Cecil Cooper, St. Louis Cardinals?

For a guy who barely made my Top 5 list of favorite Milwaukee Brewers from the Bambi's Bombers and Harvey's Wallbangers teams of the 1970s-1980s, I've made a lot of custom cards of Cecil Cooper.

Heck, I've only done two cards of my all-time favorite Brewer, Gorman Thomas. And just one of Robin Yount. And I haven't done any customs of Paul Molitor yet (I'm still waiting to find some good early Molly pictures).

Previously I created a 1977 Topps-style card of Coop as a brand-new Brewer that was designed to update his "real" 1977 Topps card picturing him with the Red Sox, and be more appealing than the airbrushed O-Pee-Chee card. Then I put together a "pre-rookie" 1971-style card of Cooper as a young Red Sox player.

Now comes a third Cooper custom -- also a 1971-style -- picturing Cooper with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Oh yes he was!

After hitting .338 at Class A in the Red Sox' organization, the St. Louis Cardinals selected Cooper in the Rule 5 minor league draft on Nov. 30, 1970. Apparently with Joe Torre's imminent move to third base, the Cards were looking for backup to light hitting Joe Hague who was to take over at first base.

Cooper went to spring training in 1971 with the Cardinals, but on April 5, the day the season opened, he was returned to the Red Sox, spending most of the year at AAA Pawtucket before making his major league debut on Sept. 8.

I had discovered all this while working on my 1971-style Cooper card. I presented that card on my blog on March 10, 2011 (feel free to pause here and look it up in the "older posts" section). 

In an addendum to that post, I added a photo that had been taken by Topps at spring training in 1971. I indicated it wasn't a good enough photo to inspire me to make a Coop-as-Cardinal custom card.

In recent correspondence with veteran collector and long-time hobby researcher/writer Keith Olbermann, he volunteered that he had a better image of Cooper with the Cardinals. Some years back, Olbermann had been privileged to comb through the Topps image archives and had acquired a number of great player photos from 1956-1980 or so.

He sent me a scan and I found that it was sufficient impetus for me to make a Cardinals version of a 1971 Cecil Cooper card. 

Having completed the Red Sox version, the Cardinals card required relatively little new work to complete the project as you see it here, thanks to Keith's willingness to share this resource with the hobby. 

You'll be seeing more collaboration in the future.

Note to blog spammers: Give it up!

For the past several months I've been getting as many as three "comments" on my blog, all from "Anonymous" and all trying to spam this site.

Here's one that came this morning:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Print run on '51 Cardinals postcards revealed": 

I'm excited to discover this site. I wanted to thank you for ones time for this wonderful read!! I definitely liked every little bit of it and I have you book marked to look at new information in your web site.
Here is my web page : XXXXXXXXXXX.

These comments are usually written in English-as-a-second-language and all include a link to another web site. 

Lord only knows what they are trying to sell you on those sites, or what viruses you'd be exposed to if you clicked their links. 

Fortunately, when I began this blog more than three years ago, I opted for the feature that requires all comments to be reviewed by me before they are posted.

I'd learned to do that from the experience of a friend whose blog on the Sports Collector's Digest web site was constantly bombarded by the ravings of a self-appointed hobby savior.

This is just another sad example of people misusing the internet to try to get over on their fellow man.

Rest assured that I'll continue to try to protect my readers from anything more harmful than my own ramblings.

Baseball cards by the numbers

When I left the employ of Krause/F+W publications in May, 2006, I arranged to buy about a million sportscards that had accumulated in the company's warehouse.
 
These were mostly cards that had been sent to our sports collectors' periodicals (SCD, Tuff Stuff, Baseball Cards/Sports Cards, et al.) by the card companies for product reviews, cataloging, etc.

The vast majority of the cards were from the 1990s.


As I sorted through these cards, a couple of themes caught my attention, and I thought it might be fun to see how many cards I could find that fit that theme. I limited my searching to baseball cards, though I imagine the same, or similar, themes could have been found among the football, basketball and hockey cards. 

By the mid-1990s the proliferation of card companies, and the proliferation of card sets from each of them, flooded collectors with new cards. At the peak of (over)production, there were at least 20,000 new baseball cards being produced each year.

Most of these cards used at least two, and sometimes three, photos on each player's card. This created unprecedented demand for player photos . . . portraits, candids and game-action. 

One theme that I pursued involved players' uniform numbers. I wondered if it would be possible to put together a set of cards showing players wearing each number from 1 through 99.  

Naturally, for all of the numbers from 1 into the 90s, I had a wide range of choices, and could pick a card showing a favorite player, or a number being prominently displayed. 

Beginning at #80, however, things got tight. While a few players chose numbers in the upper reaches as a matter of personal preference, a high uniform number was usually relegated to spring training use. And even in the days when the card companies were scrambling to produce "rookie cards" of every player with any chance of making the big clubs, there were just not a lot of cards issued showing players wearing numbers in the 80s and 90s. 

