pobc MAG June 2020

POOROLDBASEBALLCARDS.COM pobcMAGAZINE KIDS PAGES INSIDE

JUNE 2020

Meeting
Joe D.

1947
Signal
Gasoline

Baseball
Royalty

The pitch

Who are the members of your Baseball Royal Family? ANTHONY
This month, I tackle this purely hypothetical question. TARANTINO
Usually, a list like this comes with an exhaustive
methodology. How did you come up with the list? Why aren’t there POBC FOUNDER,
more modern players? I can’t believe you included (insert name EDITOR &
here)? I can’t believe you didn’t include (insert name here). I’m sure
my list will frustrate many of you. My methodology is my child- ART DIRECTOR
hood, my experiences reading about old ballplayers and collecting
poor old baseball cards. BILL
PINELLA
I know I skew heavily toward players from the early1900s to the
late 1970s. These are the players I know. Whether it be watching CONTRIBUTING
them on the Saturday Game of the Week or reading about them in WRITER
magazines and record books.
ANGELA
This is my king. These are my princes, dukes, earls and barons. TARANTINO
Who are the rulers of your kingdom?
Instagram: abt_art_photo
ANTHONY TARANTINO COVER ILLUSTRATION

POBC FOUNDER & EDITOR ELISA
ANDERSEN

COPY EDITOR

VISIT US ONLINE AT

POOROLDBASEBALLCARDS.COM

CONTACT

[email protected]

2

What’s Inside?

4 16

See who sits on the throne Gaylord Perry
of our royal court
17
7
Rulebook: The ball
The Duke of Flatbush
18
8
1947 Signal Gasoline
Meeting Joe DiMaggio

12

Coke and Sprite
bottle caps

14- 20
15
Pepsi discs
Kids Pages offers a coloring page
and paper puppet 22-23

Poor Old Football Cards
& collectables

3

Who sits on
the throne of
your kingdom?

BY ANTHONY TARANTINO

4

Let the great debate begin.
With few exceptions, the game of baseball played by Babe
Ruth is the same game played by Mike Trout. The bases are
90 feet from one another, there are nine innings and three outs. A
baseball measures nine inches in circumference and, for the most
part, we can easily compare the hitting exploits of Ty Cobb to Stan
Musial and Tony Gwynn.

•••
So this month, in my fairytale kingdom, I attempt to rank my
Top-100 ­— my royal court of baseball. I place players in five tiers:
one king, 12 princes, 20 dukes, 30 earls and 37 barons.
All but six are members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Only one is a current player. I’m sure there are a few players you’ve
never heard of. I’m sure there are many picks you will disagree with.
So in the spirit of a medieval times, let the games begin.

