1973 Topps Willie Mays - From a Different Perspective

I came across this photo of Willie Mays at Shea Stadium

and it reminded me of his 1973 Topps card:

If I'm not mistaken, it appears that the picture was taken at a slightly different angle at almost the same time the picture was taken that was used for the card.   The bat, the position of his arms and his fingers, the black arm band (worn during the 1972 season in honor of Gil Hodges) on the left sleeve, the blue undershirt, and even the facial expression are almost identical.

Rubber Soul - The Cover Photo Uncropped and Undistorted

An amazing picture of The Beatles has just surfaced which appears to be the photo taken by Robert Freeman that was used for the Rubber Soul album cover.

The picture is uncropped and undistorted, and has never been published.  In the various books showcasing Freeman's photographs of the Beatles, there have never been any pictures showing any shots that were taken at John Lennon's home for the Rubber Soul cover, so most Beatles fans assumed the pictures had been forever lost since Freeman didn't seem to have them, or at least wasn't including them in any books.  This picture, if it is the real thing and not a really good forgery, is a shot that many fans have always wanted to see.  Its interesting to see that it must have been very cold that day as you see Paul's hands inside his shirt sleeves. 
 
As for the cover, and why it was distorted, the story goes that the Beatles were reviewing some of the pictures Freeman had taken as slide projections on a piece of cardboard cut out to be the size of an album cover, when the piece of cardboard slipped slightly, and created a distorted and stretched image that the Beatles really liked.   Presumably, it must have looking something like this:

The distorted image works well as it allows all 4 faces to fit very close together on the album cover:

One interesting thing to note about the Rubber Soul cover is that "Beatles" does not appear on the cover.  This is likely one of the first times a record was released where the name of the group didn't even have to appear on the cover since the band was so immediately recognizable. 

At this point, nobody seems to know the source of the photo, which is why there is a slight bit of question as to whether it is authentic, or whether it might be a really good forgery.   Here's hoping whoever released this photo has a few other shots from that photo session!

The Most Awesome Baseball Card Video Ever!

If you haven't seen the video Kung Fu Mom yet, you need to check it out.  It is hilarious, and the plot happens to revolve around this Rollie Fingers card:

Here is the clip, which is told by Sugarboy, who ate a lot of sugar and wants to tell us his story:

The story is about a bad-ass roller skating mom who likes to collect baseball cards.

One day when she is sorting cards based on "coolest looking guy"

she gets a note from a Bad Guy

 
 who stole her Rollie Fingers "rookie" card

and who is threatening to bend the card in half and rough up the corners so it will not be in mint condition

Kung Fu Mom sets out on a quest Coney Island to retrieve the card and encounters all kinds of trouble along the way

She finally tracks down the Bad Guy, and finds the card being held hostage.

She makes a move for the card

and uses it as a throwing star

to take out the Bad Guy

Rollie Fingers then appears

and they fall in love and have a baby named Sugarboy:

Obviously, the card shown in the video is not Rollie Fingers' rookie card as his rookie card is from 1969

but he doesn't have a mustache on his rookie card, so it really wouldn't work with the theme of the "twirly" mustache.


It looks like they took some creative license as the card isn't even his 1975 card which has a picture of him pitching:

Instead, they used this picture which gives a much better look at his mustache.

 
One other thing card collectors will notice is that while the video says the story takes place in 1977, the cards that she is sorting are from the 1980's.  

 

This video was produced by Above Average Productions, which features comedy shorts from writers from SNL, 30 Rock, and The Lonely Island. I'm definitely looking forward to more stories from Sugarboy!

1998 Kenner Starting Lineup Frank Robinson in the Orioles 1971 - 1972 All Orange Uniform

I don't know how I've overlooked this for so long, but I just found out that Kenner produced a Starting Lineup figure using the short lived all orange Orioles uniform from 1971 - 1972.  The rarely seen uniform was used on their Frank Robinson figure that they released back in 1998:

 

The figure is a very good representation of the uniform, although based on the one color picture we have of Frank in the uniform, they should have included his first initial, not outlined his name in white, and made his stirrups a bit higher: 

 

Also, the white stripe around the collar was not nearly as wide as shown on the figure based on this photo of Brooks Robinson:

Here is a picture of the figure in the packaging.  It would have been great if they could have found a photo of Frank in the orange uniform to go on the card that came with the figure as well:

For a look at more pictures of the all orange Orioles uniform from 1971 - 1972, click HERE.

