

   And no, I am not suggesting I am burned out as editor of Sports Collectors Digest, but merely noting that finding new avenues to learn and grown is important even in a job where the creative opportunities ought to be virtually unlimited.

   I had a lot of fun helping to write up the auction descriptions and I hope to have a bit of fun this evening manning the telephones. There’s some really cool stuff in this auction, and I’d like nothing better than to be running back and forth from the vault to the telephone to describe the centering or corners on this or that baseball card.

   I always really enjoyed the electricity that surrounded some of the early auctions I covered for SCD, and I’m hoping we’ll re-create some of that energy tonite.

   Because of the demands on getting SCD out the door on Friday morning, I probably won’t be able to do any blogging about the auction until the weekend or Monday morning. In the meantime, check it out by clicking on the auction button on the home page.
   And call me tonite if you have questions. As they say, operators will be standing by.

Thursday, June 18, 2009 3:04:52 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Sammy is guilty, but we have no right to know it ...
Posted by T.S.

   I have to confess I took a couple of days off for something as frivolous as golf, thus I have been remiss in keeping up my blog postings. I know there are countless individuals capable of handling something as pedestrian as that from virtually anywhere, but I ain’t one of them.

   Upon my return to the office, I see newspaper and online accounts of Sammy Sosa’s name being added to the ranks of those on that infamous 2003 list that indicates players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

   This comes about a week after Sammy’s unsolicited announcement that he was now officially retired and would calmly await his inevitable election to the Hall of Fame. Ahem.

   The timing may be coincidental, but if it is it’s one helluva coincidence. I don’t know about you, but I would like to know who this guy is who gets to sit back and decide: a) ballplayer A has said something annoying; so b) He gets to tie a can to his ass on the basis of Item A. That’s a lot of power for any individual, anonymous or not.

    The resulting uproar is as expected: outraged sanctimony, garnished with righteous indignation. Yipee!

   Me, I’m more interested in the aspect of all of this that is ongoing rather than that which is historical trivia. The List. I capitalize list, because I suspect that this particular list is going to become a proper noun fairly soon.

   Here’s the part I find so interesting: we wouldn’t know any of this if the players association hadn’t agreed to the 2003 testing, which hinged on the results being kept confidential. I can’t shake the suspicion that if this were actually some kind of legal proceeding, rather than an impromptu public stockade, all of the evidence would be summarily tossed out because of the way it was obtained.

   The reality is that the only reason the “evidence” even exists is because the players, through their association, agreed to the testing on the basis of that confidentiality. That ought to count for something, but it doesn’t really seem to in the court of public opinion, which seems to lap up every new revelation with an ardor and enthusiasm not unlike that which captivated the baseball world and the nation in 1998. It’s grand theatre, which is not quite the same thing as being right.

   And I’m not quibbling here. It was wrong for players to be using those substances in 2003, but my mother used to stress to me that two wrongs do not make a right. They shouldn’t have been using that stuff and it’s wrong that they did. It’s also wrong that we are going to torpedo them – apparently one at a time – on the basis of evidence that should never have seen the light of day.

   As a duly installed member of the public, I confess I have absolutely no moral or legal right to be privy to that information. Doesn’t matter who the other 102 names are, it is all data that is “fruit of the poisonous tree,” and should thusly be excluded.

   I will blog another time about the implications of the other 102 names dribbling out in the coming months/years. Or maybe the pressures will prompt some large disclosure en masse, or maybe somebody will get tired of having that particular sword hanging over his head and “confess.”

   No matter how it comes about, it ain’t right.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 4:47:14 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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