The return of the monthly card show

I was a slacker during the labor day week.  I took the week off of work, and did a few things around the house, took the car to be checked out on the recall notice we received, etc etc.  You know, just farted around for the most part. 

Our car dealership is in a town about 15 miles to the north of us, and it's not too far from the local mall.  When I was done with the car, I figured I'd head up to Wal-Mart and take a look at the card racks and see what was available there.

I passed the mall on the way towards Wal-Mart, and on the marquee a message scrolled across as if it was written just for me.

"Falvo Sports Card Show:  Sept 7,8,9"

The monthly show was back.  The smile on my face went from ear to ear, kind of like this guy's:  (as a side note, there is only 100 days until Christmas)

Time to get the lists ready!  There are two dealers that I always hit regularly, one of them being my "vintage" guy.  I had a pretty good conversation with him this time, we finally introduced ourselves formally, and chatted about the National and other things card related.  I also took quite a lot of time perusing through his cards and knocked off quite a few cards from a couple of sets.

First, the 77's:

Every time I pick up more of these cards, the names just bring back memories.   Disco Dan Ford on the lower right is a prime example.  I remembered him as a solid outfielder for the Twins, which was confirmed when I looked up his stats.  Dan had a couple of 20 HR seasons, one for the Twins and one for the Angels.  Everybody knows Ron Cey shown in the upper left (at least if you read a certain Owl you do.).  I especially like the Big League Brothers card in the lower left of the Forsch brothers.

Dave Roberts, middle row right, never even appeared in a Blue Jays uniform.  The Jays bought him from the Padres in October of 1976, and traded him back to San Diego in February for Jerry Johnson.  The rookies card in the top center features 3 pitchers who had varying degrees of success in the big leagues, and a pitcher named Mike Overy who pitched a grand total of 5 games in 1976, then would pitch 4 more years in AAA before calling it a career in 1980.  Elias Sosa had a terrific season for the Dodgers in '77, 1.98 ERA and a 0.848 WHIP in 44 relief appearances.  I remember when the closers used to be called "firemen" back in the day.

There was also quite the selection of 1964 Topps as well, and a few of them came home with me as well:

I was able to strike off a couple more of the League Leaders cards, for a buck apiece.  Jim Grant in the lower left older fans may remember as having the nickname "Mudcat".   Bill Virdon spent the better part of a decade roaming the spacious center field in Pittsburgh's old Forbes Field.  The next six cards I found to be a little more interesting...

When you think of free agency and the eventual removal of the reserve clause that owners had in MLB contracts, you can think of Curt Flood in the upper left who challenged a trade to Philadelphia, citing concerns over the fans, the stadium and the poor state of the Phillies.  Dick Sisler in the top center is the son of the great George Sisler, hall of famer for the St. Louis Browns.  The Rocky Colavito card in the upper right has some paper loss just below his name, so I was able to get it for relatively cheap.  Two more team sets came my way as well, and since I haven't really seen many of those for sale since I started collecting the set, I snapped these up while I could.  Of course, when I saw the "Sealing Yanks Doom" card for cheap as well, I grabbed that quickly. 

The day was great, I snagged over 60 cards for the 77 set, and about 20 for the 64.  I found a handful of SPs for the Heritage set as well, and a couple of serial numbered cards towards the insanity set. 

At least now I have something to do the first weekend of every month....

thanks for reading, Robert