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

"New" Rails and Sails: City of Miami

As I mentioned in my blog back on Jan. 29, recently my custom card creating has been concentrated on making train cards in the 1955 Topps Rails and Sails format.

This pair of "City of Miami" cards will likely be my last train cards for a while. As much as I enjoy researching the trains of the streamliner era of the 1940s-1960s, there are some other things I want to move on to. 

The back of my card #207 gives a pretty good capsule history of the early days of the Illinois Central Railroad's City of Miami.

The luxury streamliner originally ran from Chicago to Miami every third day into 1957, then every other day until service was discontinued in 1971.

It started out with a seven-car consist (that's a railroad term I learned in my research), the GM diesel pulling the cars that had been designed and built by Pullman-Standard.

There were four named coaches -- the Poinsettia, Hibiscus, Japonica and Camellia -- each seating 60 passengers, except the Camellia, which was a women-and-children-only coach and featured an on-board nurse-stewardess. The Bougainvillea was a combination baggage and dormitory car, with berths for 12 crewmen. That coach, until 1958, also contained the train's "Jim Crow" seating, 22 seats for black passengers.

The 48-seat dining car was named Palm Garden and there was a tavern-lounge-observation car called the Bamboo Grove, with 32 seats in the bar area and 22 in the observation area. Both were initially unavailable for use by blacks.

My card shows the original paint scheme of the City of Miami, in tropical orange and green, with scarlet trim. All of the cars' interiors were decorated in a tropical theme. After World War II, the train was repainted to conform to the IC's chocolate brown and orange decor.

In 1949 sleeping coaches were added to the City of Miami.

Collectors of 1955 Topps Rails and Sails cards will notice that my "Bamboo Grove Car" card is a departure from the original set, which featured only exterior views of the trains and ships.

"War Bond Game" was $800MM extravaganza

Seven of the 12 living Hall of Famers appeared in the "Tableau
of Yesterday" at the War Bond Game in 1943. At top, from left, are:
Duffy Lewis, Eddie Collins, Roger Bresnahan, Connie Mack, Bill Klem,
Red Murray and George Sisler. Front row, from left: Honus Wagner,
Frank Frisch, Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson and Tris Speaker.

Organized Baseball -- from Yankee Stadium to the Class E Twin Ports League; owners, players and clubhouse boys alike -- relied on the forbearance of the Federal government to stay alive during World War II. 

To assure they retained positive public sentiment, there was no group more diligent in their efforts to financially support the U.S. war effort than professional baseball.

There was no end of fund-raising exhibition games and player appearances at bond-sale rallies.

The largest single event in that effort was the All-Star War Bond Game of Aug. 26, 1943, at the Polo Grounds in New York, sponsored by the New York Journal-American newspaper.

When the event was initially proposed it was expected that sales of $100 million worth of war bonds would be realized. When the dust had settled from the last out of the all-star game, it was reported that $800 million in bond sales and pledges had been made. (In today's dollars, that's about $11 billion!)

The purchase of war bonds was the price of admission to the event. Unreserved seats could be had for $18.75 (the price of a $25 bond). Nine thousand reserved seats were available to those buying a $1,000 bond. the 50 front row boxes around the stadium were priced at $1 million each. Sales of advertising in the program and around the stadium and sales of the program enhanced the revenue stream. 

Maybe I'm ignorant about such fund-raisers, but I don't see where the reported $800 million in bond sales came from, based on the above figures. However, that's the total that was widely reported at the time. 

The principal feature of the day's activities was an exhibition game between the War Bond League All-Stars and an assemblage of major and minor leaguers then in military service billed as Camp Cumberland. 

The War Bond League team was comprised of players from the New York Yankees, New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers. They were nominally selected by the newspaper's readers and managed by then-Dodgers skipper Leo Durocher, filling in for an ailing Mel Ott.

The Camp Cumberland All-Service team had been pulled together from military bases all over the Eastern U.S. by Lt.-Col. Larry MacPhail, former Dodgers president, who was Assistant to Under-Secretary of War Robert Patterson. The service team was managed by Capt. Hank Gowdy, the only major leaguer to serve in both World Wars. (Camp Cumberland, near Harrisburg, Pa., was part of a military complex that included a top secret, black-ops type, interrogation site for high-value German and Japanese prisoners.)

