Wednesday, February 17, 2016

1984 M&M Olympic Heroes #31 Jesse Owens

We are marking the release of this weekend's release of the film "Race" by featuring a card from the 1984 Olympic Heroes set sponsored/produced by M&Ms.

1984 M&M Olympic Heroes #31 Jesse Owens

I imagine the film was timed to come out in advance of the 2016 Rio Olympics which will most likely occur this summer.

It appears the movie will be set in 1936 at the Berlin Olympics. The key event appears to be the 100 meter dash, an event Owens won with a World Record tying time of 10.3 seconds.

During the 1936 Olympics Jesse Owens would win a then record 4 gold medals. The other wins victories were in the 200 Meters, Long Jump and 400m relay. Each of the Golds was won with an Olympic Record tying or breaking time. 

flip
1984 M&M Olympic Heroes #31 Jesse Owens (b-side)

The event mentioned on the back of the card is the relay, won easily by the Americans who set a world record for the 400 meters. It also the event that gave Owens his record setting fourth Medal.

The Olympic-ref results and description of the 1936 Men's 400m Relay can be found here

1980? 1983? 1984? Olympic Heroes Trading Cards
Yeah these cards look like they were rushed to market. Sorry for the blurry pix, but I ain't retaking them now. The box front above has a year of 1980 and specifies LA Olympics. Well the 1980 Olympics happened in Moscow and were boycotted by the US.

If you check the back of the Owens card above, near the bottom it specifies 1983, which is a little closer....



Finally on the back of the box we get a 1984, which is the year the Olympics occurred in LA. So yeah one card set 3 different years - I went with 1984 since that is the year the LA Olympics actually occurred.

Checker
I think I found this for a buck or two somewhere - well worth it. Great Checklist The Boxers alone are Cassius Clay, Joe Frazier and George Foreman. Other notables includes Jim Thorpe, Dorothy Hamill, Bruce Jenner, Bill Toomey, Mike Eruzione, Sonja Henie, Oscar Robertson, and Jerry West.

Sources and Links
imdb Race
Jesse Owens
Olympic-ref

Babe Ruth HoF Index

This is an index of our Postings related to Babe Ruth and Babe Ruth cards.
 1962 Topps #138 Babe Ruth Special The Famous Slugger

1972 Topps #626 Babe Ruth Award
1973 Topps #1 (#1 Club - All Time HR Leaders)
Post Cereal 500 HR Club (2008 September - The House that Ruth Built closes)
2010 Topps Legendary Lineage #LL-3 w/ Alex Rodriguez
2011 Gypsy Queen the Great Ones #GO2 (100th Anniversary of MLB Debut)

Babe Ruth Mosaic (ESPN Zone NYC)

Monday, February 15, 2016

Topps #1 Club: 2004 Heritage Jim Thome (and a short print)

The Phillies recently posted their 2016 Wall of Fame ballot, Right at the top of the list is Slugger Jim Thome.

We are going to use this opportunity to extend our tour of #1 cards to include Topps Heritage.

 
2004 Topps Heritage #1b Jim Thome (sp)

In 2004 Topps put Jim Thome on card #1 in both flagship AND their heritage set. At the time Thome was coming off of his first season with the Phillies, a year in which he had led the NL in Home Runs with 47.  Not sure if it was a factor getting Thome on the #1 card but there was also a lot of buzz around Phillies as the team opened Citizen's Bank Ballpark in 2004 as well.

Near as I can tell the #1 Heritage Thome Card has no connection with the subject of the original 1955T card which was Dusty Rhodes.

1955 Topps #1 Dusty Rhodes (image swiped from Baseball Card Database)

Rhodes earned the top spot by hitting a pair of Home Runs and collecting 7 RBI while helping the New York Giants to win the World Series over the Cleveland Indians. Amazingly Dusty Rhodes didn't start a game in the 1954 Series and only played in 3 games, with 7 total plate appearances. But he made them count - one of the Homers was a Walk off in Game one. In game 2 he had a game tying hit in the 5th inning followed by a lead extending Homer later in the game. Those three hits all came off of future Hall of Famers (Bob Lemon G1, Early Wynn G2)

2004 Heritage #1
2004 Topps Heritage #1 Jim Thome (sp, b-side)

Returning to Jim Thome we post the back of his card and you can clearly see the #1 in the top left. We also have a minor connection to the Dusty Rhodes card - the cartoon/trivia Q on the Thome card does happen to reference Dusty's team, the Giants.

