Happy 81st Birthday Knucksie!

Phil Niekro, the famous knuckleballer, turns 81 today. When  you look at his 24 year career, he retired at the age of 48 years old, he had some wonderful highlights like a No-hitter in 1973, NL wins leader (twice), NL strikeout leader and MLB ERA leader, along with 5 All-Star appearances and 5 Gold Gloves and earned his entry in to the MLB Hall of Fame in 1997.

Happy Birthday Mr. October

Today is Reggie Jackson’s 70^th birthday. The man was phenomenal in so many areas and with his personality you just had to love him and if you didn’t appreciate him as a ball player then you had to love him in as the would-be assassin in The Naked Gun.

His list of accomplishments run for a lifetime but his 3 homeruns on 3 pitches in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series, and his Reggie Bar, will probably be the one that stands out amongst everything else and even though he played for ASU I still respect the guy.

Happy Birthday Duke... No Not That Duke This Duke

Today would have been Duke Kahanamoku’s 125^th birthday had the father of modern surfing been eternal. Born in 1890 in the Kingdom of Hawaii Duke went on to do some amazing things in his life.

As an Olympic swimmer he appeared in 3 straight Olympics (1912-1924) winning 3 Gold Medals and 2 Silver Medals, plus at the age of 42 he was an alternate on the 1932 US Water Polo Olympic team that won the Bronze Medal but as an alternate he did not receive a medal. In 1965 he was enshrined in the Swimming Hall of Fame and in 1984 he was enshrined in the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame.

He used his popularity as an Olympic Swimmer to travel around the world and popularized the ancient tradition of surfing. Even though surfing has been around for 3,000 years in Polynesian and Hawaiian culture it almost disappeared in the 1820s when British law enforced locals to wear more clothing and to put limitations on “play” time. It did not return until 1905 when the Hui Nalu club revived the sport.

In June of 1925 while surfing with friends in Newport Beach a fishing boat went down in the heavy surf out of the 29 men on the boat Duke personally rescued 8 men. In the following 4 decades he went on to be the Sheriff of Honolulu, serving 13 consecutive terms, and he appeared in 20 television and movie roles. He died on January 22, 1968 of a heart attack at the age of 77 and he was buried at sea. He was first person to be enshrined in the Surfing Hall of Fame in 1966.

If that was not enough for one lifetime he has been immortalized as the Official Hawaii Greeter, the U.S. released a Duke Kahanamoku stamp in 2002, there is a statue of him at Waikiki Beach on Oahu with him standing with his arms open and another statue at New Brighton Beach in New Zealand depicting him surfing.

Do collectors have an opportunity to add Duke to their collection? Yes, but very few options and all of them are connected to swimming or the Olympics. The most common two are the 1983 Topps Greatest Olympians #20 and 1991 Impel U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame #20

More recently Topps included him in the 2006 Allen & Ginter release which offers a couple of options. There is the base card #320 plus the mini version, then there is the Black Border mini parallel plus one released for the Hawaii Trade Conference and let’s not forget the 2015 Buyback version.

You can go for the big with the 1933 Goudey Sport Kings #20

There are a couple of options out of Europe

There are some generic surfing cards where people claim the image is Duke but there is no listing for him and he is not mentioned on the card.

I am looking to add the 1933 Goudey Sport King and 1931 Garmann to my collection eventually, I don’t know if I would say they are White Whales or Gray Whales just yet but they are definitely whales. I would also like to add the 2006 A&G Hawaii Conference card eventually too, this one is probably the most reasonably priced card on my Kahanamoku want list. I hope someday Upper Deck can get him in to a Goodwin Champions release as a surfer.

Happy Birthday Yogi

"Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical."

 

Yogi Berra, the man of a million quips, turns 90 today. The man is undeniably one of the best players to ever line up behind the plate and a Yankee legend to boot. After serving during WWII as a gunners mate he signed with the New York Yankees and never looked back. Playing 19 seasons (18 w/ Yankees & 1 w/ Mets) he played in 18 All-Star games, won 10 World Series Titles and was named AL MVP three times. Counting his time as a player, manager and coach for the Yankees, Mets and Astros and he made it to 21 World Series winning 13 times and since has had his number retired by the Yankees and was inducted in to the Hall of Fame in 1972.

 

"Congratulations. I knew the record would stand until it was broken."

 Having played as long as he did and being a Yankee legend there are so many options for collecting his cards with his 1948 Bowman running $100+. A decent Yogi autograph can be picked up for $30-50 and relics for under $25.

 

"It ain't over till it's over."

 

Happy Birthday To The Corps

Today, November 10^th, is the 237^th birthday of the United States Marine Corp. In those 237 years many Marines have served this country with honor, my father included. So my post today is dedicated to my father.

 

There are many important events connected to the Marine Corps in our country’s history but few have such a visual impact as the flag raising on Iwo Jima when five Marines and a Navy Corpsman planted the flag on Mt. Suribachi. A moment memorialized by photographer Joe Rosenthal. The moment is also captured in the Marine Corps War Memorial statute located outside of Arlington National Cemetery.

 

Most people do not know that this famous photograph was actually of the second flag raised on the mountain. The first flag was raised shortly after the Marines took control but Lt. Colonel Chandler W. Johnson told one of his officers to return to the ships for a larger flag so all the Marines on the island could see it once it was raised up, which he figured would lift their spirits. This is one of only a few photographs of the first flag to be raised on Mt Suribachi, taken by Marine SSgt. Louis R Lowery of Leatherneck Magazine.

 

Happy Birthday Bob Ross

 

Today would have been Bob Ross’ 70^th birthday; even 17 years since he passed away he still is remembered for his show “The Joy of Painting” that ran on PBS between 1983 through 1994. Many of us grew up learning about happy little trees watching his show and I dreamed of being a painter when I grew up.

 

Ross was born in 1942, in the thick of World War II, and with many supplies being limited there were no major sports card releases at that time so I went with the next best thing, a release by TCMA Ltd. Beginning in the 1970s TCMA released a number of “retro” sets that highlighted players from the 1930s and up, which included a couple of different team sets and minor league teams. In 1983 TCMA created two sets based on 1942, a 1942 Play Ball set and a 1942-46 St.Louis Cardinals team set. I used the Cardinals team set for the template because it was a pretty plain card design that allowed me flexibility to make it an art themed card.

 

I hope that where ever he is now he is surrounded by happy little trees and mistakes that turned in to fluffy clouds.