1959 Hall of Fame

In 1958 my Dad got transferred to Honolulu, Hawaii and my pregnant Mom and I took a ship from Long Beach, CA to Honolulu.  My first sister was born in October of 1958 and in 1958 no one was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
In 1959 we stayed in Hawaii and only one player was inducted into the Hall of  Fame.
Zach Wheat was inducted by the Veterans Committee in 1959.  He was on and off of the HOF ballot between the inagural year of 1936-1945-1956, with his highest percentage of the vote coming in 1947 when he garnered 23% of the vote.  He played for the Brooklyn Robins/Superbas and Dodgers for 18 years between 1909-1926, and played one final season for the Philadelphia Athletics.  He still holds Dodger franchise records for hits, doubles, triples and total bases.  He was originally voted into the HOF in 1957 but had not been retired the required 30 years, so he voted in by the veterans committee in 1959.  

1957 HOF Induction

1957 is where I start in my Hall of Fame collection.  Why?  1957 was the year Elvis debuted on the Ed Sullivan Show.  1957 was the year Sputnik was launched into orbit by the USSR.  On September 13, 1957 in Long Beach, California I was born.  Therefore many of my collecting goals and other time related things hinge on the year 1957.  Years ago when I decided to start collecting Hall of Famers, I decided to collect those men and woman (more on that later)  who were inducted since 1957.  I decided to make year markers and this is one of the very first which was made sometime in the early 90's.
On July 22, 1957 outfielder Sam Crawford  and Manager Joe McCarthy were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  Both of them were selected by the Veterans Committee.
Sam Crawford played for the Reds and Tigers during a 19 year major league career, playing from 1899-1917.  He holds the single season record for most inside the park home runs with 12 in 1901.  He hit .309 with 97 home runs for his career.  He retired in 1917 and first appeared on the HOF ballot in 1936, the first year for the HOF.  He never got more than 4.2% on his first 6 years on the ballot and then gained entrance into the Hall through the veterans committee in 1957.  He is featured here on a Baseball Wit card, a trivia game that had something to do with Little League.
Joe McCarthy was elected as a Manager by the Veterans Committee in 1957.  He managed the Cubs, Red Sox and Yankees from 1936 to 1950, winning 9 pennants and 7 World Series.  His Cubs won the National League pennant in 1929, and his Yankees won 7 World Series between 1932 and 1943.  The only year that the Yankees didn't win a World Series they were in was 1942 when they lost to the Cardinals in 5 games. He is featured on some TCMA card, that I can't remember what set it is.
Sam Crawford lived for another 11 years after being inducted into the Hall of Fame, passing away in 1968.  Joe McCarthy lived for 21 years after his induction, passing away in 1978.

This is the first in series of profiles of players who have been inducted into the National Hall of Fame since I was born in 1957.

Panini Cooperstown Hall of Fame

I was at the LCS the other day and picked up a pack of the New Panini Cooperstown cards.  For a unlicensed product it is actually pretty nice.  On the front is a picture of the player with the year inducted and the HOF logo.  On the back is another picture of the player and in a banner with their name is the years they played.  Also featured is the bio and stats.  I also pulled one of the plaque inserts which are numbered to 599, interestingly enough there are only 100 players in the set.  I really like this set and I was going to collect it but I have my own Hall of Fame set, I have collected everyone who has been inducted since 1957, using various card sets and have made some of my own.     If any one wants the Judy Johnson card let me know.                

The Baseball Fan's Bucket List #1

When the library I work for hosted an exhibit on Negro League Baseball I got to help out and for a thank you I was given this book.  I am going to go through it and either share if I have done the item on the list or am planning on doing it.

#1 Take a baseball road trip.

When I turned 50 six years ago my sweet, sweet wife threw me a big surprise party.  I thanked her and she whispered in my ear, " I am never doing this again, when you turn sixty we can go on a baseball road trip."
So for the last six years I have been planning on all the places I want to go in 2017.  I want to visit all the Padres minor league teams, and see some games at PETCO field.  I want to also see some iconic baseball places, Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, Fenway Park, and Wrigley Field. I want to visit with some bloggers, Dave, Zach, Jim and Greg in particular. Plus it will give me an opportunity to visit some of the places I used to live.  I would also to go Omaha to see where the Oregon State Beavers won two consecutive College World Series.

