You never know where your player will be found lurking.

I love oddball stuff.  Nothing is more interesting to me than some unique item that the masses didn't know about or have access to.  One such item that I picked up in a recent ebay auction arrived today and not only pleased me as an early local collectible, but will actually now find it's way into my Steve Garvey collection!  That is a nice surprise to say the least.  This is a 1979 Seattle Mariners ticket sales brochure.

Expecting to see some classic shots of Ruppert Jones, Dan Meyer or Bruce Bochte was normal.  Finding shots of Garvey, Rod Carew, George Brett and other All-Stars was a real treat.  See, Seattle was due to host the MLB All Star game in 1979 and they were building the hype and trying to sell more tickets.  3 years into their existence, they were hardly a team to watch, but the All Star game was big news.  So, apparently they used a collection of 15 superstars from around MLB to help sell the idea of tickets in the Kingdome for 1979.  Shown are stars Carew, Jim Rice, Reggie Jackson, Jim Sundberg, Ron LeFlore, Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Palmer, Brett, Pete Rose, Garvey Vida Blue, Reggie Smith, Johnny Bench, Mike Schmidt and Dave Parker.  Along with those stars, former Mariner AS members Julio Cruz, Leon Roberts, Craig Reynolds and Jones were also featured.

Cool, odd piece, but even better as a Garvey collectible!

By the way, $400 got you 81 home games in the Box seats!

New Garvey find - Japanese magazine with back page AD

Wanted to share this unique item I picked up recently.  It's a Japanese baseball magazine from sometime around 1978 I believe...not sure as I don't read Kanji, Kana or whatever it may be.  There is a full page color Rawlings glove ad on the back cover featuring Steve Garvey.  Very cool piece.  I usually don't go crazy over individual photos/wirephotos, ads or such as those can be limitless, but will pick them up for the right price if i like them.  This one was too cool to pass up.

It was around $7-8 for the magazine, but I also picked up another 4, including one with former Dodger Willie "Three Dog" Davis on the cover.  Davis spent some time in Japan playing ball.

High Fives, Pennant Drives and Fernandomania - A new book about the 1977-1981 Dodgers, by Paul Haddad

I collect Steve Garvey memorabilia, first and foremost.  I am on Ebay pretty much daily for fear that I will miss something unique that will never turn up again.  It's odd though when I find something as common as a book from another source. I don't think I had seen this book for sale on Ebay, which is pretty odd.  Ebay has everything in quantity.  How did I miss a book featuring Steve Garvey?  The problem is it's there, but nobody references Garvey in their description!  He is on the cover, but the book is not about him per se, but of the teams on which he played a major role from 1977-1981.

I ended up buying a copy from Amazon.  Just wanted to share in case other Garvey collectors were not aware.  Usually books can be had for next to nothing soon after they are published, but occasionally we have book with a small print run or some other factor that makes it impossible to find...

Take this case of the 2002 "The Forgotten Dodger", a book about Carl Furillo by Bill Ninfo.  Apparently this is true in more than one way, because this book is not easy to find and when you do, it will cost you triple figure bucks to own one.  When I first learned of this book not too long ago, it was selling in the $900-1000 range.  The price has settled somewhat dramatically as there is one on ebay with a BIN/OBO of $195, but I'm guessing this was a $10-20 book when it was first published.  Perhaps Furillo was so forgotten that nobody bought the book.

Anyway, here is the Dodger book in case anyone wants to locate a copy.  Looks like you can get them for about $15-20.  You can take a chance now and hope that it isn't in the $2 bin a year from now or worse yet, that it is $200!

I have not read it yet.  I really just wanted it for the cover.  I should read it though...I really never read much of anything anymore, especially books.  The internet has made me lazy.

File this under "At some point someone saved EVERYTHING"

Whenever it started, people began to collect things.  Beyond the essentials for life, someone thought it might be nice to hold on to a book, magazine, toy, trading card or a variety of other things.  Maybe some of this was accidental, tucked away and forgotten, but mostly I'm guessing it was something done on purpose.  Many of us became pack rats, stashing away items we liked to be viewed, played with or admired at a later date.