I never did find cards depicting uniform numbers 80, 81, 82, 85, 89, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96 or 98 . . . though I did find players with #0 and 00.

Putting together a collection like this proves that the card hobby can still be fun, and isn't exclusively the province of superstars, autographs, game-used inserts and 1/1s. 

Free baseball (1988 repli-cards) cards

I am in the process of emptying all of my sportscard and memorabilia storage areas. 

In my 50+ years as a collector and with more than 25 years spent in hobby publishing, I have amassed a (literal) ton of stuff. I am now seriously working to dispose of the accumulation so that it doesn't fall to my heirs in the event the dispersal outlives me.

Upon opening one box from the basement, I discovered a kraft-wrapped package of 200+ three-card panels that were intended for insertion in the October, 1988, issue of Baseball Cards Magazine.

Because we always printed the insert-card panels in advance of the printing of the body of the  magazine, there was always a bit of an overrun. While most of those extra card panels were taken to the recycling center, I got in the habit of setting aside 100 or more of each in the (largely mistaken) belief that one day they would be valuable.

At any given time there are being offered on eBay about a dozen of the repli-cards that we inserted into issues of Baseball Cards (later, Sports Cards), Baseball Card Price Guide, and the other glossy newsstand magazines that we published from 1984 through the early 1990s. They are offered as single, strips and panels.

Generally there is little bidder interest, but occasionally, a couple of superstar player collectors will get into a bidding war and one of our inserts will sell for $10 or more.

I'm going to give all of my readers a chance to get a free three-card repli-card panel that features a Mickey Mantle card that has raised many questions in the hobby over the years, and even cost unwary buyers a lot of money.

The theme of the repli-cards in the October, 1988, issue of BBC was "cards that never were."

One such card was a 1956 Bowman Mickey Mantle. 

Prior to being bought out by Topps late in 1955, Bowman prepared some samples of proposed designs for a 1956 baseball card set. One of the proposals featured a knot-hole design that would later be incorporated in the 1958 Hires Root Beer issue.

Since Bowman only created a front design, the staff at the magazine came up with a back design that drew on the 1955 format. 

You can see on the other two cards on this panel that there is a 1988 copyright date. There was also one on the Mantle card's back, but due to an error in the stripping (it's an old printer's term) process, the 1988 copyright line that was supposed to appear was masked off and overprinted.

Almost since the magazine first hit the newsstand, some collectors became confused about the Mantle knot-hole card, and more than once unscrupulous sellers led buyers to believe this was a genuine 1956 card.

The middle card on the panel is a 1952 Bowman-style Jackie Robinson. Robinson, you'll recall, had been included in Bowman's sets in 1949-50, and in Topps sets from 1952-56. 

The Bowman-style card on this panel features a painting by Wisconsin artist Dan Gardiner, who did several repli-cards and other assignments for us in the late 1980s. He later did some paintings for the Ted Williams Card Co., and perhaps a few of the other card manufacturers.

The third card on the panel is a WASHINGTON / "NAT'L LEA." variation of Dave Winfield's Topps rookie card. 

Early in 1974, Topps acted under the mistaken assumption that the San Diego Padres were going to be moved to Washington, and printed 15 of the Padres cards with the Washington designation, later correcting it to San Diego. Other Padres cards, including #456, Dave Winfield, were printed only with the S.D. designation. 

If you'd like a free copy of the three-card panel, send a business-size (9-3/8" x 4") self-addressed stamped envelope to: Bob Lemke, P.O. Box 8, Iola, WI 54945. I'm just going to drop the panel in your envelope, so if for some reason you want it better protected, prepare your envelope that way and make sure it has sufficient first-class postage. Only one panel per reader, please.

Ballplayers on the other side of the camera

When I left the employ of Krause/F+W publications in May, 2006, I arranged to buy about a million sportscards that had accumulated in the company's warehouse.
 
These were mostly cards that had been sent to our sports collectors' periodicals (SCD, Tuff Stuff, Baseball Cards/Sports Cards, et al.) by the card companies for product reviews, cataloging, etc.

The vast majority of the cards were from the 1990s.


As I sorted through these cards, a couple of themes caught my attention, and I thought it might be fun to see how many cards I could find that fit that theme. I limited my searching to baseball cards, though I imagine the same, or similar, themes could have been found among the football, basketball and hockey cards. 

One theme that I noticed was cards of players taking photographs or videos. Players are constantly being asked to pose for the team or MLB publicist, baseball card photographers, television or video crews and even fans along the rail. These cards show players on the other side of the camera; whether they're fiddling with the pros' long lenses, the TV camera or their own equipment.

By the mid-1990s the proliferation of card companies, and the proliferation of card sets from each of them, flooded collectors with new cards. At the peak of (over)production, there were at least 20,000 new baseball cards being produced each year.

