Things I Like But You Don't

I recently discovered that I’m running out of players to post on my '67 blog, so I am jumping on a recent blogging topic (better late than never)  a) to pontificate, and b) to delay having the card well run dry.


Things I Like That (many of) You Don’t 

1. 1990 Donruss 

2. 1991 Donruss 

3. 1991 Fleer

What’s a vintage-card fan like me doing liking these junk-wax sets? Simply because they are the first sets I collected with my sons. My oldest son was 3 in 1990, and whenever I went to the Wawa or other convenience stores, I always came back with several rack packs. He and I would spend hours lining up all his red '90 Donruss cards on our living room floor.

In 1991 we did it all again, except the cards were blue and yellow, and my younger son joined in too. Oh, we also collected a smaller amount of '90 Fleer and '91 Topps, but they seemed bland when compared to the splash of color in the above sets. (By 1992 they grew tired of baseball cards - preferring GI Joe cards instead.)


4. Sets with cards for every player. Yep, that's what they did back in the 60s and 70s.

5. Checklist cards – It helped that yellow was my favorite color back then. It was a great way to keep track of who you had and who you needed. That the next series' checklist was included in the previous series also gave you a preview of who was to come next.

6. Team cards – Loved those photos super-imposed on bright yellow backgrounds! Plus, you got the rundown of the whole pitching staff on the back (albeit last year's pitchers).

7. Manager cards – They had either tales of these old-timers' playing careers, or funny cartoons on the back.

8. 1970 Topps – No one seems to like the gray borders. I wasn't crazy about them either at first, but there’s a lot of good new photos – a refreshing change from 1969.

9. Multi-player cards. These seemed to peak in the 1967 set.

10. All-Star cards (separate from their base cards).



Things I Don’t Like That (many of) You Do

1. Cards after 1972 (except the first 3 sets mentioned above, and 1981 Topps). 1972 was the last set I chased pack-by-pack as a kid. In recent decades I have collected all the Phillies cards up through 1993 (and again from 2008-2012). I also have factory sets from 1981 and 1987-92, but I have little interest in those cards (and the players shown on them) now. I can’t see myself ever chasing another set from 1973 onward.

The rest of these are pretty much covered by what I just said above, but I’ll continue anyway.

2. Chrome/gold/black/refractors/parallels/relics/blah-blah-blah. It's all just marketing nonsense. (And how do you know your relic actually came from a game-worn jersey? Because the card company said so?)

3. Intentionally omitting half a team's roster, just so they can have multiple cards of stars.

4. Short prints to create scarcity. 

5. Putting non-baseball subjects on baseball cards. 

6. Intentionally including retired players in current sets. I loved Mickey Mantle, but he shouldn't be in a current-player set after 1969.

7. Unlicensed, logo-less cards. Why do they bother?

8. The obsession with inserts. 

9. The obsession over “official” rookie cards. If it's the player's first card, it's his rookie card! For decades, no one needed MLB sanctioning things with their "RC" stamp of approval.

10. Graded cards.

10 Years Already? / Joe Moeller

Today marks the 10th anniversary of this 1967 blog (my first of many). I found Blogger a day earlier when I happened across this post on the 1969 set blog (which was run by someone else at the time). I made a non-anonymous comment there, but didn't actually have a blogger account at that time.

The next day I thought, "Hey, this is something I could really get into!" and signed up. Within a few days I had set up 3 blogs: this one, the 1968 set blog, and a 1960s Baseball blog.  The next month, a 1966 set blog soon followed, and a year later my 1963 and 1970 blogs launched. I was hooked!

I took ownership of the 1969 set blog from the previous owner in January 2012, after it had been idle for a few years.

Yes, it's a lot of blogs, but I have an interest in all the sets (well, not enough in the 1963 set, as you've probably noticed). At the 5-year mark I took a 12 month break, although at the time of my 5-year post, I wasn't sure if I would be returning.

A few months ago I was considering whether to take another break at this 10-year mark, but there's still a few projects I want to complete (1969 Final Cards, the remaining 5 team reviews, the '69 and '70 League Leaders) before I go on hiatus again. I have been slacking off this past summer, so what I thought I could finish by this week hasn't happened.

