Anniversary: 45 Years ago Harmon Killebrew Joins 500 HR Club.

August 10th marks the 45th Anniversary of Harmon Killebrew's 500th Homer. The milestone occurred in the first inning of a Twins 4-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles

2015 Topps #H-74 Harmon Killebrew 500 Home Runs.

 

The event was honored in Topps 2015 Highlight of the Year insert.

 

2015 Topps #H-74 Harmon Killebrew 500 Home Runs. (b-side)

A brief synopsis on the back of the card also notes that the hit was part of a pretty big day for Killebrew in which he had a pair of Home Runs, both lead changers, and 3 RBIs.


Sources and Links
Phungo Harmon Killebrew HoF Page
Baseball-ref

 

1959 Baseball Thrills #465 Roy Sievers

The team Phungo advanced procrastination skills made it possible for us to drag out the 1959 Topps Baseball Thrills feature which surveys a measly 10 cards for over a year.

After a bit of a Hiatus we bring you the #465 card from that subset. 

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #465 Roy Sievers

Chances are the catpion "Sievers Sets Homer Mark" isn't one you expected to see on a baseball card from an era that included names like Mays, Aaron,  Musial, and Mantle.

Part of the reason for that is the record referred to here is a team record. The accomplishment is further described on the flip of the card. The synopsis mentions that the vast dimensions of the Senators Griffith stadium are an issue for Right Handed Pull hitters like Sievers.

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #465 Roy Sievers (b-side)

Regardless Roy Sievers did top the eras best sluggers to win the 1957 Title, had 1958 Topps had League Leader cards he would have shared the podium with Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams. Very nice company - Sievers finished 3rd in the MVP voting that season, behind Mantle and Williams.

As a member of the St Louis Browns, Sievers collected the AL Rookie of the Year award in 1949 (16 HR, 91 RBI,  .306/.398/.475, 125 OPS+, 2.0 WAR). The five time all-star collected 318 Home Runs and 1147 RBI in a 17 year career in which he never got a chance to play in the postseason.

Sources and Links
1959 Baseball Thrills Index
baseball-ref

Sunday Night Baseball: 1960 Topps #132 Frank Howard (RC)

Night Owl Cards posted this card on Twitter this week to mark Frank Howard's Birthday (August 8th, 77th birthday). Tonight we are honoring the same card as the Dodgers host the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday Night Baseball.

1960 Topps #132 Frank Howard

The Sport Magazine 1960 Topps Rookie Star subset runs from card numbers #117-148. This is the 2nd time that Topps and Sport were on-card partners. The 1958 Topps All-Stars subset is a Sport Magazine collaboration. In 1959 Topps switched allegiances to the Sporting News for both the All-Stars subset and the Rookie Stars subset   

 Despite the muted orange background that dominates this sets presentation, I view the design as a winner. The confluence of the patriotic ribbon, bullseyed profile pic, and magazine cred combine to put this subset into the Win column.

And I must also note that Frank Howard wearing his cap slightly askew adds just a touch of cool to the head shot. 

2006 Topps Archives Reserve #34

Topps is apparently quite fond of the card as well.  They saluted the card by making a chromey reprint part of their 2006 Topps Archives Reserve set. 

1960 was a good year for Frank Howard who won the NL Rookie of the Year award over two Phillies (Pancho Herrera, Art Mahaffey) and future Hall of Famer Ron Santo. Howard tallied 23 Home Runs with 77 RBIs during his rookie campaign.  He would remain a power hitter throughout his career, leading the league in homers twice (1968, 1970) with the Washington Senators. 

Frank Howard spent 7 years in the Dodgers organization before being traded to the Senators following the 1964 season.  Along with his rookie of the year campaign the highlight of Frank Howard's Dodger career is their sweep of the Yankees in the 1963 World Series. Howard homered off of Whitey Ford in the final game of the series.


Howard stayed in baseball for a number of years after his career ended and I can recall seeing him as a coach with the Mets in the 1990s.  Despite being out of the game for 20-30 years he still dwarfed many of that eras current players (Baseball-ref lists Howard at 6'7", 255 lbs).

