Off to My LCS With a Lot of Lists and a Little Cash!!!

So it has been a GREAT way for trading and collecting for your friend the Troll... I got my cast off, I ripped a whole bunch of 2011 Topps Series 2, I created some new want lists and made some new trading buddies. Thanks to BA Benny and Justins World I need just 12 cards to finish off 2011 Topps Series 1 and 2... Specifically those cards that I need are: 331,333,343,388,523,541,554,574,582,618 and 639... Please get in touch if you can help a Troll out...
Sticking a fork in 2011 Topps is a top priority right now, but vintage will ALWAYS BE KING in the Casa de Troll... Everybody's favorite Junkie, Senor dayf got the vintage ball rolling with a surprise package and my local buddy Frank came back from a card show in South Florida with 23 1965 Topps cards for me! Thanks to them I need just 159 more cards to finish this off!!! I am sitting at 73.4% completion!!! Now that is a GREAT feeling. My '65 list is up to date once again, check it out here. If you have a spare copy of card #350 I have a cool Blake DeWitt card that I could send your way...
Anyway, I have oodles of cards to post, but now I am racing off to the LCS with Gint-A-Cuffs on my mind... Wish me luck... Go Rays!!! troll out.

The Joy of a Completed Page - 1965 Topps Edition...

Greetings Trollites!!! I have waited a LONG time for card #170 and it is FINALLY home in my binder!!! Yep, page #19 featuring cards #ed from 163-171 is packed full of vintage goodness. With this one full, pages 1-22 are filled, it is a good feeling… I love this hobby!!! Thanks to all who helped me get this far!!! Go Rays! Troll out.

Anybody Have any Spare 1963 Topps Cards They Don't Need???

So, I have been a list making fool! I am even getting a little bit organized... Instead of piles and stacks of cards all over the floor, I now have 27 binders on the floor and stacks of boxes of random cards up on shelves. I have started working on 1979, 2007, 2008 and 2009 Topps. I am still trying to chase ALL of the inserts from 2010 Topps and someday I would like to finish off 2009 and 2010 Heritage.

1965 Topps is still my #1 obsession and I am now 70% done with that set!!! I am thrilled with that, but I still have Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Pete Rose, Sandy Koufax, Ernie Banks, Yogi Berra, Carl Yaz,Harmon Killebrew and a whole mess of short prints standing in my way. Basically, its gonna be a while before I make much progress...

I need a new (cheaper) vintage fix and have decided on 1963 Topps. This set has grown on me a ton and even though I have NO Hall of Fame cards from the set and I know Mantle, Mays, Aaron and Pete Rose are gonna set me back a ton, but I want to try anyway... I got a binder for them, got enough pages to finish the set and I have the 20 different cards I currently own in the binder - Its pretty laughable really... I have around 3% of the set and have page after page completely empty, BUT ya gotta start somewhere.

I know I have tapped the blog-o-sphere out for '65s, so I now I can start begging for '63s. Anybody got any??? I do have a little trade bait... I have about 5 cards each from '56-'59, around 20 from 1960, 30 from '61 and 20 from '62. I have a couple '64s and about 50 dupes from 1965. I have a few from '66 and '67 and no '68 or '69. I have a few 1973s and 1978s, but otherwise I am tapped out. But, if you wanna trade vintage for vintage, I have some, so lets make a deal!!!

You can find my needs list for 1963 Topps right HERE, please check it out. Chances are if you have a card from this series, I need it. I updated my '65 needs list too, you can find that HERE. Oh, shifting back to the present, thanks to all of my generous blogging buddies, I have a bunch of 2011 Topps on their way to me and pending arrival I need only ONE MORE CARD!!!!


So if anyone has card #18 of Kevin Millwood from 2011 Topps, PLEASE send it my way... I am getting mega close on the minis, too. You can find the whole list for 2011 HERE.


I still need to go through the 2010 Topps binder to figure out what I need to finish the base. According to my needs page I only need a handful of cards, but I think there are at least 30 empty slots. I will update that SOON. My list for Yo Mama cards AND Turkey Reds are up to date. If anyone else is still working on those, I bought a few lots from both those sets. I haven't received them yet, but I will have some dupes for trading... Okay, thanks for checking this out.


I will actually post something else beyond begging soon, but til then, SEND ME YOUR 1963 TOPPS!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks again to EVERYONE who has hooked me up with 2011 Topps!!! I LOVE the blog-o-sphere, y'all rawk!!!!!!!!
Go Rays! troll out.

The Joy of a Completed Page - 46 Year Old Short Print Edition...

First off. Sorry about the "no posts" last night. I worked a VERY long double shift yesterday and fully intended on putting together a month's worth of posts in one night. Small problem. I couldn't get internet outdoors anymore like I did last year. I didn't bring my handy dandy USB LAN adaptor thingy and just couldn't get online, so I wrote a couple of posts in Word, but they need some work before they are ready to go. I am trying to get my Jeep back up and running today, so I am a little busy, BUT I didn't want to go all day without a post, SO...