5

Royal court

NAMES IN TIERS PLACED IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER WITH HOF INDUCTION DATE

KING 1936 EARLS 1937 BARONS –
1939 1939
Babe Ruth 1979 Tris Speaker 1939 Barry Bonds 1939
1982 Eddie Collins 1945 Buck Ewing 1939
1936 George Sisler 1946 Willie Keeler 1945
PRINCES 1937 Ed Delahanty 1949 Old Hoss Radbourn
1936 Eddie Plank 1951 Roger Bresnahan –
Willie Mays 1936 Mordecai Brown 1954 Roger Clemens 1947
Hank Aaron 1966 Mel Ott 1955 Frankie Frisch 1947
Ty Cobb 1939 Bill Terry 1956 Lefty Grove 1953
Cy Young 1974 Frank Baker 1962 Chief Bender 1953
Walter Johnson 1936 Hank Greenberg 1972 Dizzy Dean 1954
Honus Wagner 1955 Bob Feller 1974 Bill Dickey 1964
Ted Williams 1962 Yogi Berra 1978 Luke Appling 1968
Lou Gehrig Whitey Ford 1978 Goose Goslin 1968
Mickey Mantle 1942 Addie Joss 1980 Joe Medwick 1972
Christy Mathewson 1951 Eddie Mathews 1983 Buck Leonard 1972
Joe DiMaggio 1937 Al Kaline 1981 Early Wynn 1974
Jackie Robinson 1969 Juan Marichal 1984 Cool Papa Bell 1983
1973 Bob Gibson 1995 Brooks Robinson 1984
DUKES 1973 Harmon Killebrew 2001 Don Drysdale
2009 Mike Schmidt 2002 Alex Rodriguez –
Rogers Hornsby 1976 Dave Winfield 2015 Willie McCovey 1986
Jimmie Foxx 1972 Ozzie Smith 2015 Johnny Bench 1989
Nap Lajoie 1977 Randy Johnson 2016 Carl Yastrzemski 1989
Stan Musial 1982 Pedro Martinez 2020 Joe Morgan 1990
Roberto Clemente 1999 Ken Griffey, Jr. 1971 Rod Carew 1991
Warren Spahn 2007 Derek Jeter 1980 Gaylord Perry 1991
Rickey Henderson 2007 Satchel Paige 1969 Tom Seaver 1992
Oscar Charleston 2014 Duke Snider 1949 Steve Carlton 1994
Sandy Koufax Roy Campanella Larry Doby 1998
Ernie Banks –­ Charlie Gehringer Don Sutton 1998
Frank Robinson – George Brett 1999
Nolan Ryan 1972 Orlando Cepeda 1999
Tony Gwynn 1938 Eddie Murray 2003
Cal Ripken, Jr. 1993 Wade Boggs 2005
Greg Maddux Mike Piazza 2016
Pete Rose Chipper Jones 2018
Joe Jackson Mike Trout
Josh Gibson –
Grover Alexander
Reggie Jackson

6

Duke of Flatbush

1954, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1962 TOPPS
DUKE SNIDER

7

BASEBALL DIGEST, OCT. 1947 | JOE DiMAGGIO
8

Highs and lows

That time I met Joe...
that Joe

BY BILL PINELLA In no order
Joe was smooth
Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio was born Nov. 25, 1914 in chasing fly
Martinez, Calif. Played center field for the Yankees in balls in Yankee
New York, N.Y. for 13 seasons. Once had a 56-game Stadium’s center
hitting streak. Retired at age 37. field, his swing
at the plate was
William John Pinella was born Dec. 13, 1922 in Clarks- a thing of
burg, W.Va. Played left field for the China Doll fast-pitch beauty and he
softball team in Clarksburg. Once had four hits in a game had baseball
against Grafton Coal. Stopped playing at age 45. smarts.

This is their story.
•••

Joe DiMaggio had many aliases — Joltin’ Joe, the Yankee
Clipper, Mr. Coffee, Marilyn Monroe’s husband (for nine
months). His major league stats were by far good enough to
earn him a spot in Cooperstown (1955); his thriftiness got
him a free meal most any place.

William Pinella was known as Willie in the neighbor-
hood. That’s it. Served in World War II, had shrapnel dug
out of his right thigh in Belgium, went to watch repair
school, loved to play the numbers (312 were his go-to
digits), could build a house from the foundation up, played
8-ball for $100 a rack on occasion and raised a family of
four.

Like most kids, and adults for that matter, Willie had an
athletic hero. And seven decades ago, his was DiMaggio.
In no order Joe was smooth chasing fly balls in Yankee
Stadium’s center field, his swing at the plate was a thing of
beauty and he had baseball smarts. Add to all that his Italian
ethnicity and it was the perfect blend for a hero.

And it wasn’t likely that the two would ever cross paths.
But this is where fate intervened. Joe had met a wealthy coal
investor who happened to be from central West Virginia.
He, in turn, knew a restaurateur for whom Willie worked.

A most unlikely meeting was about to take place.