The last time I saw Frank Howard was at the final Washington Nationals game at RFK.  

2007 09 23 Frank Howard and Ryan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals final game at RFK

This photo was a bit too blurry to make the cut as a Phungo card, and doesn't really show Frank Howard's commanding size, but I assure you that day he was a presence.


Sources
Vintage Baseball Cards  
Baseball-ref.com   
Night Owl Cards

Philly Card Show Report - 2009 12 05 - Tobacco Cards

Getting back to some of the things I found at the Philly Show.

1909-11 T206 Gabby Street

I could not let a couple of low end T206 cards go. This T206 is of Gabby Street who was a light hitting catcher for several teams in the early 1900s. However, He is also considered a significant mentor in the development of Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson.

After his playing days were over Street had a fairly successful career as a manager including a World Series Championship in 1931.


1909-11 T206 Doc Crandall

I picked up one other t206 of Doc Crandall who according to his wiki page is basically considered the first relief pitcher. His Baseball-Reference page concurs as he led the league in games finished 5 times and his career 2.93 era is still ranked 64th all-time.


1910 T58 Flying Fish

I know very little about the above T58 card. There are a series of non-sports tobacco cards from the early twentieth century with different themes (T37 Autos, T25 Actors, T42 Birds etc) According to the back of the card there are 50 cards in the fish series. Semi-related Flying Fish is a favorite beer among the Phungo Phaithful.

For the Collector
I really don't know much about these 100 year old cards, I am not really even sure that they are authentic. At any rate the cards went as follows $4.00 for Street, $9.00 for Crandall and $1.00 for the Flying Fish. Of course all are in fair/poor condition as you can see and all three cards are Piedmont Backs. The t206 museum site is where I go for my info on the classic set.

$10.00 is likely my breaking point to consider a T206. They are not a priority for me and here I was lucky enough to find two cards of players with interesting backgrounds. A graded (Good) Gabby Street, which is significantly nicer then my corner deprived version recently went for $21.85 on ebay. Doc Crandall went for $21.77. I was unable to find any recent sales on t58 cards, there is a BIN of a nice flying fish card for $13.45 - and there are a couple others in this set that have a BIN of $12.00

For a look back at some of the other cards available at the 09 Philly Show check here and here and here.

Swag from Night Owl Cards

2009 UD Goudey #220 Mike Schmidt
2009 UD Goudey #152 Lou Marson

This past winter Night Owl Cards was an active participant in Spot the Sig! and as a result he was one of the contests winners. I had sent out a couple of Dodgers cards to NOC and as a thank you he was good enough to send back a bunch of cards to me, I feel like a winner now too!! . Of course the lot included lot o Phils like these two from this year's Goudey set. This is my first Lou Marson card which I am very happy to add to the collection. And of course the newest Mike Schmidt card is a must for a Phils collection.

This is great timing as the Phils are in LA right now and will be facing the Dodgers tonight on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball. The Phils took the first game but have lost the last two in heartbreking fashion as Brad Lidge has blown saves in each games. Andre Ethier has walk off htis in both games, Ethier leads the league in walk offs since his Major League career started.

Moving on Night Owl was also good enough to peruse my want lists and found a Half Dozen 2008 Topps Series 2 cards I needed. I am down to my last 5 cards to finish this set.

2008 Topps #365 Derrek Lee

Night Owl Cards is one my favorite blogs to cover the 1970s vintage and he must be paying attention to Phungo because he has noticed that 1974 topps is one of my favorite sets. He was good enough to add a bunch of these to the Phungo collection.

1974 Topps #119 Danny Ozark

and Saving the best for last:

1959 Topps #215 Jim Lemon

My biggest collecting project is working on the 1959 Topps Set. I am past the half way mark and Night Owl has contributed the above Jim Lemon card. Lemon was a big power big strikeout guy. He spent 12 years in the majors and in 1960 he finished 3rd in the AL in homers behind Mantle and Maris.

I love getting any 1959s and am planning a post specifically about building this set in the near future.

Thanks to Night Owl Cards but I am hoping the Phils get to our old friend Randy Wolf tonight.