USS Providence CL-82

My father served on the light cruiser USS Providence CL-82 in 1947-1948.  He went on two tours with the ship to the Mediterranean as a radar operator.

The ship was commissioned in 1945 and decommissioned shortly after my father was aboard her, in 1949.

Then she went into the reserve fleet.

In 1957 she came out of reserves and was modified to a guided missile cruiser and renumbered CLG-6.

She served in that capacity until 1980 when she was sold for scrap.

* * *

The ship name was later reused for the Los Angeles class submarine SSN-719.

Launched in 1984 she still is active.

Periodically I'll search ebay for USS Providence stuff.

CL-82 Providence stuff.

Since the life of the ship as CL-82 was a reasonably brief four years, I had wanted to find something off the ship with a high probability that it was actually on the ship the same time my father was.

Well, I finally found something.

A matchbook cover with an image of the ship, the ships name and number, and an emblem.

I see a pilgrim and an anchor with chain, but there's another blob in there that I can't quite make out.

Rhode Island maybe?

I can't find another example of this emblem anywhere, but I have to assume that it's the ships emblem.

There's A Lot of '70's Topps on Listia

By "a lot" I mean a lot, you know, like a lot of 5 cards or a lot of '70's Topps.

Still not very clear. Websters defines this use of the word lot as a number of units of an article, a single article, or a parcel of articles offered as one item (as in an auction sale) .

OK so now you understand.

I won a lot of 1970's Topps Cards on Listia, a 5 card lot titled simply "Baseball Cards".

Nice 1970 Rookie Stars card of 3 fledgling Cardinals.

Sal Campisi and Reggie Cleveland are good TTM signers so I think I'll send this off to one of them for an autograph.  Santiago Guzman, not so much.

This was second best card in the lot that I wanted for my collection.

There's just something about Charlie Hough that I dig.

And there's something cool about Dodger's rookie cards.

Steve Renko played for the Angels so that was a draw for me to bid on this lot as well.

Billy Williams, HOFer, can't go wrong with a nice HOFer card.

Nice shot of HOFer Billy in an empty stadium somewhere.

Ah, and the real reason I actively bid on this lot.

Johnny Bench as Johnny Bench always is...IN ACTION.

Is that Willie McCovey behind him?

I won this lot with the 38th bid, a bid of 1,760 credits.

Oh and it also came with an unopened 1992 Fleer Basketball pack.

Blech. 

Embossed, and Gold, and Metal, and Rookie Angels

Baseball Dad reached out a while ago offering a Panini Triple Play Pujols puzzle piece that I needed.  He also asked if I needed certain Angels cards that he had obtained in a break as his second team, AND some Tim Salmon cards if I needed them.

Oh yeah!

1995 Topps Embossed.

I only had one card from this set so I liked all that he had to offer.

And the gold embossed cards are really sweet.

They're alot like the Action Packed cards, which is one of my favorite set.

I remember buying a discount box of 1996 Leaf Preferred from a Target around 1999.

I got a bunch of these metal cards, but NO Angels.

I'm stoked to have these, especially with the protective film still intact.

He sent a nice selection of Pro Debut Angelites and a short stack of 1990 Leaf.

I like Angels Minor League cards.

You never know who the next ROY might be!

The Salmon offer prompted me to get a Tim Salmon wantlist together which took me a week or so to get figured out.

I have a lot of Tim Salmon cards but not near as many as I thought.

Or, at least, I didn't realize how many Tim Salmon cards there are.

There's three more down.

And some nice 1998 Bowman's Best.

Cool.

Another subset I've never seen before.

2004 Bazooka Blasts bat relic for Nathan Haynes.

Nathan had a decent minor league career but never did much in the Majors.

He sure made it onto a lot of insert and relic cards though.

Mike Trout Sighting

There he is!

See him?!

Just to the left of that guy next to that Triple Crown guy scratching himself

He's looking at himself on the Jumbotron.

See him now?

This one goes in the Trout binder.

Sorry Billy.

Angels Pulled in Toddfathers Group Break

I did well in the Toddfathers group break last month.  Obviously I picked the Angels, and I came away very pleased with what I got.

First up the box of Topps Chrome.

Came away with a couple nice X-Fractors in Pujols and Trout.

Anything in Trout is a good thing.

Four nice chrome Angels.

Another Trout, and a Trumbo too.

Second box was of Topps Update.  

I was definitely hoping for some Trouts in this one.

Nope.  Got just about the whole update team set though.

And I did get a Nolan Ryan Blockbusters card.

Love those 70's uniforms.

Nolan never looked better.

Topps Pro Debut was the third box.

Got a bunch of Angels minor leaguers but the best part was this Luis Jimenez Certified Autograph card that was pulled.

Oh yeah, did I mention I had the Dodgers too.

Nothing much there to speak of.

Pursued By Vintage Angels

Received a nice package of Angels cards from across the Pond. 

 I'll have to apologise though because I think I may have mixed up cards from two different traders: Pursuit of 80's(ness) and someone else. So if you think you're the someone else, sorry, but thank you for the cool cards.

I am fairly certain though that the vintage Angels came from Pursuit of 80's(ness).

1969 Topps Deckle Jim Fregosi

I love all the different products Topps put out in the 60's and 70's in addition to their base set.

I've had a bunch of these deckles in the past but have traded most of them off.  Except of course for the Angels.

Very nice looking 2012 Gypsy Queen Future Stars Mark Trumbo.

Not sure if Marks looking at a pop-up or a moon shot over the center field fence.

The text on the back notes that "his batting practice displays alone are worth the price of admission."

From the same set is this mini Mike Trout, Gypsy Queen back.

The artwork on the 2012 set is phenomenal.

