Phorgotten Phillie Phile - Lowell Palmer

Old Timers Division. You have to have been a Phillies fan for a long time to not remember this guy. He was the Phillies number 1 draft pick in 1966. He made the big club in 1969 with a 2 and 8 record. The Phillies were 63-99 in 1969 and every pitcher except for Rick Wise had a losing record. He followed up in 1970 with a 1-2 record and in 1971 he only appeared in 3 games. The Phillies sold him to the White Sox in 1971 but he didn't play for them. He was out of baseball after 1874 with a career 5-18 record. This is his 1970 card with the Phillies.
I like this card for 2 reasons. 1 is, of course, the sunglasses. Very cool. And the second reason is this:

1956 Topps

These are the oldest Phillies cards I own, and pretty much the oldest cards I own. I sure wasn't collecting cards in 1956 (I was only 5 years old). I acquired these as an adult although I can't remember where or when. These are the only 1956 cards I own. Of these three players, the only one I ever heard of was Del Ennis. And I think I've only heard of him because he used to own an enormous bowling alley in the Philadelphia suburbs. I remember going there a few times in the 1970. Ennis had a pretty good year for the Phillies in 1956. He hit .296 with 29 home runs. He was born in Philadelphia and played there for 11 seasons before the Phillies traded him to St. Louis at the end of the 1956 season.

Westlake, on the other hand, signed as a free agent with the Phillies in November 1955. He had a few good seasons with the Pirates in the lare 1940s but was only a part time player since 1951. He had 4 hitless at bats with the Phillies before he was released in May.

Ron Negray played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1952, the Phillies in '55 and '56 and LA Dodgers in 1958. He amassed a 6-6 record with 3 saves in his career.

These cards are a real mess. They are cut badly, they are creased and have soft corners. But I'm happy to have them. Notice the different colors of the backs. The Ennis and Westbrood cards don't look too much different but the Negray card is white. I'd suspect it was because the cards were from different a different series, but the Negray and the Westlake are both from the first series.

Good Old Rock 'n Roll - Cat Mother

I have 6,114 songs on iTunes. This is one of them.

The full name of this band is Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys. The song is from their 1968 debut album The Street Giveth and the Street Taketh Away. I am willing to bet that this is a band you never heard of. The song was a hit in the Summer of 1969. The album was produced by Jimi Hendrix. Cat Mother had 4 albums but I only know this one and their second. The band was sort of a commune organization. Their second album Albion Doo-Wah (released in 1970) features a photo of the band surrounded by wives, girlfriends, children, dogs and assorted livestock at the home they all shared. I really love this album, but since I only have it on LP, I haven't heard it in years. I've just recently used my USB turntable to record it to my computer as mp3 files. I used to play the heck out of this record and I was surprised at how well the digital files sound. The record was available on CD but is now out of print. Amazon has 2 copies of the CD for sale, one for $60, the other for $80. This song, as you can guess by the title, is a medly of 1950s era rock and roll songs. they were not an oldies band however, and given a choice, I'd highlight a different song. But this is the only song on You Tube I could find.

Frosty Friends 1989 - 1991

Southeast Texas Snow

Here's something you don't see every day, snow in the Houston Texas area. 2 months ago we were suffering through Hurricane Ike, today, it's snow. It's been very cold all day here not getting out of the 30s. There was snow reported north of Houston. It started snowing here in League City at about 8:30 PM. Large, wet, heavy flakes. There was about an inch on the ground at 9:30 when we took these photos. This is the second time we've seen snow here, the last time was Christmas Eve in 2006. Before that, it had been 15 years since there was snow here. Global warming, indeed. This is our Empress palm tree in the back yard.
This is part of my bonsai bench. The plant with the red flowers is a bougainvillea. Its supposed to get the red leaves in the summer. After 2 years of no red, it chose this winter to bloom. The plants are up against the house and I don't expect the snow to hurt them.
Here is the front of our house. This is such a common place scene in many parts of the country but just flabbergasting here. I almost wish I had put out Christmas lights.
After last Christmas, my daughter and I decided to see how long we could keep the poinsettias alive. We've tried this once or twice before but they always succumb in the summer. But this year, we were successful. And they were even producing red leaves. Don't they look nice in the snow?

More 1987 Topps from Steve

The very generous Steve at The Easy Life sent me some more 1987 Topps cards. He's all over Capewood's Collections this week. He also contributed last Sunday's Song of the Week on a CD of tunes he sent me. Here's what he sent:

# 336 - Allan Anderson. "Allen pitched 4 No-Hitters, 2 of them consecutive, in senior year at Lancaster (Ohio) High School." He played 6 years for the Twins with a 49-54 record.

#392 - Checklist

#410 - Fernando Valenzuela. "Fernando visited the White House in 1981". That's the best Topps could think to say on this card?

#414 - Joe Orsulak. "Joe wears contact lenses during games but eye-glasses a majority of the time off the field".

#501 - Craig Lefferts. "Craig is co-chairman of San Diego Children's Asthma League. He was a member of two College World Series entries at University of Arizona (Tucson)".

#535 - Tony Armas. "Tony has ten brothers and three sisters". Apparently none of his brothers played ball. His Uncle Marcos did (in the 1930s) and his son Tony plays.

# 604 - Fernando Valenzuela

# 624 - Tim Burke. "Tim experiences much enjoyment from reading". So do I.

# 770 - Dave Winfield. Dave's got 14 years of stats on the back of his card, so there's no room for a little anecdote.

Another package from John in England

Last Thursday, I received more cards from John who writes at The Pursuit of 80's(nish). We had packages cross in the mail, he got some stuff from me last Thursday as well. . He's really been busy trading with people. He sent me a bunch of Astros cards. Of the 37 cards he sent I didn't have 28 of them. Not only that but there were 6 cards I didn't have any of to add to my reference binders. Thanks John. More Red Sox for you.

An Astros sticker from 1983 Fleer. I don't think I've ever seen a sticker from this set.

This next card is from the Upper Deck Origins set from 2005. This Pettitte card is an insert so I still don't have any of the base cards. I have a Jeff Bagwell relic version of this insert already.
2004 Upper Deck Play Ball. I had a couple of insert cards from this set but this is the first base card I've had.
2003 Upper Deck Honor Roll. One of the bewildering number of sets issued in the early years of the decade. I had a Mark Prior Dean's List Jersey card but this is the first base card I've ever seen from the set.
And finally, this little gem. A 1992 Cracker Jack Donruss Series 1. These came as the surprise in Cracker Jacks that year. The cards measure 1 and a quarter by 1 and 3 quarters of an inch. The fronts look just like 1992 Donruss. I love this sort of stuff!