If you were planning a baseball road trip where would you have to go.

The pigeon has flown the coop

All of those who took part in my Heritage High Number set break should get your cards soon.  I sent the last one out yesterday and it has to go to Canada, so I had to talk to a real mail (although she was female) person to mail.  All of the others went out on Sunday evening.  Cards on Cards may already have his as they just had to go across town.  Sent one package to Alaska.  Hope you enjoy your packages.

I haven't got back on a regular basis, now it is a computer problem.  My laptops' cursor only goes up and down and won't move horizontally.  I will take it in this weekend, luckily I bought the s*@t happens warranty for it.

As soon as I get the computer fixed I will be offering some team packages.  I sort my packs into 50 count boxes by team and when they get full I offer them up.  I will be doing that soon.  I may pick up a mouse this evening so I can use it, instead of the touchpad on the laptop.

Team Collectors, Still Many teams left

I bought a set of the 2012 Topps Heritage High Numbers minus the autograph and am selling off the teams at 75 cents a card.  There are still many teams left.  Go to the original post here and sign up in the comments.  I got an email today from the seller that Topps has said they will ship the 9th.  So I should have them next week sometime.  I will ship them in top loaders in a bubble envelope.  It will be $1.50 for shipping and handling.  You can pay via paypal as a gift to captainamerica1957XXmsn.com.  To paraphase Tommy from the rock opera of the same name, you know where to put the @.

2012 Heritage High Numbers Teams

So I bought one of these off of E bay without the autograph, the only bummer about that would be if the auto was of Ednison Volquez.  But I digress, the purpose of buying the set was to get the Padres, Mariners and Pirates out of the set for myself and a couple of friends. Therefore I am left with a bunch of cards that I have no use for.  What I would like to do is a group break where the cards are 75 cents each and a couple of dollars for shipping and handling.  If you are interested in picking up a team please let me know.  Also if you know of a checklist that includes the team let me know.  Otherwise I will just let you know how many cards in your team when I get the set.  Let me know in the comments which team you would like.
UPDATED: I have added the number of cards for each team as far as I can tell.

• Arizona Diamondbacks(3)
• Atlanta Braves (3)-night owl
• Baltimore Orioles(5)-O No, Not Another Orioles Blog
• Boston Red Sox(9)-Thoughts and Sox
• Chicago Cubs(1)
• Chicago White Sox(8)-Ron Longo
• Cinncinnati Reds(4)-The Writers Journey
• Cleveland Indians(4)
• Colorado Rockies(1)
• Detroit Tigers(1)
• Houston Astros(0)
• Kansas City Royals(3)
• Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim(4)-Angels in Order
• Los Angeles Dodgers(5)-Night Owl
• Miami Marlins(0)
• Milwaukee Brewers(3)-Collector's Crack
• Minnesota Twins(4)-GCRL
• New York Mets(4)-Sportscards from the Dollar Store
• New York Yankees(4)-GCRL
• Oakland Athletics(5)
• Philadelphia Phillies(1)
• Pittsburgh Pirates(4)-Padrographs
• San Diego Padres(2)- Padrographs
• San Francisco Giants(2)-arpsmith
• Seattle Mariners(1)-Padrographs
• St. Louis Cardinals(4)-Cards on Cards
• Tampa Bay Rays(3)
• Texas Rangers(3)
• Toronto Blue Jays(5)-Sportscards from the Dollar Store
• Washington Nationals(4)-O No, Not Another Orioles Blog

