Card Show Report: Valley Forge 2016 02 27

Just a couple of highlights from this weekend's Card Show at Valley Forge.

1951 Bowman Eddie Waitkus

Card collecting wasn't dead at the Valley Forge convention center this weekend. It was very alive - or at least Autograph Chasing was. Much of the large crowd was likely due to Brian Dawkins being at the show, but I would like to think that while there some of the patrons took a look at some cards and other memorabilia

For a year or two I sponsered Eddie Waitkus' Baseball-Ref page. He is better known as the subject the story Malumud's "the Natural" was based. 

1961 Topps MVP Ernie Banks

Slowly working on putting together the 1961 MVP Subber. The above Banks card was an upgrade $7.

1962 Topps LL Ws Whitey Ford, Frank Larry, Steve Barber, Jim Bunning

I picked up a LOT of HoF League Leader Cards. This is thee earliest of the bunch. All went for $1 or $2, I think this was from the Dueces.
 
1967 Topps

1967 Topps Duos Twin Terrors Bob Allison and Harmon Killebrew

Our research into the 2016 Heritage/1967 Topps led us into a couple of purchases of the original cards. Mostly Hall of Famers and Subset cards like the Special of the Killer above.

1967 Topps #103 Checker Mickey Mantle 

The 1967T bounty included this Checker for $2. Little steep for a Checklist except this one features a floating head of MICKEY MANTLE - and it is UNCHECKED.

1954 Topps Johnny Podres 

I have been working on 1954T at the last couple of shows. Checked about a half dozen commons on Saturday, plus this semi-star. Podres went for $5. I also picked up a more significant 1954 Card of one of a fellow Dodger teammates, which I am teasing here for a future post.

1971 Topps Johnny Briggs, Rick Wise, Jim Lonborg, Dick Drago

There was a dealer that had 1971 Topps for a dime a pop. I picked up 40 of them. The selection was solid and included HI NUMBERS, Dick Drago in the bottom right is card #752 which is the last card in the set.

1956 Topps Mickey Vernon

Local Hero and Gentleman Mickey Vernon. Just one of the many pickups I made while thumbing through cheap bins $2.

1976 OPC #500 Reggie Jackson

This is for an upcoming Phungo Pheature $2.

 2015 Topps JJ Hardy

I spent a record almost no time in dime bins for current cards, We will return to this card at a future post.

1974 Topps Washington Padres

2 Bucks for a team card of club that never existed.

Philly Sports Hall of Fame - Mickey Vernon

For this weeks Hall of Fame Thursday I am featuring the last of the 2008 Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame inductees Mickey Vernon. Vernon died in September and I posted his 1962 card here.

For today's post I stopped by the Philadelphia Suburb of Marcus Hook where Vernon was born and raised and took some pictures. Marcus Hook has erected a statue in Vernon's honor and named a park after him.

You can click on the photo above to enlarge. The Plaque states that Mickey Vernon was born in 1918, served in the Navy, Led the AL in Hitting twice, and was a 7 time American League All-Star. The plague concludes by stating that Vernon was a "Role Model ... Mentor ... Great Guy" followed by "A Gentleman's Gentleman". There is no need for me to add anything beyond that glowing description.

Here is a picture of Mickey Vernon Park which sets next to the Vernon Statue. In the rear of the Photo you can see the stands for a little league field. Click on the photo to enlarge



This concludes the Phungo Salute to the 2008 Philly Sports Hall of Fame inductees. Recapping this years class included:

The 1929 Philadelphia Athletics
Leroy Burrell
Harold Carmichael
Maurice Cheeks
Ed Delahanty
Stan Hochman
Tommy Loughran
Herb Magee
Dorothy Porter
Fred Shero
Lionel Simmons
Al Wistert
Mickey Vernon

I hope everyone has enjoyed reading about this years Philly Sports Hall of Fame class. Next week for Hall of Fame Thursday may just content a recent inductee...

Mickey Vernon 1918 - 2008

Mickey Vernon died at the age of 90 on Wednesday September 24th. I know little of Mickey Vernon's career, which spanned four decades, from 1939 through 1960, mostly with the lowly Washington Senators. He was somewhat of a local celebrity, who attended Villanova University and resided in the area. The seven time all-star and two time batting champ is on the 2009 Veteran's Comittee Ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Vernon was recently named to the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame and will officially be inducted this coming November.

Philadelphia Author/Sports Historian Rich Westcott wrote a biography of Mickey Vernon that was published in 2005. Vernon and Westcott made several appearances promoting the book at the time, but I never made it out to one of the signings. If my memory is correct Vernon also had a movie camera during his playing days and has a pretty impressive personal collection home movies featuring the baseball players of the 40s and 50s.

Mickey Vernon, by all accounts, was considered to be a gentleman and was well regarded in his community. It is good that baseball has such representatives and it is sad to hear of their passing.

Mickey Vernon Baseball-Reference

Mickey Vernon Wikipedia