A Couple Johnny Vander Meer Autos

Back-to-back No-Hitters. Come on. How great is that? No-hit the Boston Bees then no-hit the Brooklyn Dodgers four days later in Ebbets Field's first ever night game. Stuck it to em, baby.

 

 

Also of note is that he only gave up 1 run in each of his three previous starts, including a 10-inning CG, and 1 run in his next start. So that's a 6 game span with 55 IP, 4 ER, 17 hits allowed. I'll check the math, but that's pretty good. Am I going to talk about him having 8 walks in his second no-hitter? Of course not.

 

He started the All Star game that year (1938), pitching 3 scoreless innings. Made three more All Star games. Also got a World Series ring with the Reds in 1940. Also elected to the Reds Hall of Fame with his 25 career WAR over 11 Reds seasons. 

 

Dude loved baseball so much, he played five minor league seasons after his 13 year big league career, including another no-hitter with the Reds' AA Tulsa Oilers at age 37. 

Hell of a career. Signed are a 1992 Conlon #368 and a 1988 Pacific Legends #30.

Go Redlegs. 

Ohio State Alumni - Baseball

Relatively new project of mine - one card of everyone from my alma mater,  THE  Ohio State University, who went pro. Since we get about 75 football players drafted each year, we will save that mammoth for another hunt. Let's check the progress on baseball.

 

 

Frank Howard is certainly our most successful alum. The Capital Punisher was an All-American in baseball AND basketball. Then mashed 382 dongers in the MLB. Nick Swisher, Dave Burba, Johnny Edwards, and Barry Bonnell are the only others with more than 1 WAR, so maybe Columbus, Ohio isn't a hotbed of baseball talent. Another note: Vic Janowicz was the 1950's Deion Sanders, playing in both the NFL and MLB.

Current Buckeyes in the bigs are Dillon Dingler, Dominic Canzone, Jack Neely, Ryan Feltner, and Zack Dezenzo. Not sure any of these dudes are about to become superstars, but I wouldn't mind being proven wrong.

 

I'd like solo cards of Russ Nagelson and Tanner Tully. Nagleson only has a 70 Topps SP, and a 70 OPC SP. If I ever get one of these, it'd go in the 1970 binder first. He also has some 2017 Leaf cut auto or something. I don't count that. Tanner Tully's entire cardboard history is 7 minor league issues and 34 parallels of this Topps card alongside McCarty. Bring back Topps Total! 

 

These are the rest of the 36 alumni cards in the collection. A real motley crew. As of 2025, there have been 72 Buckeyes to play an MLB game. Halfway home. 100% will be surely impossible. Of the 36 I'm missing, 27 were prior to 1950, including Jud Smith and Effie Norton in the 1800s. Players still needed and realistic: Drew Rucinski, Galen Cisco, Harold Daugherty, Jim Geddes, Mark Dempsey, Matt Angle, Moe Savransky, Rick Renick (1970 Topps en route), and Tom Simpson. Post-1950 is a realistic goal.

 

Go Bucks.

 

Go Redlegs.
 

Junk Wax Piles

More TCDB trade lovin'. If the card is from 1995 or earlier, then I WANT IT. 2022 gaga prism wave mojo triple-x fractor? BROKE. 1991 Sausagefractor? WOKE.

 

 

1980-something Topps send-ins, 1990 Bowman Sweepstakes, 1991 SAUSAGE FEST.

 

Stickers and puzzle pieces and holograms from various 90's sets. Easy enough to trade for these. Kudos to Pinnacle for not hiding "Sample" on the back of that Ripken. 

 

90's card graphic designers were given no rules, I swear. 1993 Ultra Award Winners, 1993 UD Clutch Performers, 1993 UD Then and Now Holo, 1993 UD Iooss Collection, 1993 UD Diamond Debuts, 1994 Flair Infield  Power, 1994 Flair Hot Numbers, 1992 Ultra All Stars, 1994 Pinnacle Home Run Club. I've certainly misnamed some of these.

 

1994 UD CC You Crash the Game, 1992 Ultra Award Winners, 1991 UD Silver Sluggers, 1992 UD Homerun Heroes.

 

Ziploc, Coca Cola, Post Cereal. Grocery store binder is getting thick. Love it. Also picking away at the 1993 Donruss base set. Series 1 is 99%. Series 2 is like 20%. I hand-built this set as a yoot, and I'm doing it again.

 

And some more 1989 Topps Batman. Batman, WWF, and Desert Storm are the only non-sports sets I care about. I have both the Topps and Pro Set Desert Storm complete sets from 1991, which, looking back, is very bizarre to have existed.