Although there's 160 unposted players and managers listed in my blog index, I am only planning on blogging around 100 of them. After that, who knows?

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So who's the high-profile player I saved for my 10th anniversary post? (Oops!) Ok, Joe Moeller will have to do.

Joe Moeller was signed by the Dodgers in 1960. He had an 8-year career (1962-71), all with the Dodgers. He was primarily a relief pitcher, except in '62, '64, and '70.

Although he spent most of 1962 and all of 1964 with Los Angeles, he was back in the minors for all of 1963 and 1965. Joe returned to the Dodgers for all of 1966, but continuing the trend, he spent parts of '67 and '68 in the minors. Along the way, the Astros selected him in the Rule 5 draft after 1967 (hence his 1968 "Houston" card) but returned him to the Dodgers the following Spring.

Joe managed to stay with the Dodgers for all of 1969-71, but those were his final big-league days.

He pitched in the minors for the Padres and Phillies in 1972 and 1973, before retiring.


 I also have Joe's 1968 card:

and this "variation" that was the first post on my 1968 blog.

Johnny Edwards (#202)

Here is my 220th post on this blog - 5 years to the day after my first post. I first stumbled upon the Google blogging community a day earlier, when I found and commented on this post on the 1969 Topps blog, which was formerly owned by Pack Addict (now known as SociallyAwkwardJellyFish). 

I began this 1967 blog on 9/25/2009 with two posts. Three days later I published FIVE posts! Within that first week I also started the 1960s Baseball and 1968 Topps blogs, and a few weeks later, the 1966 Topps blog. The 1970 and 1963 Topps blogs came along about a year after that. In January 2012 I took over the 1969 Topps blog (from Pack Addict), which had been idle for almost 2 years. 

Along the way, I have learned something about a lot of these players (especially the pre-1967 players, which was before my card-collecting time as a kid), and also “met” a lot of interesting bloggers, starting with Jim @ The Phillies Room, Paul @ Wrigley Wax, Steve @ White Sox Cards, CommishBob @ 1959 Topps, and Matt @ 1976, 77, 78 Topps, to name but a few. 

Anyway, it’s been a great 5-year ride. 

Johnny Edwards had the distinction of keeping the Reds’ catching gear warm for another Johnny (Bench) from 1962 thru Bench’s debut in September 1967. Edwards had a 14-year major-league career: 7 seasons with the Reds, 1 with the Cardinals, and 6 with the Astros.

Edwards was signed by the Reds in 1959, and after 2 1/2 seasons as a starting catcher in the minors, he was promoted to the Reds in late-June 1961, and shared the staring assignments with incumbent Jerry Zimmerman (who was also in his rookie season). Johnny hit .364 with 2 doubles in the 1961 World Series.

Zimmerman was traded to the Twins after the season, paving the way for Johnny to become the full-time catcher in 1962. He started 124 games in ’62, his first of 6 consecutive seasons as the Reds’ #1 catcher. Edwards made the all-star team every season from 1963-65, and won 2 Gold Gloves during that span. The high point in playing time was his 141 starts in 1963, after which he shared the catching load with Don Pavletich (his minor-league teammate in 1961).

Always a top defensive catcher, Johnny put up good offensive numbers until breaking a finger during spring training 1966. Edwards started 84 games that season, with Pavletich starting 46 and Jimmie Coker 30. 1967 was Edwards’ last in Cincinnati. He and Pavletich both started 57 games, but Johnny Bench was called up in late August and started 26 of the final 32 games. The Bench Era had started.

Edwards was traded to the Cardinals after the 1967 season for backup catcher Pat Corrales and minor-league infielder (and future manager) Jimy Williams. After one season backing up Tim McCarver (and appearing in the 1968 World Series), Edwards was traded to the Astros (who had lost both their incumbent catchers (John Bateman and Ron Brand) to the Expos in the expansion draft) for pitcher Dave Giusti and catcher Dave Adlesh.

Johnny spent the next 4 seasons (1969-72) as the Astros’ #1 catcher. By 1972, ex-Reds teammates Lee May and Tommy Helms joined Edwards in Houston, via the Joe Morgan deal.