More than 38,000 attended the game and saw 10 future Hall of Famers in action. Among the current major leaguers who played were Arky Vaughan, Joe Medwick, Joe Gordon, Billy Herman, Paul Waner, Ernie Lombardi, Bill Dickey and Carl Hubbell. 

The army team featured Capt. Hank Greenberg and Enos Slaughter, along with such stars as Billy Hitchcock, Pat Mullin, Elmer Valo, Danny Murtaugh, Birdie Tebbetts, Sid Hudson and 1942 Cardinals World Series pitching hero Lt. Johnny Beazley.

In all, 43 players participated on the field.

The current all-stars defeated the military men 5-2, though the servicemen outhit the major leaguers 14-9.

While the exhibition game was the main attraction, another baseball feature seemed to capture the attention of the public and the sporting press. 

Prior to the ballgame, what the Journal-American called the "Tableau of Yesterday" was presented, featuring seven of the 12 then-living Hall of Famers and several more who would be inducted in future years.

Decked out in their old uniforms (including Eddie Collins in an old-style pillbox hat), the all-time greats took their familiar places around the field to the roar of the crowd.

Walking to the mound was Walter Johnson. His battery mate was Roger Bresnahan. At first base was George Sisler. The keystone sack was manned by Eddie Collins. At the hot corner was Frankie Frisch. And, of course, Honus Wagner was the shortstop. Left to right in the outfield were Duffy Lewis, Tris Speaker and Red Murray. Umpire Bill Klem took up his post behind the plate and Connie Mack assumed the manager's position.

The cheers from the crowd redoubled as Babe Ruth strode to the plate. Swinging at the Big Train's pitching, the Bam sprayed hot shots around the infield, fouled one off his foot, then lofted a home run into the right-field stands, just 260 feet away.

Besides the baseball activities, the crowd was entertained by a bevy of Hollywood film stars, radio and recording artists and actress Carole Landis, who logged more miles than any other entertaining troops during the war and was one of the most popular pin-up girls among G.I.s. Former N.Y.C. major Jimmy Walker introduced the entertainers, including James Cagney, Ethel Merman, Milton Berle, Cab Calloway and Fred Waring.

There are a number of souvenirs from the game available to collectors today. 

Certainly the most attractive is the 65-page 10" x 12" program. Among its features were pages dedicated to each of the Hall of Famers, including a photo, career summary and a box score of their first major league game. In nice condition, the program is a $150-250 item today.

Less common is the scorecard that included the names of all the players scheduled to play in the exhibition game. It's about $75-125 now.

Ticket stubs from the event are popular and surprisingly plentiful in the market today. The smaller unreserved seat stub is worth $50-100, while the larger, more ornate, ticket to the $1,000 reserve seats can bring double that.

While they were not sold at the game. Posed press photos of the players from the "Tableau of Yesterday" are plentiful and popular with collectors. You could spend a couple of hundred dollars for a Type 1 original print, or $10-20 for the a recent reproduction

.

Song-inspired Rails & Sails train customs

Two of the most famous trains of the last half of the 20th Century achieved their renown based on popular recordings.

The song Orange Blossom Special was written by Floridian Ervin T. Rouse in 1938 and recorded the next year with his brother. Since then it has been covered by every male country performer of note.

My favorite version is Johnny Cash's, recorded in 1965, which reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 Country Music Charts. While OBS has been called the "fiddle players' national anthem," The Man in Black took it in a different direction, substituting two harmonicas and a saxophone for the fiddle parts.

The 1955 Rails and Sails-style custom card I created is based on circa 1940s linen postcards, of which there are several types. Such cards were sold on the train itself and at every station stop along the route. I did a little cutting and pasting to get the final image for my card.

I don't remember when I've had as much fun doing the research for a card back. I lost myself for most of a day googling the internet and exploring the many tangents. I'd forgotten how much I love mid-century trains. (See my blog post of Oct. 29 for my first R&S train card and background of my personal interest in 1950s streamliners.)

My follow-up R&S train custom card was inspired by the 1972 Arlo Guthrie folk song City of New Orleans. The song went to No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Charts.

It has been reported that Guthrie first heard the song when he was approached by its writer, Steve Goodman, in a Chicago bar in 1971. Guthrie said he'd listen if Goodman would buy him a beer. He agreed to record it on the spot.

After the release of Willie Nelson's version in 1984, Goodman was posthumously awarded the 1985 Grammy for Best Country Song. 

