I have been promising to post the vintage cards that I got from
Project 1962 all week. I have already shown off the
Roy Face 
and
Larry Doby cards, the
Donkey Kong stuff, Rays cards and this amazing Wade Davis autograph, which I am showing off again…
Here are some highlights of the rest of the great vintage Project 1962 shared with me. Since the Rays didn’t start out until 1998, they don’t exactly qualify for vintage, so Chris figured out that my pre-Rays favorite team in the Pittsburgh Pirates with the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles tying for second. I have already decided that most of these cards will become cards of the day on my other blog, so these are gonna be quick mentions. I will start with the White Sox cards, represented by their All Star lefty
Billy Pierce.
This card comes from the ’59 set, a Baseball Thrills card of Bi
lly Pierce. Pierce has 4 cards (I think) in the ’59 set, which is funny because that was an off year for him. Still Pierce was a 7-time All Star, starting the game 3 times. In 10 All Star innings he struck out 12 of the NL’s top batters. Speaking of All Star pitchers, next up is a 1974 Topps card of Orioles lefty
Mike Cuellar.
Aside from being an All Star, winning the Cy Young Award, a World Series and posting four 20+game win seasons, in the 1970 ALCS Cuellar batted .500 with a homer and 4 RBI. Nothing like an All Star pitcher smacking a grandslam in the playoffs! That’s a complete player! There are a lot of folks who collect Cuellar, including my buddy
Wicked Ortega and I hate to step on toes, so he isn't on the
poll, but I don’t mind gathering up a few of his cards… The next few cards are gonna be all Pirates starting with the oldest. I think I have mentioned this before, but I LOVE original Bowman cards. As a kid the Bowman cards of the 50’s were cheaper than their Topps counterparts, plus when my Dad was a kid, that was what he collected. Anyway, I don’t have many 1954 color Bowmans, at least not till now. I will start with card #43 of Pirates righty
Robert Bartmess Friend.
I like any player with a cool nickname and R.B. Friend was known as the Warrior. Although he ended his career with a losing record, he was a Warrior on the mound and battled it out win or lose. He was a 4-time All Star, starting the game twice. He ranks in the top 65 of all time in games started, shutouts and innings pitched. Over his career he led the NL in wins, ERA, shutouts and starts. He was also a part of the Pirates World Championship team of 1960.
Whoever owned this card previously obviously didn’t like what the Warrior had to say and tried to silence him, but even without a mouth, his right arm did the talking! Perhaps the most interesting card in the lot is this next one, also from ’54 Bowman, card #203 of Vic Janowicz, also known as Crash (again with the nicknames!).
Janowicz was a legendary football player at Ohio State, he won the Heisman Trophy in 1950 and the Buckeyes retired his number 31. Instead of continuing on as football player, Janowicz signed with the Pirates out of Ohio State as one of the original bonus babies. He jumped right to the Pirates and was part of the group of 8 guys who shared the catching duties for the last place Pirates.
Baseball didn’t exactly work out for Crash and he returned to the gridiron with the Redskins, giving up baseball after two years. During the 50’s the catcher’s position was always a question mark in Pittsburgh, until they made a trade to bring Smokey Burgess there from Cincinnati.
The same trade that also brought them Don Hoak and Harvey Haddix. With an All Star behind the plate and Haddix in the rotation, the Bucs were a more complete team and obviously went on to win it all in 1960. Speaking of 1960 and back to Topps, this is card #20 of reliever Roy Face. I’ve already posted this one, but I wanted to put it up again.
The pink background behind his portrait was an odd color choice, but it makes the card look like a refractor, which makes me like it even more. I am gonna end this post with two more key ingredients to the Pirates Worlds Championship teams.
Chris sent a bunch of cards of Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski, but I am gonna show off this 1962 Topps card since that is the set that Chris’ blog (
Project 1962) focuses on. Of course Maz hit the homer that beat the Yankees and provided the defense that kept the Pirates at the top.