9

Joe D

CONTINUED

For the occasion, Willie located WILLIE’S ALL-STAR OUTFIELD: L-R, BROTHER ALEX,
his one and only clip-on tie. You JOE DiMAGGIO AND (WITHOUT TIE) MY FATHER WILLIE.
see, Willie disdained ties. Never
would wear one despite working greeted us. At Yankee Stadium, I knew
front and center in a rather up- In real life, he was tall (6-2), what I was doing. On a golf
scale restaurant. course, I don’t.”
slender and unassuming. Looked
But this was Joe DiMaggio he like he could still hit .340. And he Regarding agents in baseball:
was going to meet this evening. A agreed to an interview. Sit back “An agent? We weren’t even
tie was a necessity. and imagine —­ it’s 41 years in the allowed to have agents (when he
past and Joe DiMaggio is recall- played) then. You negotiated for
Joe, on the other hand, was ing events in his life. yourself. One year, I held out and
almost always dressed to the missed the first two weeks of the
nines. It wasn’t any different for Here is part of what he said... season. Then I went on to have
this dinner engagement as he was His golf game: one of my better years, and we
ushered in via a back door. He “My golf handicap varies from won the World Series. At the end
was tipped that a fellow named 13 to 15 because I just don’t get of the year, when I received my
Willie was coming to meet him, to play consistently. I haven’t final paycheck, they had docked
of his disdain of ties and that he played in two weeks. Playing in me two weeks salary for the two
was going to wear one this eve- that pro-am (Doral) won’t be easy, weeks I had missed at the begin-
ning. especially on the first tee when ning of the year.
I’ll stand there in front of about “Today... well, they tell the
At last, in he walked, and he 40,000 people and try to tee off players they’ll trade them if they
extended his hand to DiMaggio. without thinking of hooking it or want it just to make them happy.
“Pleased to meet you,” Joe said, shanking it. But their timing is right. It really
“now would you please take the “That is much harder than it doesn’t matter what I think. If the
tie off!” was for me to stand at home plate club owners think they (the play-
in Yankee Stadium and try to hit ers) are worth the money (his
The table of eight erupted in the ball.
laughter, Willie grinned sheep-
ishly and gladly removed the tie.
They talked baseball for a good
hour.

•••
...two months later.
I found myself walking across
a lush, green fairway at Doral
Country Club in Miami. We were
headed toward a condo off the
back nine.
Joe DiMaggio was waiting. I
was told he would field any ques-
tions... except don’t ask him about
Marilyn Monroe. Oh, well, that
would have been nice, but OK.
The day was a cloudless South
Florida February afternoon, but
the condo was dark as DiMaggio

10

top salary was $100,000 in 1949), 1943 R302-1 M.P. & CO. | JOE DiMAGGIO
then good for them. I’m all for the
ballplayers. “I have some dear friends in the 5
press. But they had their favorites.
“When a lot of those bottom We had a huge press corps travel JOE DiMAGGIO’S
lines turn up red, maybe the situa- with us in those days, maybe 14 NUMBER
tion will change.” or 15 writers would go along.
WAS RETIRED ON
The Yankees of his day: “Oh, they even fought among APRIL 18, 1952
“There weren’t any petty jeal- themselves. Can you believe
ousies when we played. Maybe it that? Have you ever seen a bunch THE 3RD YANKEES
was the manager or the together- of writers fighting? I did lots of NUMBER TO BE
ness of the team, but you have to times.” RETIRED AFTER
remember we traveled together LOU GEHRIG (’39)
and thought baseball all the time. DiMaggio retired in 1951.
No radio, television or business With that, we turned to leave, AND BABE RUTH (’48)
distractions then.” but not before he said to me: “Oh,
His coaching days (1968-69) please do me a favor. Tell your
with the Oakland A’s: father, Willie, I said hello.”
“I have trouble enough han- I did ,Joe. I did.
dling myself, much less 25 other
guys. My stomach was giving me BILL PINELLA IS A FREELANCE
problems then and, you’d come in WRITER AND FORMER SPORTS
from a night game, and all there
was to eat were hot dogs or cold EDITOR OF THE SANTA ROSA
cuts in the clubhouse. I couldn’t (CALIF.) PRESS DEMOCRAT AND
handle the regimentation. That’s
why I never managed. SAN DIEGO EVENING TRIBUNE
“During the times I helped the
Yankees, they had good teams.
Clete Boyer, Tommy Tresh and
Joe Pepitone. I always thought
Pepitone could have been much
better. He just didn’t have his head
together.”
His 56-game hitting streak:
“It’s something I don’t sit
around and think about all the
time. But I couldn’t forget it even
if I wanted to. Every time I go to a
new city the writers ask me about
it. But I am proud of it.
“Maybe more so because
there were some hits taken away
during the streak, especially in
New York” (after the streak was
stopped, he hit in 16 consecutive
games).
His relationship with the
media:

11

Bottled up

1966 COKE BOTTLE CAPS | VARIOUS NFL ALL STARS
1967 FRESCA BOTTLE CAPS | VARIOUS MLB ALL STARS

12

13

Color ILLUSTRATED BY ANGELA TARANTINO
the
cover

1. PRINT PAGE
2. COLOR AWAY

14

Player
puppet

1. PRINT PAGE

2. COLOR IN WITH
YOUR FAVORITE
TEAM COLORS
AND CUT OUT

3. PUT TOGETHER
USING PAPER
FASTENERS

4. ENJOY YOUR
PLAYER PUPPET

TOOLS NEEDED ILLUSTRATED BY STEVE BREEN

1. CRAYONS
2. SCISSORS
3. FASTENERS

15

Poor old Perry

1969, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979 TOPPS | GAYLORD PERRY

16

A LOOK AT THE MLB

Rulebook

3.01 THE BALL

The ball shall be a sphere formed by yarn wound around a
small core of cork, rubber or similar material, covered with
two strips of white horsehide or cowhide, tightly stitched

together. It shall weigh not less than five nor more than
51⁄4 ounces avoirdupois and measure not less than nine

nor more than 91⁄4 inches in circumference.
No player shall intentionally discolor or damage the ball
by rubbing it with soil, rosin, paraffin, licorice, sand-paper,

emery-paper or other foreign substance.
PENALTY: The umpire shall demand the ball and remove
the offender from the game. In addition, the offender shall be
suspended automatically for 10 games. For rules in regard to a
pitcher defacing the ball, see Rules 6.02(c)(2) through (6).

Rule 3.01 Comment: Should a ball
come partially apart in a game, it is
in play until the play is completed.

17

1947 SIGNAL GASOLINE | MAURICE VAN ROBAYS

Signal Gasoline: PCL
cards are works of art
Featuring artwork by former major-leaguer,
Al Demaree, Signal Gasoline handed out its inated by the cartoon-like drawings by Demaree.
baseball cards at local gas stations. Demaree was a former pitcher for the Giants,
Player cards, representing hometown teams, were
distributed in 1947. Cards of five of eight Pacific Phillies, Cubs and Braves. He compiled an 80-72
Coast League teams were produced (Hollywood, record over nine seasons.
Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento and Seattle).
Examples of cards representing Sacramento and Later in life, Demaree made his mark as an artist.
Seattle are more scarce. He became a newspaper cartoonist and, in 1934,
illustrated cards which would be produced by the
The cards are particularly thin and feature adver- Dietz Gum Company. In 1935, his artwork was
tisements of Signal Gasoline and local radio sta- used in the Schutter-Johnson set.
tions on the reverse. The front of the cards are dom-
The Signal set features players, managers and
local radio sportscasters.