How about the Joy of a Completed Page? I have finished several pages in my 1965 Topps binder - actually I have finished 23 pages. Some pages have Hall of Famers on them, some have sweet rookies, the one I posted a couple of weeks back had little pictures of 11 (should be 12, Ron Santo...) different Hall of Famers including Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Sandy Koufax and Brooks Robinson... I worked hard and spent big to finish that page and I am really proud of it. Today's page doesn't have the big names on it, but is far rarer than PAGE 1. When I started my mission in collecting this set I wanted to start at card one and work my way up 9 cards at a time. I let it be known that I wanted '65 Topps cards badly and a bunch of you traded with me and I snatched up every '65 Topps card that walked into my LCS. I also bought a few lots of cards here and there on the auction sites. What ended up happening was I got higher numbered cards than I had intended. Originally I just kept all cards numbered above 300 randomly in pages, not in numerical order. Well, my Mother-In-Law got me a box of Ultra Pro pages as a birthday gift this year so I decided to spread the binder out to include 70 pages. Enough to house cards 1-598 in order with a few extra pages for dupes. Anyway, I realized I had more short prints than I thought. To be honest, I don't know anything about the print totals in this set or what is a short print or how short printed they are.

I have always understood that cards numbered 523 to 598 are super short-printed. There are some NICE cards in there. Lou Brock (thanks Wicked!) and Tony Perez' rookie card might be the 2 best, they are the 2 best in my binder at least. Anyway, I got off track, but I am hoping that someone can tell me more about short prints in this set. On the auction sites sellers seem to tag any card higher than 300 as an SP in the description. I don't believe that. I have also been told that cards 485 (Nellie Fox) and above are all SPs. If THAT is the case, then this page I am showing today would be a legit group of 9 short prints. Anyway, any full page is pretty awesome in my book (or binder!). If these really are short prints than even better. Included on this page are card #489 Gene Mauch, 490 Earl Battey, 491 Tracy Stallard, 492 Gene Freese, 493 Tigers Rookies, 494 Jay Ritchie, 495 Joe Christopher, 496 Joe Cunningham and 497 Giants Rookies.

Hopefully someone can tell me if these are legit SPs. Either way, I am pretty happy to fill a page in the second half of the ole binder. Collecting this set has been amazingly fun for me. I love this hobby, I really do, but if you are getting burned out on it I would highly recommend chasing a Topps set from the 60s, 70s or early 80's. It will definitely get your hobby blood pumping again! Thanks for reading! As always, you are encouraged to check out my want list for this amazing set. I have passed the 50% completion point and I don't want to slow down! I love this game, I love this hobby! Back to work on the Jeep... Wish me luck... Go vintage! troll out.

I Love '65!!!!I

My parents hadn't even met in 1965, I mean the Topps set from that year... I don't have time for a real post, but I just got some more cards in the mail today. Didn't have time to scan them, but I DID cross them off the list, which is UP TO DATE! I extended it and somehow I have managed to cross off 60% of the set including short prints! Holy crap! More to come. Troll is off to work... troll out.

The Joy of a Completed Page (and I mean JOY!!!) 1965 Topps Editon

I think I have been chasing the 1965 Topps set since I started this blog nearly 2 years ago... My goal was to start from the beginning and work my way up, completely a page at a time. Well, I never considered how costly the League Leaders cards would be and here I am with 23 completed pages in the set, but finally finishing page 1. As a word to the wise, if you are thinking of completing a set, consider how many little tiny pictures there are of Mickey Mantle in the set. His images, big or small, can be very expensive. Anyway, page 1 is done!!! I feel like I could accomplish anything now! By the by, the needs list is up to date... Thanks for reading, go rays! troll out.

The Collective Troll Christmas Card of the Day!

Welcome Trollites!!! I wanted to extend a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday wishes for the blog-o-sphere once more. It has been a wonderful year for me and I wanted to thank all of you for having a hand in making it so.

I didn’t want this post to solely be of holiday well-wishes, so I found another glorious red and green card to feature. This one was on my wantlist for over a year, but I can scratch it off and for that I am thankful. It is also one of the sharpest cards I own…

The Christmas Edition Troll at the Plate Card of the Day comes from 1965 Topps Baseball, aka the best set of the past 50 years. It is card #42 of Boston Red Sox pitcher Earl Wilson. Despite the fact that he never played in an All Star Game, Wilson was one of the top pitchers in the American League during the 1960s. He was signed by the Red Sox organization as a teenager in 1953 and made his Major League debut with Boston in 1959. He was the second African American player on the Red Sox, after Pumpsie Green, and was the first pitcher.

By 1962 he was a regular part of the Red Sox rotation and posted a record of 12-8 that year. That same season, as the back of the card mentions, Wilson no hit Bo Belinsky and the Angels 2-0. Wilson provided the offense in that game for the Sox hitting a homerun to put the Sox on the scoreboard. With that no hitter on June 26th, Wilson made the history books several ways. He was the first African American pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the American League and he became just the third pitcher to throw a no-hitter and hit a homerun in the same game.

Wilson was a successful batter and hit 33 homers in 740 at bats over his career. This ranks him 5th All Time among pitchers. Only Wes Ferrell, Red Ruffing, Warren Spahn and Bob Lemon matched him in that category.

Of course it was his arm that keep him employed and from 1962-1969 he was among the best righties in the AL as he won more than 11 games in each of those 9 seasons. He tossed a no hitter in ’62 and in 1966 he was 18-11 with 200 strikeouts for the Sox and Tigers combined.

