And That's A Wrap

Writing this blog has been a wonderful learning experience. The 1959 Topps set held many more stories than I even imagined when I started it back in February of 2011. It began with a posting of my Brooks Robinson card.

I've been looking back at those early posts recently and have noticed how things evolved over time. I seemed to have moved away from posting about the card's appearance and a brief peek at the player and more towards lengthier player bios. Not sure if that was a change for the better or not!

Overall though, I'm happy with what I've produced here. There were times I thought I wouldn't finish and indeed there was a period in early 2012 when I stepped away from posting. When I came back having decided that posting a card every day was unrealistic things became much easier.

A few closing thoughts:

I'm not completely done here. As time goes by I am going back and cleaning up a few things. Not that it matters much to anyone except me but when I began I was using the default 'medium' Blogger image size. Along the way I switched to 'large' and I'm in the process of changing them all to the bigger size. While I do that I am also adding 'tags' which I neglected to do for a long time back when I was just beginning.

I am also double checking to make sure I haven't missed a card along the way. I tried to keep my checklist current as I went but there is always the possibility I skipped a card. If so I will add the entry ASAP.

I also have a few projects in the back of my head but just never had the time or proper motivation to tackle. If you've read more than two or three of my posts here you know I have an (unhealthy?) obsession with the stadiums seen in the photos used in this set. Most of the stadiums can be ID'd pretty easily. But I didn't keep a running tab on them. I may just satisfy my curiosity on a rainy Sunday and then post my results. I can take a pretty confident guess that 60% of the shots were from Yankee Stadium.

And I want to do a "Best of" post. Some cards/entries are special to me for one reason or another. It might be the player on the card, the card itself, how I acquired it, or the story I dug up when looking for material to include. I plan to put that list of favorites together and tack it on here.

Finally a few words about the great people I've come to know through this blog. I haven't 'met' any of you in person but I feel I've made friends though the comments, corrections, additions, criticisms and general kibitzing all of you have thrown my way here for three years. I am continuing my blog over at The Five Tool Collector and now I can be a bit more active on the 1963 Topps blog hosted by Jim from Downingtown. I will continue to read memorabilia blogs every day and I hope to continue to communicate with my friends.

It's been a blast and I'll see ya on the 'net.

#47 Jim Finigan

1959 in Baltimore was Jim Finigan's last major league stop in a five season career that saw him play for four teams (five if you count the Philadelphia A's and Kansas City A's separately). Finigan signed with the Yankees in the late 40s. He had four pretty good seasons in their minor league chain and a couple of years in the military during the Korean War before he was traded to the A's with whom he debuted in 1954.

He was the A's regular third-baseman that season and hit .302, made the AL All Star team, was second in ROY voting (behind Yankee hurler Bob Grim but ahead of someone named Al Kaline!) and got some MVP votes. He moved to second base and saw his average drop in 1955 by nearly 50 points but again made the All Star Game. That was his final season as a full time starter in the bigs. In 1956 he hit only .216 and played in 91 games. He was traded to the Tigers for 1957, on to the Giants and then to the Orioles for 1959.

For the Orioles he played quite a bit of third base while a slumping Brooks Robinson spent some time in AAA and recovered from a seriously injured arm. When Brooks returned Finigan was back on the bench. He ended his career with a few seasons in the Orioles chain and then some minor league managing. He later coached at Quincy College in Illinois before he died at the age of 52 in 1981.

With his Giants uni showing the picture of Finigan can be traced to 1958. So he was 30 when it was taken. Looks older than that don't ya think? And I'd say he resembles on of my childhood favorites, Howdy Doody.

#439 Brooks Robinson

Welcome to the first of what I intend to be 572 posts in this blog. I'll be taking what I hope is a fun and informative look at the 1959 Topps set. The '59 set (along with its bookends, the '58 and '60 sets) is a huge favorite of mine. It's the first set I recall owning cards of. I remember friends that had 1958 cards but I don't think I had any. I clearly recall receiving packs of the 1959s at Easter of that year. (A couple of packs of cards in my Easter basket was a tradition in my house.) One '59 card from my youthful collection survived and I'll feature it in my next post. PSA's 1959 set page is entitled "Bring On The Pizazz". The set was a departure for Topps and it features some elements I always like on cards, bright colors and team logos.

I'll discuss more of this great set and my reasons for this collection in future posts but first things first... the Brooks Robinson card. Brooks leads off the blog for the simple reason that he's my favorite player. This is one of the nicer cards with good corners and bright colors. The card is off center but that's very common, at least among the 1959s that I've come across. Another very common aspect of this card is the fact that Topps photographed Brooks at Yankee Stadium. It's a 'feature' that will show up countless times in this set as well as many of the 50s and 60s Topps sets. I'm OK with that as it reminds me of the many visits I made to that historic ballpark in those days alongside my Dad, a big Yankee fan.

I love the O's road uniform that Brooks shows off in this shot. The 'Bird head' sleeve patch is a great uni addition. I wish the O's would bring it back.

This card is printed on 'white' stock as you can see on the scan of the back side of the card. The red and green on 'white' is one of three combos in the set. Many of the cards are also seen on gray cardboard and the last series, a.k.a 'high numbers' are red and black on 'white' cardboard. The cartoon on the back is pretty hum-drum. But we'll see some really good ones as the blog unfolds.

As I mentioned Brooks is my favorite baseball player. My twin sons are named for him and Jim Palmer. We've met Brooks several times and he's as nice as his reputation. When a small story appeared in the Baltimore Sun about my sons carrying the names of Oriole stars Brooks came up with my address and sent us signed pictures.