"Killer" ad

In 1971, Killer was just past his prime, although he still led the AL in rbis with 119. He also appeared in this advertisement for a new product from the Rohm and Haas Company, Plexiglas 70. I worked as a chemical engineer for Rohm and Haas from 1974 until 2009 (when the company was bought by Dow Chemical). I worked in research from 1974 until 1990 and for part of that time worked on developing new Plexiglas products. So I love this ad which combines my love of baseball with the company for which I worked for so long.This ad appeared in the December 1971 issue of Architectural Record. You've probably seen Plexiglas (and it is properly spelled with only one 's') in hardware stores but you probably didn't see the Rohm and Haas name. The company mostly sold directly to construction firms or to the retail market through distributors.

In the 1980's, Rohm and Haas had a series of similar ads featuring the Phillies Mike Schmidt. Schmidt was a natural fit since R&H was head-quarted in Philadelphia. These ads featured Mike shattering his bat on a sheet of another R&H product called Tuffak. Tuffak was made of a different material called polycarbonate. This sheet was much stronger than Plexiglas. I remember seeing the ads and wish I still had a copy. The story in the company was that no matter how hard he tried, Schmidt could not get a bat to break. He couldn't get the Tuffak to break either. So they sawed partially through the bat which promptly shattered on the plastic sheet. You could clearly see that the bat had been partially cut. As part of this ad campaign they commissioned, I think, Dick Perez, to paint a picture of Schmidt swing the bat at the sheet. I used to have a copy of this and I'm sure it is in my house somewhere but haven't seen it in years.

2011 Allen & Ginter Phillies

Topps did a good job once again with Allen & Ginter. They managed to produce a new design that is significantly different than past years but is still clearly Allen & Ginter. I'm just going to post the Phillies right now. I bought 16 rack packs and one hobby box and managed to pull all the Phillies except Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins. I also managed to get about 65% of the base set without too many duplicates. I'm hoping to make a post later this week comparing some A&G with some Heritage cards. I've noticed some, shall we say, similarities.








In Sunday's extra inning win over the Pirates, Pence got a 2-out double in the 10th. Raul Ibanez, who already had two home runs in the game, doubled Pence in for the winning run. Pence was interviewed after the game by Sarge Matthews. Sarge asked Pence what he was thinking when Ibanez hit the double. Pence said "Good game, let's go eat".

Song of the Week - The Emigrant by Jean-Michel Jarre

Movie of the Week - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

The movie has been out for almost 2 weeks so you may be sick of hearing about it but we only just saw it last night. We decided to wait until the crowds died down a bit. The 7:35, non-3D showing still had a packed house.

I've only read the first two books but I've seen all the movies. The movies have been mixed for me. Sometimes not enough story, sometimes hard to fallow without having read the book, but on the whole I've enjoyed them.

Deathly Hallows Part 1 was pretty long and kind of dull. It was all set up for the final confrontation between you know who and Lord Shall Not be Named. We watched it again last week just to remind us of what happened. My opinion is that the final movie is great. It is about as satisfying a conclusion to the series as could be hoped for.

Throughout this series, Harry Potter has grown from a young boy, unsure of himself, unsure of his friends, and unsure of the danger that he is in. He is ignorant of the world and his place in it. Powers that he doesn't understand have control of him. Throughout the series he has grown and matured. He learns of his power. He learns of the forces arrayed against him. In this movie, now confident, although still scared, he knows he has been a pawn, has been shaped as a tool toward a specific end, but accepts his role and is willing to make whatever sacrifice to save what he can of those he loves and who love him.

Lord Voldemort has gone from a vague shadowy presence, an unknown force that cannot be named to become the great power that he always knew himself to be. Supremely confident in his power, he cannot believe that lesser beings than himself have prepared the way for his downfall, using his own power against him.

I was totally justified in my belief that the motivations of Snape were not what they seemed.

Be warned, that this movie is pretty violent. Great magically powers are harnessed against Harry and great magical powers are on his side. At the interface of those powers, people and creatures die left and right.

Song of the Week - Mondo '77 by Looper

For reasons I don't understand, I own the soundtrack from the Tom Cruise movie Vanilla Sky. I've never seen the movie. Anyway, this song, called "Mondo '77" is on the soundtrack. I was getting late making this post when it came up on iTunes and I said "That's the one". I never would have guessed from listening to the song, that Looper is a Scottish band. According to Wikipedia, they give their music away, supporting themselves by royalities from their music being used in commercials and big name movies, like Vanilla Sky.

Birthdays of the Week July 17-23

July 17
1972 Topps #167 Deron JohnsonDeron was born in 1938 in San Diego, CA. He was signed as a free agent by the Yankees in 1956. He was mainly and infielder (1st and 3rd) who had a 16-year career. In addition to the Phillies he played for the Yankees, Royals, Reds, Braves, A's, Brewers, Red Sox, and White Sox. Whew! He had a career BA of .244 and hit 245 home runs. Johnson was serving as a coach with California when he was diagnosed with lung cancer, which claimed his life on April 23, 1992, at the age of 53.

July 18
1998 Scoremasters #36 Mike GreenwellGator was born in 1963 in Louisville, KY. He was the Red Sox 3rd round draft pick in 1982 and played his entire 12-year career there. An outfielder, he had a career batting average of .303 with 130 home runs. According to Wikipedia, he obtained his nickname in spring training one year when he captured a alligator, taped it's mouth shut and put it in teammate Ellis Burks locker.