I for one am happy that this trend started.  Sometimes, actually often, I wonder what will become of the mass piles of junk I have saved.  Perhaps I will sell it or give it away some day.  Maybe my kids will want some of it.  Maybe I'll die before I can deal with it and it will be someone else's problem...

I wanted to share one item that to me seems like something people just would not have saved in most instances, but again I am thankful that people did.  Perhaps there are cases of this small booklet stashed away in some church basement, having not seen the light of day for 34 years now, or more likely a few sports fans took the opportunity to set aside a unique item for future generations to enjoy and a handful are sitting away in collections or on bookshelves.  Regardless of the reason they were spared from a landfill or recycling, I have myself a few copies of this periodical in 2013 because of those collectors.

According to the internet, Catholic Digest started in 1936 and still going strong.  Circulation runs about 300,000 copies in 2013.  I wonder how many they were pumping out in 1979?  The periodical is roughly the same size as the old Readers Digest issues.  You may not be able to read the article, but I scanned it just the same.  Enjoy...pretty sure that this item has not been seem by most Garvey collectors.

Catholic Digest, July 1979 - Steve Garvey

Sometimes rarity is just puzzling...May 1980 Sport Magazine

Rarity is relative, of course.  In the world of sports magazines, rare is probably an overused term.  For any larger periodical, I'm going to guess without trying to do extensive research that circulation was likely going to be in the 100,000s+ back in "the day".  As a reference, SI is running a circulation of roughly 3 million today.  You'd expect a few of those issues to survive even the worst of conditions.

Obviously, the older a magazine, the harder it will become to find as time passes.  There are also going to be those periodicals that just aren't published to the magnitude of say a Sports Illustrated or similar magazine.  Finding copies of older periodicals with small circulations can certainly become a chore as well.  Even today it can be difficult to sell older magazines as collectibles.  Often you will find magazines at shops, garage sales and such for a dollar each or less.  They take up a lot of room and the demand for common issues seems to be minimal at best.

Despite this fact, it seems that online sellers of magazines are an optimistic bunch.  Many of the magazines I run across with mild interest are severely overpriced in my opinion.  Perhaps these types of sellers are willing to wait YEARS for that one person willing to pay $18 for a Golfing magazine from 1989 with a baseball player on the cover!  Add the fact that most sellers want $5+ to ship one, it becomes an expensive endeavor to buy random magazines.  Yet us collectors have our niches and we'll often chase those odd magazines that we need.  I have passed on a number of overpriced periodicals that I still do not have myself, but if the price is fair, I will jump on a deal.


One magazine who's scarcity boggles me though, is the May 1980 issue of Sport Magazine.  Sport was a popular magazine that predated Sports Illustrated.  Known for its fantastic color shots, the magazine thrived for many years but ultimately suffered a sad death in 2000.  After 10 publishers and 54 years, the magazine folded forever.  In 1980, SI had a firm grip on the sports magazine reading public, but Sport was still a viable option.  I always preferred the format of Sport to it's competition.  Maybe monthly issues was just not enough to survive?

Anyway, a little research tells me that Sport ran some regional covers in may 1980, which was not the first time or the last that they would try this marketing trick.  I can find images of covers featuring George Brett and Lou Piniella fairly easily with a basic internet search.

I also have a guide published by Beckett that proves very helpful in cataloging magazine issues.  They do note 3 regional covers for this issue.

So, where is the third cover and who is it?  

Do your own search and you probably won't find a reference or image of that last cover (at least until this blog article is published).  Why is this issue so hard to find?  Of course, the Brett issue tops the list for value of the three in the referenced guide, perhaps because Brett is a popular HOFer.  Is that issue harder to find as well?  Not sure, as I have never really looked for it.  Maybe all three are tough finds, although several of the Piniella issue are listed on Ebay now.  Whatever the reason, this magazine seldom surfaces on Ebay, as I frequently search the subject.  I can remember less than 5 copies being offered in the last 15 years or so!  I know this because I saw it so seldom that it has become one of those little facts that dwells in my head and with daily Ebay searches, I would notice this magazine as soon as it was listed.  If magazines are tough to sell in general and you often can't give them away...where are all the issues of the elusive third subject?

