Gambo and T_Wil1 Photopack

[FatJack]

Originally Posted by Rainmaker

A former Negro League player who had a (failed) tryout with the 1962 Mets, and currently a part-owner of the Texas Rangers, this frustrated ballplayer found another career better suited to his skills: singer and Grand Ole Opry member Charley Pride.

Pride, who was closely associated with the Rangers for years, wound up in a Milwaukee Brewers uniform and the subject of Doug McWilliams' camera -- and a pair of postcards issued in 1973. His biggest hit, 1971's "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'" hung in at Number One for five weeks. He became a part-owner of the Rangers in 2010.

Ironically, his final No. 1 hit, in 1983, was "Night Games."

Charley was a fixture in Spring Training from at least 1971 forward. He was good friends with Dave Bristol and, later, with others in the Brewers front office (then, of course, he moved on to Spring Training with the Rangers, once he'd bought into that team). And Charley took it seriously, too. He wasn't a "celebrity pro" like Will Ferrell. He worked out with the players, did all the calisthenics and running they did, sat on the bench in uniform during games. I'm not sure if he ever got into a game. But he honestly believed that he might get a contract offer if he worked hard enough. Baseball was his first love.

If you go to Charley's web site, you'll see that his bio says something like "...after a tryout with the Mets, Charley decided to head home to Montana". That's a hoot. Charley had been writing the Mets for a tryout for months upon months...and was flatly refused, when his requests weren't completely ignored. He even sent bats to the clubhouse with his name engraved on them, but to no avail. "I'm not runnin' a tryout camp," was Casey's answer. So Charley (and I'm thinking it was 1963) snuck onto the team bus, Willie Mays Hayes style, when they were about to leave for a game. He figured there were so many unrecognizable faces in Spring Training that no one would notice. Well, Casey noticed. And he was none too pleased. The story goes that Casey, himself, threw Charley off the bus, though I suspect its more likely he had him removed, rather than removed him himself. Thus ended Charley's "tryout" with the Mets, after which he "decided" to head home. Some re-tellings of the story suggest (or outright claim) that Casey didn't like Charley for racial reasons. But Casey treated white ballplayers who wanted a tryout the same way (though I doubt any of them were so brazen as to board the team bus). Unless he got specific orders from the front office, well, he wasn't runnin' a tryout camp.

[Buster Narum]

Originally Posted by Merkle923

BTW was there one particular team you were looking for with Smith?

Thank you -

At this point, the Cardinals would be the weakest one, but I am a life-long Mets fan, so your choice of those two, whichever is nicest.

[DeweyintheHall]

One of two images currently offered by Kyle's Sportscards on eBay of this Royal Rarity -

[Buster Narum]

I cleaned mine up a bit, so here it is -

Thanks Dewey

[rlumpkin1@tampabay.rr.com]

Originally Posted by FatJack

Charley was a fixture in Spring Training from at least 1971 forward. He was good friends with Dave Bristol and, later, with others in the Brewers front office (then, of course, he moved on to Spring Training with the Rangers, once he'd bought into that team). And Charley took it seriously, too. He wasn't a "celebrity pro" like Will Ferrell. He worked out with the players, did all the calisthenics and running they did, sat on the bench in uniform during games. I'm not sure if he ever got into a game. But he honestly believed that he might get a contract offer if he worked hard enough. Baseball was his first love.

If you go to Charley's web site, you'll see that his bio says something like "...after a tryout with the Mets, Charley decided to head home to Montana". That's a hoot. Charley had been writing the Mets for a tryout for months upon months...and was flatly refused, when his requests weren't completely ignored. He even sent bats to the clubhouse with his name engraved on them, but to no avail. "I'm not runnin' a tryout camp," was Casey's answer. So Charley (and I'm thinking it was 1963) snuck onto the team bus, Willie Mays Hayes style, when they were about to leave for a game. He figured there were so many unrecognizable faces in Spring Training that no one would notice. Well, Casey noticed. And he was none too pleased. The story goes that Casey, himself, threw Charley off the bus, though I suspect its more likely he had him removed, rather than removed him himself. Thus ended Charley's "tryout" with the Mets, after which he "decided" to head home. Some re-tellings of the story suggest (or outright claim) that Casey didn't like Charley for racial reasons. But Casey treated white ballplayers who wanted a tryout the same way (though I doubt any of them were so brazen as to board the team bus). Unless he got specific orders from the front office, well, he wasn't runnin' a tryout camp.

