UT Vols Basketball Skeds

Here's a sampling of the the University of Tennessee Vols and Lady Vols Basketball Schedules. I picked them up around town, at a local grocery store and my insurance agent.

Pat Summit is a classy lady. Go Vols!

Orel Goes Emo

No, not Emo Philips.  SkyBox E-Motion.

1995 SkyBox E-Motion
Orel Hershiser (card # 33)

Nice to see both home and road jerseys on the same card.

I think that Emo Philips is funnier than Orel Hershiser.

They Might Be Giants

No, they are Giants.

At the same card shop that I picked up the gently loved Yaz I also picked up a pair of 1964 Topps Giants.  I know that everyone's favorite Troll collects this set.  I've sent him a few from his wantlist.  I didn't have quick access to that list, so I bought them for a buck each, hoping he'd need them.  He's got them already.

Then I realized that Matthew from the Number 5 Type Collection blog might not have the Milt Pappas.  I was wrong.  He's got it.  I should have known.  But this one is wonderfully miscut.  Has to be a rare error 1 of 1.

1964 Topps Giants
Milt Pappas (card # 5)

1964 Topps Giants
Ed Brinkman (card # 27)

I do like this set, but not enough to want to start to collect it.  I do like the narrative backs as opposed to just stats.  And they're giants, so as not to feel that you're going to crush them in your hands.  And they're vintagey.  Can't go wrong with that.

Chrome Ain't Got Nothing On This

I took a vacation day yesterday. I had to work on a computer for church and then needed to go do some Christmas shopping. One of the local card shops I stopped at gave me a great deal. I came away with early Chrome prototype.

No.  I'm kidding.  Get to know me.  It is actually a 1970 Topps Super that has seen better days. 

1970 Topps Super
Carl Yastrzemski (card # 29)

The dealer had a stack of them.  The former owner of these cards had decided that many of the players needed eye black.  So he grabbed a ball point pen and gave it to them.  Glue was rampant. The cards were possibly put into some sort of scrapbook or album and then ripped out. Unfortunately I'll never know where Carl played in 1959. Cucamonga? And was he dating Carol and then saw A.L. for nine years?  Could that have been Ann Landers?  Angela Lansbury? 

I also picked up a Hershiser that I needed, a few other Orel dupes (all with the Cleveland Indians) and a few 1964 Topps Giants.  All for $4.  It is fun playing Santa for yourself.

Oh, and I got a gift for my niece and some things for my lovely wife.  It is also fun to play Santa for those that you love.

2009 Donruss Americana

I picked this pack up many moons ago at a Dollar Tree store. Cost me a dollar. I never tire of hearing, "Price Check, toiletries" at the Dollar Tree.

A very nice gloss to these cards.  The design works okay, but it it just a template.  The subjects are what we're supposed to be drawn to.

ST:TNG.  No, not the bass player from The Police.  Picard.  I liked him better sashaying as Alistair Burke in an episode of Fraiser.

2009 Donruss Americana
Patrick Stewart (card # 2)

Stephen Baldwin is the Tim Tebow of the Baldwin house.  At least he knows when to turn off electronic devices.

2009 Donruss Americana
Stephen Baldwin (card # 44)

To me he'll always be Johnny Bravo.

2009 Donruss Americana
Barry Williams (card # 60)

Country singer Aaron Tippin.  I got nothing.

2009 Donruss Americana
Aaron Tippin (card # 84)

Strike two.  I got nothing here, either.

2009 Donruss Americana
Dean McDermott (card # 86)

I guess I'd be more inclined to buy more of these packs if I was more in tune with Americana.  I'm off to watch Dr. Zhivago and then Reds.

Today's Post brought to you by the letters L, O, and C

Poking around the Library of Congress has brought these baseball items to my attention.  Enjoy and discuss.