Without further ado, I present to you what may very well be the only image of this magazine cover on the internet today...

Steve Garvey Sport Magazine May 1980

Immortalized!?

As a kid, you rip open that pack of baseball cards, searching for your heroes.  We all dreamed that some day, we might star on our own baseball cards.  Depending on the era in which you grew up and the area where you lived, you would probably be looking for those Musials, Aarons, Mays, Schmidts, Jeters, etc.  These were legendary baseball stars!  They had cool nicknames and those cards just shouted baseball player too.  Take a look at a couple of vintage cards.  You knew those guys were ball players at first sight and good ones at that.

Carl "The Reading Rifle" Furillo was a ball player!

Sal "The Barber" Maglie was a ball player!

Ted "Big Klu" Kluzewski was a ball player!!

Steve "Popeye" Garvey was a ball player!!!

However, sometimes you opened that pack to reveal an average guy.  This guy looked like your dad's coworker, your next door neighbor or the mailman.  This guy couldn't be a pro ball player...or could he?  Baseball players were legends or heroes, not plumbers!

So, there you are.  You have now fulfilled your dream and beaten all kinds of odds to reach the majors and there is the Topps photographer taking your picture for your very own baseball card.  How exciting must that be for all those players.  Certainly you have no say in what picture they choose, so then you wait to see if you make the set and what your card will look like.  Sometimes the cards will not be real impressive because of the photograph or the design, but sometimes maybe you just don't look like a ball player "should look like"...

Enter Don "'Ears" Mossi.  This poor guy has been the butt of ugly card jokes for his entire life.  Born without movie star good looks, but to compound matters he has a set of ears that probably wouldn't look in place on anybody's head.  That had to be rough growing up, but Topps could have hooked a brother up.  His 1961 Topps card is a decent shot.  

Given his physical features, Topps ran an "action" shot and it kind of hides this fact.  However, they were not so kind on most of his other card appearances.  Probably the worst coming at the end of his career.  Photographed for his 1966 Topps card, the guy snapping pictures must have decided to send Mossi out with a bang.  HELLO!!

The thing is, Mossi wasn't a bad ballplayer by his own right.  He amassed over 100 wins and made the All-Star squad once, playing for some less than stellar AL teams from 1954-1965.  Be proud Mr. Mossi.  Most of us never made it past Little League and certainly we don't have our own Topps baseball cards.  You are as much a legend as Mays, Mantle and Snider in that regard.

While on this topic, I recently came across a card that might rival those of Mossi.  Lots of people have large ears.  How many people though have a neck that rivals a Giraffe or a Geoduck Clam?  It appears that Mr. Parsons didn't really have a nickname to speak of, and perhaps this is the camera deceiving us a bit with a bad angle, but look at the neck on this guy!  Tom "Geoduck" Parsons would certainly have fit, at least for this photograph!

Mr. Mossi and Mr. Parson, you are not alone sirs.  As much as we hold in high regard those legends on cardboard, we too enjoy all the other cards that are a reminder of our youth, even if that is with a twist of humor.

Can't leave out the infamous Oscar Gamble at this point...

Remembered in Death on Cardboard

I know this topic has been done before, but I have always been intrigued by Sport Card Memorials.  There are a limited number of special cards in this particular subset, although it is a shame that more cards were not produced.  I think it is a great way to remember fallen sports stars one last time.  I tried to recall each card i remember seeing.  I may have missed a couple, and I even borrowed a couple that some creative person made for us.  I don't remember ever seeing any football cards like this, although that sport has had their fair share of untimely deaths.

Those two fantasy memorial cards are probably the best looking of the bunch.  Too bad Topps didn't have this person working for them at the time.