These Vintage Angels Were Lost But Now Are Found - Part 1

At the start of the season I was accumulating pocket schedules from all the MLB teams to trade with other pocket schedule collectors.  I'll trade away the other teams for Angels alone since I'm a team collector.  Besides, I just don't have the room to store hundreds of pocket schedules.  

Aways into trading I came across an opportunity to pick up some vintage Angels stuff in return.  

I just re-found the envelope of items at the bottom of an inbox on my desk...an inbox I obviously don't dig around in much.

When I came across the envelope the other day I was just as excited as I was the day I got it in the mail.

Some really great Angels memorabilia awaited.

1970 Topps Scratch Off

Jim Spencer is the lone Angel in the 24 book set.

That takes care of that team set.

And the inside is unscratched.

Three 1979 LCF/JAF (Fritsch) One-Year Winners, and a single 1983 One-Year Winners.

This would be the team set for the 1979 Angels, and add the Moose Stubing to the Bob Sprout I already have and that completes the 1983 team set.

Cool.

1971 Jack in the Box Angels

Signed by Rudy May.

May pitched for the Angels from 1965-1974.

Signed Angels Business Card

Loyd Christopher was a ballplayer for the Red Sox, Cubs, and White Sox from 1945-1947.

He later became a scout for several teams including the Angels from 1975-1984, for whom he signed Carney Lansford, Gary Pettis, and Ron Romanick.

1969 Nabisco Team Flakes

Again another team set completed as Fregosi is the only Angel in this 24 card set cut from cereal boxes.

Tough card to find I think.

I'd never actually seen one until this example came to me.

But wait, there's more!

Look for Part 2 in the next day or so.

Angels And Rangers And Dont Pray For Rain

Here's me and Joe Nathan in the ninth inning of today's Angels/Rangers game

It was poor-ING!

The Angels struggled and committed 4 errors in the 7-4 loss which keeps the Rangers postseason plans alive.

Sweet Mother Of Ron Fairly

I saw some recent successes with Ron Fairly through-the-mail on Sportscollectors.  

He's one I've been trying to get for years for my All-Time Angels collection.  

I only have a couple of his cards and I didn't want to hesitate by ordering a few from Sportlots and then having to wait for them to be delivered while the window on him signed gets slammed shut in my face.

So I took a big gamble and sent him this one:

A little off-center but a fairly (no pun intended) nice 1960 Topps rookie card.

I figured what the heck.

It's just sitting in a binder doing nothing.

If I get Ron's autograph on it, now that would make it awesome!

And it does.

I also sent his 1979 Topps Angels card.

I'm very pleased.

Chris Pettit And I Don't Regret It

I expressed an interest in a trio of Chris Pettit cards that where featured on Brad's Blog a long while back.  Then I forgot about them.  

Thankfully, Brad reached out with a kind reminder, and one easy trade later I had not only the Pettits but a handful of other Angels needs.

Here's the Pettit trio:

2010 Topps Finest

2010 Topps Finest Refractor 525/599

2010 Topps Finest Green Refractor 87/99

Nice!

 And then some.

2013 Bowman Platinum Gold Parallel

2013 Topps Target Red

OK we all are well aware by now of Trouts intensity.

How many more cards do we need of him screaming?

2012 Topps Archives Hi-Number SP

Just lacking the Jim Abbott SP for this team set.

2012 Topps Prime Nine Home Run Legends

I don't know why I'm always surprised when I see Rickey Henderson in an Angels uniform.  I keep forgetting he played for them briefly.  

On this card I'm thinking Rickey just hit a can of corn and not a long ball.

Anyhow, nice chrome Leaf Collections card.

The Who?

The Pirates!

They made the postseason for the first time since 1992.

I'm actually a little excited about it.

Makes this 1992 Leaf signed by Gary Varsho kinda special.

Not.

It'll stay in my trade box.

Fred Stanley, Rafael Landestoy

1983 Topps set card, 1980 and 1981 Topps cards in 24 days from nearby Argyle, Texas.

Rafael Landestoy on another 1983 Topps in 113 days from Miami, Florida.

Ex-Patriots

As in former football Patriots.

Tom Neville (Patriots Tackle from 1965-1977) signed these 1970 and 1973 Topps in 10 days from his home in Wetumpka, Alabama.  

