The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book--looking to interview collect

vintagecollector

Hi,

I am a writer working on a magazine article about the 1973 book, a classic,
"The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book.

If you are familiar with this book, that tells of some great Topps card history
as well as an offbeat take on baseball cards in general, please drop me a line
at kozpro20@hotmail.com.

If you want to leave a comment or two about the book here, great, if you have the
time and interest to be interviewed about the book please email me.

Also, if you happen to have any contact info about either of the authors of the
book, Brendan C. Boyd and Fred C. Harris, please let me know.

I would like to finish any interviews by April 24th, 2014.

Thanks to all who have helped with previous articles.

Cheers,

Doug Koztoski

Griffins

Doug-
I read about that book in the LA Times before it came out (the Times had a write, Dwight Chapin, who was a collector and would occasionally write articles about the hobby). I went thru the neighborhood asking for odd jobs to do to raise the money for the book, and wasn't disappointed when I got one of the first copies. It was a great view into the hobby in it's infancy, when it was purely a hobby.
For me and my friends it not only made us aware of a lot of obscure players from the '50's and '60's, but also was a good guide to how each different set was designed- this was long before most books and magazines about the hobby, and the trade mags (Sport Hobbyist, Ballcard Collector, SCN, The Trader Speaks, and a new magazine that had just come out called Sports Collectors Digest) rarely showed images and never in color.
I still have my original copy, one of the few books I've held onto thru the years.

EchoCanyon

Wikipedia page on book

Statman

Doug - one of my favorite books ever. Got a paperback copy when in the late 70's and then bought a hardcover version a few years ago on Ebay. I have restarted a project I abandoned a few years ago - collecting each card shown in the profiles section ( I think there are about 220 of them). Right now I am doing graded, but may also start to pick up some raw ones too. Of course, the 1952 Topps Zernial is a great card with the pink t-shirt and the balls attached to the bat. I wish someone would have done an update to this book with some 70's cards in there.

mccardguy1

As a 8 year old boy I almost loaded my young shorts when I saw this book on the store shelves when it first came out. I was in love with baseball cards and having a book like this back then meant everything to me. Like the kids that carry their Harry Potter books with them, I carried this paperback around with me. I have been meaning to pick up another copy for myself and revisit some old friends among the pages.

Goodnight Sibby Sisti wherever you are!!!

Griffins

After I saw this book I had to get a '52 Zernial!

The Johnny Unitas entry has always cracked me up too. "Is he stoned? Is his hair too tight?"

PSASAP

I had the book when I was growing up. It was the first time I had ever seen cards from the 1950's, and it was also a great read. The writers didn't take collecting very seriously, and had fun with it.

bishop

Great book, and neat project, Doug. Still have my copy, and have every Topps card in it, including:

Choo Choo Coleman
Coot Veal
Jay Hook
Clyde Kluttz
Foster Castleman
Duke Carmel
Cuno Barragon
Cot Deal
Elmer Valo
Eli Grba
Tex Clevenger
Carlton Willey
Harry "suit case" Simpson
Rocky Bridges
Walt Dropo
Smokey Burgess
Gino Cimoli
Ted "no sleeves" Kluszewski
Hoot Evers
Gus "look the balls stick to my bat" Zernial
Moe Drabowski
Ed "pull my card next year" Bouchee
Whammy Douglas
Earl Battey
Harry Chiti
Solly Drake
Sammy Drake
&
Spook Jacobs

Griffins

<< <i>Great book, and neat project, Doug. Still have my copy, and have every Topps card in it, including:

Choo Choo Coleman
Coot Veal
Jay Hook
Clyde Kluttz
Foster Castleman
Duke Carmel
Cuno Barragon
Cot Deal
Elmer Valo
Eli Grba
Tex Clevenger
Carlton Willey
Harry "suit case" Simpson
Rocky Bridges
Walt Dropo
Smokey Burgess
Gino Cimoli
Ted "no sleeves" Kluszewski
Hoot Evers
Gus "look the balls stick to my bat" Zernial
Moe Drabowski
Ed "pull my card next year" Bouchee
Whammy Douglas
Earl Battey
Harry Chiti
Solly Drake
Sammy Drake
&



Coot Veal?
Spook Jacobs >>

PSASAP

Who the hell is Cuno Barragon? And why are they saying those terrible things about him?
Actually, his last name is Barragan. The 1962 topps card is an uncorrected error.

fiveniner

<< <i>Hi,

I am a writer working on a magazine article about the 1973 book, a classic,
"The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book.

If you are familiar with this book, that tells of some great Topps card history
as well as an offbeat take on baseball cards in general, please drop me a line
at kozpro20@hotmail.com.

If you want to leave a comment or two about the book here, great, if you have the
time and interest to be interviewed about the book please email me.

Also, if you happen to have any contact info about either of the authors of the
book, Brendan C. Boyd and Fred C. Harris, please let me know.
'
Doug I have read that book at least 5 or 6 times.I would be glad to help.
I would like to finish any interviews by April 24th, 2014.

Thanks to all who have helped with previous articles.

Cheers,

Doug Koztoski >>

judgebuck

Great book! I still have my original paperback from the '70s. I was grown and getting back into baseball cards back then. Loved the humor and looking at the cards that were pictured.

mrmopar

Got that through the Scholastic book program when I was a kid. i love it and have 4-5 copies now. Hard cover large, soft cover large and two different paperback versions, including my original copy.

I love all those old books that feature cards.

I too picked up many of the cards pictured, mainly because of the book. later, I would try to land signed copies as well. That is where I first fell in love with my favorite card of all time, the 1956 Topps Jackie Robinson. That 64 Topps Phil Linz was on my want list for the longest time as a kid too.

bishop

Coot Veal?

Anthony...Coot Veal ( 59) is at page 50 and Cot Deal ( 54) is at page 70 . So it was Cot before Coot

mrpeanut39

How often does one of these come up on eBay and how much does it generally go for?

bishop

You can find them at various prices, used and new, on Amazon

vintagecollector

Thanks to all who have left a message here and/or to my email about the book.

Keep'em comin'

MooseDog

I loved this book, but I have fond memories of my brother, who was much older than me and grew up with the players therein, would just burst out laughing reading this passage, even if it was the 50th time...

"Smoky Burgess was fat. Not baseball fat like Mickey Lolich or Early Wynn. But FAT fat. Like the mailman or your Uncle Dwight. Putsy Fat. Slobby Fat. Just Plain Fat. In fact I would venture to say that Smoky Burgess was probably the fattest man ever to play professional baseball …. The sight of him standing in the batters’ box, his voluminous avoirdupois impinging on a full 45 per cent of the natural strike zone, his stubby arms flailing out in that curiously hitched and compacted swing which made him look for all the world like a spastic rhinoceros beating a rug, and then tootling on down the first base line as another of his seeing-eye bleeders wends its way through a befuddled infield, is one that those who have been gifted to witness it are not likely to forget."

...then goes on to describe how his batting average kept going up with his weight, until he weighed nearly 300 lbs and was hitting .300.

mlbfan2

<< <i>How often does one of these come up on eBay and how much does it generally go for? >>



If only ebay had a search function.