Collecting just one card or one player times infinity

While surfing baseball card blogs, I came across a collector devoted to cards of Tim Wallach. Like really devoted. The collector, nicknamed Stack22, wants to collect every Tim Wallach card, times infinity. Got fifty 1991 Topps Tim Wallachs? Send them to this guy.

I admire his fervor. So do other collectors. He has received packages and envelopes stuffed with Tim Wallach cards from fellow collectors. He personally thanks each sender on his blog, along with scans or snapshots of the cards. He even maps where each package of cards came from on a Google Map.

Stack22's devotion to Tim Wallach cards created a following on his blog. It's a unique way of collecting, and other collectors love it so much that they send up to 500 cards to him. This is collecting at it's best when other collectors come together for another's collecting goal, no matter how incredible and daunting the goal may be.

I've heard of other card collectors collecting one card over and over again. There was, and may still be, a collector who collected one common from the T206 set over and over again, noting the different lithographic printing variations, colors and errors.

I collect certain Mets players like Lee Mazzilli, Darryl Strawberry, and Bud Harrelson, but I don't collect every one ever made. I haven't really thought about collecting one player or one card for infinity.

However, there is one card that I might try collecting forever, at least until I am committed to a white, pillowy room. It's a card that is a bit obvious, and that I'm sure others are hoarding:

Mark Fidrych, 1977 Topps
A card I would hoard 

The 1977 Topps rookie of Mark Fidrych. Yeah, it is an obvious choice. But, it's such a great card, representing a spectacular season. Not only that, but the design is great: the Pitcher flag, the AL All-Star banner, the Topps Rookie All-Star cup, the signature, the colors sync.

Then there is Fidrych.  The photo has a slightly crooked background, but it works. Not sure if he ever smiled on another card. The smile is happy and hopeful. It's not as Mona Lisa as the T205 Addie Joss (another card I would collect multiples of, if I had a million bucks), but the smile and Fidrych's features have a strange, hypnotic quality.

I have three copies (two Topps and one O-Pee-Chee), and I swear each one is different. It's weird. Or I'm just crazy.

My Favorite Cards: Ed Delahanty, Mayo's Cut Plug

E.J. Delahanty (Edward James) 
1895 Mayo’s Cut Plug (N300)

Intoxicated and belligerent, his escalating violence became too much for the conductor of the No. 6 train from Detroit to Buffalo. Pulling a sleeping woman from her berth was the last straw. At around 10:45 at night, the conductor forced him off the train at Bridgesburg station at Fort Erie, Ontario without an escort. Alone, with no other thought in his disoriented mind, but to follow the train to Buffalo, he started for the bridge. With the station lights dimming from distance and the loud flow of the Niagara River twenty-five feet below, he looked down as he walked, trying to concentrate. As nimble as a drunken man can possibly be, he stepped tie by tie into 3,500 feet of darkness. Seven days later his body floats, bloated and disfigured, at the bottom of Niagara Falls, naked except for his tie, socks and shoes.

Two books and numerous articles have been written about Big Ed Delahanty. Big chunks near the end of his biographies are devoted to theories on what happened to Delahanty the night of July 2, 1903. The only witness to claim to see him fall was a night-watchman who followed Delahanty onto the bridge. He claimed the man (no one knew it was Delahanty) ran off the bridge. Did Delahanty run off the bridge in the darkness to evade the guard? Or did he become distraught over gambling debts and the unknown future of his legendary baseball career, concluding he'd be better off dead?

What has not been mentioned in the writings on Delahanty's death was how anonymous he was to the train passengers. Today, his behavior would have been described as ‘Del being Del,’ and his entourage would have its own train car. The conductor and passengers aboard the No. 6 train seemed oblivious to Delahanty's baseball exploits. While he was well-known in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., on a train from Detroit, dressed in upper middle class attire, he’s just a drunk bruiser kicked off a train without his baggage or a friend in the world.

The Mayo Cut Plug cigarette card of Delahanty presents him not in his baseball uniform, but in so-called ‘street clothes.’ Without his name and team at the bottom, the photo could be of a banker, or a laborer in his Sunday’s best. It’s not a great leap to imagine Delahanty wore similar clothes that July night, appearing well-dressed, but anonymous. 

Days after the incident, word had spread to the Pullman Train Car Company about a man who fell into the Niagara River. In an attempt to identify the man, a suitcase and satchel, left unclaimed from the No. 6 train, were searched. Inside the satchel rested shoes used for baseball playing and a complementary pass to Washington Senators games. In the suitcase, a suit of clothes was found inscribed with the name 'Delahanty.'

Finally, a Fielder Jones

So, I named this blog after a favorite deadball player named Fielder Jones. He patrolled the outfield for the Chicago White Sox for a large part of his career. During his stay in Chicago, he also managed the Sox to a World Series win in 1906. The reason I admire Fielder Jones is he won with a team that hit a combined .230.
He was a driven man, appearing in photos with his arms crossed or fists resting on hips ready. He jumped to the Federal League, but could not find success with the St. Louis Terriers, and promptly quit the majors.

I just recently acquired my favorite of his two T206 cards. He has a stern look, possibly leering at a player after a blundered play, ready to chew him out.

Ironies Named 1947 by Todd Fuller

Todd Fuller is a PhD graduate of Oklahoma State University. Other works have been published, in the Hawai'i Review, Puerto del Sol, South Dakota Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, and Third Coast. 

Mr. Fuller also wrote a biography of Mose Yellowhose called 60' 6'' and Other Distances from Home: The (Baseball) Life of Mose YellowHorse from which a movie screenplay is currently being written..

Ironies Named 1947 

[Mose] YellowHorse Hitches to Post of Ponca City Groundskeeper" 

            —Al Kaff, The Sporting News, July 16, 1947

One

It's an hour before game time on April 15,
And a man with a rake is smoothing

Infield dirt. And somewhere in the stands
A father will point him out, and a story

Will follow. The one about a Pawnee Indian 
Striking out three future Hall of Famers

With nine undisguised fastballs, or maybe 
The one about his beaning Ty Cobb right

Between the eyes. And the son will say 
"Babe Ruth, Really?" And the father will

Nod, then say other names like Gehrig 
And Lazzeri. He'll tell his son, "Ol' Mose

Threw as hard as Walter `Big Train' Johnson," 
And the boy will know that means

Ninety-Five Miles-an-hour.

Two
In thirty minutes the Ponca City diamond 
Is littered with spit-shined baseballs in flight,

And somewhere in Brooklyn, 26,000 fans 
Watch Jackie Robinson break the color barrier

With an 0-for premiere. And headlines in 
Pittsburgh will be composed with Justice

In mind: Triumph Of Whole Race Seen 
In Jackie's Debut. And parents will name

Their newborns after him. And the citizens 
Of Cairo, Georgia are not surprised that

Little Jack Robinson's running like a damn 
Gazelle around the bases. And half the fans

Jammed into Ebbets Field have a tear 
For the moment. And someone's yelling

"Yonkel, Yonkel!" which is Yiddish 
For Jackie.

Three
Boys in Ponca City, Oklahoma will start 
To fall asleep beside their radios, and they'll

Believe they saw a whale of a game 
At Conoco Park, that the Oilers turned

Double plays just as slick as Reese to 
Stanky to Robinson. And some announcer's

Voice will lull them into unconsciousness 
With hyperbolic renditions of flying saucers

And alien landings. And Mose YellowHorse 
Will return home four hours after the game

Is finished and settle his eyes onto an evening 
Paper. There is talk of recently discovered

Biblical texts in Khirbet Qumran. In sports 
The Pirates and Dodgers win. In weather

The hi-temp reaches 56. Out on the porch 
The wind's carrying smells of rain; the swing's

Creaking like an old tree branch.

From Weber Journal Poetry Supplement, Summer 1999, Vol. 17

Excerpt from The Way Mose YellowHorse Learned How to Throw  by Todd Fuller

My favorite cards, Part I: Roberto Clemente, 1971 Topps

So, it's been over a month since I received a baseball card in the mail. I have no money for cards at the moment and probably for a couple more months. Purchasing holiday gifts have trumped adding to my collection. I've been avoiding eBay and other auction websites. I've been writing about my want list, which helps a little bit at diminishing the collecting fever, but there's always a need in collecting to amass more. It's an aspect that collecting detractors point out: A collector is only happy with a new acquisition for a short time before the need for more things arises. I myself am guilty of loving a card, placing it in a plastic sheet, forgetting about it, and soon I'm out buying more in the span of a week. I've decided instead of moping around about my lack of funds and lack of any new cards, I'm going to focus on what I already own. So begins a series of posts dedicated to my favorite cards.

My favorite cards, Part I: Roberto Clemente, 1971 Topps


Roberto Clemente was a bad-ass, plain and simple. I think most people would agree that possessing an arm that could double as a rocket-launcher, running the diamond like a crazy man to stretch doubles into a triples, hitting above .300 for a career, and being a humanitarian and an idol to thousands of Latino kids, makes one a bad-ass.

