HoF Laker Elgin Baylor

With Sunday Night Baseball in LA and the recent retirement Kobe Bryant I wanted to take a look at one of the first LA Lakers, Elgin Baylor

1961-62 Fleer #46 Elgin Baylor

Elgin Baylor played the entirety of his Hall of Fame career with the Lakers, but in two different towns, 2 seasons in Minnesota and a dozen in LA.

The 11 time All-Star earned the Final Four Most Outstanding Player award with Seattle U in 1958. He followed that up by being drafted first overall and winning the NBA Rookie of the Year award for 1958-59.

Baylor was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1977. Following his playing career Elgin stayed in basketball as a coach with the Utah Jazz and executive with the LA Clippers.  He was named to the NBA All-Time Teams for both the leagues 35th (1980) and 50th (1996) Anniversaries.

1961-62 Fleer #46 Elgin Baylor (b-side)

The last 22 cards of 1961-62 Fleer Hoop are Action shots. The simple clean backs don't contain stats but do have a healthy paragraph on the player. In addition there is a nice closing sentence describing the action in the shot on the card front.

Phungo Colleciton V1.0
There are two 61-62 Fleer cards in the Phungo collection, they are both from my childhood collecting years. I am not sure how they came into my hands but I was 11 or 12 at the time, which would have been the late 1970s. I think it my father may have gotten them from a co-worker. At the time they were the oldest cards in the collection.

A Classmate who was a bigger sports nerd than myself had to explain who Elgin Baylor was. That classmate is now working in a University Sports Info Department.

Sources and Links
Cardboard Connection
Basketball-Ref
NBA.com

2010 UD UNC National Champions #83 Dean Smith

The long time Hall of Fame Basketball coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels Dean Smith turned 83 last week. Sadly being a great coach does not exempt one from the issues that come with aging and today Dean Smith finds himself suffering from the effects of dementia.

2009 UD UNC National Champions #83 Dean Smith

His illness was recently documented with great reverence by the prolific sports journalist John Feinstein. Among the issues that Feinstein discusses regarding Dean Smith's deteriorating condition is the fact that one of the greatest assets the iconic coach had was an incredible memory that could remember every game, coaches, players, refs, and even specific plays. The column published in the Washington Post can be found here.

2010 UD UNC National Champs
Upper Deck came out with a 163 card set to take advantage of North Carolina's NCAA Championship triumph. There are a couple of similar releases I have seen out there including University of Texas and Oklahoma football sets.

2010 UD UNC National Champs blaster box

The sets offer an interesting variety of subjects which for UNC includes Smith, Lots of Michael Jordan cards, and some guys with Philadelphia connection like Larry Brown, George Lynch and Doug Moe. It is not unusual to see blasters of these cards going for $5-10 within a few years of release.

Sources
Naismith Memorial Basketball HoF
John Feinstein Washington Post
Sports Card Radio
Sports-Ref/College Basketball
Alzheimer's Association

hat tip - Yankees blogger @StaceGots tweeted the WaPo link earlier today

Phungo Cards - Scottie Reynolds, Villanova Wildcats

2009 Phungo #23 Scottie Reynolds

Tomorow Villanova plays their first game in the 2009 NCAA tournament. Scottie Reynolds will be leading the Wildcats at the point guard position. Above is the sole basketball card in the Phungo 2009 collection. Scottie Reynolds is the featured player, he is a point gaurd (PG) who has an outside chance of making it into the NBA. I chose Michael Jordan's number 23 as the basketball card number for the Phungo Set. The card is bordered in dark blue to match Villanova's team colors.

The picture was taken during a game at Philadelphia's historic Palestra. The Palestra is the Home for Penn Quaker's basketball and several big five/city six contests between the six Philadelphia college basketball teams; Nova, Penn, Temple, St Joes, La Salle, Drexel. If you're a basketball fan and you have the opportunity to see a game at the Palestra it is truly worth the effort. It is one of the oldest basketball gyms in the world and has been the site of many a great game. The list of notables that have played games there include Dr J, Allen Iverson, Oscar Robertson, Bill Bradley, Rick Barry, Billy Packer, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Ralph Sampson, Jerry West, and of course Wilt Chamberlain.