Most of these cards used at least two, and sometimes three, photos on each player's card. This created unprecedented demand for player photos . . . portraits, candids and game-action. Today, with far fewer cards, the need for photos is nowhere near as acute, so photos such as these are seldom seen on cards from the late-1990s to date.

I came up with 40 cards that fit the theme; there are probably more. Putting together a collection like this proves that the card hobby can still be fun, and isn't exclusively the province of superstars, autographs, game-used inserts and 1/1s. 

Gatorade product placement on baseball cards

When I left the employ of Krause/F+W publications in May, 2006, I arranged to buy about a million sportscards that had accumulated in the company's warehouse.
 
These were mostly cards that had been sent to our sports collectors' periodicals (SCD, Tuff Stuff, Baseball Cards/Sports Cards, et al.) by the card companies for product reviews, cataloging, etc.

The vast majority of the cards were from the 1990s.


I spent the next five years sorting more than 180 monster boxes down, separating the wheat from the chaff (OK, these were 1990s cards, so it was mostly separating the chaff-ish from the chaff). Mainly I was setting aside cards and sets that I felt had a value of $1 per card or more, or might in the future.

As I shuffled through these cards, a couple of themes caught my attention, and I thought it might be fun to see how many cards I could find that fit that theme. I limited my searching to baseball cards, though I imagine the same, or similar, themes could have been found among the football, basketball and hockey cards. 

One theme that I noticed was cards of players drinking Gatorade, or with the product prominently visible in the background. 

By the mid-1990s the proliferation of card companies, and the proliferation of card sets from each of them, flooded collectors with new cards. At the peak of (over)production, there were at least 20,000 new baseball cards being produced each year.

Most of these cards used at least two, and sometimes three, photos on each player's card. This created unprecedented demand for player photos . . . portraits, candids and game-action. And, since the jug of Gatorade is ubiquitous in major and minor league dugouts, it's no wonder that in the rush to get enough unique player photos for each new set, it's not surprising that some of the photos featured the "product placement" of Gatorade.

I came up with a dozen cards that fit that theme; there are probably more. Putting together a collection like this proves that the card hobby can still be fun, and isn't exclusively the province of superstars, autographs, game-used inserts and 1/1s. I'm including Craig Lefferts' card from 1993 Topps in this "collection," despite the fact that it looks like Topps airbrushed away the sports drink's logo from the cup in his hand.

"Suitcase" Seeds' power surge

Uncommon commons: In more than 30 years in sportscards publishing I have thrown hundreds of notes into files about the players – usually non-star players – who made up the majority of the baseball and football cards I collected as a kid. Today, I keep adding to those files as I peruse microfilms of The Sporting News from the 1880s through the 1960s. I found these tidbits brought some life to the player pictures on those cards. I figure that if I enjoyed them, you might too.

Because of its proximity to New York City, Newark, N.J. has had an up-and-down history in professional baseball. The city’s teams generally operated in the upper levels of the minor league classification system between 1884-1949, when the city last had a team in Organized Baseball. For one season, Newark even fielded a major league team, in the 1915 Federal League.

What must surely be the greatest two-game performance by any Newark player was recorded May 6-7, 1938, when the International League-leading Bears were playing the Bisons in Buffalo.

In six trips to the plate on Friday, May 6, center fielder “Suitcase” Bob Seeds hit four home runs and a pair of singles. The homers came in four consecutive at-bats in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings; the bingles were both hit in the eighth inning as Newark beat Buffalo 22-9. He had 12 RBIs on the day. One of his home runs came with the bases loaded, there was one man on for each of his other three homers and he drove in one run on each of his singles.

He became the fifth IL player to hit four home runs in a game. At that point in major league history, four players had tied for that record. His 12 RBIs set a new league record. The major league record for RBIs in a game was 12 (Jim Bottomley, 1924). Seeds’ 18 total bases and six hits in a game also tied International League marks.

The next day, Seeds homered in his first two trips to the plate, in the first and third innings, to start his day. He walked in the fifth and then hit another home run in the sixth inning. The Bisons finally got him out when he struck out in the ninth inning. Newark won again that day, 14-8.

His two-day power surge had netted him 30 bases and 17 RBIs.

Due to rainouts and cold weather, Newark didn’t play again until May 11; Seeds was 2-for-5 that day, with a triple.

Seeds had never previously stood out as a power hitter. In his previous pro seasons, he had averaged little more than six home runs per season.

In 59 games with Newark in 1938, he had 28 home runs and 95 RBIs. There’s no telling how many International League records he might have broken if he had remained with Newark all season.

However, despite his early-season hitting heroics, the parent N.Y. Yankees didn’t feel he could make the grade in their outfield. (In 1936 the Yankees had acquired Seeds in a trade with Montreal on Aug. 22. He spent the rest of the season in New York. In 13 games he batted .262 and in only 42 at-bats, had hit four home runs.) On June 24, the Yankees sold him to the N.Y. Giants for $40,000. He finished the 1938 season for the Giants batting .291 with nine home runs.

