Gambo and T_Wil1 Photopack

[Terry D]

Fred was a left-handed starting pitcher from Hawaii who got trials with the Angels and the Padres, the latter in 1981. Here are two Topps Vault images from the latest download.

Hmmm, maybe someday we'll see some decent shots of Steve Fireovid with the Pads too...

[KenRaffensberger16]

Alex Johnson has passed away at age 72.
He came up with the Phillies in late July of the
1964 season and would later win a batting title
while with the California Angels.
In 1970, although both players' batting averages
rounded out to .329, Johnson edged Carl Yastrzemski
.32899 to .32862 for the American league batting title.
Johnson hit .288 lifetime with 1331 hits in 1322 games.
Johnson had a tremendous physique and might
have been the pound-for pound strongest major leaguer
of his time, however, he was a pure line drive hitter who
didn't lift the ball over the fence that often.
His 17 home runs for the Reds in 1969 was his best
HR season. He played for 8 MLB teams in 13 seasons
(1964-1976).
He also was a Cardinal, Indian, Ranger, Yankee and Tiger.
(Photo source: 1964 Phillies Yearbook).

[Terry D]

Rusty Kuntz came up with the White Sox in 1980 and pictures of him in the old 19th-century style outfit the Sox wore under Bill Veeck are pretty common. The Sox changed to their killer-bee uniform in 1982, but Rusty didn't play much with the big club that year and he was traded to Minnesota during the '83 season, so pictures of him in the killer-bee kit are not too common. Anyway, Topps Vault has just posted two good shots of him in that outfit. These date from spring training of 1983. You can tell because Rusty is wearing the 50th Anniversary of the All Star Game patch that the Sox had on their left sleeves that year.

[simarc]

Originally Posted by FatJack

Really? I see plenty of doubt they'd lose that case. When you purchased the artifact, did it say "all rights included"? No? You just lost.

Think of it like buying a DVD. You can watch it all you want, in the privacy of your own home. Take it on the road with you when you're traveling. Lend it to a friend, maybe. Draw pretty pictures on it, turn it into an ashtray. Whatever. You "own" it. But you don't have the right to make copies for distribution (or even for friends), nor the right to hook up your set to some system that allows the whole neighborhood to watch (whether you charge them or not). We went through all this with "home taping" of records. Legally, you are permitted one homemade copy of any record/CD you own. One (because the law recognizes that smart people may prefer not to wear out the original copy if they don't have to). That's it.

Now, are there people out there doing more than the law technically allows (and getting away with it)? Absolutely. But just because "everybody speeds" when driving doesn't change the underlying illegality of the act. Try "everybody does it" as a defense in court, if you think I'm wrong.

If you want to avoid any question of what you can or can not do, only make purchases that specify "all rights included" or similar.

I respectfully disagree with you. That DVD that you used as an example is of many that were commercially sold for private use. That negative is a one of a kind original. It's not one of many prints, it's the original, which is why it is coveted. More than likely the purchaser is buying the negative to produce photos and more than likely believes that since they own the source they can do what they want with it.

[pegasus27]

Originally Posted by ortforshort

I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but what the hay (so to speak).
I was looking forward to your pics, especially since you had a lot without watermarks. Too bad for all of us.

Merkle scared you off.
Notice that Merkle's still posting tho'.
Apparently his posts are OK, the rest of ours are subject to the bogeyman possibly getting us

No one scared me off. Just been busy going through the pics that have been posted while I was away. I talked in PM to some of the long timers on this site and I became aware that the photos I mentioned have already been posted to the thread(s) years ago. Looks at my thank you history and my posts in the past.

[stlcardsfan]

Just a reminder about photo day in the mlb

I know I've already got the Cardinals set saved lol

[Amazin69]

Originally Posted by pegasus27

I talked in PM to some of the long timers on this site and I became aware that the photos I mentioned have already been posted to the thread(s) years ago. Looks at my thank you history and my posts in the past.