In 1967, his first full season in Detroit, he had his finest year. He was 22-11 in 38 starts for the Tigers. He logged 264 innings and completed 12 games. His 22 wins tied him for the League lead. Had the Sox not traded him away many believe they would have won it all in ’67, but alas the Curse of the Bambino and all…

The following season Wilson saw the postseason. As a member of the Tigers he won it all in ’68. In the rotation with Denny McClain and Mickey Lolich, Wilson won 13 games for Detroit in ’68 and had a stellar 2.85 ERA. He would win 12 games for the Tigers in 1969 before heading to San Diego in 1970. That would be his final season. He retired with a 121-109 mark, a 3.69 ERA and 1452 strikeouts. He earned a ring with the Tigers in ’68 and at the plate had a .195 batting average with 35 homers and 111 RBI in 740 at bats. A poor year at the plate in his final year with the Padres plunged his career batting average under 200.

As a long sought after card and a lovely red and green color scheme, this seemed the perfect Christmas card…

Don’t forget to enter my contest and win yourself some sweet 1956s…

Go Rays! Good night Pumpsie Green wherever you are and thanks to everyone who has hooked me up in my quest in for '65 Topps AND thanks to Larry and everyone else who has sent me Holiday greetings! You guys rule!! Troll out.

Now That Joe Morgan is Unemployed, Is it Safe to Recognize Him as One of the Best Second Baseman of All Time?

... and not just one of the worst broadcasters who played pro ball at one time on the same team as Steve Carlton...

I have decided to stop hating on him personally. I will probably even change the Nitty Gritty blog header. I am pleased to say that in my 1965 Topps binder I have changed the card in the slot for card #16. I really can't believe that I was able to complete this odd trifecta.

So, is Joe Morgan forgiven?

Okay. Off to work. A few notes... The Legendary Cardboard Junkie just offered up a huge trade involving 1965 Topps. Of the 27 trade bait cards I offered, they are ALL taken. BA Benny, Daily Dimwit and Captain Canuck - yours are all on the way AND dayf will be taking the rest off of my hands in return for a huge chunk off my wantlist. I am PSYCHED!!!! Oh, speaking of psych... I got an A in Psychology last year, but pulled off an A in Sociology this semester after getting a 99 on my final exam. Woo hoo!!! My other grades are still pending.

I will announce the contest tomorrow. There was an issue with the prize card, but I bought a few more to try and replace it. I think all will be pleased, I hope. Thanks to everyone for trading with me! Just a few more cards and the first 20 pages of my 1965 Topps binder are done!!!

Go baseball card collecting! troll out.

Checking Off...

Any set-builder knows the thrill of scratching a card off of their needs list. Since I prioritized 1965 Topps, I have had great luck doing just that. Earlier this week I got a card in the mail – a single card purchase I made from an auction site (it isn't the sweet Norm Cash card). With this card I needed only 3 more cards to complete the first 99 cards of the set.

With each new card I get I generally spend a while staring at the photo, reading and re-reading the back, googling the player to look for new information and career stats, then I scan the card and finally put it in the binder.

The card I am writing about today broke that routine. It was a much needed one and I anticipated owning it, but holding it in my hands I didn’t feel that excitement I generally do.
It did fill up a page, which is awesome, but there was no googling, no memories, no stories, no sweet photos, no getting to learn about a player I may not have been too familiar with.

That is because card #79 is a checklist.

When I was a kid checklists were cool. Like many others, I used them. Well, I didn’t write ON them, I put them in a penny sleeve and then marked them off AND I used them to make my want list. Now, with the power of the internet I had a checklist before I even bought a binder. All this card really does is fill a hole in a page. This card is in GREAT shape, a little off-center, but has sharp corners and no markings. I got a good deal on it and it shipped to me for 3 bucks, but that was only after a lot of careful searching. These can and do sell for 5 bucks a pop PLUS shipping, for a card with no pictures.
Looking at this one does make me smile now that I think of it. The front lists the first 34 cards in the set. I have ALL but one.

The back shows cards numbered 35 – 88. I have all but 2 of those.
Collecting this set has renewed my love of this hobby. All of crap with Topps’ monopoly, overpriced cards and crappy inserts goes away when you dive into a set like this. I definitely recommend it to anyone who is getting disenchanted with the hobby.

But, I am wondering – how do y’all feel about checklists?

That’s all for now. Details on the contest will come soon along with details on my grades. I have to wait till Monday for my test score so I don’t know whether to be happy or sad just yet. Feel free to check out my want list. The binder is looking damn good with 97% of the first 100 cards safely sitting in its pages. Oh, Norm Cash has little to do with this post, but I wanted a real photo of a card that I got REALLY excited about scratching off my list...
Go Rays! Troll out.

Trade Bait Update

Greetings Trollites!!!
I wanted to thank everyone for checking out my 1965 Topps Trade Bait Posts. Four of you took advantage of these, a few cards have been claimed, I scratched several cards off of my wantlist AND I finished up 2 different Allen and Ginter mini subsets, so I am pretty happy. There are still a bunch more cards available. I want to keep on posting more vintage trade bait, but unless there are readers out there who have cards from my wantlist that are just waiting for the right bait card, I think it would be a waste of time. What do you guys think? Anyway, I think I need only 14 more cards to polish off the first 20 pages in my binder. This number includes Hank Aaron and Roger Maris, but whatever...
Go Rays! troll out.

