Don Larsen's Perfect Game

Everyone knows Don Larsen as the only pitcher in history to throw a perfect game (or even a no-hitter for that matter) during the World Series. Overall he was a mediocre journeyman pitcher, so his name is forever associated with the gem he threw on October 8th, 1956. As a kid who spent a lot of time with his head buried in baseball statistics and books, I was always aware of this fact, but I never really gave it much thought until recently.

Only 18 official perfect games have ever been thrown, and to pull this off on baseball's biggest stage is beyond impressive. It's even more impressive when you consider that Larsen was no superstar prior to this, and had been lit up pretty well in game 2 of the series, just a few days earlier.

Here's the iconic image of catcher Yogi Berra leaping into Larsen's arms after the final out, courtesy of 2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces. A couple of other interesting facts that I didn't know until recently:

• This was the final game for home plate umpire Babe Pinelli before his retirement. Not a bad way to go out!
• Larsen allegedly took a cigarette break during the 7th inning stretch in the clubhouse
• Larsen was present during David Cone's no-hitter at Yankee stadium more than 30 years later in 1998. In fact, it was Yogi Berra day and he had thrown the ceremonial first pitch for that very game. Coincidence?

Until recently the two cards above were the only Larsens in my collection. I decided to rectify this and recently won this one on eBay:

I'm very excited to add this card to my personal collection. This is from the 2003 Topps All-Time Fan Favorite set, and of course depicts Larsen on the '56 Topps design. To me, this is a piece of baseball history and something I will enjoy for the rest of my life, as this very card was held and signed by the only man to throw a World Series perfect game. Not bad for $8 plus shipping huh?

Bravo Mark!

It certainly took long enough, but I do give you credit for finally having the balls to admit what you did...

Red Sox Collection - 2008 Allen & Ginter Jason Varitek Jersey

Today has been the laziest day I've had in quite some time. After watching Gran Turino earlier (which was an excellent movie), it's been nothing but sports in my household. Unfortunately I wasted a couple of hours watching the Bruins lose to the New York Rangers this afternoon, and now playoff football is filling my night.

Since it's unlikely I'll be getting off the couch for anything other than a cold beer, I'm going to mail it in as far as posting goes and show this Jason Varitek Allen & Ginter jersey card. Lonestarr of Behind These Hazel Eyes must've sent me this card over a year ago, if not longer, but I only got around to scanning it in when I rediscovered it in a Red Sox box recently. Although Varitek is going to play a diminished role this season with Victor Martinez on board, he's been captain of the team for what seems like forever. This is my only Allen & Ginter "hit" card, and is one of the nicer looking Red Sox jersey swatch cards I've got. The solid red is much more entertaining to the eye than the average white swatch.

Belated thanks for the great card Lonestarr! I've got some stuff coming your way as soon as I get my cards from the Old School Breaks group break...

David Krejci Collection - Card 14

I'm a bit late in posting this, but David Krejci scored his 8th goal of the season on Tuesday night on the road against the Ottawa Senators. To commemorate, here is his rookie card from the 2007-08 Upper Deck MVP set. The Bruins seem to be up and down lately, but they were able to beat the Senators (currently one spot behind Boston at 6th in the East) to earn 2 key points.

The Bruins take to the ice tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks, who are currently the NHL's top team. If the game is anywhere near as exciting as the shootout the last time these two teams met, we're in for a good one!

#1 - 2007-08 Upper Deck SPX (Auto/Dual Relic/#'d to 999)

#2 - 2007-08 O-Pee-Chee Premier (Auto/Quad Relic/#'d to 299)
#3 - 2007-08 Upper Deck Ice Fresh Threads (Dual Relic)

#4 - 2008-09 Upper Deck Champs Mini

#5 - 2007-08 In the Game Heroes & Prospects

#6 - 2009-10 Fleer Ultra

#7 - 2007-08 Upper Deck SP Authentic (Auto/#'d to 999)
#8 - 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee

#9 - 2007-08 O-Pee-Chee

#10 - 2009-10 Upper Deck

#11 - 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Stat Leaders Insert

#12 - 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Retro Parallel

#13 - 2005-06 In the Game Heroes & Prospects

Filling in Gaps - 1964-65 Topps Hockey

The new year has brought with it a bit of a lull in my collecting, which is probably a good thing. Between Bruins games on consecutive nights and the World Junior Championship, which ended in a thrilling win for the Unites States in the gold medal game last night, I've spent a lot of time watching hockey already this year!