I've been an Arlo Guthrie fan since my college days, based on his 1967 hit ballad Alice's Restaurant Massacree. (The 1969 movie . . . not so much.)

Again, a gloomy winter Sunday spent researching the City of New Orleans (the train and the song) was a high point in the creation process.

As long as I am on a train "kick," I've got a couple more Rails and Sails additions in the works. Watch this blog for the revelation in a week or two.

Johnny Cooney's unlikely homer history

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.

One of my favorite cards from the 1955 Johnston Cookies Braves regional issue was that of coach Johnny Cooney. He just looked like such a pleasant fellow. Heck, the write-up on back said he was "Known for courtesy and understanding . . . a real credit to the game." With that big smile he kind of reminded me of my Uncle John.

While poring over the 1943 microfilm of The Sporting News, I learned that Cooney had an unusual major league home run history. 

Cooney made his professional debut in 1921 with the Boston Braves as a 20-year-old pitcher. He spent 20 seasons in the bigs, He was with the Braves into 1930, then spent the 1930-35 seasons in the high minors. He returned to the National League with the Dodgers from 1935-37, returned to Boston 1938-42, then had a second stay with Brooklyn 1943-44 before ending his major league days with the Yankees in mid-1944, at the age of 43.

He ended his playing days with Kansas City in the American Association in 1945.

He returned to the Boston Braves as a coach in 1946, moving with the team to Milwaukee in 1953. He left the Braves in 1955 and after a year off he coached for the Chicago White Sox 1957-64.

Now for Johnny Cooney's home run story . . . 

From the time of his debut in 1921, almost through the end of 1939, in a total of about 2,300 at-bats in the major leagues, Cooney never hit a home run,

His first big league circuit clout came near the end of his 15th season.

On Sept. 24, 1939, playing in the Polo Grounds, Cooney connected for a home run off Giants pitcher Harry Gumbert. The following day, with Bill Lohrman on the mound, Cooney hit another home run.

Then he never hit another.

He played five more seasons in the majors, about 1,050 at-bats, without another home run.

In his nine seasons in the minors, Cooney had a total of 12 home runs in nearly 2,600 at-bats.

You can read a full account of Johnny Cooney's career on the SABR website, penned by Ray Birch: http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/9a451e51 .

New to World on Wheels: VW Microbus

In my "what if . . . " musings after I buy a Powerball or Mega Millions lottery ticket I sometmes get to daydreaming about the first vehicle I would buy.

Lately, the answer is a 1960s Volkswagen Samba, more often known as the Microbus.

I was recently surprised to see on an episode of Pawn Stars that a really nice restored example can be a $100,000 car in today's market. Oh well, when you win $100MM, what's $100K?

Sometimes I think I'd hunt down the white-over-green microbus that was featured on several episodes of That '70s Show near the end of its run.

But if I had cash in hand, my real first choice would be a white-over-light blue example like the one that sticks in my memory from my early college days.

As a freshman at the University of Wisconsin Fond du Lac, a branch commuter campus, my English professor was Dr. Michael Pikulef -- "pronounce it 'pickle-ef'" he'd said on the first day of class. 

Mike, as he insisted we call him, was almost the stereotypical liberal college instructor of the early 1970s, but that meshed well with my own philosophy at the time. 

I realized that I was really in college at my first party not long after school started. Besides the usual hippie chicks, pot- and pillheads and artistic poseurs, Mike was at the party.
Partying with the prof! I wasn't a high school kid any longer.

When booze ran low, a collection was taken up and Mike said he'd drive. Heck, he may have been the only one over 21 in attendance. I volunteered to go along. We got into his blue VW microbus and headed to a nearby bowling alley where we bought a case of beer, and to some other place I no longer remember for a gallon jug of cheap sangria.

I was really taken with that VW. You sat way up near the windshield and it had a tall stick shift lever. The bus had a particular engine sound that I can still hear today.

Some day I'd like to have me one of those.

That's why my latest World on Wheels custom card honors the venerable hippie wagon.

It's interesting that Mike Pikulef has almost no internet presence. I've found a couple of 10-year-old mentions of a Michael Pikulef in connection with the Village Playhouse in Wauwatosa, Wis., but that's it. I wonder what became of him?

So, what's the deal with "so"?

Mini-rant.

It's really started to grind my gears when people begin a statement, orally or in writing, with "So, . . ."

When did this become a meme?

This meaningless introduction has become epidemic in some of the internet forums I look in on.

