Exhibiting My Newest Billy Williams Card

This came too late to include in the Billy Williams tile on Tuesday, so it gets its own post.

This card is from the Exhibit Supply Company of Chicago.  They put out an unnumbered set over a 20 year period (1947 - 1966) that ended up with 336 different cards.  The cards were printed on a heavy cardboard stock and featured black and white photos.  The backs are blank and unnumbered.  The cards are larger than the standard sized baseball card, measuring 3 3/8" by 5 3/8".

But my card isn't from that monster set.  Mine is from a 64 card set released by Exhibit in 1963.  The front is identical to the '47 - '66 card, but the back was different.  Instead of a blank back, it features stats like most other baseball cards.

Its still pretty plain looking, but at least there's something there.

This makes #153 in my growing Billy Williams collection.

Not Where You'd Expect to See the Ball

Action shot cards often show the ball in mid-air.  You'd expect to see the ball...

....here, coming out of the pitcher's hand (anyone remember Marc Pisciotta, I don't!).  Or maybe...

....here, smashed off the bat.

But you wouldn't expect to see the ball....

....about to smack the runner in the head....

....or in the gut.  Ouch!

Ernie, Much Better Looking

After a couple ugly, old man Ernie cards on Sunday, I'm happy to go back to

a much nicer looking card of Ernie.  This looks to be from Ernie's stint as a coach, and based on the uniform he's got on (a pullover), this has to be 1973.  I was 11 years old during the 1973 season and this is exactly how I remember Mr. Cub.

I featured this card about two weeks ago, a card from Baseball Card News' 1982 set.  But this isn't the same card.  There are two different backs with these.

Here's what the back of this card looks like.  Unlike the story of baseball cards that was written on the other card, this is the subscription card.  You can see that they were giving the complete set to anyone who subscribe to the magazine.  Looks like the one year subscription was the best deal; a buck an issue plus two card sets.

What I don't know is how these cards were distributed.  The fine print on the bottom says "These cards are not for sale."  Were they included in the magazine?  Given away at hobby shops?  card show?  Anyone know?

Tile Tuesday: Billy Willams

Today's tile is for Brian of 30 Year Old Cardboard, who requested a Billy Williams tile.  I've got 156 cards of Billy and the collection is gradually growing.  My next targets are OPC versions from his playing days.  It also looks like he may have a few cards in next year's Heritage set.  Heritage is moving into the middle sixties, the era when Billy's career really took off.  I would expect to see more of him (and hopefully Ron Santo, too) and less of Ernie Banks.

The tile is eight cards across, which should hopefully give you a decent look at each of the cards.  The top two rows are all of the Topps cards from his playing days.  The rest are other releases from his active career and more recent cards.  I've got five autographs mixed in too.

2012 Cubs Scorecard

It took me almost the entire season to finally get this year's Cubs scorecard..  Often I've picked one up off of ebay, but this year, there haven't been very many offered.  So this one I got in person on Saturday.

The cover on the card is disappointingly boring.  Cubs scorecards have had some wonderful artwork over the years, but not this year.

This is the second year in a row that I've gone to Wrigley late in the season.  Last year I got three tickets for five bucks.  This year I paid more than that, but still got four tickets for half the face value.  The way the Cubs have played this year, tickets are easy to come by and cheap.  That makes my wallet happy, but I still think I'd rather have a winning team with expensive tickets.

We had good seats down the third base line six rows above the main lower desk aisle.  They had a nice view of the field with no obstructions.

The game was not good.  Making his Cubs debut, Oriole reject Jason Berken gave up one run in each of the first three innings and three more in the fourth.  His efforts left the Cubs in a 6-1 hole.  They chipped away, and scored two in the ninth to make the final a respectable 7-6.  But with the slow start it felt like they were never in the game.

The highlights of the day for me were a couple of defensive gems turned in by Darwin Barney.   He made a great grab of a flyball in the outfield, leaping over rightfielder Dave Sappelt after the catch.  Later, he made stabbed a hard hit shot and made the play at first.  You can check out the plays here.

Barney has set the NL records for consecutive errorless games at second base in a single season and overall.  He's zeroing in on the ML single season record.  What he did on Saturday showed why.

He's starting to create some Gold Glove buzz, but Brandon Phillips seems to have a stranglehold on the award right now.  It will be interesting to see which way the voters go.

Don't Put An 80-Year-Old Man on a Baseball Card

Here is a young Ernie Banks, with his whole career ahead of him.

By the late '50s he was one of the most dominant players in the game

His best days were behind him in 1970, but this is the Ernie of my childhood, Mr. Cub

I really don't want my mental picture of Ernie corrupted by pictures like these...

 

....from Upper Deck's 2012 Goodwin Champions.  

Heart and Soul

A recent ebay purchase netted me three cards for the player collections.  All three are from Baseball Card Magazine...

 

1989 Ryne Sandberg and Andre Dawson, with the Topps 1959 design

and a 1990 Ryne Sandberg using Topps' 1969 design.

Does anyone know if the magazine had permission from Topps to copy their design?  My guess is probably not.  Times were different back then.

The fronts are nice looking cards, but a couple of the backs seemed to contradict each other.  Take a peek, with the '89 Dawson on top followed by the '90 Sandberg.

In 1989, Andre Dawson was the heart and soul of the team.  The next year, Dawson was out and Sandberg was in.  And they're was no doubt (at least according to the card).  You would have thought that the '89 Cubs would have done better in the playoffs than they did since they had two hearts and two souls.  I guess the Giants must have had three or four.