Trip to the Museum

Earlier this month I took a much needed vacation to one of my favorite places. I've only visited New York City once in my life and it was nice to get back there. I mention in an earlier post about going to a Mets game, today the focus is on going to some of the New York's art culture.


Don't worry, there is some card related photos at the end of this post.


I've Guggenheimed once before and it was a lot nicer last time. I recall it was a surrealist exhibit featuring the works of Salvador Dali among other artists. My mind is not sharp enough to remember the other artists sharing the exhibit with Dali.



This time around it was a little odd. I ran into a really nice, kind of cute docent, along with a really rude older docent. The exhibits weren't that good, and part of the museum was shut down.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art was a lot nicer.

This was my first time visiting the Met. It's a huge, huge place. A lot larger than it looks on the outside.



I really don't remember all of the artists and time periods of the pieces that I saw.

I would like to sound smart and be able to speak intelligently about the artwork in these photos, but I'm afraid I would end up sounding like E. Buzz Miller:


Here's a link if you are so inclined. I realize that if anyone clicks on the link now, they'll never finish this blog post. So I just lost most of my 2 or 3 readers. Oh well.


"If you look closely you'll see a little Titian right there."


There was a no photography sign by the front desk, but nobody really paid much attention to it.


I held off as long as I could, but I wanted to get a few snap shots. I had my f1.4 lens so I didn't need a flash, but it has a really loud shutter so I thought I might get in trouble. I'm happy to report that nobody said anything about me taking a few shots.


I promised something card related so here it is:


I forgot which blogger mentioned that there was some cards from Jefferson Burdick's personal collection at the Met. I looked at the link and it seemed like it would be cool to check out. It was a pain to find that part of the museum. I finally found it about 15 minutes before they closed.



I was worried that I might not have enough time to look at all the cards.


I shouldn't have worried; there was only one wall with about 30 or so cards.




It wasn't an overview of his whole collection, just some of his cards relating to African Americans in baseball. A worthwhile exhibit, but I was just hoping for some tobacco era cards.







This is another guy taking photos of the cards. His friend (son?) didn't want his photo taken. He backed off when I was snapping these.



I was shocked that this was all there was in the exhibition. I yelled out "Is that it?!!" A little embarrassing, but nobody else was down there except the three of us. They were just as disappointed as I was.

Still some really nice cards.


I barely got through 1/3 of the museum before being ushered out the door. I don't know if there was more Burdick cards in the museum. It wouldn't have mattered as I wouldn't have been able to find them.

Making my way outside I noticed this street performer on the sidewalk in front of the museum.



He was playing a variety of songs from different countries on his clarinet and saxophone.



I tried taking his photo, but as you can see it was easier said than done. I'm used to getting photos of people in action, but I've never had an experience where someone tried to get as close to me as possible. He moved around pretty fast, but slowed down enough for me to get one shot.



I finally got one good shot.




Here is a shot of a girl trying to take his photo on her phone. As you can see he is too fast for her and her cellphone camera.

At least he got some tips for his effort.


This probably should have been three smaller posts, but I got carried away. I hope you all enjoyed looking through my boring vacation photos.

Consolation cards from My Cardboard Mistress

Recently I got a consolation prize in the mail. Funny thing is, I didn't lose a contest. At least not personally. Spankee was nice enough to send some OKC Thunder cards to me as a consolation for the Thunder losing in the NBA finals. I sent him some random set list wants that he was looking for and a trade was born.


Times like this I wish I had more to send a guy in return sometimes. I'm hoping that trade karma is working in my favor. In this case it definitely seems to be working out for me as he sent me a lot of cards that I didn't have. I don't buy a lot of basketball. Mostly it's baseball and football and the roundballers get over looked.



First off I need to mention the calling card shown at the top of the post. The Burdick mini card. It will go nicely in the other calling card and sketch card binder pages that I'm amassing. It's a little too big for a mini page, so it will go in the 9 card page.


First off Spankee had a nice idea for the NBA playoffs; he did a pack break before every play off game. He scored every pack and the Thunder did quite well. I have only bought a few basketball packs, but I rarely pull any Thunder cards.


I actually have a decent amount of 2009 Pannini, but I only pulled one. The cards themselves are okay. The D.J. White is the nicest one. It's like he's inflating himself to get to the basket. The two Clippers are relegated to standing by and watching.



Sefolosha and Collison are both nice bench players. I've been aware of Collison since his days at University of Kansas.