So . . . give it a rest.

While I'm ranting . . . 

I believe the baseball card forums in which I participate would lose half their postings if the word "cool" was banned.

1943 Sunday Cubs concession sales detailed

In the "Bouncing Around With Ed Burns" column in the July 29, 1943, issue of The Sporting News, the Chicago baseball writer provided details of concession sales for a Sunday doubleheader at Wrigley Field between the Cubs and the Cardinals.

The date was June 27, and Burns said the crowd was just over 38,000. According to Wrigley Field concessions manager Ray Kneips, unit sales that day. 

• Red Hots                 35,600
• Peanuts, Bags           5,500
• Popcorn, Bags           3.020
• Soda Pop, Bottles    30,200
• Lemonade, Glasses   5,420
• Ice Cream, Cups      25,700
• Beer, Bottles             32,000
• Scorecards               11,724
• Player Photographs   1,000 

What effect, if any, the fact that the Cubs lost both ends of the doubleheader by one run, dropping them back to last place in the National League, had on concession sales was not speculated upon.

The concessions chief reported that he employed 150 vendors to service the crowd, and went through 22,000 pounds of ice to cool the beer and soda.

As a collector, I wonder if the 1,000 "Player Photographs" sold meant a thousand 25-piece picture packs, or 40 sets of 25? I'm guessing the former. Ballpark picture packs back then sold for 50 cents per set.

Other collectible souvenirs such as pinback buttons, yearbooks and pennants weren't mentioned.

In the Aug. 19 issue of TSN, Burns followed up his original piece with some details about the vendors at Wrigley. He said that while the average vendor made $12 or so on a well-attended Sunday doubleheader, one lemonade seller's commission on the day was $50, which he said was more than the club's vice president made that day.

Burns said the successful lemonade vendor at the ballpark must have "a strong and persuasive voice, a keen eye for detecting an upraised finger, and agility in moving rapidly over the feet of the assembled patrons."

He also noted that the lemonade at Wrigley was real hand-squeezed product, "no synthetics, no bottled stuff." It sold for 20 cents a glass. Other ballpark prices were 15 cents for a hot dog (up from a dime the year before), 25 cents for a bottle of beer and 15 cents for a bottle of soda.

Note was also made of the wartime exigencies at the Wrigley concession stands. Rationing of sugar and beef had led to the suspension of sales of candy, hamburgers and roast beef sandwiches.

Wyatt Earp customs added to TV Westerns

I've just completed a major addition to my recent work on custom cards done in the style of Topps' 1958 TV Westerns bubblegum cards.

Presented here is my quartet of cards based on the long-running (1955-61) series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, starring Hugh O'Brian.

The show was more "legend" than "life," but that's been the case for the past 140 years. I spent a lot of time on the internet researching Wyatt Earp and have come to conclude that much of what we have seen from Hollywood about the frontier lawman has been, shall we say, embellished. Even the first comprehensive biography, 1931's Wyatt Earp Frontier Marshal, by Stuart N. Lake, was largely made up of whole cloth. His fictionalized accounts have been picked up and reworked time and again ever since in movies and films.

The Wyatt Earp TV show drew heavily upon Lake's book. I've chosen to base my cards on the show, rather than strictly historical fact.

Fortunately for my process, there are lots of great color photos of Hugh O'Brian as the title character, so I had no trouble coming up with four cards.

Here they are . . .

While it is not at all pertinent to my TV Westerns Wyatt Earp custom cards, I want to put in a plug for the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership programs.

Inspired by meetings in Africa with Dr. Albert Schweitzer, O'Brian in 1958 founded an organization to inspire youth to take leadership roles locally and thereby positively affect the global future. You can read about it here: www.hoby.org/mission .

I became aware of HOBY when my daughter was a high school sophomore in the mid-1990s and was selected (heck, she may have been the only kid in her school interested) to attand a stateside HOBY conference.

That weekend seminar inspired many of the subsequent educational and career choices that have brought her to where she is today.

For that, I have to thank Hugh O'Brian.

Backstory of '59 Fleer Williams-Ruth card

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. 

One of the most popular and valuable cards in the 1959 Fleer Ted Williams card set is #2, "Ted's Idol -- Babe Ruth".

The image of that card leaped to mind the other day when I was reading microfilm of 1943 issues of The Sporting News.

