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

[HercDriver]

Ricky...thanks for the thumbs up! I had done one like this a long time ago, and after enjoying Frank's auctions for so long, I thought it was time to try it again! I told somebody else, it makes it fun to take the cards out of the binder and actually look at them again. I sold/traded a couple of the big cards, so this is a great way to go through the commons and get a little cash for my Sovereign collection. Anyway, tomorrow might be the last installment until the Super Bowl, since I'll be out and about, nowhere near my cards for a bit. Cheers!

[HercDriver]

Today I'm adding two pretty solid players, Johnny Podres and Vada Pinson. A few people used to pull for Pinson to get in the HOF, but it never happened. Podres did get in, sort of. He, of course, shut out the Yankees in Game 7 of the 1955 World Series, thus ending the drought in Brooklyn in their fight for supremacy over the Bronx. If you haven't been to the HOF, there is a statue to commemorate that event, or two statues, I guess. I borrowed this photo of somebody's travel blog, so you can see it. It's Podres pitching to Campanella, so Johnny did get in:



When the Dodgers went west, Podres pitched the first night game in the LA Coliseum, and also threw the first shutout. The fact that he recorded the first shutout is actually pretty amazing, considering not just his competition in Koufax and Drysdale, but mostly because he was a lefty, facing right handers. If you don't appreciate that fact, look at this picture of the Coliseum:



I'm pretty sure there's people on this forum that could homer to left field there...it's only 250 feet! So good on ya, Johnny, for mowing down the Reds that day!