Charley Pride was also in the Reds Minor leagues in 1960 Missoula

[DeweyintheHall]

A smaller, badly colored version of this has been floating around for a while. I found this by chance on Pintrist yesterday - my teenage daughter needs to be thanked for explaining to me what Pintrist is and for using her account to snatch this.

[tnfoto]

1931 A's, from a team photo dated 22-Sep-1931.

[tnfoto]

1990 Mets, from his 1991 WIZ Mets card.

[tnfoto]

1999 Red Sox, as shown (seated, center) in this spring training photo from Getty. I'll leave him on the list as "need better" for now.

[tnfoto]

1988 Tigers, from a team photo. I'll leave him on the list for now as "need better."

[tnfoto]

1985 White Sox, from a team photo.

[tnfoto]

1948 Reds, from a 2011 eBay auction. Can't recall the seller.

[tnfoto]

1988 A's, from a team photo. I'll leave him on the list as "need better" for now.

[tnfoto]

1946 Reds, from a team photo. I'll leave him on the list as "need better" for now.

[tnfoto]

1929 Pirates, a Conlon photo.

[hobbs11]

Originally Posted by Merkle923

Regarding Charley Smith, or any given player whose negatives Topps has or hasn't sold on eBay, this reminder: the files I got to do my research in contained at least 1,000,000 images, and the fact that Topps has sold countless images I looked for but could not find, suggests there was a second storage area which I did not see and that the actual number is likely closer to 2,000,000.

.

So regarding the Tom Underwood as a Cardinal, "you're telling me there's a chance!" LOL.

Here's to a happy 4th of July everyone!

[Buster Narum]

Originally Posted by hobbs11

So regarding the Tom Underwood as a Cardinal, "you're telling me there's a chance!" LOL.

Reinforcing Merkle's comments, a couple of other surprising MIA's I ran across today - Dan Ford, Earl Williams and (less so) Angel Mangual and Ramon Webster (who does seem like the kind of player who'd be in the Vault, no?)

[rlumpkin1@tampabay.rr.com]

does anyone have from the 1977 topps venzuelan stickers a photo of a player Nelson Torres?

[Terry D]

Originally Posted by tnfoto

1988 A's, from a team photo. I'll leave him on the list as "need better" for now.

Sinatro has appeared in the Topps vault with the A's (GS 095 and GS 096).

[FatJack]

A long time ago in a galaxy not so far away, I posted a picture (at Baseball-Birthdays) of Gary Gaetti that the eBay seller had listed as Lenny Faedo. So I, of course, labeled it Faedo when I posted it. And, at some point, even though the full B-B thread had caught the error, it got posted over here as Gaetti. You may or may not recall that, in that picture, Gaetti was wearing Faedo's #12. Ever wonder what Faedo was wearing that day? Ta-da! The yin to the yang...or whatever. An eBay offering of dr.jteeee of Lenny Faedo (at least it looks like Faedo to me--which we all know is fairly meaningless--and was identified as such by the dr.) wearing Gaetti's familiar #8 (and please ignore the #2 on the batting helmet; that belonged to John Castino at the time....oy). FWIW, googling up images to compare, the 1982 team issued postcard set has Gaetti wearing 12 and Faedo wearing 8, so it was probably one of those pranks where they thought they could fool the photographer. I mean, they do look quite a bit alike. And they might have gotten away with it, too, if not for Gaetti's cheesy mustache......and those meddling kids.