Desmond Mason has been retired a couple of seasons now and was a member of the Oklahoma State basketball team.

I didn't realize he was as old as he is. He was the first player in Supersonics history to win the slam dunk contest in 2000.



It's so funny that I'm actively collecting a former Texas Longhorn. As long as they he isn't in a burnt orange uniform I'm okay with it. Come to think of it I also like (and would like to collect) Cat Osterman. She's pretty cool. For some reason I like Earl Campbell. I don't know why exactly. I think it's because a few years ago I read that he was in ill health and that bothers me when older athletes show their age. If you search for Earl Campbell on Youtube I'm certain you'll find a video of him in the Cotton Bowl with 11 different OU players draped all over him as he runs over, around and through our entire team. Yikes! I don't want to see that again, but you can look for it, I'll wait. I'll have nightmares if I watch that video again.



I don't mind the Seattle Sonics logo though. I really like the gold and green color scheme. Very Green Bay Packersesque.

I kind of wish that we could have kept that color scheme with the move to OKC, but I understand the logic of creating a new color scheme with the new logo and name.


Thanks very much for the cards and thanks for reading.

1960 Cardboard reflections from Cardboard Collections

Colbey Hopper over at Cardboard Collections put up a nice 4th of July trade bait post. He was offering up a nice selection of vintage. Since I was free that afternoon, I was checking over the blogs and jumped at the chance to grab some vintage.


The 1960 set is one of my favorites. 1965, 1959, 1972 and 1960 are all sets I'd like to complete one of these days. If I see these cards at a card store or a flea market I'll try to grab a couple here and there to collect before actually concentrating on amassing as many as I can.

I wasn't drawn to these because of the players. I haven't heard of any of these dudes, I just wanted some 1960 vintage.

Having a Kansas City A's card is kind of cool though.


1960 would be the 5th season for the Kansas City Athletics. They previously resided in Philadelphia. At the end of the 1960 season they would have a 313-456 record with no winning seasons.

They decided to trade away most of their players. Many of those players would play for the Yankees, and would give the A's the nickname of being the Yankees farm team. Roger Maris was one of these trades.

The owners wanted to rid the team of the Philadelphia players so that the team would have a new identity. Technically they were right as they adopted a new identity of cellar dwellers.

According to sportsencyclopedia 1960 is the year that one of the owners Charlie Finley resorted to many different tricks to try and drum up some interest in the team. He constructed a zoo in the outfield, a robotic rabbit to bring out balls to the umpire and also he would dress up the grounds crew in space suits. Nothing worked much for the 1960 team as they went 58-96.


When I first looked at the card I immediately recognized the green and gold on the card design. I assumed it was a color scheme based on the team colors. Upon closer inspection I noticed that the hat was in blue and red. Apparently they changed colors in 1963 with an eye to TV. Finley thought that TV viewers deserved to see more than the traditional red, blue and black.

With all that inspection, I never got to the odd name that drew me to looking at the card in the first place. Oh well, maybe that will be for another post one day.


Speaking of names, let's look at Don Cardwell.

Nice name for a card blog post. He would own the distinction of being the first player to throw a no-hitter in his first game after being traded. That would be around the time this card was pulled from a pack. The only problem is that he had been traded to the Cubs by that point after spending 4 seasons with the Phillies.

He was also a part of the 1969 Mets World Series team.


Hal Brown's best season statically was in 1960. He owned a 12-5 record with an ERA of 3.06.

He looks a little bothered by being photographed for this particular card. From what I can tell online he looks to still be alive and kicking. Good for him. Actually all of the players featured on this post except for Don Cardwell are still alive.

George Altman was the first major player to hit two home runs in the same game off of Sandy Koufax. August 4th, 1961. That would also be the date of our current president's birthday unless you believe in all of the conspiracy theories.

He kept Don Cardwell's no-hitter alive against the St. Louis Cardinals on May 15th, 1960 with a ninth inning catch. How's that for a conspiracy? Somehow it all ties together. The losing pitcher in that game was Hollis, Oklahoma's own Lindy McDaniel. Three seasons later he would be pitching for the Cubs. I would do more on his tenure with the Cubs, but I'm going to wait until I get one of his Cubs cards of my own.

That's all I've got in the tank for these four cards.



