Awkward Cards: 1936 World Wide Gum 112. Zeke Bonura

So I'm taking a look around some auctions last night and came across a Canadian seller with a bunch of pre-WWII stuff. It was all priced out of my range but it was fun to browse and do a little studying up. Here's a 1936 World Wide Gum card that caught my attention, largely because I wasn't sure if it was a baseball card or not. With the newspapers in the background and the suit and tie, I wondered if it was a profile mugshot and some non-sport news set from the day.

If you ask me, Mr. Bonura looks like a youthful Joe Torre.

Here's the back:

"By golly, that looks an awful lot like the style of Goudey backs," I think to myself. I'm very unfamiliar with really old cards, so this was new. If you're taking an SAT exam and you get one of those relational questions, here's what Wikipedia is telling me:

Topps is to O-Pee-Chee as Goudey is to World Wide Gum.

I learned something new last night.

Here's where the awkwardness comes in. Let's zoom in on the text on the back, shall we:

So that's what they called it back in the day.

I guess I learned two things last night.

Pete Rose Signs With Upper Deck

In another sign that Upper Deck has more flexibility with their MLB-free baseball products, the company has announced they've signed Pete Rose to a deal that will see autographs and memorabilia cards in their products.

The all-time hit king has been in other unlicensed sets in recent years with Donruss and Sports Kings. And even though Rose is one of the most common autographs in the memorabilia world, his ban from baseball has led to very few trading cards. Even with the Upper Deck deal, there still aren't any that are fully licensed to include MLB logos and such.

Rose joins controversial players Shoeless Joe Jackson and Jose Canseco who have signed with the company in recent months. Rose's Upper Deck memorabilia debut will be in 2010 Upper Deck Goudey.

But there still aren't any images. It's also somewhat ironic that Upper Deck is making this announcement on the same day as the Hall of Fame announcement. Coincidence? I doubt it.

Is it All Part of the Plan for Upper Deck...

...to leave us all hanging?

It's now less than a month until February 3 - the launch of Upper Deck Baseball 2.0 (or 0.5, depending on how you look at it) where Upper Deck is set to release its flagship 2010 Upper Deck Baseball Series One. It's just three weeks until the scheduled release date of 2009 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection Baseball. But no pictures for either.

Upper Deck has done a solid job at providing the content for both sets but without knowing what they're going to look like, there's no way I can decide whether to go for it or not. If this were a regular year, that'd be fine. But it's not. Without the Major League license logos and such are out of the question. So do we get Players Association jerseys, air-brushed action shots, studio portraits or some homo-erotic artsy thing like this:

I also find it interesting that there's been little info released about any of Upper Deck's additional 2010 plans other than the cross-brand Exquisite cards and the fact that Shoeless Joe is going to appear in 2010 Upper Deck Goudey.

All I'm asking for is a little nibble, perhaps something minor like say a base card design to get me excited. What do you say?

Masterpieces and More

Thanks to Eric at the Pettite Pursuit (who is partial to Andy Pettite) and Dan at Saints of the Cheap Seats (who cheers for Cleveland and pursues Omar Vizquel, amongst others), my set of 2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces is dwindling. Yay. Both sent packages northward during my hiatus that were waiting in the mailbox. Although not nearly as iconic as the 2007 set, this is still a beautiful set - usually.

Although I'm sad that it doesn't appear to be in the works as a full-fledged set in 2009, I know I wouldn't mind if Upper Deck limited it to an insert set like they are with their 2009-10 Upper Deck Basketball set.

Both packages also included other goodies. Eric sent along some Canuck-ian ball players. I don't know why, but 2008 UD X is kind of growing on me. Only a little. As in a smidge. 

Dan included hits from this set,

 

this set, 

 

this set,

 

and this set.

Thanks again Dan and Eric!

Danny Macfayden's Octo-Goggles! Be Jealous!

This one's for Night Owl:

 1933 Goudey 156. Danny MacFayden

These, my friend, are the best specs in the history of baseball cards.

Goodie for Goudey!

When you're talking dream cards, mine is a 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth. Will I ever have one? Doubtful. But my vintage Goudey collection officially started yesterday with the arrival of this:

171. Charley Jamieson, Cleveland Indians

Sorry for the crappy scans. I'm in the process of switching over to a new computer but my old one still has the scanner hooked up and the old monitor is horrid. Instantly Charley becomes the oldest part of my baseball card collection. I've got a couple of non-sport and boxing tobacco cards that are a little bit older, but not by much. According to BaseballReference, Charley was never a superstar but he was a solid hitter holding down a career average of .301 in almost two decades of playing. In 1924 he hit .359 and finished third in AL MVP voting.

The card itself is in solid shape with no creases. It has been loved over time as the nicely rounded corners show but it was never manhandled. This card was inserted as a Buy Back from 2008 Upper Deck Goudey. I'm not sure what Goudey commons are worth but when I saw the Buy it Now of $8.00 I figured a pretty little piece of pre-WWII vintage was more fun than a random pack or two of the new stuff.

Upper Deck also inserted a card of congratulations indicating this is indeed a Buy Back.

What I find interesting is the language used. 

You have received a trading card that was originally released in a previous product and is now being re-released for your collecting pleasure.

Can Upper Deck not take a couple of extra seconds and state what set it's from? And maybe even go a step further and discuss the history of the 1933 Goudey set? Gasp! One would think that seeing as how Upper Deck has the rights to call the new set "Goudey" they'd also have the rights to point out the origins of the old cards as well.

It's not that I care that much. I'm just excited to have the first of hopefully a handful of cards from this set.

2008 Goudey Baseball Autograph Shortprints

Upper Deck has confirmed the following shortprints for 2008 Goudey Baseball. Specific print runs were not given but Goudey Graphs were said to be under 100 copies and Sports Royalty SPs were less than 50 copies.

Goudey Graphs

Steve Carlton

Russell Martin

Daisuke Matsuzaka

Don Mattingly

Willie McCovey

Johnny Bench

Chipper Jones

Alfonso Soriano

Tom Glavine

Fred Lynn

Hanley Ramirez

Jeff Francis

Yovani Gallardo

Chin-Lung Hu

Don Larsen

Ken Griffey Jr.

Mike Schmidt

Kevin Youkilis

Sports Royalty

Kobe Bryant

LeBron James

Michael Jordan

Tiger Woods

Terry Bradshaw

Sidney Crosby

Julius Erving

Gordie Howe

Magic Johnson

Mark Messier

Bill Russell

Barry Sanders

Josh Beckett

Larry Bird

Kevin Durant

Tony Gwynn

Reggie Jackson

Derek Jeter

Dan Marino

Jack Nicklaus

Cal Ripken Jr.

Nolan Ryan

Ozzie Smith

Ken Griffey Jr.

Prince Fielder