Edwards began the 1973 season as the #1 catcher, but by mid-June had given way to 2nd-year catcher Skip Jutze, who played the majority of games in the 2nd half. 1974 was Johnny’s final season, and he was relegated to the bench, in favor of ex-Pirates’ backstop Milt May.

One of the SABR gurus has rated Edwards as the 2nd-best defensive catcher in baseball history.

This is where it all began

This is where the card-collecting bug bit my friends, my brother, and me back in the 1960s. A Mom & Pop corner store in Collingdale, PA named Harry's Market. (When the pop-up balloon appears, click "Street View". It's the brick building on the right.)

[March 2013 edit: I fixed the above "Harry's Market" link. This store is now possibly a pre-school.]

This store had been a hairdresser for the past few decades, but back in the day (1967-72), the grassy area in front of the current store was all concrete. We would sit there with our backs to the wall and open our packs of cards... not wanting to wait the 3 minutes it would take us to walk home!

Our "backup store" (Walt's, now called "Steak 'Em Up"), and the store where I bought my 1967 football cards (Joe's) were one block down the side street on the right of the photo.

Also at that far intersection was a drugstore (Perry's, now closed), where in the late 60s/early 70s I would go buy The Sporting News, and sit at the counter drinking fountain sodas while poring over all the stats! (This must have started in 1968, because I can remember one of the first issues I bought was when Jax was tearing up the home run race early in his rookie season, before cooling off.)
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My Want List (as of 12/21/2024)

1965 Topps Baseball:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 22, 25, 32, 33, 34, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 53, 54, 55, 58, 60, 61, 62, 68, 70, 71, 73, 74, 76, 77, 78, 81, 82, 83, 88, 89, 90, 94, 95, 97, 99, 100, 103, 108, 110, 111, 113, 114, 118, 119, 120, 125, 126, 130, 132, 133, 134, 135, 137, 138, 139, 140, 142, 143, 144, 145, 150, 151, 152, 153, 155, 157, 160, 165, 166, 167, 170, 172, 173, 175, 176, 178, 180, 181, 182, 185, 188, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 197, 199, 201, 207, 209, 210, 212, 213, 214, 215, 218, 220, 221, 222, 223, 227, 228, 229, 230, 232, 236, 237, 238, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 250, 251, 252, 254, 258, 259, 260, 264, 265, 266, 267, 270, 271, 272, 275, 276, 277, 279, 285, 286, 290, 293, 294, 295, 300, 302, 303, 305, 306, 308, 312, 315, 318, 319, 320, 321, 325, 326, 330, 331, 332, 333, 334, 335, 336, 337, 340, 341, 343, 346, 347, 348, 350, 351, 354, 358, 359, 360, 362, 364, 365, 366, 368, 371, 374, 375, 377, 378, 379, 380, 381, 382, 385, 386, 388, 389, 390, 392, 396, 397, 398, 400, 403, 405, 408, 410, 411, 412, 415, 416, 420, 423, 424, 426, 431, 432, 435, 438, 439, 445, 447, 450, 452, 453, 456, 458, 461, 465, 468, 469, 470, 472, 473, 475, 477, 478, 479, 480, 481, 484, 486, 487, 490, 492, 493, 495, 497, 500, 501, 502, 503, 504, 506, 509, 510, 512, 513, 515, 516, 519, 520, 522, 523, 524, 525, 526, 527, 528, 529, 530, 531, 532, 533, 535, 536, 537, 538, 540, 543, 545, 546, 547, 548, 549, 550, 553, 554, 556, 557, 558, 559, 560, 561, 563, 565, 566, 568, 569, 570, 571, 572, 573, 574, 576, 581, 582, 585, 586, 587, 588, 589, 590, 591, 593, 594, 596, 597, 598.

1966 Topps Baseball:
50 - Mickey Mantle
110 - Ernie Banks
300 - Roberto Clemente
450 - Tony Oliva
500 - Hank Aaron
Also high numbers: 524, 525, 526, 528, 532-542, 544-548, 550, 552-559, 561-567, 569, 570, 572-577, 579, 580, 582, 583, 584, 586, 588-590, 592, 593, 594, 596, 597, 598.