Oh wait, one more thing; something I noticed about the cards themselves is that the higher number cards have darker backs than the lower numbered cards. I only have a couple of more of these 1960 cards and they seem to follow the same theme. I don't know the checklist for the different series for these cards, but I'm guessing that's what's going on here.

I noticed another thing while looking at the backs; these are all guys from North Carolina. Interesting, as Colby is from N.C. Hmm, I'm glad he gave up these guys as I'm really happy to get them for my collection.

Thanks for the cards and thanks for reading.

Trade with High 5 man

Justin and I completed a trade a few months ago, and in my usual fashion I'm still trying to get my trade posts out. He runs a nice blog Justin's World that covers a few different sports like softball, baseball and he's interested in getting a bunch of sport and non-sport autos. Interesting read.

He sent over some cool 2011 Topps baseball cards for me. These cards have cool subjects, but also somewhat interesting backgrounds.


This DeRosa card appears to have been taken at a Mets game. Hard to tell, but I think the players in the dugout are wearing Mets blue hats with the orange logo.


No batter in this photo, but it does have the pitcher, catcher and ball in the shot. Nice expression on Narveson's face.

I think that even in years that I'm not actively collecting the set I should just find as many team cards as I can. I'm still collecting this set and I like what they are doing with the team cards.


A pre-Angels Pujols card. I can't tell if this was taken at a Cubs or Mets game.


This card was brought to you by Caesars Palace! Another cool expression.


I've always wanted to interview or ask a guy like Neil Walker how nice it must be to play for your hometown team. It doesn't happen here much as we only have AAA baseball (OKC Redhawks) and of course the OKC Thunder, but the Thunder is pretty new to us. I don't think a local guy has played for either team. I guess the closest is when a local guy signs with one of the local college teams.

Anyway, thanks for the cards Justin and thanks for reading.

Player collection Conundrum- Trade with Fuji son

A few months back Fuji put out a call for cards of old A's, Giants and some other random cards for his student's and for his own personal collection.



I'm always looking to weed out some of my duplicates.(aren't we all?) so I offered to send him some stuff. I inquired about some Adrian Peterson cards that he had. I wasn't so interested in the parallels he had listed on his trade bait page, I was just looking to round out my A.D. collection.

He sent over a bunch of cards for my collection. After the trade I had to rearrange my binder pages to accommodate the new cards. My player collections are always evolving because I don't know exactly how to display them. Without a complete checklist at my disposal I usually just wing it.

I started by putting the cards by year and then by manufacturer.

I then started to arrange the pages by retro, shiny or base cards. I'm still not exactly sure what I want to do.

I also like to have the cards of A.D. in his OU uniform separate from the ones in a Vikings jersey for some reason. If he ever plays for another team I'm sure I'll have to separate those out too.

It's actually a pretty cool problem to have. I'm always looking for former OU players, but especially Adrian. I never did a proper post on Adrian, but I mentioned a little of why I collect him here. The linked post switches gears a bunch, but at the bottom is a mention of the 2007 Fiesta Bowl.

I need to do a proper post about that season one day.

Getting back to collecting; I really actually do like collating and arranging my collection. It's a fun way to go over the nice cards in your collection. No need to leave them in a binder or top loader gathering dust somewhere.

A.D. needs to breathe! You can't let a thoroughbred stay couped up in a boring binder.

It's so nice that all of these cards that Fuji sent over have Adrian in a running action shot rather than a forced posed photo. I'm sure there is a card out there of him posing and yes, I want it. So far most of the cards that I have are of him in an action shot.




With all these new cards, I'm trying to decide where to put the three UD cards. I actually have the regular base card which looks a lot like this First Edition version.


Pretty much the same card, but I still want it for the collection.


Which is basically the same as the Masterpieces card.

Since these are all Upper Deck cards the first two cards should go together in the UD binder page, right? But since they visually look like the third card I thought they would look cool together.

Hmmm. Decisions. Decisions. I'm thinking I should separate them out and forget about the fact they're all UD offerings and the novelty of the similarity of the photos.

Retro it is. When I fill out a page I'll keep you posted. Right now I'm only at half a page. I know you're all on the edge of your seat waiting for the eventual update to my Adrian Peterson collection.



This is another horizontal action shot card of AD and Dick Butkis. There's not many cards of Adrian in a horizontal format. The two above with the regular issue UD card is all I have in the horizontal card department. Maybe someday I'll do a page of just horizontal cards.

Thanks for the cards, Fuji. I'm looking forward to getting these all organized in my Oklahoma binder.