1964 Topps Aaron

We used to ride our bicycles the mile or so from our neighborhood to the five and dime in Saratoga Village, to pay 10 cents for Topps 1972 baseball cards — ten cards and a stick of not very tasty bubble gum. Forty two complete seasons of baseball have come and gone, yet I hold on to some of those cards.

In 1982, between high school graduation and heading east for college, Eric Cohen helped me sort my “doubles”, which I then traded to Larry Vasovic of The Dugout at The Old Mill for a complete set of Topps 1964, from the year I was born.

The bulk of my collection is stored away somewheres, but I do flip thru that binder of ’64s every once in a while, sorted by team.

Here I’ve ripped what some of these young fellers looked like.

64 Topps Koufax

64 Topps Whitey Ford

64 Topps Frank Robinson

64 Topps Harmon Killebrew

64 Topps Willie McCovey

64 Topps Juan Marichal

64 Topps Willie Stargell — my headline alludes to the fact that the Pirates slugger, from Oakland, has a daughter Precious who was a year ahead of my at Dartmouth

64 Topps Yastrezemski, Carl — I believe I have all the Topps Yaz’s ever released, including two rookie cards, 1960 and 1961 I think

Ryne Duren only comes up here because I referenced him briefly in an article a few weeks back about 1961 and Jack Hirschman, the radical poet, mentioning Hal Newhouser in a poem; Duren wore thick glasses and was a three-time all-star but was known to be wild and would throw some of his warm-up pitches against the backstop to freak out his opposition. I never saw this, mind you, but picked it up somewheres. And have this card:

Frank Funk of the Milwaukee Braves probably does not belong in this pantheon of my favorites but it caught my eye in two ways today: one, because for whatever reason I woke up this morning in a bit of a frank funk which thinking about baseball and drinking Peet’s coffee may have remedied; and two, because it reminds me of my recent post about Tweed Funk, the Milwaukee-based blues band: there is no connection between an obscure baseballer from 50 years ago and music, except in Plastic Alto (although there is a funk band called Vida Blue, named for a major league pitcher, AND, I (who else) once asked the former Red Sox outfielder Pumpsie Green if he would mind lending his name to a potential blues-soul band I was plotting).

Frank Funk, inspiration for Tweed Funk, both of Milwaukee, whereas Ryne Duren was from Cazenovia, 53924, about two hours west, past Madison

Lastly, Terry and I met former big league catcher Ken Retzer at the St. Louis Hilton, in 2010, across from the ball park. We were there (Terry and I but not Mr. Retzer) for the wedding of my cousin (and former Vanderbilt cheerleader) Jenny Moats. Mazel tov, brush after meals, and PLAY BALL!