1967 Topps Baseball:
569 - AL Rookies (Rod Carew)
581 - Mets Rookies (Tom Seaver)

1969 Topps Deckle-edge Inserts:
11b - Jim Wynn
22b - Joe Foy

1970 Topps Baseball:
189 - Yankees Rookies (Munson)
580 - Pete Rose
600 - Willie Mays
Also high numbers:
640 - Al Kaline
660 - Johnny Bench
712 - Nolan Ryan

1966 Philly Gum (NFL) Football:
24 - Johnny Unitas
31 - Dick Butkus
38 - Gale Sayers
41 - Jim Brown
59 - Chuck Howley
61 - Don Meredith
Team cards: 14, 26, 27, 39, 40, 52, 53, 66, 79, 91, 92, 104, 105, 117, 118, 130, 144, 156, 157, 160, 169, 170, 182, 183, 195.

1967 Topps (AFL) Football:
98 - Joe Namath

1968 Topps Football:
100 - Johnny Unitas
196 - Bob Griese

1969 Topps Football (181 cards):
2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 31, 32, 33, 35, 37, 38, 39, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 58, 61, 62, 65, 66, 67, 69, 70, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 84, 92, 93, 95, 96, 99, 102, 103, 104, 106, 109, 110, 111, 113, 114, 115, 116, 120, 121, 124, 128, 129, 131, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 146, 147, 148, 150, 151, 152, 153, 155, 156, 157, 158, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 177, 178, 179, 180, 183, 185, 186, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 200, 201, 202, 203, 205, 207, 209, 211, 212, 213, 215, 216, 217, 218, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 254, 255, 256, 257, 259, 260, 262, 263. 

For the following years, these are Topps baseball cards that I HAVE:

1955
130

1956
220, 296.

1957
214, 397.

1958
145 (reprint), 161, 171, 264, 328.

1959
85, 129, 175, 178, 208, 382, 398, 412, 436, 452, 472, 503.

1960
13, 52, 64, 79, 82, 97, 103, 125, 127, 130, 138, 167, 185, 194, 211, 226, 233, 251, 264, 285, 293, 308, 319, 331, 345, 347, 355, 366, 384, 416, 438, 447, 451, 472.

1961
3, 20, 59, 65, 78, 93, 103, 105, 111, 144, 154, 179, 190, 202, 219, 222, 234, 262, 281, 299, 316, 341, 353, 359, 377, 394, 411, 433, 468, 479, 502, 522.

1962
17, 46, 76, 77, 104, 111, 116, 146, 157, 181, 212, 220, 249, 269, 284, 294, 303, 328, 352, 359, 374, 385, 434, 453, 494, 581.

1963
8, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 26, 29, 31, 32, 33, 42, 44, 46, 48, 55, 56, 58, 69, 71, 81, 82, 84, 86, 87, 88, 91, 94, 95, 96, 98, 99, 100, 103, 118, 125, 132, 139, 149, 157, 160, 161, 175, 177, 187, 190, 191, 192, 221, 231, 241, 268, 283, 305, 318, 341, 348, 365, 366, 370, 385, 404, 434, 551.

1964
16, 21, 26, 33, 43, 45, 58, 83, 104, 121, 129, 135, 153, 157, 168, 173, 187, 191, 194, 207, 208, 212, 222, 231, 238, 243, 244, 248, 251, 254, 265, 278, 279, 285, 293, 298, 302, 310, 319, 321, 345, 347, 355, 365, 379, 389, 396, 412, 432, 448, 451, 462, 464, 479, 482, 493, 513, 520, 533, 561, 585.

1964 Giant
1 - Gary Peters
2 - Ken Johnson
5 - Rocky Colavito
6 - Ron Hunt
13 - Nellie Fox
15 - Jim Gentile
16 - Dean Chance
17 - Dick Ellsworth
19 - Dick Groat
22 - Turk Farrell
24 - Frank Howard
31 - Warren Spahn
33 - Pete Ward
36 - Johnny Callison
39 - Luis Aparicio
43 - Tommy Davis
44 - Tony Oliva
54 - Leon Wagner

1972 Topps Football
Series 1 and 2: all
Series 3: 286, 314.

It's 2010 ...Time for a census!