Casey at the Bat - 1909





The Man Who Fanned Casey - 1909

Fascinating Base-Ball Slide - 1912





That Baseball Rag - 1913

Oddball Earl Wilson

I was browsing ebay this morning and came across some oddball cards I'd never heard of. ZeeBall.

ZeeBall Test Game
Earl Wilson (card # 7977)

I lifted the image from this ebay auction.  Apparently there are baseball and football cards aplenty, but I don't know anything about their origin.  Can anyone shed some light on these cards?

Playing Classic Games with Orel Hershiser

Way back in 1987 Game Time Ltd., out of Marietta, Georgia, produced a 'Trivial Pursuit' type game using baseball cards. They put out three Travel Edition update sets with new questions and new players. They skipped 1988 and plowed ahead in 1989 with a main set and two Travel Edition update sets. 1991 saw the game cards arrive in three series, a Collector's edition and a special Nolan Ryan set of 10 cards. 1992 brought two series and a Collector's edition. 1993 was the last set of a mix of players. 1996 brought another Nolan Ryan set, this time in embossed metal.

I've had these cards for some time and finally got around to scanning them.

1987 Classic Game
Orel Hershiser (card # 92)

1989 Classic Game - Light Blue
Orel Hershiser (card # 1)

I answered most of the questions correctly. How did you do?

Phil Garner - Bearden High Grad

Because I haven't created a card in a while, I present to you Phil Garner from 44 years ago.

It was brought to my attention that Phil attended Bearden High School in Knoxville. Phil had a decent career in the majors, playing for 16 years and then managing for another 15 seasons.

I found his annual from 1967 on ancestry.com. Football and basketball were the only sports featured. I quickly slapped this together using some fonts from dafont.com.

Go Bulldogs!

Too Much On My Plate

This time of the year tends to get busy.  Very busy.  Christmas parties, football banquets, children's musicals, high school concerts, funerals, meetings, tree trimming, more meetings, more parties.  You know what I mean.

So, what am I doing about it?  Adding another blog.

As I do research through old newspapers and books I often find a story that is interesting.  Well, interesting to me.  It doesn't quite fit in with this blog.  Or Old Knoxville Baseball.  Or 19th Century Baseball - Clinton Co., New York.  So I created Baseball Nuggets.

The idea is that three times a week I'll post a find.  Since I started it on Friday I only have two posts right now.  It is very possible that the posts will have something to do with Black Baseball.  Will this revolutionize research for future generations?  No, but it will gather some items together that have been forgotten.  I want to share them.

I'll get back to blogging around here soon enough.  Baseball cards.  Orel Hershiser.  Perhaps Orel Hershiser baseball cards.

1991 Hoby Cards SEC Stars - Bill Wade

I finally got another Bill Wade card.

1991 Hoby Cards SEC Stars
Bill Wade (card # 350)

How did I do that? I bought a box of  Hoby Cards.  I don't think they distinguished between retail and hobby, but it would have been fun to buy a Hoby hobby box.

Although the pack price tag says 99 cents, I was able to negotiate it down to just over 40 cents a pack for the box.  $15 for a box of 36 packs.  I've ripped not quite half the packs.  Teams from all over the southeast.  Wild hairstyles galore.  No autographs.  Yet.

Rubbing Salt Into The Wound

Yesterday my father gave me this 2011-2012 University of Kentucky basketball schedule. He did not yet know about me losing the UT-UK wager with my friend.

I'm a good sport. I can post this without wincing.

Rivalry

Today is the traditional end of the regular season UT vs. UK football game.  I've got a friendly wager with a high school friend on facebook.  If UT wins, he puts up UT's logo as his profile picture for a week.  If UK wins, I put up UK's logo as my profile picture for a week.  We also extended this wager for the two times that the schools meet for basketball in January.

1991 Hoby SEC Stars
The Beer Barrel (card # 393)

unidentified UT card set
Beer Barrel Stays Put (card # 123)

Things don't look good for UT or for me.

For The Good Of All, Do Not Destroy The Birds

I took the day off of work on Wednesday. My dad and I went to downtown Knoxville to the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection to do some research. He was interested in family history and I tore into a microfilm from the summer of 1921, doing some research on the local black team, the Knoxville Giants. We were both successful.

After a few hours of research we left to visit a new old bookstore. Central Street Books was formerly The Book Eddy. They have a nice selection of sports books, but I didn't buy any. I did find a book in the humor section for my dad. the lives and time of archy & mehitabel by Don Marquis.  It wasn't the title that caught my eye, but the dust jacket.  Below is the scan of the front of it.  Was it a German commentary on the Psalms?  Don't really know.  I don't read German.

There was a note that the dust jacket was from 1733.   We asked the clerk at the counter.  He said that they had received a three volume set that had very poor binding.  It wasn't worth it for them to have the books rebound, so they removed the pages and used them for various things around the shop.  This page ended up as a dust jacket.  They were selling the prints from the book individually.

There was a wooden bowl near the register that had some small (approx. 1-1/2" x 2-1/4") advertising cards of some sort.  I picked up three that caught my eye.  Normally I scan cards at 300 dpi and reduce them down to 150 dpi to show on this blog.  It keeps the images big enough not to strain the eyeball, but small enough in size that the page loads efficiently.

150 dpi

I liked these so much that I kept them at 300 dpi.  After getting home and looking at them I did a quick search on the web.

Jefferson Burdick designated them as "J7".  John Hodge designated them as "AH2211".   T.K. Treadwell designated them as "G".   The were issued in in several series, with a cornucopia of variations.  (See what I did there?  Happy Thanksgiving.)  I found most of my information on these cards at Joe Lill's Soda Cards page.

After Dad paid for his books (and my cards) I noticed a stack of loose sheets on the counter.  The clerk described them as pages from a 1716 edition of The Book of Common Prayer.  We looked through the stack and found the corresponding Psalm, 68, verse 24.  He bought that one, too.

The price on all these? $7.50 for the archy & mehitabel.  25 cents each for the bird cards.  A dollar for the Book of Common Prayer page.

We then went to Five Guys Burgers and on to another used bookstore.  I didn't buy any sports books there, either.

The German language dust jacket has that glassine cover over the dust jacket.  I didn't remove it to scan the jacket.  It is presented at 150 dpi.  Click on it for a larger image.  The Book of Common Prayer image is presented at 150 dpi.  Click on it for a larger image.

NASCAR's Season is Over

The NASCAR season finished up on Sunday.  Tony Stewart was crowned the champion, dethroning Jimmie Johnson.  Johnson has held the title for the past five seasons.  There's a streak for you.  Probably will never be equaled.

During my trip to Chicago this summer I stopped at a Target to pick up some snacks and a wedding card.  What do you know, they had their bargain-bin-o-cards.  You know the one.  $1.59 a pack.  I picked up five packs of 2010 Press Pass Premium.  I don't have any Tony Stewart cards to show you.  My brother is a fan of Tony so he got the three cards of 'Smoke' that I pulled and two of the packs.

2010 Press Pass Premium
Jimmy Johnson - Preseason Thunder (card # 82)

By now you should know that my wife's favorite driver is Jeff Burton.  Only pulled one of his cards.  With racing cards I've noticed that the manufacturers show the drivers, the cars, the owners, crew chiefs, and sometimes the pit crews or a memorable moment of the season.  Here's Jeff's car.

2010 Press Pass Premium
Jeff Burton - Passing Game (card # 79)

And to keep Night Owl happy, here's a card with Danica.  This is a retail only subset.  If you line the back of the four cards up you get a photo of Danica.  The backside of this one is the frontside of her backside.  I felt it would be a bit creepy for me just to show that.

2010 Press Pass Premium
Danica Patric - Retail Insert (card # DP-3/4)

I'll forget about NASCAR until early next February when my wife starts planning our Sunday afternoons around when the race is on.