As noted on the back of his 1939 and 1940 Play Ball baseball cards, Bob Seeds had another claim to baseball fame . . . he was the only major leaguer to ever own a minor league ballclub while he played in the big leagues.

In 1939, after 10 years out of Organized Baseball, the Amarillo Gold Sox joined the Class C West Texas-New Mexico League. Bob Seeds was the owner and team president, his wife was the business manager.

Considered one of the finest athletes ever to come out of West Texas, Seeds had played pro ball at Amarillo in 1928, when the team was in the Class A Western League.

Seeds’ big league career (1930-32, 1934 Cleveland, 1932 White Sox, 1933-34 Red Sox, 1936 Yankees, 1938-40 Giants) ended after the 1940 season. He played the next four seasons in the high minors with Baltimore (1941-42), Indianapolis (1942) and Little Rock (1943-44).

After a year out of OB, he managed and played for his Amarillo Gold Sox team in 1946, batting .302 with one home run in 32 games.

Contemporary with his ownership of the Gold Sox, Seeds owned a hardware and sporting goods store in Amarillo, and later operated a large hog farm. He died in 1993.

Because he was a limited-use player for most of his major league career, Bob Seeds didn’t appear on many baseball cards. His two most mainstream issues are 1939 and 1940 Play Ball.

Hey, Mister! Please sign this!

If you were of a mind to, how big a collection of baseball cards could you amass that show a picture of the player signing autographs?

I got to more than 275 over the period of 2006-10 while I was in the process of sorting through a mountain of monster boxes that I had acquired from my former employer, the publisher of SCD, Tuff Stuff, Standard Catalog, etc.

These were mostly cards that had been sent to us by the card companies for product reviews, cataloging, etc.

The vast majority of the cards were from the 1990s.


A trend that developed in baseball cards by the mid-1990s was the proliferation of card companies, and the proliferation of card sets from each of them. At the peak of (over)production, there were at least 20,000 new baseball cards being produced each year.

Most of these cards used at least two, and sometimes three, photos on each player's card. This created unprecedented demand for player photos . . . portraits, candids and game-action.

So it's not surprising that there exists in the baseball card universe of the 1990s-2000s more than a few cards showing players signing autographs for fans: hats and bats; pennants, posters and programs; balls and gloves and even a few baseball cards. In sorting through all those cards over the years, There are cards showing players from the rawest rookies to superstar Hall of Famers obliging the fans. I generally limited this "collection" to card fronts; I could have added dozens more if I'd considered the photos on the backs.

I'll share just a few of them here. It's my way of showing that "commons" can be uncommon and that a card collection doesn't have to cost big bucks to be fun.

Bubblegum cards . . . really

When I left the employ of Krause/F+W publications in May, 2006, I arranged to buy about a million sportscards that had accumulated in the company's warehouse.
 
These were mostly cards that had been sent to our sports collectors' periodicals (SCD, Tuff Stuff, Baseball Cards/Sports Cards, et al.) by the card companies for product reviews, cataloging, etc.
The vast majority of the cards were from the 1990s.


Bubblegum can even be found
on a wrapper. Here's Chipper
Jones on a 1998 Score
Rookie/Traded wrapper.

I spent the next five years sorting more than 180 monster boxes down, separating the wheat from the chaff (OK, these were 1990s cards, so it was mostly separating the chaff-ish from the chaff). Mainly I was setting aside cards and sets that I felt had a value of $1 per card or more, or might in the future.

One theme that I pursued was cards of players chewing bubblegum. Bubblegum and baseball cards have been linked since the 1920s. For many years the cards were ostensibly a ride-along product to induce children to choose one brand of gum over another at the candy store.

By the time I started collecting cards in the 1950s, the cards themselves had become the magnet for kids' pennies and nickels. Sometime in the 1990s, the gum largely disappeared from card packs.

Bubblegum, however, remains a staple in professional clubhouses and dugouts.

Another trend that developed in baseball cards by the mid-1990s was the proliferation of card companies, and the proliferation of card sets from each of them. At the peak of (over)production, there were at least 20,000 new baseball cards being produced each year.

Most of these cards used at least two, and sometimes three, photos on each player's card. This created unprecedented demand for player photos . . . portraits, candids and game-action.

So it's not surprising that there exists in the baseball card universe of the 1990s-2000s more than a few cards showing players blowing bubbles. In sorting through all those cards over the years, I came up with about 75 different cards. I generally limited this "collection" to card fronts. I could have added a couple of dozen more that have bubblegum photos on the backs.
 I'll share some of my "bubblegum card" finds here.

These are some of the largest bubbles I've seen on modern baseball
cards. I'm not sure Griffey's isn't actually a pink balloon.