1965 Topps Trade Bait Volume 3, The Final Offering...

Okay, this is my third post on this topic and my third post today. I can barely keep my eyes open already and I still haven't even started my shift at work yet. It is going to be a LONG night! Anyway, without any further adieu, here is the final page and last 9 cards I have to offer up for trade. It might help if you read this post first. Reading my 1965 Topps wantlist may be helpful as well. Anyway, here we go! I am offering for trade cards #ed:

152 Phil Ortega - Senators
156 Bob Sadowski - Braves - Claimed Waxaholic

162 Russ Nixon - Red Sox, no Twins!
177 Pete Mikkelsen - Yankees - Claimed BA Benny
181 Senators Rookie Stars - Loun and McCabe

211 Steve Ridzik - Senators

226 Yankees Rookie Stars - Jiminez and Gibbs (2 available)-1 Claimed-BA Benny

333 Tommy Reynolds - Athletics

409 Astros Rookie Stars - Beauchamp and Larry Dierker - CLAIMED-Daily Dimwit

As always, thanks for looking. If you want a card, claim it in the comments and send me an electronic mail message with your offer. This will be the last formal trade bait post. Be aware that all cards here, in the header and being posted on the Nitty Gritty are up for trade in exchange for '65 Topps from my want list. As you are reading this, I am at work. I love the magic of scheduled posts... Anyway, thanks for looking. Go Rays! troll out.

1965 Topps Trade Bait Volume 2, Come and Get 'Em!

Okay, if you are just stopping by, please read the post below. I am trying to finish off a set, 1965 Topps Baseball to be specific. My needs list is HERE. Below you will find 9 cards from that very set that are duplicates and I no longer have a use for them. My idea is that perhaps someone does need them and might have something that I need and be willing to make a deal. It sounds solid in theory. Here we go!
Cards #ed
70 Moose Skowron - White Sox
86 Les Narum - Senators
87 Nelson Mathews KC Athletics
109 Walt Bond - Colt 45s (a bit off-center) - CLAIMED Daily Dimwit
117 Wes Stock -KC Athletics
128 Vic Davalillo - Indians
142 Bill Monboquette - Red Sox
146 Ron Hansen - White Sox
148 Willie Kirkland - Senators (yes, he has a toothpick in his mouth, does anyone collect those?)

Okay, that does it for round 2. I have one more page to post today. I really hope that someone needs something here. If you do, claim in the comments and send me an email por favor. Go Rays! RE-SIGN CARL CRAWFORD! troll out.

1965 Topps - Begging and Offering...The First in a 3 Part Series of '65 Topps Trade Bait! Come and Get It!

Okay, my needs list is updated for 1965 Topps. It now includes my needs for the first 314 cards - it is a long list... I also included my dupes and most wanted cards. I REALLY want to get card #3. It is the last League Leader card that I need and if I get it I will have the first 3 pages filled. Anyway, here are 27 cards I have 2 of. In most cases I took the better condition card for my binder, but not in all. If you are really interested I can send you single card scans of a card shown. Anyway, here they are in all their glory... The first page includes cards #ed:
13 Pedro Ramos - Yankees - Claimed BA Benny
23 Bob Tiefenauer - Braves
27 Dick Bertell - Cubbies
51 Billy Bryan (really rough shape) Athletics
56 Ron Kline - Senators (has a pen mark below pennant)
57 St. Louis Cardinals (duh) - Claimed BA Benny
60 Jim O'Toole ( a little creased) Reds
66 Bill Rigney - Angels Manager

68 Del Crandall - Giants

Okay, there you have the first 9. There are 18 more cards coming, probably in about an hour or two. The rules are - claim the card on the comments here and send me an email with your offer.

My goal is to pick up as many 1965 Topps cards for my set.

I do have other want list needs that I will consider. I will probably not trade a '65 Topps card for a 2008 Topps Willy Aybar. Just saying.

One thing I can guarantee I would consider is Topps Gold, Black or Platinum Rays parallels. If I don't have it I could def consider trading vintage for those Topps parallels. A Rays uniform auto of any of the players listed on the side bar would be pretty nice too...

I hope there is something here that somebody wants.

I bought a couple of lots on the 'bay on Veterans Day (my day off from work!) and although they were both good deals, I ended up not scratching too many numbers off of my want list AND getting a whole bunch of dupes. I bought a 20 card lot and a 27 card lot and I have now 27 doubles left. Not too good Troll. Anyway, thanks for looking, lot 2 will be up shortly.

A few quick notes... Cash is limited around here, so unless you object the chosen card will be put in a penny sleeve, top loader and team bag and shipped in a plain white envelope with a single stamp.

Also, unless I note it otherwise, EVERY card I post will be available to trade for cards on my needs list, especially card #3! Go Rays! troll out.

1965 Topps - Trade Bait Coming Soon

My biggest collecting focus right now is my 1965 Topps set... I really wanna fill some holes in it. I found 27 dupes from the set that I will post tomorrow. I have some completed pages to post up, too... If you have any '65 Topps cards, please take a second and glance over my needs list. If you have a card I need, I will find a card that YOU need. All of the cards in the header are up for grabs and I will be posting random cards here and on the Nitty Gritty from 1956 on up - they are all out there for trade for '65s I need. Till tomorrow. Oh, the sooner I can determine what cards I am trading, the sooner the contest will go up... Go Rays! troll out.

Speaking of All Stars...

This guy went to the Midsummer Classic 15 times and is arguably the greatest rightfielder of All Time. He is most certainly my favorite player. I met reader Paul through blogging, but realized that he lives within 5 miles of me. We got together this weekend and did some face to face trading. The result was 23 cards being scratched off my ’65 Topps wantlist including this one, card #160 of Roberto Clemente. The list is up to date if you are interested… Thanks Paul! I am recording the game tonight while I am at work so don’t tell me what happens! Go Rays! Troll out.

New Want List is Up!

