Something old

Vintage is a pretty small part of my collection. Without spending a massive amount of money, it's pretty tough to build up much of a collection of older baseball cards, especially if condition is important to you. For us younger fans, commons may not be as interesting simply because we haven't heard of most of the featured players. Which, of course, is why Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays cards go for several hundred to several thousands of dollars.

And since I only had two or three dollars a week to spend on cards when I was nine years old, my collection started to fill with 1993 Fleer and 1991 Topps, rather than rare items from 1962.

Anyway, the featured highlights from the thousandth-post contest at Dime Boxes consisted primarily of vintage goodies, significantly increasing my collection of older cards. Let's take a look at what Nick sent my way.

Who better to start with than The Mad Hungarian?

1974 Topps #108 Al Hrabosky

A fairly interesting photo for a 1974 card. With as far as baseball card photography has come since then, can you imagine how interesting cards would be that show him stomping around the mound and his pre-pitch warmup antics?

Here's Harmon Killebrew, the player whom the current MLB logo is allegedly modeled after. This one is in particularly good shape. Nice bat-barrel shot, too.

1972 Topps #51 Harmon Killebrew

There is a general strangeness about some of these cards, what with their empty dugouts and odd pitch release points.

1971 Topps #143 Steve Blass

1973 Topps #235 Jim Hunter

It was a decade of giant things. Giant cars, giant glasses, giant pant legs, giant ties, giant catcher's mitts...

1969 Topps #209 Larry Haney

...giant Afros...

1977 Topps #610 Jose Cardenal

...giant hair in general, come to think of it.

1980 Topps #405 Dwight Evans

But now for something non-giant...

1975 Topps Mini #123 Johnny Briggs

1975 Topps Mini #456 Bob Coluccio

1975 Topps MIIINNIIIIISSS!!!, as Night Owl so lovingly calls them, though with far more repeating letters. Glad to finally have a couple of these in my collection. As influential as Night Owl is, I don't think you're really part of this community until you can show some of these '75 minis off.

And last, a card I actually had a copy of already, surprisingly enough. I guess it's not an acquisition of new baseball cards without some duplicates in the mix. This one of "Spaceman" Bill Lee is available for trade.

1979 Topps #455 Bill Lee

Thanks again to Nick for this great stack of vintage!

Next time, some of the newer stuff.