New Pictures of the 1971 - 1972 Orioles All Orange Uniforms - Now we have almost the entire lineup!

Thanks to ebay, we've got 4 more pictures from the Sporting News archives to add to the collection of the All Orange Orioles uniform worn at the end of 1971 and the beginning of 1972.

We've now got a picture of Davey Johnson:

As well as three pictures of Merv Rettenmund:

It appears the Sporting News must have had a photographer at the April 22, 1972 game which was played in Cleveland as we now have a picture of almost every Oriole that started that game.

According to the lineup that day, Don Buford was the leadoff hitter

followed by Merv Rettenmumd and then Paul Blair (who we can see on deck)

Batting 4th was Boog Powell

and Brooks Robinson was 5th

Batting 6th was Elrod Hendricks (who can barely be seen behind Brooks), followed by Davey Johnson.

Mark Belanger batted 8th (and can be seen on deck behind Johnson), followed by Jim Palmer

Paul Blair, Elrod Hendricks and Mark Belanger are the only starters from that day for which we don't yet have full pictures (although we can see all of them on deck).  I'm hoping that eventually we'll see these players at bat as well as it seems that every few months a few more pictures surface.

1971 Topps Merv Rettenmund - From a Different Perspective

In looking at some ebay auctions for Orioles photos, I came across this shot of Merv Rettenmund that looked very familiar:

While I can't say definitively, it sure looks like the picture above was taken just a second or two before the picture that was used on Merv's 1971 Topps card from a slightly different angle:

The one thing in the photo that makes me think its the same play is the fact that the way Merv is wearing his stirrups appear to be identical.  On his right leg, part of the black stripe is showing in the front, but not in the back in both photos.  On the left leg, just a small part of the black stripe appears in both shots.  In both photos Yankees 3rd baseman Jerry Kenney has his sunglasses glasses flipped up.  Hardly conclusive evidence, but enough to make me think its the same play.

In trying to pinpoint the game where these photos were taken, I believe it would have been August 9, 1970 at Yankee Stadium.  In the 7th inning, Rettenmund led off the inning with a double, then went to 3rd on a ground ball hit by Andy Etchebarren, and later scored on a single by Mark Belanger.  In looking at the scoreboard behind Merv, you can see a 1 for the visiting team.  The Orioles did score 1 run in the first and the Yankees did not score until the 7th, so the scoreboard appears to confirm that this is the correct game.

NEW FLEER DISCOVERY! - Fleer Stick-ees

I've recently come across a previously undocumented Fleer offering from the early 1970's - plastic team logo stickers that Fleer sold as Stick-ees:

Each pack contained 1 plastic logo sticker which appears to be about the same shape and size as the baseball team logo magnets

that were sold with magnetic standings boards:

Here is a shot of the back of the wrapper:

Its interesting to note that gum was not included in the pack.

The seller who had this item up for auction also had the box that they came in:

Based on the font used on the box, I am going to guess they were issued around 1974 as the all lowercase "baseball" on the box is identical to the 1974 Fleer Cloth Baseball Patches box and wrappers:

Since these aren't cards or stickers, but rather plastic logos, its not surprising that they don't show up listed in any price guides.  However, in all the years I've spent looking for Fleer items, this is the first time I've ever come across this item.

Perhaps it was a test issue that was only done in a few markets.  The only team the seller had was the Red Sox (for which he had 10 unopened packs), so its not clear if only certain teams were available, or if the person who originally had this liked the Red Sox and kept those and stuck or sold the rest.

If anyone has any information on these, or remembers buying these back in the 1970's, I'd like to hear from you.  

1980 Topps Gary Carter Uncropped

The Topps Vault just auctioned off the negative that was used to create Gary Carter's 1980 Topps card, and we get to see a great deal more of the play in the uncropped shot:

We can see that Topps cropped the image to take out the two Cardinals standing down the first base line to just focus on Carter, but its interesting to see the full shot to have a better idea of what going on with the play at home.