Here's a trifecta. Chipper is shown on the front of a 1996 Pinnacle
Christie Brinkley Collection insert card with a bubble, and both
the player and the photographer are blowing bubbles on the back.

I don't know if bubblegum is a baseball staple in other countries,
but players like Hideo Nomo and Chan Ho Park picked up the
tradition quickly upon arriving in the U.S.

Some players seem adept at multi-tasking -- blowing bubbles in the
midst of game action.

A special dog for Joe Tipton

Uncommon commons: In more than 30 years in sportscards publishing I have thrown hundreds of notes into files about the players – usually non-star players – who made up the majority of the baseball and football cards I collected as a kid. Today, I keep adding to those files as I peruse microfilms of The Sporting News from the 1880s through the 1960s. I found these tidbits brought some life to the player pictures on those cards. I figure that if I enjoyed them, you might too.

I’ve always had a soft spot for ballplayers who were dog fanciers. Now I can add former American League catcher Joe Tipton to that list.

Rather than try to summarize, I’m just going to reprint what Buss Walker wrote in the Dec. 19, 1951 issue of TSN.

Home Folks Shower Tipton;

Gift bird Dog Big Surprise

            Copperhill, Tenn.—Joe Tipton has a new bird dog. The catcher for the Philadelphia Athletics also has a lot of new house furnishings, not to mention a touch of writer’s cramp.

            It all came through the thoughtfulness of Joe’s fellow citizens of the twin cities of the copper basin—Copperhill, Tenn., and McCaysville, Ga.

            Folks over here in the basin are redhot baseball fans, and they’re right proud of their major league catcher. So, when it was learned that Joe would be coming home last week from Japan, where he’d barnstormed with Lefty O’Doul’s club, someone suggested that the home folks have a homecoming day for him.

            Men behind the move were Ernest Adams, Rev. W. H. Heard, Publisher Frank Middleton and the mayors of the twin cities, Millard Cline of McCaysville and W.P. Perry of Copperhill. The entire community turned in and did its part.

            Space limited tickets to the banquet to 165. They were sold out almost before they were put on sale, and donations for gifts rolled in. A fan with a hobby turned out 165 eight-inch bats on his small lathe, for favors. Publisher Middleton did himself proud on special menus for place cards. And Joe got writer’s cramp autographing both the bats and the menus for the guests.

            The dinner and the reception were held at Copperhill High School. Gifts included just about everything that a young couple could use in furnishing a new cottage—living room suite, dining room suite, cabinet, electric water heater, lamps galore and no end of personal gifts, including golden twin keys to the twin cities, presented jointly by the two mayors.

            Then came the big gift for Joe, a gift that left him almost speechless. Joe had been hunting in North Carolina with a Llewellin Setter named Ike, borrowed from a friend over there. Joe had become attached to the dog and for three years had been trying to buy it, but the owner had refused to even consider his top offer of $300 for the dog.

            The committee decided to try to buy Ike. They made the trip to North Carolina, explained to the dog owner, who agreed to sell for the $300 he’d formerly refused. The owner then turned $50 of the amount back to go toward others gifts for Joe.

            The big gift was kept a secret until the last minute, when Ike was led down the auditorium aisle by two tiny McCaysville majorettes, up on the stage and the leash placed in Joe’s hand.

            When Joe saw the setter being brought down the aisle, his mouth dropped open and his face began to shine. With the leash in his hand, he dropped to a knee, placed an arm around the dog’s neck and hugged him right in front of the full house. But when, a moment later, he tried to say a word of thanks, the big palooka choked up and could hardly get out a word.

Back in 1951, a $300 dog was no small gift. According to standard calculations of relative worth of the dollar, that $300 in 1951 would be about $2,500 today. Another way of looking at it was that $300 was probably about a week’s salary for a major league ballplayer of Tipton’s caliber.

Tipton played with the Cleveland Indians 1948 and 1952-53, Chicago White Sox 1949, Philadelphia A's 1950-52 and Washington Senators, 1954.

In the mainstream baseball card issue of his day, Tipton was almost strictly a Bowman man, appearing in Bowman's 1949-51 and 1953-54 issues. In 1952 he jumped to Topps for a single year.

I like to think that Joe and Ike are now roaming the fields of the Happy Hunting Grounds. 

Lifeguard Olszewski had two saves

Uncommon commons: In more than 30 years in sportscards publishing I have thrown hundreds of notes into files about the players – usually non-star players – who made up the majority of the baseball and football cards I collected as a kid. Today, I keep adding to those files as I peruse microfilms of The Sporting News from the 1880s through the 1960s. I found these tidbits brought some life to the player pictures on those cards. I figure that if I enjoyed them, you might too.