July 19
2000 Metal Emerald #250 Rick AnkielRick was born in 1979 in Fort Pierce, FL. He was the Cardinals 2nd round draft pick in 1997. Although not as big a phenom as Stephen Strasburg (see below), he was still a highly regarded prospect who had a big impact on the hobby. He had an 11-7 record in 2000, his first full season, with 194 strikeouts. In the 2000 playoffs however, he completely lost the ability to throw strikes. He went back to the minor leagues in an unsuccessful attempt to regain his pitching. In 2005, he switched to the outfield. He returned to the majors in 2007 as an outfielder for the Cardinals. He currently plays for the Nationals.

July 20
2010 Bowman Draft Gold #1 Stephen StrasburgStephen was born in 1988 in San Diego, CA. He was the Nationals #1 draft pick in 2009 and made his major league debut on June 8, 2010. To say that Strasburg was a phenom is to understate his impact on the game. Sports Illustrated called his debut "the most hyped pitching debut the game has ever seen." He went 5-3 in 2010 before being shut down by an injury. He had Tommy John surgery requiring 12-18 months of rehab. He was also a big phenomenon in the baseball card hobby with people paying incredible amounts for autograph cards and other rare cards.

July 21
2008 Upper Deck UD Game Materials 1999 #99 C. C. Sabathia
Carsten Charles was born in 1980 in Vallejo, CA. He was the Indians 1st round draft pick in 1998. He pitched 7 years for the Indians before being traded to the Brewers in 2008. After the 2008 season he sighed a $161 million, 7-year contract with the Yankees. Including this season, he has a career record of 171-93 with an ERA of 3.50. He is a 5-time All-Star and won the AL Cy Young Award in 2007. He is also one of the best hitting pitchers today with a career batting average of .250 with 3 home runs.

July 22
1992 Upper Deck #99 Dave StiebDave was born in 1957 in Santa Ana CA. He was drafted by Blue Jays in the 5th round of the 1978 amateur draft. Dave pitched 15 of his 16 years for the Blue Jays. He was one of the most dominating pitchers in the 1980s. His career record was 176 wins and 136 loses with an ERA of 3.44. He was a 7-time All-Star and was named the AL TSN Pitcher of the Year in 1982.

July 23
1990 Topps All Stars #11 Don DrysdaleDon was born in 1936 in Van Nuys, CA. He was signed as an amateur free agent by the Dodgers in 1954. He pitched his entire 14-year career for the Dodgers, 2 years in Brooklyn, the rest in LA. He was one of the most dominating pitchers in the 1960s. During his career he had 209 wins vs 169 loses with a career ERA of 2.95. He was an 8-time All-Star and won the NL Cy Young Award in 1962 when he was 25-9 with a ERA of 2.83. He won 3 World Series with the Dodgers. Don was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1984. After his career he became a broadcaster. He died in 1983 of a heart attack. He was found in his hotel room in Montreal where he was to cover the Dodgers-Expos game later that day.

2011 Summer Clearance Trade with Madding and final wrap-up

All good things have to come to an end. It's the official end of the 2011 Summer Clearance Trade. I expect a trade or two more from latecomers but I'm going to wrap up the stats now. Last year I sent our 611 cards to 11 people. I got 241 cards back, of which, I needed 118. So 44% of the cards I got back I needed. I was pretty happy with that.

This year I sent out 1,000 cards to 12 people. I got 851 cards back. Amazingly, 44% of them, or 378, were cards I needed. I'm even happier with this year's trade. To put it in another perspective, it cost me about $31.50 to mail all those cards. 378 cards works out to about 8 cents/card. No way I could have gotten all of these cards for 8 cents each on eBay.

The last post are cards from Madding at Cards On Cards. You can see some of what I sent him here. I'm really happy with what I got from him, especially the first cards up.

1978 O-Pee-Chee #42 Greg LuzinskiThis card puzzled me at first. There is no Topps logo on the front and the back is a weird brown. Then I noticed the French on the back. It's a 1978 O-Pee-Chee! I never saw ones of these before. And Madding sent me 4 Phillies from the set. Thanks!

1988 Topps Big #67 Juan SamuelCards from this set aren't hard to come by, in fact, as I'm writing this, you can buy the entire set on eBay for $6. I get most of my 1980s cards these days in repacks and you're not going to find an over-sized card like this in a repack.

1993 Upper Deck #247 John KrukI thought I had the entire Phillies set from 1993 Upper Deck, but I was missing this Kruk card. This card is my nomination for the Dirtiest Uniform on a Baseball Card Award.

1993 Milk Bone Super Stars #20 Craig BiggioI love these cards which used to be packaged with food products. This set was produced by Michael Schechter Associates, aka MSA. They produced cards included in Post cereals, Pepsi and other products. MSA had a contract with the Player's Association but not with Major League Baseball. I'll bet that Player's Association logo hat that Biggio is wearing was a popular item.

2007 Upper Deck Holiday Inn #35 Carlos LeeThis set got added to Baseballcardpedia.com just a few weeks ago. I'd never heard of it. If you stayed at a Holiday Inn during a specific 2-month period in 2007, you got a cellophane pack with 4 cards from this 60-card set. What a long, strange trip that would have been to complete the set.

2009 SP Authentic #199 Ryan HowardI have very few cards from this set and only one Phillie. This card looks like and insert but it's actually a subset.

2011 Topps #421 Domonic BrownI had most of the Phillies from 2011 Topps but not this one. Here's hoping this guy turns into a great player.

2011 Topps Heritage #72 Chase Utley and Jimmy RollinsThis is the last Phillies card from this set that I needed.