I love the old Phil Athletics logo. Gave out some '54 A's cards as white elephant gifts this year!

I am now missing only 1 card from completing the 1964 Topps Set.

Tony Oliva is kind of a forgotten man.

8 All Star Appearances, 3 AL Batting Titles, and he finished 2nd in the MVP voting twice. Too bad he didn't get a chance to play much until he was 25........he batted over .400 in limited games at the ages of 23 and 24.

--

So very close to making the HOF a couple days ago. A great player either way.

That 1958 Yellow Letter Aaron is a beauty.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/285115931.html

Oliva was just 1 vote away. Jim Kaat was just 2 votes away.

Peter, I am coming to associate you with absolutely incredible cards. Great job!

Branched out a little bit this month:

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFg5Nj...UhLb7/$_57.JPG

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTI1N1g4OT...cL!~~60_57.JPG

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTQ5M1g4Mj...Ub2Ib/$_57.JPG

Klein's dominance was a result of playing his home games at the Baker Bowl. Klein was a left handed pull hitter, and the Baker Bowl had dimensions that are dwarfed by high school parks now. The right field wall was 280 feet, and right center field was only 300 feet.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...wl_aerial1.JPG
The Baker Bowl, Philadelphia. A left handed hitter's paradise.

In 1930, his home and away splits are probably the least severe of all his "great" seasons. He saw a drop in 1931, but in 1932, his numbers jumped back up. And the difference between his home and away performance is like night and day.

1930 splits
http://imageshack.com/a/img537/7397/JbWqIb.png

1932 splits
http://imageshack.com/a/img540/241/JkCQTA.png

In 1930, he hit 26 of his 40 home runs at home. His home OPS was 1.278. Away from the Baker Bowl, it was .969. His season would have still been great if you eliminate the Baker Bowl games, and average all the away games over the course of the season-He'd have hit .332 with 54 doubles, 28 home runs and 122 RBI, or slightly better, because at any other home stadium, he;d have recognized some sort of boost. Still an exceptional season.

But look at 1932. After a great 1930 season, his "great" 1932 season is completely the result of his home stadium. At home, he hit .423 with 29 home runs and 97 RBI in 77 games. A .464 OBP, .799 SLG and a 1.263 OPS is mind blowing.

But he's not even an all star away from home. Away from the Baker Bowl, he hit .266 with 9 home runs and 40 RBI. His OBP away from home is 124 points lower. His SLG is 318 points lower. And his OPS drops from a 1.263 to an .821. I don't know of anybody, even playing at Coors Field, who has a 442 point discrepancy between home and road OPS metrics.

He was a .395 hitter career at the Baker Bowl (931 for 2354). Everywhere else, he was a .277 career hitter (1,145 for 4,132). He hit 164 home runs there in 2,354 at bats. He hit 136 in 4,132 at bats everywhere else. His home home run rate was 14.35. One home run every 14.35 at bats. Away from home, his home run rate was 30.4. He hit a home run every 30.4 at bats. He hit home runs in a stadium measuring 300 feet at right center field more than twice as often. Shocking, I know.

In 1934, at age 29, still in his early prime, his numbers plummeted when he went to the Cubs. In 1933, he hit .368 playing for Philadelphia. The next season, as a Cub, he hit .301. His OPS dropped from 1.025 to .882.

The bottom line? The Baker Bowl made Chuck Klein a Hall of Famer.

Nice, Chris! Pistol Pete, and the Great One. I, too, will be doing some of that. I want to add Wayne's rookie, as well as Lemieux, Bobby Orr, Bobby Hull, Rocket Richard, etc. I wan to add Wilt, Magic and Bird, MJ, the great hoopsters.

But baseball and football will dominate my collection, with baseball clearly at the top of the mountain.

Just two more adds this week. Nothing special, but a baby step closer to the finish line.

http://imageshack.com/a/img538/1420/JjfYWb.pnghttp://imageshack.com/a/img537/5066/of4ojq.png

The Robinson I thought might be trimmed. Don't ask me why, I mean, who trims a 1975 Frank Robinson? It's a shade light left to right (about 2 pixels of 250). But it's about 3 pixels too deep top to bottom. And no signs of trimming.

It will do until I get a PSA graded. I love the centering, so it's a good temporary.

[QUOTE=the 'stache;1353591]Nice, Chris! Pistol Pete, and the Great One. I, too, will be doing some of that. I want to add Wayne's rookie, as well as Lemieux, Bobby Orr, Bobby Hull, Rocket Richard, etc. I wan to add Wilt, Magic and Bird, MJ, the great hoopsters.

But baseball and football will dominate my collection, with baseball clearly at the top of the mountain.[QUOTE]

Thanks! I am a huge baseball fan, but I thought it would be nice to go for a four sport theme to my collection. I picked up some game used items from every major sports, and I figured I'd try to get at least one iconic rookie from each as well. Now I just need to find an affordable Namath to round things out.

Love the set you are working on. Gorgeous cards.

one more for the rookie collection
 

Nice pickups everyone....haven't been getting too much worth posting lately, but pretty happy with this one...the scratches are on the case, not the card itself....

My first graded pickup for my 1959 set, hoping for all HOF'ers in PSA 6 or above
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y7/...ps52c14cd8.jpg

Way to rain on my Chuck Klein parade, Bill! :)

Perhaps the most extreme home-field advantage for home run hitters would go to the "murderers' row" of the 1884 Chicago Cubs, playing in Lakeshore Park, where the right field fence was less than 200 feet from home plate. Here were their unprecedented home run totals that season.

• Ned Williamson, 27
• Fred Pfeffer, 25
• Abner Dalrymple, 22
• Cap Anson, 21

The teammates were not only the top 4 home run hitters in the major leagues that year, but they also were the top 4 home run seasons of all time to that point. In the case of Williamson, his record would not be broken for 35 years and by no less than Babe Ruth! It would be like having Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and two Mark McGwires all on the same time, but these dudes didn't even juice!

