Random Baseball Card Of The Day: 1963 Vada Pinson

Pinson played 18 years in the big leagues from 1958 to 1976, and for the first half of his career with the Reds, was one of the best hitters in the NL. The early 1960s pre-big-Red-machine version of the Reds was quite the team, with Pinson and Frank Robinson leading the bats. They’d only manage one pennant in 1961, and they’d lose to my Yankees in the Series in five games. I mean, come on, the 1961 Yankees? Who the hell could beat them?

Back in the NL, the Dodgers, Giants and Cardinals were very tough competition. Even the Pirates and Phillies managed to get in on pennant races in the early 60s (though the Phillies would blow their chance spectacularly in 1964).

At a yardsale many years ago, I remember buying a box of assorted Topps cards from the late 1950s and early 1960s, all lovingly placed in plastic sleeves. Whoever sold them to me must have counted Vada Pinson, Willie Davis and Ted Kluszewski as their favorite players, since there were multiple cards from multiple years of all three of those guys. I don’t think I got some sort of incredible bargain on the cards, although I paid less than they’re worth.

I think what sold me was the welcome novelty of finding baseball cards at a yardsale that didn’t turn out to be early 1990s common junk from Donruss or Score. I STILL see shrinkwrapped boxes of those things turn up at thrift stores from time to time. Nobody wants them, they’re barely above worthless since they are so easy to find. Seeing them always reminds me of the heady days of baseball-cards-as-investment-commodity that pretty much ruined the hobby of collecting the damn things back in the late 80s-early 90s. Guilty Confession: I have a box of 300+ Brady Anderson rookie cards I think I paid five bucks for back then. Thirty years later and they’re worth less than that. I think they’re in the same box as my 1990 Classic Draft Picks set that card dealers pushed on the basis of Tod Van Poppel (THE NEXT NOLAN RYAN!!!!!!!) being in it. Despite the presence of Chipper Jones & Mike Mussina in that set, it’s STILL worth less than what I paid for it.

But I digress.

I like Pinson’s smile on his 1963 card. He looks like he’s having a real good time out there. Kinda like the good time I had collecting cards once upon a time when you got 10 in a pack for a dime and finding older cards of legendary stars only ran you a couple of bucks and did I mention that we also tied an onion to our belts, which was the fashion of the time?

Meh.

I hope Vada had a good time playing and later coaching in the 1970s and 1980s, because he died WAY too young at age 57 from stroke complications. RIP, slugger.