Short Print
2004 Topps Heritage #1b Jim Thome (sp)
2004 Topps Heritage #1 Jim Thome (base)

If you have been paying attention you will have noticed that the card we are discussing is a short print. The SP is the top card above with Thome shown holding the bat. The common #1 card is the latter of the pair with and action shot of Thome holding the bag at first. The Facsimile auto is moved a tad to better match the inset shot, other than that the Base and SP are identical.

2nd Flip
2004 Topps Heritage #1b Jim Thome (sp, b-side)
2004 Topps Heritage #1 Jim Thome (base, b-side)

And one final flip just to demonstrate the two cards have matching backs.  This is 2004 and Topps is in the pre-serial code era, that small print above the stats doesn't clue us in to which card is a base and which is a shorty. I pulled the two cards within a string of 3 packs or I may noticed myself.

Sources and Links
#1 Club
Jim Thome Player Collection
Baseball Card Database
Phillies
Baseball-ref

Player Collection Index: Jim Thome

This is an Index of our postings related to Jim Thome

2004 Topps Heritage #1b Jim Thome (SP - Batting)

2003 Donruss Studio #165 (Wall of Fame Induction) 
2004 Topps #1 (2018 HOF Candidate)
 
2005 06 14 - Index to Posts related to Career HR #400
 
2008 UD X Xponential #X2-JT (500th HR 2007 09 16)  
2011 Topps Heritage New Age Performers #NAP-2 (2011 Heritage Hobby Box Break)
2012 Topps Heritage #296 (1963 Topps: 2012 Topps Value Box Break)


Saturday, February 13, 2016

Villanova Wildcats #1

For the first time in 30+ years Villanova's Hoop team is ranked #1.

2007 Donruss Extra Edition #65 Rollie Massimino

The last time the Wildcats were atop the NCAA rankings was in 1985 when they shocked Georgetown in the NCAA final. The head coach of that team was Rollie Massimino who we have featured here in a Donruss mixed sports issue from 2007.  The A-sides of the cards are all pretty uniform and don't really clue us in to the repped team.

Flip
2007 Donruss Extra Edition #65 Rollie Massimino (B-side)

However the flip side is done up in some nice VU colors. Nice blurb on the 1985 National Championship, and a couple of quick hits regarding Rollie's career accomplishments (500 Career D1 Wins, 11 NCAA appearances w/ -Nova)

We are such big fans of Rollie around her we even put the ocach onto a Phungo Card in the 2010 set.

Tonight the Cats host St John's in PrimeTime, well sort of prime time - they are on CBS-SportsNet, which I can never find. If your a Philadelphia FiOS customer, I believe that is 594 on your dial. 

Source and Links
Villanova

Player Collection Index: Jimmy Rollins

This is an index of our postings related to Jimmy Rollins and J-Roll cards.

2008 Topps #233 Jimmy Rollins MVP


1998 Bowman #181 (rc)
2003 Topps T205 #69 (Year of the Horse 1978/2014)  
2006 Topps Bazooka #21

2008 Topps #233 Jimmy Rollins MVP (2015 WAR Projection)
2008 Heritage #350 
2008 Heritage #408 Keyston Combo (w/ Chase Utley, 1959 Topps Rhyme)
2010 Phungo #11
2011 Allen & Ginter #31 (blaster break)

2011 Heritage #72 (w/ Chase Utley)
2011 Phungo #27 (w/ Polanco and Charlie Manuel)
2013 Phungo #11
2014 Topps Blue #312
2015 Phungo #21 (Variations)


Friday, February 12, 2016

Happy 90th Birthday Joe Garagiola; 1951 Bowman #122

Just found out from the @Baseball_More Twitter feed that today is Joe Garagiola 90th Birthday. This gives us the rare opportunity to post a 1951 Bowman Card of a living MLB player on a marquee birthday.

1951 Bowman #122 Joe Garagiola
 
I like Baseball and More remember Garagiola as the Voice from Game of the Week back when I was a kid.  A few years back I picked up this beauty at a card show for a dollar - how sweet is that!
 
To busy to list off a mini bio of Garagiola. Two quick things - he won the World Series with the 1946 Cardinals and He was once traded with Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner.
 
 
Sources and Links


Twitter Baseball And More
Baseball-ref

a thousand words

a thousand words
2008 World Champions