The 1971 Topps card showcases Clemente in all of his bad-assery. He's all business. It looks like he's aiming his bat to take out the photographer. His stoic and surly appearance stems from not only his utter dominance on the ball field, but from his difficulties during his early MLB career.

If this card was issued during the late 50s, Clemente's demeanor would be a window into the turmoil caused by rampant racial discrimination of the era. Clemente never dealt with racism in his Puerto Rico home. Coming to American proved a rude awakening of racially divided hotel rooms and water fountains, public jeers, and loneliness from not being accepted by whites or blacks due to his Latino heritage.

Clemente received a large signing bonus compared to other rookies, and when he didn't produce immediately, the media, the public and even his team mates turned on him causing his life to be even more hellish. But, by 1960, Clemente came into his own. A World Series win, his first all-star appearance, and his first great season created good will between him and the people of Pittsburgh. I guess winning causes color-blindness.

The Want List, Part II: Grover Alexander (1933 W517)

Every baseball card collector has a most wanted list of cards. Some collectors need a card to complete a set, and others want a card of a favorite player. I want a card because it looks cool (whether it's the player's pose, face, or the card's colors), or I want a card because of the player's history. Until I can afford the cards on my want list, I will have to be happy with writing about them. 

The Want List, Part II: Grover Alexander (1931 W517 #15)
With a blank stare, looking disconnected from the world, this is the last card appearance of Grover (Pete) Alexander. Back with the Phillies, where 15 years before he won 94 games in three seasons, Alexander posted a 9.14 era in 1930 along with three losses. After his release, he quit the majors, but went on to pitch in the minors and the House of David team.

Grover Alexander W517

At the end of his career. At the end of his rope. Alexander's post-baseball life follows the familiar story of a washed-up former star: fighting a drinking problem, keeping poverty at bay, dropping into obscurity, re-assimilating into society like a prisoner on parole. Adding to his pile of Dickensian troubles, Alexander suffered from epileptic seizures, and shell-shock caused by his horrific experience on the front lines of WWI, including participating in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive where the U.S. suffered 117,000 casualties (1)(2). His wife, Amy, divorced him for the first time in 1929. Things were crumbling around him.

So, why is this strip card on my want-list? This card shows what life after baseball looks like, before pensions and million dollar contracts. It shows a former star facing destitution. It shows what happened to forgotten heroes after the cheers go silent and baseball turns its head.


1. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_meuse_argonne.html
2. SABR Biography of Grover 'Pete' Alexander: http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&pid=140&bid=945

The Want List, Part I: Rube Waddell (1910 E93)

Every baseball card collector has a most wanted list of cards. Some collectors need a card to complete a set, and others want a card of a favorite player. I want a card because it looks cool (whether it's the player's pose, face, or the card's colors), or I want a card because of the player's history. Until I can afford the cards on my want list, I will have to be happy with writing about them. 


The Want List, Part I: Rube Waddell (1910 E93 Standard Caramel)

Rube Waddell
1910 E93 Caramel Card

Rube Waddell was a man who would get into a fight over a straw hat. He was a man who could be distracted from a game by tinker toys or fire engine bells. He was a free-spirit, who was known to assist firefighters as well as disappearing for days on drinking binges.

Anecdotes about Rube Waddell are as numerous as his strikeouts. Known as the first power-pitcher of the 20th century, Waddell's 1904 total of 349 strike-outs remained a towering single-season record until Sandy Koufax eclipsed it with 382 strikeouts in 1965. When the Rube was on, he was ON. The dichotomy of Waddell the goof and Waddell the dominating player secured his place in baseball lore and attracts collectors to his baseball cards. Of his tobacco and candy cards, Waddell's E93 card is arguably the most attractive.

Unlike their tobacco card counterparts, the cards from the E93 set were packaged with caramel candies. The quality of the player picture was higher than the tobacco cards of the era. Using a player photograph, artists colored in the player photo matching the uniform colors, while making the background a solid color. Collectors love the card's colors and player picture detail. Demand for this set is high and so are their prices.

Basis of the E93?

Waddell's card catches him about to fire one over. Rearing back and gathering his arm strength, who knows which pitch is coming? Is it a blazing fastball, or one of his diving curves? Waddell had very large hands that could wrap around the ball causing it to spin left or right or waif in the air like a knuckleball (1). Waddell, captured here as the dominating player, stares at his target, concentrating.

Aided by color, the E93 card trumps its B&W photo origins in bringing these players to life. His golden belt buckle, the red of his undershirt and collar, the matching green background combine to create a striking life-like portrait of this exasperating man-child who was known equally for his antics as his pitching prowess.


(1) Rube Waddell: the zany, brilliant life of a strikeout artist By Alan Howard Levy, Page 1