Considering the stereotypical propensity of high school and jocks to hang out together and exhibit daredevil behavior it is probably not all that unbelievable that former pro fullback Johnny Olszewski was credited with saving the lives of two contemporary quarterbacks while he was in college.

During the summer months, Olszewski was a life guard at Corona Del-Mar. Sportswriter Bob McKinney in 1951 described the beach as a place “where the clear waters of the cove invite swimming, but the rip-tides often prove disastrous.”

McKinney wrote in the Nov. 14, 1951, issue of The Sporting News, “Shortly before the start of the 1950 season, (Loyola Marymount quarterback and future Baltimore Colts executive) Don Klosterman was caught in the sucking currents and was being carried under when Johnny spotted him and brought him to shore.”

“I couldn’t swim and shouldn’t have been out there,” Klosterman was quoted.

The previous year, according to Klosterman, in nearly the same spot, Olszewski had similarly rescued first-string California quarterback Billy Mais.

Mais had been a teammate of Olszewski’s at St. Anthony’s High School in Long Beach; Klosterman and Olszewski were described as ‘boyhood pals” growing up in Compton. 

"Johnny O" had a 10-year career in the NFL (1953-57 Chicago-St. Louis Cardinals, 1958-60 Redskins, 1961 Lions) and AFL (1962 Broncos).

Slides were once state of the art

Regular readers know I have several times in the past used this space to present interesting advertisements I've found in vintage magazines; generally rambling on about the huge strides technology has made in the last 50-60 years.

Today, while I was reading the Sept. 22, 1958, issue of Sports Illustrated, an ad caught my eye that directly related to a conversation earlier that morning around the table at coffee break.

I maintain a "retirement office" on Main Street in Iola, in a building owner by my former boss, Chet Krause. Chet created and built the hobby publishing empire known as Krause Publications from 1952 through the early 1980s, when he began to turn the reins over to others.

Today, at age 88, he uses this office setting to write monographs on subjects that interest him, to conclude the disposition of a lifetime of collecting, to conduct his philanthropic and civic endeavors and, generally, to maintain contact with three generations of local and visiting friends, former employees and colleagues.

Much of this socialization occurs mid-mornings when the coffee pot is on and the table in our small breakroom contains an assortment of homemade baked goods, fruit or the contents of a gift basket. A day rarely goes by that somebody from the community or from afar doesn't join us.

My wife compares the ambiance to the cracker barrel at the old general store where everybody feels free to drop by and join the conversation.

Topics of discussion run the gamut from town gossip to world politics, from the Packers to local history and everything in between.

Today, a principal topic was slides; the photographic medium, not the playground staple. One of the fellows sitting around the table mentioned that he had a friend that was in the process of converting 6,000 slides to digital format. The friend had some connection with the FAA, and many of the slides were crash scene photos and pictures of aircraft from decades past.

The friend was using one of those $100 conversion units that quickly and efficiently convert 35mm slides to digital images. Chet mentioned that he had recently thrown into the trash his own lifetime accumulation of vacation and business trip slides. It was generally conceded that slides were an obsolete medium, especially for sharing pictures in this age of Facebook, camera phones and tabletop picture frames that store and randomly show hundreds of images. Our guest remarked that he still owned three slide projectors -- none of which work -- on the floor of an upstairs closet.

I'm sure that those of you who share the "Boomer" designation of our age group, can remember sitting through slide shows at family gatherings, business meetings and club functions. Such presentations became a cliche, though I was rather a fan. I usually enjoyed wall-sized images of far-away people and places shown on a bright white screen much more than I did flipping through an album of snapshots.

As a photographer early in my career, I was also a big fan of slides and transparencies (as larger-format color positives were known). I found that slides offered color that was more pleasing to my eye than color negative film.

I may be completely wrong about this, but I believe I heard that color transparencies held their image and color for a greater time than film images. I know that some of the images of antique autos and other subjects that I shot on 2-1/2" square transparencies are as bright now as they were when they were made 30+ years ago. 

I've also, on occasion, purchased large lots of 35mm slides on eBay. These are often family collections of vacation scenes, new cars, prom dresses, pets, etc. These offer a nostalgic look back to the mid-century. I save the best of them for some, as yet undetermined, future use, and trash the rest. While I have yet to buy one of those slide-to-digital converters, I'll do so some day. For now, I have an otherwise obsolete scanner that includes plastic templates that allow for such conversion.

In my collection of baseball images acquired from many sources over the years, I have many 35mm slides, and transparencies of various sizes up to 8" x 10". Some of my favorite transparencies are those that I have purchased from Topps on eBay. For a number of years, under the Topps Vault label, the card company has been auctioning images from its archives dating back to the 1950s. They are advertised as "Original negatives," but they are positives. 

A number of them have provided images that appear on my custom cards. Opening bids on them are $9.95, where many of the "common" players sell. Superstars like Mantle, Koufax,  Ryan and others can sell for hundreds of dollars, whether they be the pictures that were actually used on cards, or "out takes" that never made it to cardboard.