As far as collecting goes, we've got a couple of weeks before the 2010 baseball sets start appearing. On the hockey front, I'm just a few cards away from completing my 2009-10 Upper Deck Series 1 hockey set, and Series 2 doesn't hit the shelves until the second week in February. I'm taking advantage of the down time to better organize my collection and scan in some older cards, like this beauty from the 64-65 Topps set.

This was another set that was completely absent from my hockey card collection, so I picked this single up on eBay. Of the 1960's sets I've managed to pick up a sample from so far, 1964-65 Topps may be my favorite. These cards really have to be seen in hand to be fully appreciated. This is a "tall boy" set, meaning that while Milt's card is the same width as a modern day card in terms of the top and bottom edges, it's over an inch taller. The design of the card is simple, but the large size really gives it some appeal. Here's the back of the card:

Not the world's most exciting back, but plenty of space for a large cartoon. As I've said before, I love when coach cards are included on a checklist. This card is in really great shape, crease-free with clean corners and a good glossy front. Combine that with the fact that it's a Bruins card and a coach and it was a no-brainer for under $10. This is generally regarded as one of the more scarce 60's Topps sets, and certain cards can fetch good money, so I will likely never complete it. I will definitely be adding some more of these to my collection though if I can find them on the cheap!

New Year's Links

Happy New Year everyone! If you're planning on a nice lazy New Year's Day like me, or if your plans happen to place you somewhere where a TV is present between the hours of 12 and 5, I've got a suggestion for you. Tune into the NHL's Winter Classic and watch the hometown Bruins take on the Philadelphia Flyers from within the confines of Fenway Park. This outdoor game is becoming a yearly tradition, and has been a great success for the NHL thus far.

There's something very interesting and nostalgic about watching an outdoor hockey game, and the fact that it's taking place in one of America's most beloved and historic ballparks (my personal favorite, although I'm obviously biased) just magnifies it that much more. Whether you're a hockey fan, a baseball fan, or just a sports fan in general you are missing out if you don't tune in!

Here are a couple of links I stumbled across this morning that I thought were pretty interesting:

Sports Illustrated takes a look at the top 10 goalie masks of the decade
Images from the 2009 NHL Winter Classic at Wrigley Field in Chicago
Goalie masks by team for the 2009-10 NHL Season
Did you know there's a hockey-reference.com?

Go Bruins!

Roll Out the 1974-75 Topps Hockey

I finally got around to scanning the 2nd part of the package from Ed at Roll Out the Barrel. In addition to the Red Sox cards he sent, Ed included a staggering 39 cards from the 1974-75 Topps hockey set! This is a set I've been sort of half collecting since I picked a lot up on Ebay a while ago. Ed must've looked over my collection on Zistle before sending me these, as I had none of the 39 cards he sent. Here are a handful of my favorites:
I think I like the 74-75 Topps set just because it is so poorly done. While the design of the cards is actually pretty decent, the photography is horrible. There are two types of shots that seem to dominate the set. The first, like the Dennis Ververgaert card pictured above, features portraits of the players that look like they could've come out of a high school yearbook. If you looked at the photo alone you'd be hard pressed to even recognize this as a hockey card.

The second type of shot that is featured prominently is the player fully dressed, but simply standing in front of a wall in a hallway or locker room somewhere, like this Ken Hodge card. As a rough guess, I would say probably 2/3 of the individual player cards in the set show one of these two types of photographs.

One thing that I do really like is that coach cards were included. This is something I wish we saw more of in today's modern hockey releases. In fact, I can't recall pulling a single coach card from a pack since I got back into collecting in 2007.

Here's another example of the "standing in front of a wall" pose. Nearly every Blackhawks player card I have features this wood-grain wall in the background. It's like they lined the players up and just had them stand in the same spot one at a time. Awful.

The Team Leaders cards are one of the few areas where these yearbook style headshots actually work rather well. I always appreciate adding a new Golden Seals card to the collection as well!

Without looking, I think I can safely say this may be the only hockey card in my collection featuring a headband...