State of the blog

I haven't posted in awhile.  No excuses.   A general malaise about collecting, that I have experienced several times since I starting collecting again in 1985.  Every so often I have to stop and reconsider what I am doing.  I think that part of my problem was that I was basically writing the same post over and over.  So to keep that from happening I am going to expand a little bit.  I am going to continue with my Padrographs, starting with Larry Stahl when I come back.  I am also looking at doing a couple of different where are they now features, with Padres minor leaguers and those whose autos I have already featured.  I am still looking for a couple of other themes.  I am not going to try and post every day.  I just don't have time for that.  Since the end of August I have been working pretty much 7 days a week.  Monday through Friday I manage a used bookstore here in Portland, Saturdays I have worked from 7-4 selling apples for a local orchard at the Parkrose Farmers Market, and Sundays I help set up and tear down two booths at the Montavilla Farmers Market.  Lately we have been taking care of our 1 year old Granddaughter while her parents are working out of state for a month.  This weekend will be tiring but fun.  This weekend is Wordstock, an annual book festival here in Portland, founded by former Phillies pitcher and author Larry Colton.  The bookstore will have a booth and we will get to interact with several hundred authors.  I will post about it over at my other blog, Readerman.us, where I review everything I read.  I read a few books, so far I have read 110 books this year. I love reading.  I have gotten bored with Topps cards because they are lazy and mark the same card over and over, adding chrome, or putting a slightly different graphic on it.  I think they are 5 different versions of the flagship cards, and that is not counting the 913 different parallels of each card.  I hope that the MLB/MLBPA will tell Topps to acutally make 17 different sets or give them some competition.  My needs in the Padrograph quest is getting smaller and more current.  I have decided to concentrate on just the Topps flagship team sets and the Topps Heritage team sets.  I have lots of extra Padres cards if any one wants some just let me know.  I will see you in November.

Sisterhood of the traveling jersey

Over at gaslamp ball, there has a group of fans that have been taking an old Padres jersey around the world and chronicling its journey.  I asked to take part and the jersey came my way for a short stay. 

Friday, August 17, my wife called me to tell me that the jersey had arrived at our house. I finished the rest of the day at the bookstore and drove home to see the jersey. When I pulled it out of the envelope I was amazed at the things that had been added to it, a Oaxaca ribbon, a patch from Belgium, a Bring Back the Brown patch (where can I get one of those?), Randy Jones and Mickey Mouse autographs, and various other things. As I packed to drive from Portland to Eugene, to visit our son, his girlfriend and our granddaughter I began to think about where I would take the jersey, besides a baseball game.

We got to Eugene and spent some time visiting and shopping, always gotta go to Goodwill and St. Vinnys, and having lunch at a great deli called Jiffy Mart, my son, our exchange student and I headed out to take pictures. Eugene is the Padres short season A team so this is where many of the players drafted by the Padres start their professional careers. This is also the town where I began being a Padres fan.

Our first stop was my high school, it was the longest I ever went to one school. We spent three years in Eugene while my Dad went to college after retiring from the Navy. I managed to make it to 10 schools in 12 years in 4 states on two coasts. This is where I became a Padres fan, my first day of school I learned that one of my classmates was the younger sister of Padres #1 pick David W. Roberts. That was the day I began following the Padres and have ever since.

Then we crossed the street to Civic Stadium, where the Eugene Emeralds used to play. It was built in 1938 and the Ems played there from 1969 to 2009. The Ems have been the farm team for several major league teams including the Phillies from 1969-1974, as their AAA team. We got to see Mike Schmidt, Greg Luzinski, Larry Bowa and Bob Boone all play. In 2001 the Padres moved their A, short season team to Eugene. I remember going to an Ems game game when the Spokane Indians came to town, Flan was the Indians manager. He asked me to get him some matches, I did and he lit a smoke bomb and dropped it in his own dugout and then yelled at his players for not taking things seriously. They won. You can see where they Ems logo used to be on the stadium wall. Saw Joe Randa play here and got Sandy Alomars' auto here.

Then we headed to PK Field at the University of Oregon, PK field is named after the former Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny, although many people think it refers to Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike and Oregon Alumni. The Ems have played at PK since 2009. We got there early because we wanted to get our Prefontaine Bobbleheads. 

One of the reasons to go to the game besides seeing Padres farmhands playing was because it was Steve Prefontaine bobblehead night and they were only giving away 1,000.  Pre was an idol of mine when I was in high school and I watched him run many times between 1972 and 1975, when he died at the age of 24 in a car accident.  I also got to be in a movie about him that was filmed in Eugene called Without Limits.

Strewn throughout PK Field were banners of Padres past, present and future.  I think that is Sean Burroughs in front. 

Wade Le Blanc and Nick Hundley

Luis Durango who is currently in the Astros system, after playing for the Padres in 2009 and 2010.

