Day 24: A favorite oddball card from the 1960s
As a kid, I had plenty of time for reading books. And when I got into baseball, I naturally started picking up baseball related literature. I read a few novels, but what I really liked were true stories. I read a biography on Babe Ruth and studied baseball statistics reference books. One of my favorite types of books were the ones full of short non-fiction tales. These were more than just simple stories of victory or adversity, instead focusing on the strange. Some books told about players like Eddie Gaedel, while others retold stories of big blunders on and off the field.
The Nu-Cards Baseball Scoops set is just like that, giving a very short look at some of the more interesting happenings in baseball, both memorable (like Gehrig's consecutive streak record) and slightly odd (like the blown call above). I would love to have a full 80-card set! Someday, I might try to put one together.
Honorable Mention today goes to the 1969-76 Fleer Cloth Patches. Team logos are art, too, and logo stickers are a fun oddball to collect. The Indians logo above probably won't be revived anytime soon.
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For being over 50 years old, those Nu-Scoops are pretty affordable. One of my favorite cards from that set is that Gaedel. I'm also a big fan of those vintage Fleer cloth stickers. I was pretty obsessed with building a set of these a few years back, but I got tired of chasing down all of the different variations and trying to figure out which stickers came from which years.
ReplyDeleteWith only a few exceptions, oddballs are very affordable. Underappreciated, and I think they always will be.
DeleteIf/When I move back to the US, I might put together a full run of Fleer sticker sets. The Fleer Sticker Project is a big help in identifying what's out there and the variations, and I even made a want list once (now deleted since I really can't tackle it affordably from Japan).