I recently read that the last processor of one major type of slide film -- I don't remember whether it was Kodachrome, Fujicolor or whatever -- had issued its last call for film. The day is nearly at hand when there will be no place the average person can have slide film developed. 

This has been my long way of introducing the ad that I saw in SI, and share with you here. As I am wont to do on such occasions, I am compelled to compare the advertised retail price with today's dollar. In this case the $149.50 spent on a deluxe Kodak Cavalcade slide projector would translate to over $1,100 today.

From the idyllic portrayal of the family unit shown in the ad, it looks as if they enjoy their technology purchase as much as a family today enjoys its flat screen color TV at about the same relative expenditure. Today, these projectors go begging on eBay for lack of a $15-25 opening bid.

'52 Eau Claire Bears photo may be Aaron's first OB collectible

I don’t know if this is actually the first time Henry Aaron was mentioned in a national sports publication, but the earliest such mention that I can recall seeing was this item in the June 18, 1952, issue of The Sporting News.

Under the headline “Clowns Sell kid Shortstop flash to Boston Braves,” Chicago baseball writer Russ J. Cowens, who frequently covered Negro Leagues goings-on for TSN, wrote, “The pace-setting Indianapolis Clowns lost a promising young infielder last week, but came up with two recruits who loom as potential stars.

“The Clowns, who added to their lead in the Negro American League by splitting four games while the Kansas City Monarchs were dropping three, sold Henry Aaron, 17-year-old rookie shortstop, to the Boston Braves, who are to assign him to a farm club. Aaron was slugging the ball at a .427 pace, led the league in doubles with seven, and in homers with eight. He also was the top man for runs batted in with 26.”

The two “potential stars” that the Clowns signed to replace Aaron were Tom Cooper, “a former student at West Virginia State College, and Herbert Benson, a first baseman.”

On the morning of June 9 that season, the Clowns had played to a 17-8 record to lead the NAL.

This early mention of Henry Aaron reminded me that I have squirreled away in my “archives” what I now realize may be the first collectible item ever issued of Aaron . . . at least the first while he was in Organized Baseball.

It is an 8” x 10” black-and-white team-issued glossy photo of the 1952 Eau Claire Bears.

Aaron is shown seated at the left end of middle row. The Bears were a Boston Braves farm team and Aaron’s first club in Organized Baseball.

Three other future Major Leaguers are shown in the team photo – two of them managers. Aaron’s future outfield teammate Wes Covington is pictured in the back row, third from right. Also in the photo are Bears manager Bill Adair, who had a 10-game stint as manager of the Chicago White Sox, and Johnny Goryl, who played for the Cubs 1957-59 and the Twins 1962-64, managing the Twins in 1980-81.

The 1952 Eau Claire Bears finished third in the Class C Northern League in 1952. Aaron led the team (and was third in the league) with a .336 batting average. His nine home runs in 87 games were only fourth best on the team (Covington led with 24).

Aaron is pictured on an earlier postcard of the Indianapolis Clowns, predating his career in Organized Baseball. 

Eau Claire baseball historian Jason Christopherson was able to add a couple of tidbits about some of Aaron's '52 Bears teammates.

He wrote, "Back row, far left is Charles "Chet" Morgan Jr., son of Chet Morgan Sr., an outfielder briefly with the Tigers in the 1930s.

"And in the second row, third from the left, is Chuck Doehler, who just passed away a month or so ago. Though he never made it far professionally (he was a late-season fill in for the injured "John" Covington in 1952) as a player, Doehler has one of the most unique baseball connections you could ever imagine. Chuck was one of the last to see the earthly remains of Babe Ruth (long story, but Claire had the casket re-opened so that Chuck and his late-arriving Babe Ruth League teammates could place a ball with Babe), and one of the first to welcome the new HR King, Henry Aaron. 

Pirates 1951 exhibition benefited blinded player

Uncommon commons: In more than 30 years in sportscards publishing I have thrown hundreds of notes into files about the players – usually non-star players – who made up the majority of the baseball and football cards I collected as a kid. Today, I keep adding to those files as I peruse microfilms of The Sporting News from the 1880s through the 1960s. I found these tidbits brought some life to the player pictures on those cards. I figure that if I enjoyed them, you might too.

            A benefit game for Julius “Moose” Solters was played on July 9, 1951, at Forbes Field between current Pittsburgh Pirates players and former Pirates active on other teams.

            Solters, who had played nine Major League seasons, all in the American League, had been blinded as a result of an accident on the diamond during the 1941 season and had been trying to support his wife and five children by operating a tavern in the Beltzhoover district of Pittsburgh.

            After outfield practice at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 1, Solters got in the way of a baseball thrown by teammate Joe Kuhel to Luke Appling. “I was crossing the field, heading for the dugout, when I saw my two brothers-in-law in the stands. I waved to them and that’s all I remembered,” he said later. 

            The ball struck Solters in the left temple. He was hospitalized for two weeks with a fractured skull.

            He returned to action on Aug. 14, but by the end of the month, had to remove himself from the line up frequently, sometimes for days at a time.

            The next season he his eyesight began to fail and he eventually became totally blind.

            The 1951 benefit was organized by former Pirates infielders Lee Handley and Frank Gustine..

            The Solters benefit game was the Pirates’ third charity exhibition in a month. The first two had been a home-and-home series with the Cleveland Indians.

On June 11 at Municipal Stadium, in a game dubbed the Health and Welfare Exhibition, the Bucs had beat the Indians 9-5 before a crowd of 8,568.

A return engagement at Pittsburgh on June 25 was a benefit for the Children’s Hospital. A home run derby, an accuracy throwing contest for catchers and a base-running race, preceded that game. Winning wrist watches for their performances in the pre-game contests were Ralph Kiner, with five home runs, Joe Garagiola, who was the only catcher to throw a ball into a bucket at second base, and Bobby Avila, who circled the bases in 15.4 second. In the game, the Pirates defeated the Indians 5-2 before a crowd of 9,517.

The Pirates turned over their share of the gate, $6,640 to the Children’s Hospital, while the Forbes Field union employees donated their night’s pay, $1,418.

In the July 9 Solters benefit game, the current Pirates defeated the former Bucs 1-0, before a crowd of 9,533..

In the line-up for the current Pirates was a “ringer” in the person of shortstop Danny O’Connell. O’Connell was then serving in the U.S. Army, stationed in Virginia. He had returned to Pittsburgh on a three-day pass. That pass was extended when U.S. Senator Herman Welker of Idaho phoned O’Connell’s commanding officer and requested the extension so that O’Connell could participate in the benefit game. Welker was an accredited scout for the Pirates. Since army colonels don’t say no to U.S. senators, O’Connell was OK’d to play.

The “former Pirates” had their own ringer. Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Feller, coming off his third career no-hitter, did a bit of relief work. Feller had been snubbed by American League manager Casey Stengel for the All-Star team, and paid his own way to Pittsburgh for the Solters benefit. Feller had been a teammate of Solters with the Indians,  1937-39. Proving that no good deed goes unpunished, Feller was tagged with the loss.

In a short speech at home plate after he was presented with a check for the game’s proceeds of $15,633, Solters, according to Pittsburgh baseball writer Dan McGibbeney, “‘looked’ around spacious Forbes Field and, with a sob in his voice, said:

“‘It is the most wonderful feeling to know that I have so many friends. As I stand here tonight I can see in my mind the beautiful green trees and grass which make such a wonderful backdrop beyond the outfield walls. This wonderful gesture you are making tonight proves once again to me that baseball and its people are truly the best sports in the world.’”

Besides the game’s proceeds, the fund for Solters was bolstered to more than $16,000 with other donations, including $250 each from the American League, the National League and the Commissioner’s office.

The 14 Pirates’ alumni who played in the game were: Stan Rojek, Wally Westlake and Cliff Chambers (Cardinals), Bob Elliott and Ebba St. Claire (Braves), Dixie Howell and Jimmy Bloodworth (Reds), Ken Heintzelman (Phillies), Gene Woodling and Johnny Hopp (Yankees), John Berardino and Dale Long (Browns), Hank Borowy (Tigers) and Clyde Kluttz (Senators).

The current Pirates’ lineup played the entire game, with O’Connell (3b), Rocky Nelson (1b), George Metkovitch (cf), Gus Bell (rf), Pete Reiser (lf), Ed FitzGerald (c), Monty Basgall (2b), George Strickland (ss) and Junior Walsh (p).

The Pirates’ principal star and drawing card, Ralph Kiner, was not at the benefit game. He was in Detroit at a meeting of league and player representatives held the day before the July 10 All-Star Game.

Though he had begun playing baseball in the sandlots around his native Pittsburgh in the 1920s, Solters had never played for the Pirates. He spent his entire big league career in the American League.

His pro career began in 1927. After hitting .393 with Binghamton in 1932 and .363 with Baltimore in 1933, he entered the major leagues with the Boston Red Sox in 1934, batting .299. He was traded in mid-1935 to the Browns. Prior to the 1937 season he was traded to the Indians, where he had his best season, hitting .323. He returned to the Browns on waivers late in1939. In 1940 he was traded to the White Sox.

Following his injury, Solters sat out the 1942 season. He returned to play in 42 games as a fourth outfielder for Chicago in 1943, hitting just .155 against wartime pitching.

Solters appeared in several of the major baseball card issues contemporary with his career, notably 1934 Goudey, 1934-36 Diamond Stars (shown at top), 1939 and 1940 Play Ball (shown above) and 1941 Double Play. He died in 1975.