 

Send me your junk wax, kids. I'll send you some modern junk in exchange.

 

Go Redlegs.

FADED

The stadium lights come on slowly
A batter's eye without a home
You put your hand into your glove
And then its oils cover your heart

Fade into you
Strange you never knew

 

 

 

Fade into you

Strange you never knew 

 

 

 

Go Redlegs

Single Card Post: 1909-12 Murad Cigarettes College Series (T51) - University of Cincinnati

Murad Cigarettes, made from the purest Turkish tobacco, were sold in New York City in the early 1900s as 'The Metropolitan Standard'. In 1909 they jumped on the sports card bandwagon with a collegiate sports release. Shot put cards, baseball cards, long jump cards, tennis cards, golf cards, and some of the first ever basketball cards. And to keep it scholarly, a few cards of generic college students. Each of these are branded with a random university.

The University of Cincinnati is featured, displaying a generic track and field dude, who, despite being an outdoor athlete, has clearly never seen more than five consecutive minutes of sunlight.

 

 

The University of Cincinnati's track and field achievements during this four-year run include a 3rd place finish at a Cincinnati Amateur Athletic Federation (C.A.A.F) meet and victories over Ohio State, Miami, and Ohio Wesleyan at the YMCA Carnival Meet. Legends.

Go Redlegs. 

Three Cincinnati Royals Autos

Cincinnati had an NBA team? Yes! For fifteen years! It was Oscar Robertson's main team. It went away before I was born, so as a kid I had to suffer rooting for Michael Jordan and Shaq and Grandmama and whomever else I felt like.

For a history lesson, in 1923 there was a semi-pro team called the Rochester Seagrams, sponsored by the distiller. They changed their name to the Rochester Eber Seagrams in 1942 and the Rochester Pros in 1943. Then in 1945 the star player raised money to join the NBL as a true pro team and lawyered the Seagrams people out of the franchise somehow. They immediately changed the name to the Rochester Royals. They defected to the BAA three years later, and the two leagues merged one year after that to form the NBA.

 

The Rochester Royals won the NBA title in 1951 but it wasn't enough to keep the books in the black, so they eventually moved to Cincinnati in 1957, where they would stay until 1972. 

 

 

Tom Van Arsdale was a 3x All Star with the Royals, 1970, 1971, and 1972. His twin brother Dick was also in the NBA. This is a 2014-15 Panini Prestige Premium - Old School Signatures #54 /175

Adrian Smith played 8 years for the Royals, after a year playing for the wonderfully named Akron Wingfoots. This is a 2016-17 Panini Gold Standard - Gold Scripts #6 /99

 

Bob Arnzen played one inauspicious year for the Royals, though did find himself in the greatest bball set of the 70's. This is a signed 1971-72 Topps #94.

In 1969 and 1970, while being coached by Bob Cousy, the Royals traded away Jerry Lucas and Oscar Robertson. Everyone hated this. Hated it so much, the entire city gave up on the team. So the owners moved them to a joint operation in Kansas City and Omaha. Can't have two Kansas City Royals franchises, so they changed their name to the Kansas City-Omaha Kings. Kansas City soon usurped the Omaha portion, but still allowed them to play in St. Louis a few times. Finally, in 1985, our itinerant royalty found their final home and became the Sacramento Kings.

Go Redlegs.

Vintage Football Trade Pickups

I highly recommend you vintage baseball fans add other sports to your arsenal. Lots of great stuff to be got for much less of the moneys. Or in this case, many fewer of my vintage baseball doubles.

 

 

Like these excellent 1955 Bowmans. Each in hypermint-10 condition. This is great looking set of which I only have 44 of the 160. Unacceptable.

 

 

Couple of Hall of Famers in this Topps pile - Ron Mix and Paul Krause. 1961, 1968, 1969, 1971, in that order, for those unaware.

 

 

Two from my favorite 70's football set, 1972 Topps. Upshaw is a Hall of Famer and famously the NFLPA head for a while. Lyle Alzado was in "Ernest Goes to Camp", and that kicks ass.

 

John Hannah is probably the best guard of all time. His 1975 Topps is now mine. And we have a 1977 Fleer, bottom left. Fleer made sets of all action shots in the 70s, which seemed to be against the law at the time based on every Topps set. Also, I think those 74's would look better if the photos abutted the field goal posts. I hate that black box and white strip. Also, the posts really highlight the 'standard vintage card miscutting threshold'.

 

Some great players to pick off some 70s set needs, including Mean Joe Greene watching some kid grab his Coke and contemplating murder.

 

Chip, chip, chippin' away.

 

Go Redlegs.