POBC

18

1947 Signal Gasoline checklist

Red Adams Los Angeles Guy Fletcher Seattle Red Mann Sacramento Les Scarsella Oakland
Ed Albosta Hollywood Tony Freitas Sacramento Red Mann Seattle
Kewpie Barrett Seattle Cece Garriott Los Angeles Hershel Martin Oakland George Scharein Seattle
Larry Barton Los Angeles Sherriff Gassaway Oakland Joe Marty Sacramento
Bud Beasley Sacramento Al Glossop Los Angeles Dutch McCall Los Angeles Bill Schuster Los Angeles
Herman Besse Seattle Paul Gregory Hollywood Steve Mesner Sacramento
Vic Buccola Oakland Tom Hafey Oakland Lou Novikoff Seattle Jack Sherman Hollywood
Mickey Burnett Oakland Fred Haney Hollywood John O’Neill Seattle
Ralph Buxton Oakland Brooks Holder Oakland Don Osborne Los Angeles Andy Skurski Hollywood
Cliff Chambers Los Angeles (Jack Jakucki Seattle John Ostrowski Los Angeles
Carl Cox Hollywood Bob Johnson Seattle Reggie Otero Los Angeles Al Smith Sacramento
Lloyd Christopher Los Angeles Pete Jonas Seattle Cotton Pippen Oakland
Frank Dasso Sacramento Frank Kelleher Hollywood Ray Prim Los Angeles Ronnie Smith Sacramento
Frank Dasso Hollywood Bill Kelly Los Angeles Billy Raimondi Oakland
Tod Davis Hollywood Joe Krakauskas Hollywood Bill Ramsey Seattle Floyd Speer Oakland
Jim Delsing Hollywood Hills Layne Seattle Bill Ramsey Sacramento
Vince DiMaggio Oakland Al Libke Hollywood Xavier Rescigno Hollywood Tuck Stainback Los Angeles
Dizz Duezabou Oakland Gene Lillard Oakland Charley Ripple Sacramento
Jimmy Dykes Hollywood Dario Lodigiani Oakland John Rizzo Sacramento Casey Stengel Oakland
Bud Foster Oakland Tony Lupien Hollywood Mickey Rocco Seattle
Ed Fitzgerald Sacramento Red Lynn Los Angeles Tony Sabol Oakland Glen (Glenn) Stewart Hollywood
Guy Fletcher Sacramento Eddie Malone Los Angeles Ed Sauer Los Angeles
Lou Stringer Los Angeles

Hal Sueme Seattle

Tommy Thompson Sacramento

Al Unser Hollywood

Maurice Van Robays Oakland

Fred Vaughn Hollywood

Jim Warner Sacramento

Jo Jo White Seattle

Woody Williams Hollywood

Tony York Seattle

Dutch (Gus) Zernial Hollywood

Ed Zipay Sacramento

19

Flying
high:
Pepsi
discs

In the summer of ’77, a purchase
of a six-pack of Pepsi would get you a
free trading card.

These baseball discs were inserted
in cartons of soda and were meant to
be punched out of their glove holders.

The punched-out cards are very af-
fordable, going for about $2 on online
auction sites. Figure double for intact
discs with gloves and checklists.

The checklist includes 72 stars of
the day. Mike Schmidt and Reggie
Jackson are said to come in five color
variations.

And speaking of colors, there seem
to be many more than the five (or-
ange, green, purple, light blue and sky
blue) listed in some price guides. But
that could be due to quality control
issues or fading.

The backs contain an offer for a
personalized player shirt. Players
include: Pete Rose, Rico Carty, Joe
Morgan and Rick Manning.

POBC

20

1977 PEPSI-COLA BASEBALL STARS | REGGIE JACKSON (OPPOSITE PAGE)
MIKE SCHMIDT, JOHNNY BENCH, PETE ROSE AND COMMON BACK

21

pofc Money
in the
POOR OLD Bank
FOOTBALL CARDS
1959 ARMOUR COIN
1971 TOPPS
JOE NAMATH WHITEY FORD
(ROYAL BLUE)
FROM THE BACK
OF THE CARD: MICKEY VERNON
(RED)
After not missing a game for over
5 years, Joe was forced to sit out the
last 9 of 1970 with a broken wrist.
Before being sidelined, he was off
to an impressive season with his
passing ... On October 18th, the day
he was injured, Joe set Jet records
with 62 passes attempted and 34
completed and had his third best
day ever in terms of yardage with
397 against the Colts.

POBC

22

Plastic
Fantastic

1955
ROBERT GOULD

STATUE

EARLY WYNN

Tellin’ 23
Time

1950s-60s ESCO TOY WATCH

MADE IN WEST GERMANY

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