Daniel Robertson, drafted by the Padres in 2008 and currently playing in Tucson for the Padres AAA club.

Joe Ross, the Padres first round pick in 2011 was the starting pitcher.  He was on the team on a rehab assignment.

My oldest son, Daniel, accompanied me to the game and held the jersey up so we could get a picture of the jersey at the game.  

I got five of the Ems pitchers, Collin Reynolds, Matthew Chabot, Joe Church, Tayron Guerrero and Genison Reyes to sign the jersey.  I told them the story and they were excited to sign the jersey and be part of the story.

It was a fun and profitable trip, got to spend time with family, hold my granddaughter, spend some time at the ballpark and I put my bobblehead on ebay and sold it for $225 dollars.

Blog update

I haven't forgotten that I have a blog, here or over at readerman.us.  We have been remodeling our bathroom and then our remodeling took a three week hiatus when the contractors' brother passed away.  I have my Gint a cuffs box and have scored the first 8 packs.  I am at 134 points.  I am going on my annual reading vacation this coming, I take 12 books and go by myself to a cousins house and read all day, when I am not looking at the nice view.
I also still have a pack of over 50 Marlins cards free for the taking,  just let me know if you want them.

trading Rangers, A's, Marlins and Rockies for Padres

I have over 50 cards in bubble mailers ready to go for each of  the four teams represented here and no one to send them to.  If you want a bunch of A's cards or Marlins cards or Rockies cards or Rangers cards email me at Padrographs at live dot com, send me however few Padres cards you have.  

For my granddaughter

My son, Dukkie (pronounced Ducky) and his partner Shalyhn welcomed their first child Nola in October of 2011.  Nola is our first granddaughter and I wanted to do something to chronicle life around her, so of course I decided on trading cards.  I started making cards for her.  You can tell in the cards of her Mom and Dad that I made a few design changes, but settled on the design you see on Dukkies' card.  The first card is Nola right after she was born, then her Mom and Dad.  I then people who were in office when Nola was born.  She was born and lives in Eugene, Oregon but visits Portland a lot.  Sam Adams is the mayor of Portland, John Kitzhaber is the Governor of Oregon, you all know who Obama is, Kitty Piercy is Mayor of Eugene, Oregon. Peter DeFazio is the US representative for the Eugene area and Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkeley are the US Senators from Oregon.

Then come family members, my wife and I, Nola at 6 months, our dog who fiercely protects Nola when she is here.  Then our other son and his girlfriend, and Shalyhns' sister and her husband. 
I also have made backs for all of the cards here is a sample of them.  I am waiting for pictures of Shalyhns' parents and will add as Nola reaches milestones and things happen throughout her life.  I sent a few of the political cards out for signatures, so far the Governor, President and Senator Wyden have not responded.

1957 Topps completed

Ok, it's the old bait and switch. You probably thought it was the 1957 Topps baseball set, but no.  I finally finished the set after paying more for a card than ever before.  Price wise the  Roy Hamilton card was cheapest, then the Dean (which is one of 4 James Dean cards in the set)  and the Crickets card was truly expensive.  I think I am done with old non sports cards for awhile. This card was really fun as it was from the year I was born and has been many people I grew up watching and listening to.  This is the third time I have tried to do this set and the first time I have finished it.  I always have started with the same three cards, Liz Taylor, Gene Kelly and Burt Lancaster.  Now to go put them in the notebook and show it off once in awhile.

812-815

I just picked up padrographs of three former Padres and one current Padre from an ebay seller.  Pat Neshek is currently at Norfolk in the International League as part of the Orioles organization.  Chad Qualls is pitching for the Phillies.  Yorvit Torrealba is catching for the Rangers.  Jesus Guzman has played 61 games for the Padres this year.  This gives me 815 unique Padrographs.

More teams ready to go and no one lined for them

I have cards of the A's, Marlins, Rockies and Rangers all ready to go and no one to trade them with.  All I ask for in return is at least one Padre card.  My want list is one of the tabs at the top of the page.  A few other teams are getting close to being ready to go.  Pirates and Mariners fans sorry, those go to two friends here in Portland.  The first one to claim a team by emailing me at Padrographs at live dot come will get the team.