I mentioned before that I decided to collect 1965 Topps AGAIN. I got very close (80%) to finishing the set before I lost them all. I wasn't planning on trying again, but I just really like this set and my fellow bloggers have been very generous. I decided that with my budget I would chase the set in stages. Initially I was planning on working on cards 1-90 only. 10 pages worth and within the realm off possibilities for my budget. Things have been going well with that plan and I am only 21 cards away from finishing off the first ten pages. With that success I added a few more pages to the binder and a list to go along with them. I also picked up a few of the key cards to help me on my way. My time is limited for commentary, but here is the newest addition to my 1965 Topps collection, a very sharp card #150 of the 1964 American League MVP and arguably the GREATEST third baseman of ALL Time Brooks Robinson. Anyway, the new WANT LIST is right HERE and incidentally I updated all of my other lists, too. Thanks for looking! I love this game, I love this hobby. Go Rays! Troll out.

Thursday Afternoon Odds and Ends...

Okay, here are a few Thursday afternoon odds and ends from the Troll… First off I need to do my civic duty as a blogger and pimp the fantastic contest over at Hey That’s Mine! Hosted by blogger and card creator Big D. You can check out the contest HERE, but I will give you a quick synopsis. Big D makes custom one of a kind cards. I am really lucky that I own two of these already, including this one of super-lefty David Price who is finally having the season that he was supposed to have last year. Since Big D made me two one of a kind cards AND since it isn't completely out of the question that Price and Longoria could win Cy Young and MVP Awards this year, I am posting my other Big D custom card of Longo. These are NOT up for trade... Okay, to enter the contest you simply have to comment with your name and which player you would like to have a custom card of. The possibilities are endless, but you do have to supply Big D with an image. Okay, go there and enter the contest, tell him the Troll sent you, yadda yadda yadda… While I am pimping links I want to encourage you to check out a Pack to be Named Later. I just posted a pack that you can find HERE.
You should follow it and check it out daily though. If you are involved in the long overdue Collective Troll box and pack break, you should definitely check it out to see what you are getting. I will post the list soon of who has what team. For those of you who read this post on 1993 Donruss Masters-I got curious and opened 3 more packs.
The first two yielded Jose Canseco and Gary Sheffield, but I got this sweet Ryno in the third pack. Okay, I have been very lucky in the getting great stuff in the mail department lately so I have a TON of great cards to post. I am also buying cards here and there for my personal collections of Danny Tartabull, Jared Sandberg and Buck O’Neil. My newest one is this 1995 Pinnacle Museum Collection card of Danny Tartabull. The Yankees uniform nearly ruins it, but I really like Dufex cards, so I am happy with it. Plus I got it, shipping included for $1.25. Sweet. For those of you following my progress with collecting the 1965 Topps set I have restarted that journey after losing it all. I finished my first page today thanks to my local card shop, my awesome readers and a few really cheap auctions, here it is: With card #25 or 72 I can finish off two more pages. Right now I am working on 10 pages at a time so I am focused on cards #1-90; I am 65% of the way there. My weakest spot is League Leaders 1-9 right now cuz these can be a bit pricy. That’s all for now, I am gonna try and pull off a Nitty Gritty post in the 15 minutes I have before work. Thanks for reading. Check out Big D’s Custom Contest. Go Rays! Troll out.

Card of the Day-1965 Topps Sam Mele

Today’s card of the day is from the 1965 Topps set-and YES it is another Minnesota Twins card. I think I have more Twins cards than cards of any other team from that year. A big part of that is the Twins awesome season that year-going from a second division team in ’64 to a pennant winning, Yankees dethroning powerhouse in 1965. Part of my fascination with “Sam” Mele is his name. I don’t know if he is in the Great Sports Name Hall of Fame or not, but he belongs there. SAM is an acronym for this full name-Sabbath Anthony Mele. Yeah, his name is Sabbath Mele. Sabbath, which Webster’s defines as a time of rest and worship. Mele is a common misspelling for the word melee, which is a fight or struggle. The juxtaposition of the two words, meaning a day of relaxation and worship, fight just makes me laugh. Another thing that makes me laugh is the picture, obviously posed, but looking extremely managerial. Another juxtaposition that pleases me is the ’65 Mele placed beside Al Lopez’ ’65 Topps card-it looks like they are calling to each other. Sam Mele took the job of Twins skipper during their first season in Minnesota in 1961. He took over for Cookie Lavagetto in June of that year. Under his guidance the Twins finished the ’61 season in 7th place, but they jumped to 2nd and 3rd place finishes the next two years. In 1964, despite a few amazing individual performances from Camilo Pasqual (213 Ks), Harmon Killebrew (49 homers) and Rookie of the Year Tony Oliva (.323 BA) the Twins fell to 6th place in the AL in 1964. Things didn’t look good for Mele’s future-it looked as though Billy Martin (then 3rd base coach) would take his job. He didn’t and Mele skippered the Twins to a 102 win season and the AL pennant in 1965 behind an MVP performance from Zoilo Versalles and solid pitching from Mudcat Grant, Jim Kaat and Jim Perry. The Twins would lose to the Dodgers in 7, but it was one of the more amazing turnarounds for any team. The '65 season is chronicled somewhat in this CT post. Mele didn’t coach the Twins back to the Series in ’66; they had a good year (89-73) but were no match for the start of the Baltimore Orioles Dynasty. In 1967 the Twins were .500 after 50 games which was far below expectations as the Twins now had a fantastic rookie named Rod Carew-Mele was fired and replaced by Cal Ermer. After his firing Mele never managed again-he returned to the Boston Red Sox organization (where he spent 6 seasons as a player) and worked as a scout for 25 years. He is now 87 years of age, completely retired from baseball and residing in Quincy, Massachusetts. As a major league manager his record is 524-436 (.546) including several 2nd place finishes and the 1965 AL Pennant. His card is number 506 in the set and the back of the card discusses his playing days, he spent 10 seasons in the major leagues playing for 6 different teams. During his rookie year with the Boston Red Sox in 1947 Mele batted .302 with 12 homers and 73 RBI. In 1951, while playing for the Washington Senators, Mele paced the AL with 36 doubles and drove in a career high 94 runs. It also mentions that he is the nephew of former All Star infielder Tony Cuccinello. I was going to put words in Mr. Mele’s mouth, but I will leave that up to you guys, comment away blog-o-sphere! Oh, before I sign off, here is another reminder to enter my contest and win a sweet rookie card. Another oh by the way... I have dug out all of my Topps cards of the 60's and they will be dominating my card of the day posts. I found (and scanned) at least 10 cards from every year during the 60s. You have been warned. Troll out.

