A Little Marked Up

First of all, I think we can put that whole "Cubs offense disappears again" narrative to bed now, huh?  Hot damn!  With last night's 10-2 drubbing, the series is now even at two apiece and I'm feeling pretty good about tonight's Lester vs. Maeda match up.

Another win that got me feeling pretty good did not come on the field; rather, it came from a humble little blog known as Mark's Ephemera and came courtesy of the site's namesake operator.

You see, earlier this month, Mark pulled the trigger on a large box of vintage singles from his LCS and walked away with a good amount of nice cards for a touch more than ten cents a pop.  Not a bad deal, eh?  However, while cheap vintage is rarely in pristine condition, some of Mark's spoils were... shall we say... well-handled.  Rather than simply toss them in the waste basket (which is almost sacrilege to this card-collector), Mark decided to offer them up in a contest.  This perked my ears, for sure.

You see, condition isn't usually critical with this bargain-bin dweller and 40+ year old cards are always fun.  I tossed my name in the hat and away we went.  One week later, I read that I'd come out on top of the drawing - my FIRST blogging contest win ever!  So, please allow me to now show off my spoils:

Of all the cards included in the prize package, it was this one that I wanted the most.  This 1964 single is my very first vintage card of Lou Brock and period-authentic Cubs cards of the Hall of Fame base-stealer are few and normally out of my price range.  As you can see, a period-authentic child with copious record-keeping skills updated his card so that it reflected Brock's trade to the stupid Cardinals, but that's not enough to dampen my enthusiasm.

Also, the paper loss does not (totally) prevent one from seeing the sweet "Cub" sleeve patch either.

The other card in this lot that got me salivating was this 1969 card of the tall, lanky lefty known as Steve Hamilton.  Of course, though he is much better known for his time with the Yankees, the "floater" pitcher capped his career with the Cubs in 1972.

Also of note is the fact that Steve used his height (6'7") on both the pitcher's mound and on the hardwood as a forward for the Minneapolis Lakers.  He played for the 1958-59 team that lost to the Celtics during the NBA Finals.and over 2 seasons he averaged 4.5 points per game, 3.4 rebounds per game, and 0.5 assists per game.

His two-sport prowess is noted in cartoon form on the back of the card.  I think we can all agree that successful multi-sport athletes are super fascinating and cool (eat your heart out Tebow). Sadly, no basketball cards of Hamilton's time in the NBA exist and, in fact, I couldn't even locate a picture from his time as a Laker; thus, this cartoon is as close as it will get to being commemorated in my collection.

Furthermore, based on the state of this single, I have to wonder how well Mr. Hamilton played in the "crease."  Ba-dum-tiss

While the previous two shown off were my "chase cards," there was still an assortment of "well-loved" goodies left to sort through.

Hank Fischer doesn't appear to believe in borders and has shed the entirety of his right frame quite ungracefully.  Meanwhile, Mel McHaha seems to be suffering from a bizarre skin condition - perhaps that's what led to his notated exit from Cleveland?

By the way, congratulations to the Cleveland Indians for winning the AL pennant!  Let's get at least one drought broken this year.

Gil Garrido appears to have gotten his bottom right corner caught in the "gills" of some kind of thresher.  Otherwise, the rest of the card is pretty fair, considering how long this scrap of paper has been on this earth.

Finally, we have this dual rookie card from 1967 Topps featuring Angels who failed to capitalize on that billing.  

In the process of typing up this post, I discovered that this closing card also fits squarely into one of my various collections - my "Coulda Been a Cub" binder.  As it turns out, the Cubs were the final organization that Bill Kelso played with, as he was traded here from the Montreal Expos with Dan McGinn for Hal Breeden and Hector Torres in 1972.  But, he never got out of AAA Wichita.

Surprise bonus finds are the best finds!

All and all, this made for one heckuva prize package and many thanks go out to Mark for hosting this giveaway.  Mark's Ephemera has long been one of the pillars to our card-blogging community and it's readily apparent why.  He may not be posting that much in 2016; but, when he does, it's always informative and often chock full of fascinating oddballs and vintage.  I highly suggest following him on Twitter too (@mdaubrey), where he's veru much active and constantly sharing those card finds and interesting bits of baseball history/trivia.  In short, you rock, Mark!

Just like the Cubs are going to rock the Dodgers tonight... hopefully.