In the case of Williamson, only 2 of his 27 homers came on the road. I'm not sure about the other players.

Some fun pick ups from the Hofstra show this afternoon. Haven't scanned yet so pics for now.

http://i1258.photobucket.com/albums/...psd3418146.jpg

http://i1258.photobucket.com/albums/...ps20a7d3d6.jpg

http://i1258.photobucket.com/albums/...ps195a21fa.jpg

I have been wanting this card for over 30 years, by far my favorite Willie Mays card. Picked it up from a board member.

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...ps3da3d4a6.jpg

GregC and Brewing some nice pickups. I have all of those cards on my want list and will add them at some point. Congrats!!

With this pickup, I am now down to a mere 5 cards for my 1933-1969 "Top 50" Big Board. That's the good news. The bad news is that three of them are Ruth, Gehrig, and DiMaggio!!

Attachment 171075 Attachment 171076

Wow, that would be my favorite Mays card too if I had it!! What a great, great card. Really, I don't even know what Mays card would be a distant second.

Great cards, guys! Keep 'em comin'!

Jason,
I would love to hear what and who this list entails. Lists
Ike this intrigue me very much.
Drew

My post about my Top 50 Big Board is here...

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=196758

!957 Bucs
 

http://imagehost.vendio.com/a/204295...IRATES_NEW.JPG


....adding to my 1957 Topps Pittsburgh Pirates

...the Dick Cole and the Team Card have the subgrades and serial number on the back just like the big "B" flips ; Beckett tried several versions of layouts for the new "BVG" flips and eventually stopped putting subgrades on vintage completely and that's when a lot of us stopped submitting to them. Us centering weenies just love seeing that " Centering 9" up there.

(4) More 1956's to go into that set. Up to 315/340 there. Have most of the big guys. Very excited to get these from Brian Horne on the BST. His cards are consistently better looking than the grade. Old school stock recently graded. Great, Great guy to deal with as well..............I'm not a paid spokesman, but whenever you have the chance to pick some up from him, do so! He also has great lots of cards that I've used to start 2-3 sets I'm working on. Thanks Brian!

http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-U3.../s800/1956.jpg

You have a good eye on those cards Tom, they look much better than the grade. Nice pick ups!!!!

Great looking 56s Tom! The 56 Clemente is one of my favorite looking cards I need/want to acquire.

I already showed this on the pre-war Sy Berger thread; BIN'd this on eBay last week:

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps51cf5991.jpg

1964 Topps Brooks Robinson..............upgrade for my set. This auction closed last night but should have it before the New Year. Could have bought a perfectly centered PSA 8 for $75 but opted for this one at $47.
Still only missing #505 Stan Williams to complete the set.

An early Christmas gift to myself

You can never go wrong with a Reggie Rookie for Christmas. Congrats.

Not high grade at all but got them for a good price and was happy to add them to my HOF collection.

http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4rnhiccd.jpg

Another upgrade for my 1964 Topps Set. I already have a PSA 7 Frank Robinson but has centering issues. This specimen is well centered.

A very nice looking 64 Frank Robinson. Congrats on that upgrade. Looks great for the grade.

Great Frank Robinson card. Always been one of my favorite cards of his.

Wanted to close out the year strong. When I parted ways with my last Hank, I was kind of bummed as it took me a while to find one that had great centering, with the white borders of as even thickness as I could find. Then Xmas came a few days early!

http://www.collectorfocus.com/images...pps-hank-aaron

Nice Aaron with near perfect centering.

My gift to myself - Merry Christmas to me! Happy to add this one.

http://rsdill2.synthasite.com/resour..._1070_med.jpeg

Gorgeous Rose RC !

Better eye appeal than 99% of 6's.

Something from the Secret Santa Net54 Exchange:
57 Rocky Colavito RC
[IMG]http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...ps27485b47.jpg[/IMG]

I like the Colavito Chris.

Love the Rose and Aaron rookies. Hard to beat the centering on the 54 Aaron. Nice pickups.

Received the complete set of 1971 Topps scratch offs and an August 10, 1958 Dodgers ticket stub.

Great cards, guys! Diggin the Aaron and Rose RCs!

This was an unexpected surprise gift from a fellow board member and friend, seablaster. I have a few copies of this card, but none were signed. Thanks again, K!

http://photos.imageevent.com/ltsgall...ird%20AUTO.jpg

It is such a shame Mark's life was cut so short. He was great for the game of baseball....

I'm happy to add these to my collection.

Picked up a few more greet tints for my '62 Topps set.

BTW - love that Fidrych autograph card, easily my favorite from the '77 set. I was 9 and moved to the Detroit suburbs from Chicago that summer. The Bird was everywhere!

http://www.collectorfocus.com/images...24214/throwing

Raw purchase - this one is huge for my collection, as it was the last tough card I needed for the 1947 Bond Bread Jackie Robinson set. Major props to Greg and Jason for helping me secure this one!

To give an idea as to how tough this set is... there are only 3 known complete sets, 2 of which were put together by Donald Spence (who sold one to Thomas Tull).

Congratulations Shaun! That is quite an accomplishment!!!!!

Only need 4 more to finish this set.

Shaun - Outstanding pick up on such a tough set!

Steve - Nice looking Giants! If I remember right the Mays and Koufax are short prints. Who are the last 4 you need?

Shaun a big time congrats on the Bond Bread Jackie Robinson. You are in rare air with that pickup.

Steve nice pickups with Topps Giants. How long have you been putting this set together?

Here is my one and only December pickup. Tried to go an entire month without a purchase but saw this nicely centered beauty and could not resist.