1965 Topps, A Cardboard Tribute to the Playoffs and the MVP(s)

I recently showed a George Crowe card from 1959 and mentioned that was my favorite set from the 50’s. My favorite set from the 1960’s is perhaps my favorite set of All-Time, the 1965 Topps set. Some call it the “Pennant Set” for the little flag in the corner and that is what initially attracted me to it as a kid. I loved the waving pennant with the team logo and the colored frame around the picture and the player’s name. My parents were dating in 1965, but I was nowhere near to even being a thought at that time, but once I discovered baseball history, ’65 became the most fascinating year to me. After winning the pennant every year to this point in the decade, the Yankees dropped to 6th place in the American League and a team that was a perennial second division club won the pennant in the AL. 1965 was the first year of free agency and the first year for a domed ballpark. The 8th Wonder of the World opened in Houston in 1965. The Braves spent their final season in Milwaukee and Sandy Koufax enjoyed one of the best seasons any pitcher would ever have in baseball history. He won the All Star game, won two games in the World Series, including game 7, he pitched his 4th career no-hitter, which was a perfect game and he led the league in nearly every possible category and was a unanimous selection for the Cy Young Award, again. He was the 1st pitcher to win the award twice and till that point was the only unanimous winner and he won that way both times. He also set a new record for strikeouts in a season with 382. The record would stand for 8 years until Nolan Ryan upped the mark by 1 in 1973. Yeah, it was an amazing season… I don’t own Koufax’s card, otherwise it would be my hands down choice for best card of 1965. I don’t own any of the amazing rookies in the set either-1965 was the rookie card year for Steve Carlton, Catfish Hunter, Tony Perez and Joe Morgan. I don’t own many cards, but I do own a card of the American League MVP of the 1965 season, a 25 year old shortstop named Zoilo Versalles. To this day I have never said his name out loud, he sounded like a super hero as a kid. I referred to him as Zorro and as it turns out, that was his nickname. Zorro was born in Veldado, Havana, Cuba in December of 1939 and moved to the US to play baseball as a teen. He got his first taste of the Major Leagues with the Washington Senators in 1959 as a 19 year old rookie. He played sparingly early on, but by the time the team moved to Minnesota and became the Twins, Versalles was their starting shortstop and would hold that title from 1961-1967. Over that time he was twice an All Star and also won two Gold Gloves. For the sake of this post I am going to focus on his magical 1965 season where the infielder led the American League in at-bats (666), runs (126), doubles (45), triples (12) and total bases with 308. He also had a .273 batting average, 19 homers and 77 RBI from the leadoff spot. He won a Gold Glove that season, he was an All Star (a reserve, Dick McAuliffe started) and he led the Twins to the World Series. It was an incredible turn around for Minnesota who had finished 79-83 (6th place) under Sam Mele the previous year. In 1965 the Twins would win 102 games, even with a huge drop-off in production from Harmon Killebrew. They got help from scrappy players like Versalles, Bobby Allison and Tony Oliva. Whereas in ’64 Killebrew led the power charge with 49 homers himself, and 5 other players topping 20 homers, the ’65 Twins didn’t win with the long ball. Killebrew still led the team in long balls, but this year he only hit 25. Versalles was the glue of the infield and the sparkplug in the lineup. As the leadoff hitter, he stole 29 bases, but also hit 19 homers. He got on base and scored more often than not, he crossed the plate 126 times that year-19 more times than his teammate Oliva who was second in the AL. Versalles led the Twins to the World Series in an almost worst to first Cinderella scenario. The series lasted 7 games, but in the end the Dodgers pitching staff-led by Sandy “Superman” Koufax was too much for the Twins. Versalles hit .286 with 14 total bases in the series, his only career taste of postseason. He had one homer in the Series, which came in game 1 when Mudcat Grant beat Don Drysdale 8-2 to give the Twins the early advantage. Jim Kaat beat Koufax in game 2, but the Dodgers rallied and won the next 3 games behind amazing pitching performances from Claude Osteen, Drysdale and Koufax who each went the distance for the win. Mudcat Grant came back in game 6 and beat Osteen 5-1 in game 6 to even the series at 3 games each, but in game 7 it was all Sandy Koufax. In game 7 Jim Kaat started for the Twins against Koufax and till the 4th inning both pitches were rolling along and the score was knotted up with both teams shut out. Kaat allowed a homer to Slick Lou Johnson, the Dodgers cleanup hitter and was yanked from the game after 3 innings of work at a 2-0 deficit. Four Twins pitchers combined to shut the Dodgers out over the next 6 innings, but the damage was done. Sandy Koufax pitched a complete game shutout, striking out 10 and allowing 3 hits for his second win of the Series. The Dodgers won in 7 and Koufax allowed just 2 runs in 24 innings of work. Koufax was named the World Series MVP; he won the pitching Triple Crown, the Cy Young Award, was the Major League Player of the Year, won his 3rd World Series ring and finished second in the NL MVP voting to Willie Mays. In the NL it was Koufax’s year, but in the AL it was Versalles. He took home the American League MVP award, edging out his teammate and batting champion Tony Oliva (.321/16/98) and Brooks Robinson (.287/18/80). Tony Conigliaro who led the AL with 32 homers received just 1 point in the voting and finished 33rd in the voting. Versalles