Philly Sports Hall of Fame - Hoop Edition - Maurice Cheeks, Lionel Simmons, Herb Magee

Maurice Cheeks Retired Number Banner - Wachovia Center, Philadelphia PA

It's been a tough week for Mo Cheeks and the 76ers. Cheeks has always been a fan favorite in Philadelphia but, unfortunately, that was not enough to keep him here as the Head Coach of the Sixers.

Maurice Cheeks, however, is a member of the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame due to his playing career. He was the point guard for the 1983 NBA championship team and the two other teams that played in the Championship series (1980 and 1982). During Cheeks 15 year career (11 with Philadelphia) he racked up 2,310 steals, which was the NBA record when he retired in 1993. Cheeks also left the game as the #5 all time Assists leader. The 76ers retired Maurice Cheeks number 10 in 1995.

Outside of Philadelphia, and certainly in Portland, Cheeks is likely best known for coming to the aid of Natalie Gilbert when she stumbled singing the National Anthem. The video is worth watching again. Perhaps it is the initimacy and solitude of watching on a PC instead of on television, but I actually got chills watching the video five years later. Towards the end Natalie recovers and finishes quite nicely. I rembering Cheeks mentioning in an interview that as he walked over he wondered to himself if he remembered the words.

The Anthem performance that night was prior to a playoff game between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Dallas Mavericks. While Cheeks could lend an assist with the Anthem, he couldn't provide enough help for the Trail Blazers to stop Dirk Nowitzki who scored 42 points in leading the Mavs to a 115-103 victory.

Lionel Simmons was the leader of the 1989-90 LaSalle Explorers who finished with a record of 30-2. Simmons was named the 1990 Naismith college player of the year and also took home the John R Wooden Award. His 3217 career points in the NCAA ranked him behind only Pete Maravich and Freeman Williams when he graduated. Simmons went on to play seven years with the Sacremento Kings. He was named to the 1990-91 All-rookie team in his first year which was probably his best (18 ppg, 8.8 boards). In 1997 retired due to chronic injuries. Simmons is also a member of the Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame.


Lionel Simmons Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame Plaque - Palestra, Philadelphia PA

Herb Magee is the head coach at Division II Philadelphia University where he has coached for 40 years and tallied 850+ victories. This ranks Magee 2nd amongst all active college coaches (Don Meyer - Northern State, SD). His website also has a link to a plug by Bobby Knight. I like Herb just because he comes into a bar near my home for Eagles games early in the season. I have never had the guts to go up and say hi, but he does seem like a real decent guy.

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Spot the Sig! Bonus Base! Since it is cold in miserable here in the Northeast we are going to be adding a small bonus to the Spot the Sig! Contest this weekend.


Here is a chance for somebody to steal a base in the Phungo STS! contest. Tomorrow we are going to be featuring a Masterpieces Pack Bust. I will be opening 1 pack each of Hockey and Football since the Flyers, Vikings, and Eagles are all playing. And I will also open a pack of Baseball - because we are really about baseball here. And we are going to play a variation of Sox or No Sox. Here are the particulars.

Any Hall of Famer +2, Any Phillies or Orioles +1 Each. Vikings or Eagles +1, Flyers +2, Mets, Packers, Devils and New York Rangers (Hockey) all minus 1. Oh and If there is a hit, auto, serial #d, Game used whatever +2 to +10 points depending on what it is. Pack with the most points wins. The football and hockey packs are retail. The baseball is from a blaster.

To get a free base (or walk if you have the bases empty) in STS! simply pick the pack that wins. Two contestants can pick the same pack, if that pack wins they both get the free base.

The Packs will be opened at 10 AM (eastern) Sunday. (Time moved up from noon)

And if you haven't gotten involved in Spot the Sig! click here for more info. You can enter anytime and with the Masterpieces Pack Bust you could get a man on base even before the next round starts!