Another vintage Fregosi is this 1968 Topps Game.

Jim grounded out.  Hopefully there was a runner on base that advanced.

1969 Milton Bradley Jay Johnstone.

I have the set of 1971 Milton Bradley Angels but this is the first 1969 one for my collection.

1961 Topps Stamps Eddie "The Walking Man" Yost.

Genius idea, in my opinion, for a Topps product. 

I'd love to have a full sheet of these.

1969 Topps Stamps George Brunet.

The blur is from my scanner.  I wanted the black background so I didn't put the lid down.

The gap in George's teeth however, is not from the scanner.

1969 Topps Stamp Album in which George Brunet would normally be affixed.

I'll keep this one mint and unstamped.

Great little item for any team collector.

1995 Museum Collection Gary DiSarcina.

Pinnacle Museum Collection is probably one of my favorite 90's designs.

2012 Bowman Danny Haren...

is this an X-fractor or a Silver Ice?

Either way, it's my first one.  Pretty cool.

Another Angel from the 2012 Gypsy Queen is this Albert Pujols Moonshots insert.

Twice I was bidding on this card on Listia, and twice I lost out.

One of those times I forgot to follow up and it went for something ridiculously low.

Anyhow, there was an additional short stack of Angels cards that I'm grateful for.

Thanks to the two of you.

Panini Triple Play NPN Return!

I received an envelope in the mail a bit ago. I noticed it was from Panini America. Whuh?? I thought to myself.

Oh yeah, I sent an index card with my full name and address, mailed in a #10 envelope to Panini America NPN (No Purchase Necessary) for a chance to obtain an free Panini Triple Play card.

In the past, or the few times I've submitted an index card with my full name to a card company for the chance to obtain a free card, I've actually gotten some cool stuff like a numbered, or a parallel card. Stuff not too difficult to pull but that you don't get in every pack.

Panini Triple Play didn't have any of those cool kinda cards however. There are no autographs, certified materials, or refractors. The do have inserts though like stickers, Hall of Fame cards, and even a pseudo-jersey and bat/base/glove cards. So I was hoping for one of those.

Not so Grasshopper.  Not this time.

Thanks for the free card though Panini America.

Another One Bites The Dust

Dear Torii,

Thanks for the help.  I hope you do well with the Tigers but not so well against the Angels.  You were good.

Sincerely,
Tom

Mike Trout AL ROY

Nice to see Trout get the American League Rookie of the Year Award.

I had a strong feeling he'd get it, but you just never know sometimes.

He won all 28 first place votes.

It's been a very long time since I saw an Angel win that award.

Jaybarkerfan Sells AND Gives-Away

Picked up a nice lot of 2011-2012 Bowman Platinum cards from a Jaybarkerfan Listia posting recently.

Purples, chromes, Napoli, a good selection.

The Garret Richards card is what initially drew me to the lot.

He also had in there these gold and emerald versions.

This lot was so colorful I was mesmerized and couldn't stop bidding.

There were 24 different cards in all.

Jaybarkerfan' Junk also has a weekly Free Card Friday give-away that I won recently.

This Elvis Andrus mini relic was included in the give-away cards.

The card had a sizable ding in the bottom, but that doesn't bother me one bit. 

Two Pujols Puzzle Pieces To Go

Getting close on Albert.  

Thanks to The Brooklyn Met and Baseball Dad for supplying some of the cards I needed.  Still lacking card #122 (5 of 9) and card # 126 (9 of 9).

Any help would be appreciated.

Jays Continue to Restock With Former Angels

Mice Man is the latest joining Darren Oliver, Jeff Mathis, and Bobby Wilson.

Oh Canada!

TWGSITW

Advertising mascots and spokespeople come and go.  Some are memorable, others, well, not so much.  One of my recent favorites was The World's Greatest Spokesperson In The World for Nationwide Insurance.

I liked this guy so much, he made me laugh that often, that I had to have his autograph for my collection.
So I began the search to find out who he was.  It didn't take long to find out that he was comedian Bob Wiltfong (you can read about him here).

So I did a search for him on Linkedin, and sent him an email asking for his autograph for both myself and a colleague.  Rob responded and a while later I received this gem:

Love it!

I had asked Bob to add a line from my favorite commercial where he and the vehicles driver are strapped in their seats upside down in a turned-over car, and Bob managed to save the guys coffee..."Turned out to be a pretty good day...considering."

Genius, Man!

Postal Stationery and Johnny Bench?

I like postal stationery.  

I collected stamps as a kid, focusing mostly on US stamps.  

These days I'm drawn more to Air Mail stamps and postal stationery, meaning, those embossed envelopes and pre-printed postal cards.  And then of that group, I prefer pre-1970 stuff.  

I picked up a bunch of entire envelopes on Listia recently.

1956 UC25 6-cent FIPEX Commemorative Air Mail envelope with UC31 1-cent surcharge.

470 credits.  I then won a second one a little later for only 3 credits after just 2 bids.

Any traders?

1962 UC36 8-cent Air Mail envelope.

8 bids, 402 credits.

1958 U536 4-cent Franklin envelope with U545 1-cent surcharge.

6 bids, 301 credits.

1968 U551 6-cent Liberty envelope with U561 2-cent surcharge.

3 bids, 402 credits.

Also grabbed this little beauty:

A 1971 Topps Johnny Bench.

A bit trashed but after 22 bids I got it for only 2020 credits.

Paper missing on the back...but again, I didn't have a '71 Bench and now I do.

And it cost me no dough.

Bible Card Sunday - Kaleb Cowart

Kaleb added Phillipians 4:13 to his certified autograph sticker (I wonder if that's unprecedented):

"For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength."