Tony Cuccinello - a checklist

Tony Cucinello baseball card checklist

1937 BF3 Felt Pennants - Type 9   Player Name
Tony Cuccinello (14)

1933 Goudey (R319) - card # 99
1933 Worch Cigar - (29a) photo background, (29b) blank background
1934 Al Demaree Die-cuts (R304) - card # 91
1934 Batter-Up - card # 79
1934 Diamond Matchbooks - Silver Borders - (37)
1934 Tarzan Bread (D382) - (10)
1934-36 Diamond Stars (R327) - card # 55
1935 Four-on-One Exhibits - (12) - with Vincent Lopez, Van Mungo, Dan Taylor
1935-36 Diamond Matchbooks - (41)
1936 Boston American Sport Stamps - (41)
1936 Diamond Matchbooks - Team on Back - (2)
1936 Goudey "Wide Pen" Premiums - Type 1 - (23)
1937 BF3 Felt Pennants - Type 9   Player Name - (14)
1937 BF104 Blankets - (6)
1938 Four-on-One Exhibits - (9) - with Vince DiMaggio, Roy Johnson, Danny MacFayden
1938 Foto Fun - (17)
1939 Play Ball (R334) - card # 61
1939-46 Salutation Exhibits (10)
1940 Diamond Dust Punchboard Cards - (6)
1940 Play Ball (R335) - card # 61
1945 Baseball Magazine Player Poster - (3)
1949 Eureka Sportstamps - card # 81
1955 Cleveland Indians Postscards - (2)
1955 Golden Stamps Books - Cleveland Indians Album - (30)
1959 Chicago White Sox - card # 44
1960 Topps - card # 458 - Chicago White Sox Coaches
1968 Detroit Free Press Bubblegumless Tiger Cards - (3)
1972 TCMA The 1930's - (14)
1974 Bramac 1933 National League All-Stars - card #5
1975 TCMA 1954 Cleveland Indians - (3)
1978 Grand Slam - card # 166
1979 Diamond Great - card # 208
1983 Big League Collectibles Original All-Stars - card # 28
1983 Renata Galasso 1933 All-Stars - card # 1
1983 TCMA/Renata Galasso - card # 223
1989 L.A. Dodgers Greats Fire Safety - card # 37
1989 Pacific Legends II - card # 170
1990 Target Dodgers - card # 153
1994 Conlon Collection - card # 1171 - Tony and Al Cuccinello
1995 Conlon Collection - card # 1391

My nod to the Super Bowl

I've been underwhelmed by the NFL this year.  But I will be attending a Super Bowl party.  I'm leaving early to get the kiddo ready for school tomorrow.  Also Downton Abbey is on.  Mostly I see the Super Bowl as a prelude to the return of The Blacklist on NBC.

My brother gave me this card.  I think it was left over from when one of his coworkers was canned.  You know, after the guy leaves, everyone goes to his desk to scavenge?  Find a better stapler.  Hopefully get back the pens that he stole from you.  If you're lucky you get a newer desk chair, maybe just the chair mat.  My brother got Mirro's only football card.

1975 Topps
Mirro Roder (card # 508)

So, the back of the card looks like a pinball machine.  Apparently they don't have schools in Czechoslovakia.  And following one path of immigrants in the Windy City he drove taxis for a year.

Go (insert favorite team name here)!

Finding what makes me happy

I haven't purchased a new pack of cards in many, many months. I've been slowing adding to my 1971 Topps (Series 1) pursuit.  After the December holidays I found that I had some left over jingle in my pocket.  To ebay I went.

For less than what I would have spent on a new pack of cards (less than $5 delivered) I picked up an R318 Dodger.  Apparently he'd been moonlighting as Paul M. Longacre, but who am I to quibble?

This is my second R318.  The first one came to me as a prize from Spike several years ago.  I scanned it and then put it in a secret hiding place for protection.  So secret that I've forgotten where it is.

1934 Batter-Up (R318)
Tony Cuccinello (card # 79)

Let's see, what else makes me happy?  Doing baseball research.  I have a few other blogs that I also ignore from time to time.

I've been looking at the University of Tennessee Record Book at Old Knoxville Base Ball.  And just random baseball stuff at Baseball Nuggets.

I'm probably going to pick up a few more Tony Cuccinello cards.  I guess putting together a checklist for him would make me happy.

Ronnie Reese - by request

Back in June of last year I picked up some UT basketball cards.

Reader Elizabeth asked if there was any chance that I'd post the Ronnie Reese card.