True, but in those posts, you've reduced the pics to the 180x270 size that's of use to your other interest. Which is fine (originally I was keen on 90x135s to conform to this game, before we had enough historic and minor league facegens for me to adopt that instead), but I'd love to get the original-size images, as with the Brabender and Koufax you posted. Greedy of me, I know, but I figured I might as well put it out there.

Thanks for anything you feel comfortable sharing.

[Amazin69]

As part of my memorial tribute to Alex, I thought I'd share my color-adjusted version of an MLB photo that Lebby posted a while back. As was usual with a lot of MLB photos taken in Chicago, underexposure led to the sky appearing a sort of sickly yellow, and in addition, Alex's face was rather obscured by cap shadow in the original. I've tried to correct this in "my" version.



Of course, with that whole "dress" controversy last week, who knows if others see the picture the way I do. But there it is, anyhow.

[Amazin69]

We don't get much of Frank in Angels garb, so I was glad to see "JD701", even if he is hatless. But unlike "the yellow skies of Chi" in those MLB shots, Topps had the opposite problem with the red skies (and faces). I've tried to correct this, although I notice I've given Frank lavender eyes in the process, which is probably not correct. Oh, well.

[FatJack]

My attempt at color correcting Kostro. Of course I've lost all the red piping on the uni, but at least the sky and his eyes are blue.

[stlcardsfan]

here is a color adjusted version of the photo from above with the piping still visible

[rico43]

Alex Johnson was part of the earliest ioncarnation of the Big Red Machine (circa 1969).
Left to right: Pete Rose, Bobby Tolan, Alex Johnson, Tony Perez, Lee May, Johnny Bench.

[Amazin69]

Originally Posted by rico43

Alex Johnson was part of the earliest ioncarnation of the Big Red Machine (circa 1969).
Attachment 387197

True, although it's arguable he made his biggest contribution by getting traded, as the Reds got back Pedro Borbon and Jim McGlothlin (who was a useful #4 starter for a few years).

In fact, while it can't be denied the Frank Robinson trade cost the Reds a chance to beat out the Cards in '67 and '68, the fact that they were able to reload so quickly is due to some good trades on the part of Bob Howsam. Milt Pappas went to Atlanta for Clay Carroll and Woody Woodward, and The Perpetually Toolsy Dick Simpson went to St. Louis for Alex, who as noted became Borbon/McGlothlin the next year. Plus the fact that Cincinnati had been willing to take Alex off their hands (Gussie Busch never did like "uppity" black folks, and Alex's standard term of address was "motherf*cker", which could get old quickly, I'll admit) in January of '68 might have contributed to the Cards' seeking out the Reds for that not-even-before-the-champagne-finished-spraying post-World Series trade of Bobby Tolan, Bernie Carbo ("Hey, Bob, if you liked Alex, you'll love Bernie!" Sucker…) and Wayne Simpson for Vada Pinson, which also helped immensely.

Lastly, the trade to the Angels isn't quite as simple as I've made it out to be. It was actually Alex and Chico "Bench Me or Trade Me" Ruiz to the Angels for Borbon, McGlothlin, and Vern Geishert. So the Reds traded Alex with his "best friend" Chico, probably at their request at the time. (Ruiz was godfather to Alex's adopted daughter.) But in the absolute chaos that the Angels' clubhouse descended into during 1971 (written up in one book as the "most toxic atmosphere in baseball history"), the nadir was deterioration of their relationship, with the name-calling (by Johnson) and the challenges to a fight (by Ruiz) climaxing in the June 13 incident where Ruiz pulled a gun on Alex. (Chico originally denied the allegation, but GM Dick Walsh admitted it [despite the "Walsh Says He Saw No Gun" chapter head in the enormous write-up the Angels' chaos got in the 1972 Sporting News Guide, where the first 14 pages of the 44-page annual wrap-up were devoted to the Anaheim "explosion"] during the arbitration case with Johnson the next year.) So the Reds were very lucky to side-step all of that drama, although Chico had been well-enough behaved during his Reds tenure before Alex arrived, by all accounts.