Tom also hand wrote me a nice note on his personal business letterhead answering my question as to what impact football had on his health.  He responded,

"1. Torn ligament in left knee.

2. Roll bicep left arm.

3. Broken leg and ligament on left side.

4. Broken fingers and hand.

5. Six concussion."

He then goes on to say,

" Tom it wasn't too bad. Life has been very good to me over the years. 

Oh yes, I almost forgot, I stubbed my big toe!"

Boy, that sure is a positive attitude and appreciation for his experiences.

Ron Berger (Patriots DE-DT from 1969-1972) signed these 1971 Topps cards in 10 days from Miami Beach, Florida.

Ron also included this nicely signed 8x10

I asked Ron if he had to overcome any obstacles in his career and he responded, 

"Yes. Too many to count.  Never give up!"

Chris Singleton (Patriots LB from 1990-1993) "CSl"ed me in 12 days from Chandler, Arizona.

Chris was the Pats first round pick in 1990 out of Arizona.

1991 Angels Needs

Any help appreciated.

1991 BOWMAN - Angels
190 Floyd Bannister
197 Luis Sojo
208 Ruben Amaro
210 Dave Winfield

1991 LEAF - Angels
368 Lance Parrish
439 Floyd Bannister

1991 Score Rising Stars - Angels
26 Gary DiSarcina
74 Mike Fetters
82 Lee Stevens

1991 Score 100 SuperStars - Angels
57 Wally Joyner
66 Dave Winfield
69 Jim Abbott

1991 STUDIO - ANGELS
  27 Mark Langston
  28 Kirk McCaskill

1991 ULTRA - ANGELS
  45 Bryan Harvey
  52 Dick Schofield
  54 Dave Winfield

The Final Piece To The Puzzle

Came from P-Town Tom via his generosity to hook me up in the midst of his own Sportslot order.  Tom bought me the last piece that I needed as he was buying his own 2012 Triple Play cards to finish out the set.

So I took this last card and plugged it in to get this:

Su-WEET!

Albert never looked better.

Tom also threw in a Mike Trout tattoo from 2013 Triple Play.

Thanks a ton for the handout Tom.

It's always great to finish off a goal, especially with the help of others.

Marquess, Pacillo, and Clayborn

259 days c/o Stanford Cardinal Baseball where he's been a coach since 1972 and the head coach since 1977!

He also attended Stanford from 1965 - 1968 and his freshman roomate was Mitt Romney.

He won a gold medal for team USA in the 1988 Olympics.

Wow!

I sent this trio mostly just for the Team USA card.

It's interesting the way Pat signs his name across the very bottom.

96 days from Lebanon, NJ

Patriots great Raymond Clayborn signed these in 7 days from Katy, Texas.

I asked Mr Clayborn what impact football had on his health and he responded, "I have good days, and those are the days when I can actually get out of bed and help my wife around the house."

Football has taken it's toll on so many players.

I wish there was more I could do.

And he signed it, "Thanks Tom for being a fan!"

Any Star Wars Figures Collectors?

(stock photo as an example)

Selling cheap, about 55 pieces of 1995-1999 POTF red and green, Freeze Frame, Episode 1 ComTech, SOTE, Deluxe, and Princess Leia Collection, some variations as well, all MOC with no creases or dings, mint.  Buy 1 or buy all 55.

Email me if interested.

Shea Hillenbrand Follows Up A Bunch Of Angels

I received two nice-sized team bags of Angels cards from Its Like Having My Own Card Shop as a result of sending him a bunch of Diamondback cards.  I had also inquired about an extra Shea Hillenbrand card he got autographed.  More about that later.

Here's just some of the Angels that came my way.

Just about a team set of 1993 SP.  I didn't show the Chad Curtis card so I could fit them in a 9-pocket scan, and the only card Daniel didn't send was that of Eduardo Perez.  Fortunately I already had one.

Theres a nice Tim Salmon in there as well that I didn't already have.

Thanks for completing that set.

Close to another team set for these 2003 Topps Gallery.  Just in need of Tim Salmon and Adam Kennedy.

The 2003 Platinum throwbacks to 1988 Fleer netted me the two prospects in the team set Bobby Jenks and K-Rod.  Nice design on these Fleer.