Elizabeth, just for you, here's the Ronnie Reese card.  Front and back.  Along with the remaining cards from that set.

Here are Ronnie Reese's stats from when he played at UT.

I've got nothing more to say about this set, except that real bears in the Smoky Mountains don't wear pants.

Digital Tomfoolery

Every so often I like to break out my card creative skills. No, I'm no Punk Rock Paint or SlangKo, but I dabble. Last week, to honor Randy Johnson's election to the Baseball Hall of Fame, I threw this relic card together.

I'm reading a book about J.R.R. Tolkien. There's a section about tobacco use, both of Tolkien and in his books.  It made me start wondering why I hadn't seen any tobacco type cards featuring the Lord of the Rings characters.  So I made a mock up.

I based it on the T206 card of Moose Grimshaw.

There are some elements of the pipeweed card that I'm not keen on, but mostly it was an exercise to see if I remembered how to play with layers.

#WalletCard

So, it seems that the #WalletCard is all the rage these days.  I was flapping my way through the twitter late last night and I stumbled across Night Owl's tweet about his WalletCard.  I thought to myself: "Hmmm.  That sounds like a mash-up of what I did sometime back."

I looked back at Greg's blog and found his post about it.  He gave me a bit of a shout out (although he got the name of my blog wrong.  I think that it is now officially called "Mark's Only Gonna Blog When He's In Danger Of Rolling Off The Sports Card Blogroll".).

Greg says that the current fad is a variation on my experiment.  That's carrying around a bunch of cards.  Another correction for Greg.  I carry the cards around in the left front pocket of my jeans/slacks.  He said that it was my shirt pocket.  I can see where he made that assumption (based on my post), but no self respecting school aged boy is going to wear a shirt with a pocket.  My bad for not being clear about which pocket.

I'd also add the mix of WalletCard - the photos.  Five years ago I took Cy Seymour out and about.  Please note that I'm not claiming to be the father of the WalletCard phenomenon.  I just needed a post for January.

Update on the "What if" question.  I'm still carrying the cards around, all through the holidays.  Maybe they'll be my WalletCard.  Without the wallet.  And there are multiples.  But I've never been one to play by the rules.  WalletCards?  PocketCards?  PantsCards?  I'll just go with WalletCard.

John Marzano peeking out from under the sombrero
#WalletCard

On to other things.  You know.  Something where I can share some photos of semi serious cards.  When one's birthday and Christmas are just a week apart one can get cash because nobody know what to get one.  I'm a winner.

So, after some thought I headed to ebay.

1909-10 Murad T51
College Series 26-50
The University of Tennessee - Polo

As far as I know UT did not have a polo club.  I haven't checked, but I will.


From a different seller I snagged this card that I wrote about wanting just 11 months ago.  I think that this is the earliest card of a Knoxville Smokie ball player.

1933 Goudey
Walter French (card # 177)

Both came in at reasonable prices.  I still have some more jingle in my pocket.  Well, it is muffled by the WalletCard I carry there.  I'm back off to ebay.  Who knows what I'll find.  Anyone want to guess?

Returning to the Night Owl.  It still give me a lift to have my blog/name mentioned on another blog.  Thanks, Greg.

The "What If" question is answered

Half a year ago I asked the question of What if...?   What if I took 20 sports cards and treated them like I might have when I was in elementary school for the summer?

And now I know.

I didn't do everything a school aged kid might do.  I didn't draw on them.  I didn't put them in the spokes of my bike.  But I did carry them around with me everywhere I went.  Weddings?  Check.  Funerals?  Yep.  Work.  Church.  The store.  Ball games.  Concerts.  Everywhere.

I mostly kept them in my left front pocket.  I also started to keep my keys in that same pocket.  And Brandon Belt was near the top of the stack on most days.  I didn't pull them out every day at lunch and try to memorize the stats.  I just didn't.

Bartolo Colon was at the bottom of the stack.  I went through five rubber bands during the course of the summer.  The late 1980s Topps cards seemed to get flimsier.  They stayed in the middle of the stack.  The more modern Topps cards, also near the middle of the stack, fared rather well.  Tim Federowicz's name wore right off the front of his card.  The last picture of the bunch is designed to show the side wear.

Here are some closer photos of some of the cards.

Now the researcher in me wants to try the same thing on a bunch of Good/Very Good cards from the middle of each decade.  I don't have the time nor patience to give that a go.

For now I think that I might just keep the stack in my pocket and see what happens at opening day, 2015.