There was a large photo in that issue of Ted Williams and Babe Ruth shaking hands in front of a dugout.

According to the photo caption and a news brief found elsewhere in that issue, the occasion of the meeting of the two great hitters was something a little more than the back of the Fleer card indicated.

The description on the back of card #2 says, "Williams meets his boyhood idol, 'Babe Ruth' for first time during a special hitting contest in Boston in 1943."

As far as that goes, there was a hitting contest between Williams and Ruth the day that photo was taken, but it was just part of a larger event in which the pair participated.

On July 12, 1943, during the All-Star break, Fenway Park hosted a charity exhibition game to benefit Mayor Maurice Tobin's Field Day Fund. The Mayor's Field Day is a long-time Boston tradition to raise money for the current mayor's pet projects.

The highlight of the day's doings at Fenway was a game between the Boston Braves and the "Service All-Stars" team.

Babe Ruth was the manager of the military all-stars. His squad included a number of Red Sox players then serving in the army and navy, including Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and a future Red Sox star, Walt Dropo.

Prior to the 4:30 p.m. game, there was a home run derby between Williams and Ruth. As the two were introduced in the clubhouse, reporters quoted Ruth as saying, "Hiya, kid. You remind me a lot of myself. I love to hit. You're one of the most natural ballplayers I've ever seen. And if ever my record is broken, I hope you're the one to do it." Years later, recalling the moment, Williams said, "I was flabbergasted. After all, he was Babe Ruth."

Williams hit three into the stands. The 48-year-old Ruth wasn't able to clear the Fenway outfield. He fouled the second offering off his instep and was hobbled for the rest of the contest.

In the game against the Braves, the all-stars won 9-8 on Williams' three-run homer in the seventh inning, said to have been a 425-ft. shot. He also singled in the game.

Ruth coached at first base for the all-stars. In the eighth inning, he acceded to the clamor of the crowd of 12,000 and put himself in as a pinch-hitter. After whiffing on the first two offerings, Ruth connected. According to a contemporary account, he "lofted a sky-scraping fly" out to right field.

The first-ever meeting between Williams and Ruth naturally offered a prime photo op. A number of different poses from the day are commonly found, mostly versions of the traditional "grin and grip" shot.

The picture Fleer used on 1959 card #2 is credited as a Wide World photo, The photo that I saw in the The Sporting News (above) was used in 1993 on a Ted Williams Card Co, card #121.

Connie Mack went to bat for double-murderer

Though he played in seven major
league seasons 1914-22, Crane
appears on few baseball cards. On this
1922 E120 American Caramel issue
he's shown with the Dodgers, for
whom he played only three games.

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.

On Sept. 5, 1944, former major league shortstop Sam Crane had his 18-to-36 year prison sentence for a double homicide commuted by Pennsylvania Governor Edward Martin. At the stroke of midnight on Sept. 25 he was released from the Eastern Pennsylvania Penitentiary at Graterford where he had served 15 years. After 11 unsuccessful appearances before the parole board, he was approved for early release on the 12^th try, just a few days short of his 50^th birthday.

(You’ve probably seen the rotting hulk of Graterford prison on television in recent years. It has been featured several times on “ghost hunter” types of shows, Halloween specials, etc.)

A major factor in Crane’s release was an appeal by his former manager Connie Mack, who promised Crane a job with the Philadelphia Athletics if he made parole.

A couple of years after having ended his professional baseball career, Crane shot and killed a former girlfriend, Della Lyter, and her escort Jack D. Oren, on Aug. 3, 1929, when he found them together in a Harrisburg, Pa., hotel bar.

Crane said he was drunk at the time of the shooting and had taken the pistol from his home with the intention of killing himself. He was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder.

While in prison Crane played shortstop, and later in the outfield, on the institution’s baseball team. During the latter days of his imprisonment, he managed the team. In 1944 his squad won 13 of 15 games (all home games, of course) against semi-pro and service teams from the Philadelphia area.

Crane’s “day job” in the prison was as a clerk in the superintendent’s office. He also drove the prison’s fire truck and maintained a pet squirrel named “Pete.”

In a story by Don Basenfelder in the Sept. 14, 1944, issue of The Sporting News, Crane was quoted as saying upon receiving the news of his successful appeal, “Uppermost in my thoughts at this time is to help everybody who has helped me in this struggle. I’d like to get some new clothes, see my mother in Harrisburg and go fishing.”