And as for Geishert, let's not forget that by acquiring him, the Reds got the final piece of what would be needed to complete the upcoming Geishert/Frank Duffy for George Foster trade with San Francisco. Not to say that it was Geishert who made the deal necessarily (since the Giants were so cavalier in disposing of their young outfielders in those days that they could easily have traded Foster for a jumbo pack of brats), but still a nice little detail to finish up with.

(By the way, can you imagine any team being stupid enough to trade for the "captain" of those 1971 Angels, who had missed half the season with a leg injury and showed no leadership at all? Not to mention his being hugely overpaid [for 1972 standards] and his new team moving him to 3rd base when he'd never had an arm to begin with? The fact that some idiots gave up a promising young outfielder like Leroy Stanton just boggles my mind. [Hell, I even think they threw in a pitcher, IIRC…])

(Yes, yes, Fregosi had a .279/.350/.459 slash line after the Mets swept Philly on May 21 and the team was 25-7 and had a 6-game lead. It's what happened after that [.210/.292/.288, team goes 58-66] that mattered. Plus the other 21 seasons left in Nolan's career.)

[bobb49]

[QUOTE=Amazin69;3821492]

And as for Geishert, let's not forget that by acquiring him, the Reds got the final piece of what would be needed to complete the upcoming Geishert/Frank Duffy for George Foster trade with San Francisco. Not to say that it was Geishert who made the deal necessarily (since the Giants were so cavalier in disposing of their young outfielders in those days that they could easily have traded Foster for a jumbo pack of brats), but still a nice little detail to finish up with.

In all honesty, the Giants were just not impressed at the time with Foster whom they felt was more of a Dave Kingman than what he turned out to be....not cavalier, simply a bad read...They should have traded for the Reds scouts and not Duffy/Geishert.....lol

[cheech411]

has passed away played for mets @ orioles

[Cusick]

Thought this was a particularly good image of Harry Stovey. It was displayed on the website of Baggers Auctions.

[rico43]

This image from a Colla postcard

[SDL]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

...and Wayne Simpson for Vada Pinson, which also helped immensely

I think you meant Wayne Granger...

[BklynJace]

Question for this board's amazing expert TV archivists ... I'm wondering if these players were ever shot by Topps in Mets uniforms. I didn't list missing Mets who fell into the hole left by the 67-69 dispute with the union, and a few who came and went too quickly to be shot, but it seems like this bunch could have been part of Topps's rounds. (I've searched this forum, but apologies if I missed someone.)

Chico Fernandez
Larry Foss
Joe Hicks
Tom Parsons
Salty Parker (coach/interim manager)
Bob D. Johnson
Ron Herbel
Don Rose
Roy McMillan (in his years as 70s coach/interim manager)
Mac Scarce
Billy Baldwin

A related Q. These five were shot by Topps and appear on Mets rookie cards, but I've never seen their individual photos as Mets from Topps. Anybody know if they've seen the light of day?

Gary Kroll
Dick Smith
Dave Eilers
Bill Murphy
Rich Folkers

Many thanks for any help/thoughts, and for all you do day-in and day-out.

[FatJack]

I'm not one of the experts but my guess is that Topps took pictures of all those players (and coaches). Possible exception for pitcher Robert Dale Johnson, since his tenure with the Mets would seem to fall into that hole you mention.

I have a few for you, here (as proof, so to speak), though they go back to the early release days and they're not as large or sharp as what we tend to get from TV now.

Hicks, Herbel, Kroll, Fernandez and Rose (sounds like a law firm).

There is a better image of the Rose--same picture--but not from TV. It was from a private ebay vendor, which may be some of what Topps doesn't like.