Category: al hraborsky

SENIORS!!!!!!!!111111111

OK, so…

There’s an indoor flea market near me that I visit sometimes. Not a huge amount of vendor or merch turnover, but they get stuff here and there, so I end up there from time to time. I went on Sunday, and I got some stuff. As people have been making mention of how long my posts have been recently, I’ll break it up into short pieces, and hopefully I’ll remember to make them all.

Before I get into the other stuff, this was the undisputed highlight…

It’s not a tough thing to get, I don’t think, nor is it an expensive one, but it never seemed to be in the same place as my disposable income and I. I’m so happy that I’ve finally got it.

I mean…when I opened the box in the car, and looked at the first card in it, this is who greeted me…

Look at that beautiful bastard. Look at him! Also: woodgrain! Uniforms I haven’t seen much of! But seriously, oh my god it’s a Pete LaCock card I didn’t have.

It continues…

!

(And that’s COMMISSIONER Curt Flood to you!)

!!!!!

ALSO !!!!!

This set is so good, y’all. I have some other Senior League stuff (I think from Pacific’s line, gotta look at/checklist those soon), but it’s not as amazing as this stuff. I’ll go on…

Somebody card Hal McRae, he looks way too young to be there!

My eyes just played tricks on me with this Dennis Leonard card, because of the placement of the league logo. It looks like he’s throwing the baseball in the logo! Also: I still want someone to do a TV series on the ’70s-’80s Royals, told through  what I’d imagine Dennis Leonard’s perspective to be.

WALT!!!!!!!

This card of Easler is straight-up gorgeous.

The Mad Hungarian!

LeFlore!

Vida Blue, workin’ for the Juice!

George Foster in pinstripes!

Jose Cruz, looking as utterly badass as Jose Cruz always looked on cards.

Fergie!

Figueroa!

Fingers! (For those wondering, total HOF count in the set is 4; along with Rollie here and Fergie, Dick Williams and Earl Weaver both have manager cards in the set, too…)

Aikens, before it got really weird. Glad he made it back from it all.

Otis! (Yeah, this is definitely a set to have if you liked the ’70s-’80s Royals teams…)

Spaceman! (He’s still pitching, isn’t he?)

And, saving the best for last on the card fronts…I present to you the 1989 Topps Senior League Tim Stoddard card, without further comment.

The backs are pretty nice for late ’80s Topps (the stock’s Traded Set-ish), with a decent overview of MLB career stuff, and their stats from the Senior League. I used Dock’s stats because 1. he’s Dock 2. knowing what I know of him, I think he’d be happy to have clean and sober pitching stats highlighted for a change, and I’m pretty sure he was doing good on that front by then 3. it was a very Dock Ellis set of stats (struck out a bunch of guys, walked a bunch of guys, the W-L didn’t do him justice, and no one could hit him) and 4. from flipping through the other cards, his ERA beat most of the league’s by 2-3 full runs.

I showed you all a nice sample size of the set, but there’s a ton of goodness in these 132 cards that I didn’t get to. I paid a little less for it than everyone else was paying for single retail packs of Heritage this past weekend. Seek out this set if you don’t have one yet, and enjoy the hell out of it, especially if you have a bunch of love for the guys I highlighted here, and the era they played in.

Still Here, Hella Busy, Here’s Some Stuff

So yeah, between health stuff (the flu this year was a nightmare and I was sick to some degree or another for 3 months, but I am better now), wedding planning, home renovation and other things, it’s again been quiet here of late. So, let’s wake things up a little with a few pictures.

Holy crap, new Megos! I traded a spare that I had, and got these two well-loved but still pretty solid looking guys in exchange! I haven’t had a Falcon figure since 1986 or so, and I’d never owned a Mego Aquaman before I got him (one of only a few from the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes line that I hadn’t owned; I’ve still never owned an Invisible Girl, Penguin, or the regular, non-Fist Fighting Riddler…). They’ve both taken up residency on my desk, along with some others from my Mego loose figure collection.

(From back to front, though some will need no introduction: Superman, Batman, Mr. Fantastic, Mr. Spock, Iron Man, Falcon, Aquaman, Lizard, and a 7-Eleven Metamorpho cup in front of Lizard, also a relatively recent add.)

Our local flea market opened for the season recently, too, which was a blast, because it seems like every year on opening day, all of the vendors have a real “I’m so glad we made it through another winter” vibe about them, like a very real appreciation that we’re all still here together, and even if “here” kinda sucks sometimes, we’re at least at the flea market.

I only ended up getting one picture in the field on opening day, taken of an APF TV fun Pong clone. I don’t see a bunch of ’em in the wild these days. I passed, because I’ve got a Super Pong, an Ultra Pong, and Atari 2600 Video Olympics, and for me, that’s Pong enough. Still good to see ’em surviving, sorta.

Here’s what I did pick up on the comic book end of things. These were all very affordable, even the Avengers #181 (which I’d forgotten was the first appearance of Scott Lang, who becomes Ant-Man not long after that). From left to right: Avengers #181, New Teen Titans Vol. 1 #7 and 8, Infinity Inc. #1, Moon Knight #24 and 26, Marvel Premiere #51 (Black Panther), Captain Canuck First Summer Special (always happy to find some original Comely goods in the wild), and Fantastic Four #232 (the beginning of John Byrne’s big FF run).

Don’t worry, people who came here by way of cards. I got some cards, too!

I had a few of these (Palmer, Slaton, and Doyle Alexander are doubles, and all are available for trade), but generally, if I see Hostess cards, I buy Hostess cards. Very happy to snag a Carew (his cards in any set ever are tough for me, for some reason) and, of course, SIXTO!

So, what’ve y’all been up to?