Inbound and Down #5: The Commish

I was pleasantly surprised to come home today and find a bubble mailer in the mailbox from Commish Bob, curator of the Five Tool Collector blog. 

As always, Bob didn't disappoint.   He was one of the 20 bloggers that I sent cards to a few weeks back, and he had recently mentioned that he had a '17 Heritage Jose Abreu SP for me.

1 SP down, 74 to go.  No hurry for those, because hey, I'm still working on '11 Heritage you know!

Bob is more known for his vintage collecting, and his envelopes never disappoint when it comes to  beautiful old cards.

Like an old shirt that is comfortable, and has a few holes for natural air conditioning, the '62 Topps set is just that for me.  I hadn't thought about it, or bought cards for it, in quite a while.   Lo and behold, a sextet of great wood grain bordered cards show up.  Ozzie Virgil's dad is there on the lower left, and while I know his son as a long time MLB catcher, I was unaware of the utilityman that the elder Virgil was.  His career lasted parts of 9 seasons over 13 years between 1956-1969.

One thing you see on the older cards as well are players wearing helmets in their photo.  The card that caught my attention is the Larry Burright in the lower center, wearing his helmet while in the field.  The background of the picture reminds me of an oil field for some reason.

These 6 cards bring me to 187 total for the set.   A loooooong way to go....

It just wouldn't be an envelope from Bob without 59's in it (at least for me).  The cartoon on the back of Russ Heman's card is entertaining, it states that he's trouble with wildness at times, and it pictures a catcher standing up taking a ball off of the face mask.

I don't know why, but the team checklists from the '59 set are by far my favorite.  Don't ask me why that is, but for some reason the photos just appeal to me more than any of the checklists from the 60's.

6 more 59's bring my total up to 339 cards out of the 572 for the set.  Almost 60% complete.

As usual Bob, a great envelope!  Thank you for the cards, they really are appreciated! 

Thank you for reading, Robert