It's the start of a new year, so I thought I would survey my collection of vintage cards (click to enlarge):


The yellow areas are my "wheelhouse". My 1st period of collecting began in May 1967 and stopped after the 1972 football season. I got the low-numbered '67, '68, and '69 cards, and all of the '72 cards in the year issued.

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The release of the 1979 and 1980 Burger King Phillies sets, coupled with the Phillies winning the 1980 World Series, got me started in the hobby again. I decided to limit my collecting to:

A) Completing my '67, '68, and '69 sets

B) Collecting the Phillies cards from all years

C) Buy 1981 factory sets

How did I do?

A. The '67, '68, and '69 high numbers were acquired mostly in the early 1980s. I now have them all except 4 cards from the 1967 set.

B. During the 1980s and early 1990s, I collected Phillies cards from 1964 (an arbitrary starting date, based mostly on economics) up through 1993. This included:

1. All Topps from 1964 to 1993 (except the Mike Schmidt rookie).
2. All Fleer from 1981 to 1992.
3. All Donruss from 1982 to 1992.
4. Most Upper Deck and Score from '90 to '92, and all Bowman from '90 and '91.

C. In 1981, I got the Topps and Fleer factory sets, and the Topps Traded set. In the early 1990s, I also went factory-set crazy, and have all the factory and update sets for Topps, Fleer, and Donruss from 1988 to 1992, and the 1992 Score set.

After 1993, I stopped collecting again until the fall of 2008.

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With the Phillies winning the World Series in 2008, I got back into card collecting. Interests since late 2008 include:

1. Recent Phillies cards (Topps base set, some Topps Heritage and Upper Deck). I have most from 2004 to 2010.

2. Phillies cards from 1963 back to the early 1950s. I currently have all the 1960 to 1963 Phillies except the high numbers, and a few from earlier years. I also have some Phillies from the early 1960s' Post and Fleer sets.

3. Started collecting the non-Phillie 1964 to 1966 Topps cards. I'm currently focusing on adding to my 1966 set.

4. In early 2010, I began adding to my collection of 1970 baseball cards, and now have most of the 720 cards.

Sometime in the last 20 years, my 1969 cards of Willie Mays, Johnny Bench, and Rod Carew went missing. I have recently replaced these.

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Oh, I forgot to mention football cards:

I'm modernizing, thanks to Wrigley Wax!

After reading about Wrigley Wax's new and improved headquarters, I decided that I needed to get off the dime.

In the last few days, I got all my binders and set boxes out of the Hammermill boxes they've been hiding in for years, and put them on a recently freed-up bookcase. (The binders don't all match, but it's a start!) It's much easier to hunt down some cards to scan when they're not in boxes.

While I was at it, I counted my cards. (I knew what I had, I just didn't have any idea how much it was. Well, I have over 17,500 baseball cards! This counting task wasn't as tedious as it sounds, because a lot of those cards are in complete sets. I just looked up the set sizes, subtracted what I know are missing, and counted the loose cards from the incomplete years.

Completed sets are '68, '69, and '72 Topps, while my '67 Topps set is complete except for 4 cards. I'm also a few hundred cards into the '65, '66, and '70 Topps sets, and have a few dozen cards from '64, '71, and '73. All of the above are in binders.

I also have 6 binders of Phillies cards covering the 1952-1993, and 2004-2009 years.


Later, I went through a factory set phase:
'81 Topps and Fleer
'88 Topps
'90 Fleer and Bowman
'91 Topps, Fleer, Donruss, and Bowman
'92 Topps, Fleer, and Donruss
Topps Traded: '81, '87, '89, '90, '91
Fleer Update: '90, '91
Donruss Rookies: '89, '90, '91

...and these sets are near completion (bought by the pack):
'89 Topps, '89 Donruss,

... and finally completed in March 2010:
'90 Donruss, '92 Score

No non-Phillies cards after 1981 are in binders yet, so I have a lot of organizing ahead of me, just to see what I have.

Welcome to my blog!

The 1967 Topps cards were my starting point for baseball card collecting (back in the day). In my opinion, this is the best looking series issued by Topps. I have long been intrigued by various quirks within the set. I'll begin with some of these, and who knows, maybe someday I'll have all 609 cards posted here!