This was one of my favorite cards in the package because it actually includes what appears to be an in-game photo! The stick blade to the right of Stewart's shoulder illustrates just how different blades and sticks in general were back then. Look at how flat that thing looks, and such a small amount of tape!

A very early Bob Nystrom card, his second year card if I'm not mistaken. He looks much different without his trademark moustache!

Finally, this Dick Redmond beauty. Again, we have the wooden wall. How bad is the lighting in this picture? I seriously think an 8th grade art student armed with a camera could've produced better work than this.

Ed, thank you again for the wonderful package! As much as I just bashed these cards, they are a welcome addition to my collection, and a significant chunk of a set I hope to one day complete. I will be dropping your return package in the mail today!

In Search of 2009-10 Upper Deck Hockey!

Alright, I think I've reached the point where I won't be buying any more 2009-10 Upper Deck Series 1 hockey wax. After 2 blasters, 15-20 hobby packs, 2 retail packs and a retail rack pack I'm at the point where I'm pulling too many doubles to justify picking any more up. I'm hoping someone out there can help me make a dent in what I have left before I resort to buying singles. Here's what I need:

4, 7, 8, 9, 18, 19, 22, 28, 32, 34, 49, 63, 69, 70, 80, 82, 83, 88, 89, 99, 102, 105, 109, 125, 126, 131, 135, 136, 139, 150, 152, 154, 155, 160, 162, 171, 174, 175, 178, 195, 199

If anyone has any of these they're willing to send my way, I'll make it worth your while! I've got plenty of doubles from this set, as well as other hockey and baseball sets. Thanks for reading!

Trade with Old School Breaks

I recently completed my first trade with John from Old School Breaks. This was different than most trades I've completed, in that it was a simple exchange of a few cards going each direction. I had posted about a Nolan Ryan Upper Deck Decade 1970's card I had picked up, and how I couldn't seem to find many cards from the set. John responded, had busted a box and had a few Red Sox to send me. I sent him some Yankees inserts and a few Devils cards. Here's what John sent:
5 Red Sox cards from the Upper Deck Decade 1970's set. This Dwight Evans is an example of what the regular base cards look like. Very very similar to the 1975 Topps design, but I'm a sucker for retro feel and cards featuring retired players.

I always think of Aparicio as a White Sox player, and forget that he spent the final 3 years of his career with the Red Sox.

This Fred Lynn card is from the Rookie 1970's Flashback subset. Not much different from the base cards. They moved the player name to the top of the card and slapped a big black and white Rookie banner across the bottom.

The second Lynn card in the package is from the Award Winners subset. This card obviously pays tribute to the 1975 season in which Lynn captured the AL MVP, AL Rookie of the Year, and the hearts of New England sports fans. I do have a complaint though. They used the same photo as the Lynn card above. It really bothers me when companies do this. You don't have another photo of Lynn Upper Deck?

The final 70's Decade card was probably my favorite. The last 10 cards of the base set are these World Series Highlights cards (one for each year 70 - 79). Great way to end the set. The final card in John's package was this:

2003 Topps Finest - #FRB-NG - Nomar Garciaparra - Although I have a decent number of Garciaparra cards in my collection, this is definitely my first game-used card.

The Garciaparra card was a great addition to my collection, and the 70's Decade cards are pretty cool. I really don't need another set to build right now, so I have to resist the temptation to buy a hobby box. Thanks for the great package John!

Sick as a Dog

Just wanted to throw up a quick post to let everyone know I'm still around. The holidays were pretty hectic as usual, and on top of that I've been incredibly sick since yesterday morning. My last two days have consisted of nothing but hot drinks, Tylenol Flu and Airborne tablets as I drift in and out of sleep.

Hopefully I'll be off the DL soon, as I've got a few things to post, including great trade packages from John at Old School Breaks and Sal at Puck Junk. While I didn't receive any cards for Christmas, I did get some very thoughtful Hartford Whalers items from the family which I plan to show off as well.

In the meantime, here's a card I recently added to my collection to tide you over, a 2001-02 Topps Archives auto of long time Bruins captain and member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, John Bucyk. This is a set I'd love to complete some day, and I didn't have any autos, so I was thrilled to win this for around $10 on eBay. Until next time...