CLOSED...1961 Topps $15 Auction...Day 36

[Promethius88]

Can we skip to the day you start adding some high numbers?

[HercDriver]

Patience my young Jedi. This auction is all about the journey...

[HercDriver]

A couple more heads today, and the odd man out in the 1957 All-Star Ballot Stuffiing Debacle. A lot of you know that the Reds basically stole the 1957 all-star lineup, with preprinted ballots that fans just put into the box. They were printed by the Cincy paper, so it was easy enough to drop it in the box when you got to the park, no pencil required. So sure enough, of the eight position players on the NL starting roster, seven were Reds. Ford Frick intervened and put Mays and Aaron into the lineup, to go along with Stan Musial. Musial actually won, making him the only non-Red to be voted in. The Reds first baseman he beat out, even with ballot shenanigans, you ask? The fella you see there, George Crowe, who by the time this card appeared, was backing up Musial in St Louis. Crowe, by the way, retired with the most pinch hit homers in history, which is a record now owned by Matt Stairs.

Take Care,
Geno

[HercDriver]

A couple new additions today. Not MVP candidates by any means, but in decent shape, at least. Probably what a lot of our wives think about us, actually. It’s hard to come up with a lot to say about Russ Nixon and Earl Francis, but the Nixon card just makes me remember when I went back in time to collect all these sets, way back when. My first Topps year as a seven year old, was 1974. Those cards were awesome! No gaudy border...that would come next year. Lots of action shots, with guys sliding into catchers or shortstops. There were even cards where I didn’t know which guy in the photo was the subject of the card! And very few “heads.” Just a great set. So eventually, I got older, and couldn’t deal with the 1981 Dave Lopes Fleer “hand” variation, or the Fernando Valenzuela rookie craze. I sort of got over that in 1979 with Bump Wills. So I went back in time, and found some great sets, like the 1967 set, and the cool colors and horizontalness of 1960. But I just hated cards like that Nixon card. Can you really tell it’s a baseball player, or am I just collecting pictures of random men? Too weird. That’s what no competition gets you...head shots, no caps. Or basketball cards with jerseys on backwards...why, for goodness sake? Can’t we have Earl Francis brushing back Russ Nixon on a card, instead of pitching off of the carpet in my den, with a Quonset hut in the background? No kid was fooled by that stuff in the seventies, I can assure you. If that showed up in 1974, I would have stuck to Hostess and Kellogg’s cards. Anyway, I present Russ Nixon and Earl Francis. I guess I’m not much of a salesman...

[HercDriver]

Here's a few more to add to the kitty! As I was looking at the exploits of these three players, I noticed that Russ Kemmerer was traded from Boston to the Senators, in 1957, for Dean Stone. The Senators then traded Kemmerer to Houston in 1962...for Dean Stone. Hmmm...that can't be the only time that happened, so I poked around a bit. Believe it or not, two players have actually been traded for each other twice, in the same season. In Feb 1968, the White Sox and Senators traded Ron Hansen for Tim Cullen, then in August, traded them back again. But wait...it gets better. In 1982, two players were traded for each other in eleven days, although a bit more convoluted. It went like this:

June 15, 1982:
Philadelphia Phillies trade Dick Davis to Toronto Blue Jays for Wayne Nordhagen
Philadelphia Phillies trade Wayne Nordhagen to Pittsburgh Pirates for Bill Robinson.

June 22, 1982:
Toronto Blue Jays trade Dick Davis to Pittsburgh Pirates for PTBNL.

June 25, 1982:
Pittsburgh Pirates send Wayne Nordhagen to Toronto Blue Jays to complete the June 22 deal for Dick Davis. So not only did Nordhagen get traded for Davis twice, he also went to three new teams in eleven days, with the third one being his original team.

And of course, there is the all-time best trade, when Harry Chiti was traded for a PTBNL, then later, he became the PTBNL...thus being traded for himself. And just because the day would not be complete without knowing this fact...three other players since then have been traded for themselves. So there.

Take Care,
Geno

[HercDriver]

We'll add five cards today, including the only one-armed pitcher in baseball that year, Bill Henry. And Jim Kaat, who pitched through the administrations of Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan. And Ron Pinche, who has just smelled somebody's lunch escaping them. And Jim Wood, who might actually be on the stadium construction crew.

[HercDriver]

As an airline pilot, I see a lot of airports. Most are named after the city they serve, but not all, of course. Some are named after politicians, like Reagan in DC, LaGuardia and JFK in NYC, and Logan in Boston. Some are named after military heroes, like O'Hare in Chicago, and Joe Foss Field in Sioux Falls. There's musicians, like John Lennon Airport in Liverpool, and my own Denver International, named for John Denver (just seeing if you're paying attention). There's even fictional characters, like Robin Hood Airport in Doncaster (since renamed, unfortunately).

But there is only one airport I know of, named for a baseball player. Just one. Not Roberto Clemente, which would be my first guess. Not Ted Williams, who was a military pilot. Just one, named after the first MLBer from the Dominican Republic. That airport is Osvaldo Virgil National Airport in the DR. So today, I give you Ozzie himself! I bet you can win a beer with that bit of knowledge...