selection as MVP is one of the most disputed of the awards history. Many feel that Carl Yastrzemski, who batted .312/20/72 deserved it, some felt that Cleveland’s Rocky Colavito (.287/26/108) deserved it, but most contend that Oliva was the top player on the Twins and deserved the award. Oliva paced the AL in hits with 185 and led the league in batting for the second straight season with a .321 mark. He was a starter in the All Star game the previous year and also won the Rookie of the Year Award and laced a career best 217 hits the year prior. He also had a disappointing postseason (which shouldn’t effect the MVP vote) batting just .192 against Koufax and the Dodgers. Neither Oliva nor Versalles would ever come close to winning the MVP award again. Oliva’s career lasted 15 seasons and he was an All Star in 8 consecutive seasons. Versalles would never be an All Star again. He played 4 full seasons after his MVP campaign in ’65, but never batted above .249. He also never hit double digits in homers or triples again. He had 10 steals in ’66, but was caught stealing 12 times that year. He stopped being a base stealing threat and 6 was his best in his final 4 seasons. After the 1967 season he and Mudcat Grant were ironically traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Johnny Roseboro and Ron Perranoski. At this point the Dodgers were horrible, they finished 7th in the NL and although Versalles was the starting shortstop on the team, he batted just .196. The following year the Padres selected him in the expansion draft, but his career had past him. The Twins would return to the postseason again in ’69 and ’70, but would have to wait until 1987 for the franchise’s first World’s Championship. I had really intended on keeping this post focused on Zoilo Versalles-specifically his ’65 Topps card (which is the only card in this post that I actually own), but I just couldn’t. The Koufax card is on my wish list, but I couldn’t resist stealing images of him and Killebrew and about 20 others…. As far as Zorro’s ’65 card, does anyone know what he is doing? It’s a posed spring training shot; he’s crouched, squinting, perhaps in pain. He doesn’t look the guy who would be the most valuable player that year, but he was! As much as I love this set, the photography is at times horrific. I have to be glad (with this Zoilo card) that at least he has a ball cap on. Baseball cards of guys with empty heads aren’t cool. I don’t know, maybe this is a standard pose. A standard pose for a guy who comes from out of nowhere and leads a 2nd division team to the World Series and takes home the MVP award in the process. This is one of the cards that I rescued from Mom and Dad’s house. I think I bought it at a flea market many moons ago. It was in a top-loader that said MVP on it. I know that when I bought the card I have absolutely no idea who Zoilo Versalles was, but getting a card of an MVP from the 1960’s was too much for a young Troll to pass up. When I brought this card home the first thing I thought was: “wow, I wonder how long ago this dude won the MVP, he looks like an old man”. I keep on looking at the card right now and I feel the same way. I just called the wife in here to guess how old this guy was and she said “42”. He doesn’t look like a young man about to have a breakout year. He looks like a very old and weathered fellow. Truth is he is only 24 years old in this photo. He still looks like a coach to me. If not for the giant infielders glove that is forced into the camera I would be sure that he was a coach. I can’t believe the guy was 24 when this photo was taken, but there are a lot of things I can’t believe. I can’t believe that with all the talented players they had, that he was the first Twin to take home the honor. He is actually only one of only 5 Twins to ever win it. He was the first, then Harmon Killebrew took it home in 1969, Rod Carew won it in 1977, Justin Morneau was the MVP in 2006 and this year Joe Mauer became the 5th MVP Twin. I also really can’t believe that he was the first Cuban player to ever win the Award. Since they began awarding the Most Valuable Player in (the Chalmers Award) in 1911, it took 54 years before a Cuban player won it, Versalles being the first. He was the only Cuban to take home the honor for over 70 years until Jose Canseco became the second to do it in 1988. They are the only Cubans to ever win it. You can take it further and notice that he was only the 4th American League shortstop to win. Roger Peckinpaugh was the 1st back in 1925. Player slash manager Lou Boudreau won the Worlds Championship and the MVP with the Indians in ’48, then Phil Rizzuto took home the honor in 1950. 15 years later it was Versalles turn and it took nearly 20 years before another AL shortstop did it. Robin Yount and Cal Ripken won it back to back in ’82 and ’83, Cal did it again in ’91 and Miguel Tejada won it in 2002. In nearly a century only 7 different AL shortstops have won it and Versalles was one of them. In fact, he and Miguel Tejada (active) are the only shortstops (AL) to be MVP and not be in the HOF. Another crazy thing about Versalles, the Twins and 1965 is this. The Twins were the Washington Senators from 1901 until 1960. As the Senators they made the trip to the Fall Classic 3 times. They won it all once in 1925 and made their last appearance in 1933 when they were defeated by the New York Giants. It took 33 seasons before they made it back to the Classic, this time as the Minnesota Twins and of course, they fell to the Dodgers in a 7-game series. In 1969 and ’70 they made the playoffs again, but lost to the Orioles in the ALCS. They didn’t return to the World Series again until the magical season of 1987 when they won it all. They were back in 1991 and won it all again. Since then they have regular playoff contenders, but have not made it back to the Series since. They have been around for 109 seasons and have made it to the Series 6 times, winning it 3 times. 