Three new 2002 Topps Gallery, three 2002 Upper Deck Authentics, two 1999 Ultimate Victory, and a 2000 Ultimate Victory are all cards that I was lacking.

These Ultimates arent as appealing to me though.  They're kinda hard to see.

Also included is this nice 2008 A Piece Of History Franchise Members numbered 16/99.

Obviously they had high hopes for Casey Kotchman as a franchisee.

And here it is.

This is the Shea Hillenbrand autograph I needed for my All-Time Angels Autographs collection.

Not on an Angels card, but that's cool.  I can still cross him off the list.

Daniel got this card signed in person at a Diamondbacks Alumni game.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

In other words, always double check.

Good thing I did when this 1966 Topps Dean Chance card came up on Listia because I originally thought I already had it.

I didn't.

And of the 1966 Topps Angels team set cards I have it's probably the one in the best shape.

Good centering, sharp edges, really clean.

The Topps cartoon says Dean is the youngest to win a Cy Young Award.

He was 23 years old in 1964 the year he won it.

Let's look into that.

Chance easily won the Major League Cy Young in 1964 with 85% of the vote over the Cubs Larry Jackson and Sandy Koufax of the Dodgers who both had great seasons.  Koufax would have had 4 in a row if not for Chance winning it.  As a side note, there was only 1 winner in all baseball through 1966, not one from each league as is now.

Chances age record stood until 1971 when the A's Vida Blue won the award as a 21 year-old.  Fernando Valenzuela then won it in 1981 when he was just 20. Dwight Gooden won and holds the award for the youngest recipient in 1985 when he was just 20 (less days than Fernando). 

I bet most of you already knew that.

Darren Daulton Donn Pall

Say that 5 times fast!

Daulton signed this lone 1991 Upper Deck in 19 days from his home in Arkansas City, Kansas.

Glad to hear Darren is doing well.

Donn "with two N's" Pall, signed this trio in 55 days from Bloomingdale, IL.

But I Only Wanted The One

Just another example of having to buy a lot on Listia for just one card.

The seller had a lot of nine Angels cards, the bait and the headliner being the Rod Carew cards.

I already have all the cards shown here but what I really wanted was this...

ZOING!

What a beauty of a logo card!

And well worth the 425 or so credits I bid.

And being the ONLY bidder she's now mine!

Apart from the awesome eye-catching designs by Pacific, the next best thing is the Spanish.

I took four years of high school Spanish, let's see if I can translate without looking down at the English translation:

"In 1995, the Angels contracted with a destitute alien, who sent one of the two soiled pieces of equipment  of the more than 800 career anecdotes.  They terminated the temporary empathy with the equipment of Seattle who had the title to the division of the American League, but perdition ensued in the playoff with the Mariners." 

I nailed the perdition part!

I remember well that one game playoff.

Damn!

Greetings From Anaheim Stadium

Picked up a couple of Anaheim Stadium postcards a couple months back in a trade of some other teams pocket schedules.

If you looked closely you can see that the photo is of a Rams game.

The Rams enclosed the open stadium in time for the 1980 season and used the stadium from 1980 until they moved to St Louis in 1994.

 

I noted below some of the indicators that this is a Rams and not an Angels postcard.

The Big A scoreboard in the upper right was also moved from about where the smaller A is above left field (the entire outfield section wasn't there)

 

The card below shows the batters view prior to the stadium being enclosed.

 

This isn't a postcard but a promotional card for some Anaheim Stadium artwork.

That's the view I remember when I was kid except we'd usually be in the upper deck where you could see the 57 Freeway and San Bernardino Mountains in the background.

Now (Broadcasting Who's) Batting, Mario Impemba

Mario Impemba was the play-by-play voice of the Angels for seven years from 1995 - 2001.

Those were rather blah years for the Halos, but he saw a ton of Angels greats like Tim Salmon, Garret Anderson, and Troy Glaus.  He inaugurated a brand new Edison International Field and introduced Mike Scioscia as the Angels new Manager.

Bummer that Mario left the year before he could have called the winning game for World Series Champions.

Mario Signed this stub from his new digs at Tiger Stadium where he's been calling games since 2002.