1960 Baltimore News-Post scrapbook cards

We continue our series on 1950s-1970s Baltimore Orioles regional cards that have largely remained uncataloged to this point.

The data and scans for these presentations, which began Feb. 8 (English's Chicken bucket lids) and Feb. 9 (Kiwanis baseball clinic), are brought to you courtesy of specialist collector Alan Strout of Maine.

Among the many vintage Baltimore Orioles regionally issued baseball cards and player collectibles he has chased down over the years, Strout has assembled complete checklists of the "cards" printed each year 1960-1963 during spring training by the Baltimore News-Press. 

The formats of these issues differed a bit from year to year, but generally share a number of elements such as a black-and-white portrait photo, biographical details, a capsule career summary (1960-61) or lifetime major and minor league stats (1962-63), a facsimile autograph and a dotted line or margin rules indicating how the pictures were to be cut out of the newspaper. 

Values for there newspaper cards is hard to pin down. They are usually of interest only to die-hard team specialists and single-player collectors. They tend to have suffered border damage when kids cut them off the page, and most have yellowed, curled or otherwise deteriorated over the years. While they probably are more typically found for a couple of bucks apiece, some have reportedly sold for more than $100.

If you would like to contact Strout about the Orioles' regionals you'll see in this series or exchange information about other O's issues, you can email him. I'm going to give his email address here in "coded" form so the robo-scanners don't add it to their spam lists. You can reach Alan Strout of Maine at: (his first name)_(his last name)(at symbol)umit.(his state).edu. Strout can also be reached by mail at P.O. Box 84, Kenduskeag, ME 04450. 

1960 Baltimore News-Post Scrapbook cards

The premiere year for the Orioles' scrapbook cards was the only year that the pictures were numbered.

The format for the 1960 pictures was a nominal 4" x 7". Besides the picture and facsimile autograph, the card had personal data including name, position, nickname, home, height, weight, birth date, off-season occupation and name of wife and children, when applicable.

A couple of paragraphs provided career data and prospects for the coming season.

The set included not only veteran players, but top minor league prospects, coaches and the manager. A number of players found in this set do not appear on any other baseball cards.

Of special note is the card of 19-year-old Dean Chance. After two years in the Orioles' minor league system, he was picked by the Washington Senators in the 1960 expansion draft and immediately traded to the Los Angeles Angels, for whom he won 20 games and the Cy Young Award in 1964. (It would be fun to make a 1960-style Rookie Star card of Chance as an Oriole, but I have never found a photo of him in a Baltimore uniform.)

1 Marv Breeding
2 Jim Gentile
3 Barry Shetrone
4 Fred Valentine
5 Jerry Adair
6 Ray Barker 
7 Leo Burke
8 Ron Hansen
9 Dave Nicholson 
10 Brooks Robinson
11 Wes Stock 
12 Dean Chance 
13 Billy Gardner
14 Hal Brown 
15 Arne Thorsland 
16 Jack Fisher 
17 Boog Powell 
18 Bob Mabe 
19 Alfred Nagel 
20 Bob Saverine
21 Arnold Portocarrero 
22 Rip Coleman 
23 Bob Boyd 
24 Albie Pearson
25 Gene Woodling 
26 Billy Hoeft 
27 Gus Triandos 
28 Joe Ginsberg 
29 Willie Tasby 
30 Gene Green 
31 Johnny Powers 
32 Art Quirk
33 Chuck Staniland 
34 Bob Riedel 
35 Milt Pappas 
36 Steve Barber 
37 Gordon Jones 
38 Walt Dropo 
39 Billy Klaus
40 Jackie Brandt 
41 Hoyt Wilhelm
42 Jerry Walker 
43 Al Pilarcik 
44 John Anderson 
45 Chuck Estrada 
46 Lum Harris 
47 Harry Brecheen 
48 Jimmy Adair 
49 Clint Courtney
50 Paul Richards 

Tomorrow we'll checklist the 1961 Baltimore News-Post scrapbook cards.

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1950s-70s Orioles regionals checklist updates, Part 2

Yesterday we began a series of blog posts that will update several existing checklists Baltimore Orioles regional baseball card and player collectible issues and, in due course, will present some heretofore uncataloged O's regionals from the 1950s-1970s.

The data, scans,etc., come to the hobby courtesy of specialist collector Alan Strout of Maine.

Today's topic is the 1959 Baseball Clinic cards issued by the Baltimore Kiwanis Club.

The 4th edition Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards still carries a one-card (Bob Nieman) checklist and lists the set as "1957-1959".

On this blog on March 24, 2011, we were able to add Ernie Johnson to the list, which pinpoints the year of issue as 1959, his only season with Baltimore.

Courtesy of Strout, we can now expand the checklist to 10 cards. Rather crudely printed in black-and-white, the approximately 2-7/8" x 1-3/4" cards appear to have reproduced the photos from one or more team-issued picture packs.

As it stands now, the checklist comprises . . . 

• Chico Carrasquel
• Ernie Johnson
• Billy Klaus
• Bob Nieman
• Billy O'Dell
• Milt Pappas
• Arnie Portocarrero
• Paul Richards
• Willie Tasby
• Jerry Walker

It is entirely possible, of course, that this checkist is not yet complete.

If you wish to contact Strout about the Orioles regionals you'll see in this series or exchange information about other O's issues, you can email him. I'm going to give his email address here in "coded" form so the robo-scanners don't scoop it up and add it to their spam lists. You can reach Alan Strout of Maine at: (his first name)_(his last name)(at symbol)umit.(his state).edu .

1950s-70s Orioles regionals checklist updates, Part 1

It's been a while since I've done a "Standard Catalog Update" page for the blog . . . mostly because I've been retired from the catalog for several years.

That, however, hasn't changed my conviction that the hobby benefits when heretofore "uncataloged" baseball cards and player memorabilia are presented for the record.

A recent correspondence with a very dedicated Baltimore Orioles collector, Alan Strout of Maine, allows me to share in this space some updates to existing O's regionals checklists and some issues that have not yet been recorded for hobby posterity.

When I was editing the "Big Book" I always found it gratifying when specialist collectors like Alan were willing to make the effort to share their finds, rather than selfishly hoarding the information.

to kick off this short series, I'm going to present additions to checklists that have been included in the Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards and which were subsequently expanded upon on this blog.

English's Chicken Lids

The first topic is the 1976 English's fried chicken bucket lids. Earlier blog updates on these were published July 31, 2009 and March 1, 2011.

In its heyday 30-40 years ago, English's Family Restaurants dotted the Eastern Shore of Maryland with their iconic chrome railroad car-style diners. The chain's claim to fame was fried chicken that devotees swore was the finest to be had anywhere. 

They're all gone now, and if I'm reading the internet correctly, English's famous fried chicken is now available in just one location, in Salisbury, Md., at a restaurant called Bay Country Meals.

Like that other famous chicken chain, English's offered its bird by the bucket. In 1976, the lids to those buckets featured black-and-white portrait photos of popular Baltimore Orioles players.

As with other cards and collectibles from Mike Schechter Associates in the 1970s and 1980s, the player photos were licensed by the MLB Players' Association, but not Major League Baseball, so team logos were airbrushed off the caps.

Two sizes of bucket lids were made, in 8-1/2" and 7" diameter. They are printed on heavy waxed cardboard stock and are typically found with minor nicks and dings around the edge, and maybe even a  bit of grease from contact with the chicken.

According to Strout, the large-format set is compete at three: Mike Cuellar, Ken Holtzman and Jim Palmer.

There are 10 players known in the smaller format: Mark Belanger, Paul Blair, Al Bumbry, Dave Duncan, Bob Grich, Ross Grimsley, Elrod Hendricks, Lee May, Brooks Robinson and Ken Singleton. 

If I was pricing the set today, I'd value the large Cuellar and Holtzman lids at $20/10/6 in NM/EX/VG, respectively, with Palmer at $50/25/15. The small-size lids are considerably scarcer. I'd suggest current market for the Brooks Robinson is around $250/125/75, with the others about $30/15/9.

English's, by the way, followed up its 1976 bucket-lid set with a 13-piece issue in 1983 honoring the World's Champion Orioles. 

Check in tomorrow for an updated checklist of the 1959 Kiwanis Club of Baltimore Baseball Clinic card set.

If you wish to contact Strout about the Orioles regionals you'll see in this series or exchange information about other O's issues, you can email him. I'm going to give his email address here in "coded" form so the robo-scanners don't add it to their spam lists. You can reach Alan Strout of Maine at (his first name)_(his last name)(at symbol)umit.(his state).edu Strout can also be reached by mail at P.O. Box 84, Kenduskeag, ME 04450. 

                             Seeking O's minor league programs
By way of thanking Alan for sharing his Orioles checklists, scans, etc., I'm publishing his current want list of Orioles minor league programs.

One of Strout's very ambitious collecting goals is to acquire a program from every Orioles minor league team for each year they were in the Baltimore organization.

Here's his list . . . 

Aberdeen Pheasants 1962, 1965

Ada Herefords/Cementers 1954

Anderson Rebels 1954

Ardmore Rosebuds 1961

Batavia Trojans  1966

Bluefield Orioles 1987, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2009

Cordele Orioles 1955

Dublin Orioles 1958

Fitzgerald Orioles 1957

Fox Cities Foxes  1965

Kingsport Orioles 1957

Lubbock Hubbers 1956

Marion Marauders 1954

Meridian Millers 1955

Miami Marlins 1968

Miami Orioles 1975

Ottawa Lynx 2004, 2005

Paris Orioles 1955, 1956, 1957

Pensacola Dons 1958, 1959

Phoenix Stars 1955, 1956, 1957

Pine Bluff Judges 1955

Pulaski Phillies 1977

San Antonio Missions 1954, 1956

Stockton Ports 1959 - 1966, 1968 - 1971

Texas City Texans 1956

Thetford Mines Miners 1954, 1955 

Thomson Orioles 1956 

Tri-City Atoms 1965 

Tri-City Braves 1960 

Victoria Rosebuds 1961

Wilson Tobs 1958

Wytheville Statesmen 1954