Like all state prisoners in that era, Basenfelder reported, upon his release Crane would receive a suit of clothes “manufactured in the prison tailor shop according to his measurements and specifications, and a $10 banknote as the state’s parting gift.”

A retired warden of the prison, Capt. Elmer Leithiser, promised to fulfill Crane’s desire for some fishing, planning to take him out on Lake Wallenpaupack, “an angler’s paradise” near Hawley, Pa. Leithiser was pictured in a photograph accompanying the TSN article shaking hands with Crane.

Crane expressed baseball ambitions other than taking the proffered position with the Athletics. He said he wanted to see a night game and, if possible, the World Series. “I’ve never stopped following baseball while I’ve been in here,” he told the reporter. "I read The Sporting News regularly and listen to reports of the games via radio, which is piped throughout the prison.”

Though he hadn’t heard from Mack in the first few days after his commutation, Crane said he wasn’t worried. “I’ll be happy to take any kind of job that Mr. Mack has for me,” he said.

Mack did offer Crane a job, at $35 a week on the maintenance crew at Shibe Park. He gave his blessing, however, when Crane landed a higher-paying factory job supporting the war effort.

"Red" Crane was born Sept. 13, 1894, in Harrisburg. He was reported playing pro ball as early as 1911  in the Tri-State League, including 1913 at Atlantic City.

Mack acquired Crane late in the 1914 season from Greensboro of the North Carolina League, where the 20-year-old redhead was playing shortstop and third base, hitting .244. Mack chose Crane for the A’s on the basis of a recommendation from his son, Earle Mack, who was manager of Raleigh in the same league.

Crane reported to Philadelphia after they had clinched the American League pennant and was played at shortstop to give a rest to Jack Berry prior to the World Series with the Miracle Braves.

“I wasn’t a wonder with a bat,” Crane admitted to the reporter, “though Mr. Mack and Harry Davis tried hard to teach me how to hit. I guess they gave it up as a bad job, for I was shipped to Richmond in the International League in 1915.” He moved to the Baltimore Orioles in the same league in 1916.

He returned to the American League with the Senators in 1917 (.179 in 32 games), then was farmed out to Minneapolis. Washington loaned Crane to the Cincinnati Reds in 1918, but the Senators’ asking price was too steep and he was returned. He played with Atlanta, Baltimore and Indianapolis in 1918-1919. In 1920 Crane was bought from Indianapolis by the Cincinnati Reds and played there in 1920-21. Crane finished his big league days with a handful of games for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1922, before he was sent to Seattle in the Pacific Coast League, where he also played 1923-25.

After making three errors in a game in June, 1925, Crane packed his gear and left the team, saying he was through with baseball. A month later he was sold to Harrisburg, but refused to report. 

Crane is included in the 1923 and 1925
Zeenut candy card sets of Pacific
Coast League players.

Buffalo purchased Crane in 1926. His final professional engagement was with Reading of the International League in 1927.

Basenfelder closed his article with, “The red has faded from Sam Crane’s hair. It is streaked with silver and gray. His eyes have a look of sadness and tragedy. In a few weeks he’ll be going home—to forget, if he can—the events of the past 15 years.

“And the Grand Old Man of Baseball will have another assist to his credit.”

Iconic London black taxi on new WoW custom

Back in 1990 then-president of Krause Publications Don Nicolay called me into his office. He floored me when he asked me to name my own reward for the continuing success of the sports collectors' periodicals that I was in responsible for as publisher.

In particular, he wanted to acknowledge the success of Baseball Card Price Guide, which had debuted in 1988 and -- virtually unprecedented in the world of specialty magazines -- which had been profitable from the very first issue.

By 1990, the sports division accounted for about half of KP's revenues, grossing around $18 million.

After giving the  matter some thought, I told Nicolay that I would like to take my wife and daughter on a tour of Great Britain. Which we did that summer, spending two weeks in England, Wales and Scotland.

The pubs and castles were a highlight for me. The one thing my wife wanted to do was have a ride in a London black taxi cab. So one morning the doorman at the Kensington Gardens Hotel hailed a cab and we climbed in. Today, 25 years later, I honestly don't remember where we went, but it made me feel good to be able to provide such a simple desire for my spouse.

In the spirit of that encounter, I've now added a card to my World on Wheels customs of a circa 1948 Austin FX3 black cab.

There's really not a lot else that I can say about the new card. So I'll just give you a look.