1957 Topps #24 Bill Mazeroski (RC)

Bill Mazeroski is the Hall of Fame Shortstop who spent his entire 17 year career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He is best known for hitting the game winning Home Run in game 7 of the 1960 World Series to finish the Pirates dramatic upset of the mighty New York Yankees.

The Yankees outscored the Pirates 55-27 in the 1960 series but lost basically because the Bucos took all the tight games while all three of of the Yankees wins were by lopsided scores of 16-3, 12-0, and 10-0.  The Yankees averaged just under eight runs a game for the series and Lost!

Mazeroski's career .260 batting average makes him one of the more debated Hall of Famers. In his 1990 book "Men at Work" George Will dedicates a fair amount of time supporting Mazeroski spot in the Hall based on his defensive prowess.

The stats and advance defensive metrics that may not have been available at the time of the publication of "Men At Work" back up Will's argument.  His career DPs at second are first all time as his his career "Total Zone Runs" His carreer Assist number ranks 3rd all time versus a career error number clear down at 62nd.  He wasn't anemic at the plate accumulating 2000+ Hits. He was a 10 time all-star and part of two Pirates World Series teams (1960, 1971) 

Spending an entire career with one team as Mazeroski did is typically a bonus. Bill Mazeroski has spent a lot of his post career time with the Pirates as well filling in the Ambassador role for a club that has struggled on the field for the past two decades.  In 2001, Eleven years after the publication of "Men at Work" Mazeroski was elected into the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Commitee. It was a controversial election and which has led to modifcations to the Vet Comittee voting process.

1957 Topps #24 Bill Mazeroski

When I returned to collecting this BIll Mazeroski Card was one of my first ebay picks.  This card was part of a small lot of Vintage HoF cards I picked up on via auction.  It is in real decent condition was a steal at $3.50.  Recent sales have concluded as low as $7.45.  At least 4 recent auctions of a 1957 Mazeroski finished under $12. A PSA 5 (Excellent) card went for $30. The card topped at $322 for PSA graded 8 (NM-MT). 


1961 Topps #312 1960 World Series Game #7 Mazeroski's Homer Wins It!
Another fine Bill Mazeroski card is the above 1961 Topps Card celebrating Mazeroski's famous Home Run.  This card was purchased for a dollar at a show in 2009.  Probably should dedicate a proper posting to this card alone at some point in the future.

Philly Card Show Report - 2009 12 05 - Dime Box A&G

click to enlarge
2006 Allen & Ginter #270 Napolean Lajoie (mini)
2006 Allen &Ginter #271 Lloyd Waner (mini)
2006 Allen &Ginters #280 Bill Mazeroski

Just a quick note that I was surprised to see 2006 Allen & Ginter cards in the dime box. Not so much on the Mazeroski card but I never expected to see the Minis for under a quarter.

Card Show - Moorestown Mall, NJ

I visited a card show in Moorestown New Jersey this weekend and these are the results:

$20.00 - 12 packs of 2009 Topps Hobby. This is what I am calling my Card Show 09 Topps Blaster. I Will feature the results in a future post.

20.00 - 4 packs of 2009 UD Hobby. This would be my Card Show 09 UD Blaster. The dealer was good enough to toss in a grab box of cards with the cards. As with the Topps cards above this will be the subject of a future post.

1.00 - 1 pack of Beavis and Butthead cards. couldn't pass them up.

5.00 - dime box 1

5.00 - dime box 2

3.00 - 6 vintage Tipton's from 1954-70 in pretty rough condition

Total damage 54.00.

The vintage Tipton's consisted of a 1954 Topps Ray Murray, a couple of 58s and a 1970 Denny McClain card.

1958 #414 Sammy White
1970 #400 Denny McLain

The bulk of my picks from Dime Box 1 were 1994 Fleer Flair cards. I don't like the look as much as the 1993, but it is still a good looking card. The rest of that batch was basically HOF and star cards from all those overprinted late 80s series.

1992 Action Packed #69 Bill Mazeroski
2005 Bowman Chrome #131 Jeff Kent
1994 Fleer Flair #334 Rickey Henderson
1982 Donruss #483 Eddie Murray

From Dime Box 2 I went after more of the HOF and star cards including some Schmidt and Carlton Cards. I was also inspired by 30 Year old Cardboard and picked up about a half dozen 83 Super Veterans. Other cards in this lot included about a dozen chrome stars and a couple of 1973 and 1974 commons.

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After hearing horror stories on pack prices I was really happy to pick up the Topps cards at 12 for 20. Of course I could be the victim of dealer pack searching, but if not the price for the topps cards is cheaper then the per pack price works out to if I had bought a Box from D&A. I was thinking of doing a Retail v Hobby of 09 Topps, getting $20 of each product. But I am pretty sure the retail blaster cannot compete with 12 hobby packs.

The 4 for 20.00 for the UD Hobby was what I was shooting for, I asked for the grab box as part of a volume discount and the dealer was good enough to oblige. I figure if all the cards in the bag are worthless, I can still use the plastic case.

Like I said I was pretty happy. I figure the two dime boxes yielded over a hundred cards of HOFs, Superstars, Phillies, or interesting oddballs for half the price of a blaster.

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The most consistently Phungo posts to be accessed via Google Search are my Card Show posts. For this reason I have put together a post just for Card Show resources and information in the greater Philadelphia area. The informational Post can be accessed here and also via a link on the sidebar.

Cole Hamels World Series MVP, The Babe Ruth Award

Cole Hamels deservedly won the World Series MVP award. He won game one and was in line to win deciding game 5 before Rocco Baldelli homered off of Ryan Madson. Hamels was 4-0 over the post season which tied the record for wins.

2008 Topps Heritage #499 Cole Hamels

This is the 2008 Heritage All Star version of Hamels card. I like these cards - they closely mirror the original All-Star cards of 1959. The motif follows on the reverse side with the card number in a shield, a cartoon, and a short point of interest about the player.

2008 Topps Heritage #499 Cole Hamels (obverse)

1959 Topps #555 Bill Mazeroski (obverse)

When Topps released the 1959 set the All-Star cards were present in the final High Number Series and are somewhat harder to find then cards from the earlier series. In the Heritage edition the cards are part of the regular release, despite the fact that Topps is planning on releasing more 08 Heritage cards in another product.

At one time the World Series MVP received the Babe Ruth award. The award was the subject of a Topps card in 1972.

1972 Topps #626 Babe Ruth Award

The Babe Ruth Awared is no longer presented, the last award winner was David Eckstein in 2002, when the Angels defeated the the Giants.