1965 was magical because it was 30+ years since they were there and it would be 20+ years till they made it back. Getting back to Versalles-he was a rookie in ’61 and in ’62 he began to make a small name for himself. He batted .241 with 17 homers and was actually named by someone on the MVP ballot. He finished 21st with 8 points. Of course Mickey Mantle won the award with 234 votes after a season where he batted .321 with 30 homers. Versalles pop as a slick fielding shortstop make him intriguing to the writers. Ernie Banks was a power hitting shortstop in the NL, but in the AL the standard was set for shortstops by guys like Luis Aparacio who never hit more than 10 homers in a single season. Versalles was an Aparacio type fielder and when he swatted 17 longballs, the writers took notice. Detroit’s Dick McAuliffe, who started the ’65 All Star game for the AL took power further than Versalles did (he hit 24 homers in ’64) but he didn’t have the glove or the speed that Versalles possessed. Anyway, that 8 points he earned on the MVP share in 1962 were the only MVP points Versalles earned prior to his selection in 1965-he was never named on an MVP ballot after that either. This gives him the dubious distinction of having the lowest career MVP share of any player who was actually voted MVP. He came out of nowhere in 1962 with the Twins and for the six seasons he was one of the best shortstops in the American League. Starting at 23 years old and continuing till 27 his average season was 156 games with 150 hits, 27 doubles, 9 triples, 13 homers and 11 steals. He also scored an average of 83 runs and had a .248 batting average, while playing gold glove defense. His card says he is 5’10” but I can recall while interviewing Mudcat Grant many years ago, Cat said Versalles was 5’8” in cowboy boots. He also said that Versalles was the biggest complainer in the clubhouse. He was in pain constantly. Despite that, he averaged 156 games a year over 6 seasons. He only missed 2 games during his MVP season and he topped 160 games a year 4 times. It was his back problems that abbreviated his career though. In July of ’66 he was treated for a hematoma in his back and that problem persisted. It was the reason that he was traded to the Dodgers in 1968 and probably the reason that they left him unprotected in the expansion draft. After leaving the Twins in ’68 Versalles bounced around with 4 different teams. He would retire after playing the 1971 season with the Atlanta Braves. He played in just 66 games for the 3rd place Braves, mostly backing up Marty Perez, but also relieved Felix Milan at second as well as a young slugger named Darrell Evens at third base. The Braves released him after the season where he batted just .191, he was 31 years old and it was the 4th time in his career that he batted below the Mendoza line. The bigger problem was that his defense wasn’t good anymore either. He took the ’72 season off and tried to come back in ’73 with the AA Jacksonville Suns of the Southern League. The comeback attempt lasted only 17 games and at 33 years old the former MVP was done with baseball. He still remains the only Twins shortstop to win the MVP Award and is also the only Cuban infielder to earn the honor. I do greatly appreciate anyone who has humored me to the point of reading this “out of control, LONG-ASS” post. I seriously started out intending merely to discuss one of the few cards I own from this awesome set. This post took on a life all it’s own. Like I said pages ago in the opening paragraph, the ’65 set is my favorite from this decade and maybe my favorite of all time. Unfortunately, many of the best cards in the set are also the ugliest. The black and white Steve Carlton rookie isn’t pretty and neither are any of the cards of hatless pitchers. I don’t think that this card of Zoilo Versalles will ever win any award as the prettiest card ever either. Fortunately Zoilo himself won the awards and he took home the biggest, the 1965 American League MVP award. 45 seasons later, Joe Mauer of the Twins took home the same award to Minnesota. Like Versalles was the first and only Twins shortstop to win it, Mauer is the first Twins catcher. I personally think that Mauer will win one or two more before he is done and hopefully he will do it for the hometown Twins and it will remind baseball of the first Twin to do-a fleet footed, slick fielding shortstop with a little bit of pop who crossed the plate almost once a game back in 1965 with a funny name that no one can pronounce, Zoilo Versalles. I do intend on highlighting some of the other awesome ’65 cards that I have stashed in my drawer, but look forward to MUCH SHORTER posts about them. In the mean time, if you want to check out a real blog with real 1965 Topps cards, check this one out. Its written by Kevin, who also brings the blog-o-sphere the Orioles Card of the Day blog. Thanks to the internet for all of the images that I borrowed for this post. There will be more posts about cards I actually own coming soon. PLEASE enter my contest for the most iconic baseball rookie card of the 1980s. The prize is the card that you, the blog-o-sphere choose as the most iconic. Like I had said before, if more than 100 of you vote I will give away three different cards-that is a lot of 80’s iconic rookies, so VOTE PLEASE!!! I wish that I could have had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing the ’65 MVP, but sadly Mr. Versalles is no longer with us. He died at his home in Minnesota in 1995. 11 years after his passing he became the 16th player voted into the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame. On deck is the ’65 Robin Roberts. I LOVE THIS HOBBY!!!! Thanks for reading. Troll out.