Maz is another guy who in the poll for the next player I collect. Like Larry Doby he is a Hall of Famer with some pricey cards, but if you guys pick him, I will chase him... The last card(s) of this post will be of a guy who wasn’t around for the Series in 1960, but led the Bucs to glory in 1971 and again in 1979. Gotta love Pops!
As usual, I need to get back to work. Too many great cards and too little time. A huge thanks to
Project 1962 for all of these great cards! Thanks to everyone who has sent me packages of blogger kindness. I will get everything posted. More to come tonight, stay tuned! Check out full front and back postings of these and other great vintage cards on the Troll's brother blog, the
Nitty Gritty!
I know I sound like a broken record, but if you add it to your blogrolls, there will be posts daily and a contest featuring giveaways you won't wanna miss! Go Rays! Troll out.
I am broke right now so I won’t be chasing cards for my new PC until this month’s mortgage is paid, but I still wish I knew who I was chasing. I got a package this morning with some Larry Doby cards that I will show off soon. I also have a great Mad Dog bat card that came in the mail last week that I need to show off. I was searching all 3 players on the auction sites and seeing what I am in for. Bill Mazeroski has a TON of cards. He is in many autograph series and these cards ain’t cheap! That frightens me. Knowing what a great signer Maz is it is hard to try and chase down 100 different autographed cards that average 40 bucks a pop. Now while I was looking I had this post from Sports Cards Uncensored on my mind. It was titled “How Not To Do a Cut Auto Volume 1,000,000” and showed the WORST cut auto card I had ever seen. Seriously, check this post and see the AWFUL looking piece of cardboard that sold for over $1,000.00 bucks. Well if that was Vol. 1,000,000, here is Vol. 1,000,001; a Larry Doby cut sig that you could own for $249.00. 
This one really sucks because the frame of the card is really nice and classy, but the extra words kill it for me. Check out Vol. 1,000,002; a decapitated Doby cut auto that probably used to look good before it was mutilated. 
You can buy it now for $125.00. Bill Mazeroski checks in with the same premise. How not to do a cut auto Vol. 1,000,003. Another card that probably used to look good. It can be yours for $59.99. 
I hate to give this auction site free advertising, but if any of my readers are dumb enough to buy these cut autograph disasters, well… They’re not! This ain’t eBay love, these are eBay atrocities… It sucks that you can take a nice in-person auto which might sell for 5 bucks, take a scissor to it and slap a serial number on it and the value goes up 10 times... I was glad that I didn't find any atrocicuts of Bill Madlock, but I am sure they exist. Oh, there is less than an hour to get in on the Steve Garvey bat relic contest. Enter HERE. More to come. Go Rays! Who am I collecting? Troll out.
16% of you think I should collect Pittsburgh Pirates hero, defensive standout and Hall of Fame member 
and 16% of you think I should collect 4-time batting champion 
Like I said, even with the help of 68 of my friends and readers, I am still where I started and I still can’t choose. I have about 12 cards of Maz with no autos or relics, but there are plenty available. I have 5 cards of Doby with no autos or relics. There are some of those available, but the autos get pricy. I have 5 cards of Mad Dog, one relic and an autographed 8X10. Since he played for 15 years and up until 1987 I think 
Gamble was in 5th with 5 votes and Don Newcombe and Bert Blyleven were tied for 6th place with 4 votes each. Tony Oliva finished 8th with 3 votes and Ray Durham and Monte Irvin each received 2 votes. 2 of you also thought that I should stick with current players. The problem with that is that current players can get traded to the Yankees. 
It happened to Danny Tartabull and I am terrified it is going to happen to Carl Crawford... The 
Easy huh? I had promised to start the big contest here at the Troll tonight, but I am going to hold off until tomorrow. Two of the prizes were things that I ordered online and since I haven’t checked my post office box all week, I wanna wait till I have them in hand first. I am riding my bike (bicycle not motorcycle) over there after work so I can post the contest manana afternoon. Thanks again to everyone who voted. Any ideas for a tie breaker? Go Rays! troll out.
