Trade #2 - GCRL: Dodgers4Gold

After fruitlessly checking the mail non-stop over the past few days, I finally got a text message yesterday from my wife that unenthusiastically exclaimed, "You got baseball cards in the mail...", I knew that my trade with GCRL was complete.  This trade is my first venture in trading for vintage cards, and I was not disappointed.  To trade 30 dodgers for 5 vintage Topps seems like a deal to me, and based on how trades work, I'm sure it seemed like a deal to GCRL.

I came through the side door, crept to the kitchen and found the package on the bar.  Like a kid in a five and dime, I tore into the padded envelope, which to me looked like a 5 card, 5 cent pack of Topps, and found the following gold.

 

First up is a 1962 Dick Donovan (#15), who oozes that 1950s suburbian charm.  Short haircut, check, bland stoic look, check, no trace of uniform, logo, etc., check.  Mr. Donovan looks like he'd be more comfortable in an accounting firm, than a ballfield because he's Dick Donovan, CPA.  Methinks he his whistfully thinking about sitting in his barka-lounger sipping on a Manhattan without vermouth because that is for sissies, while listening to Bing Crosby on the phonograph.  I do dig the blurry palm tree and the way his collar flips like the "peeling" picture off the wood laminate.

  

Donovan was the 61 AL ERA leader for what appears to be the Senators based on the huge W on the cartoon ballcap, yet the front has him down as a Cleve. Indian.  At least he's not airbrushed.

 

Next up is a sweet 1964 Don McMahon (#122) that is another logo-less, cap-less wonder that pitches for the Cleve. Indians.  At least Mr. McMahon looks like he eats barbwire and shits napalm, instead of filling out 1040s.

Again, he is an offseason castoff from Houston to the Indians, which explains the uniform-less front.  My favorite part of 64 Topps is the quiz, which has long been eradicated by an exuberant child, which leads me to this quote "Rub edge of nickel or dime over blank box for magic answer."  So, sorry little Johnny, you cannot use a penny, two-bit piece or that shiny new 50 cent piece to find your magic answer.  I wonder if kids actually did only use dimes and nickels to rub off the answer?

 

Next is a 1968 Jerry McNertney (#14), which begs the question, Does Jerry have corneas or the largest irises in the world?  Added bonus is the burlap sack print that some of the 68 cards were blessed with.

The fourth card is a 68 Topps Jim Nash (#324) who is sporting the lovely black domed A's hat.  This must have been during the move from Kansas City to Oakland.  I guess Topps must have thought the logo was going to chance.  Also, dig those sliding AAAAs.

Finally, a 1968 Topps Bill Singer (#249). Really, a Dodger fan sending a Padres fan a Do-ho.  I can only surmise that this is a subversive attempt at a Dodger-Blue blood transfusion.  It won't work GCRL, but the card is awesome, especially the ratty, moth eaten sleeve.  The Dodger Nation should be ashamed of his tattered garb.

Thank you so much for the great cards, and one final blurb.  While I was washing dishes last night, I apparently did not put the cards up high enough because while I was with soapy hands, my 2 year old son walked in to kitchen holding the 1962 Topps, to which he proclaimed, "Mine!"  I sense this kid has a future!