Saturday, July 13, 2013

Vintage Scorecard

While in Colorado a couple weeks ago I stopped at a local card shop in Denver by the name of Bill's Collectibles.  I spent well over an hour in the story just thumbing through discount boxes, trying to fill my set needs, and browsing through baseball memorabilia.  Bill's is easily in my top three card shops of all-time.

And entire section of the store was dedicated to sports publications: programs, magazines, and scorecards of professional teams.  I found the box marked "Cubs" and dove right in.

After sifting through the box I discovered that I would be able to find something really cool to hand on my man cave wall.  I found items with fielders and batters on the front... in abundance.  Yet, I fashion myself more a pitcher person.

I surfaced with this gem:

A partially completed scorecard from a May 22nd, 1971, ball game between the Cubs and Dodgers.

 Familiar names for me in the Cubs starting line-up were Don Kessinger at short, Glenn Beckert at second, Ron Santo at third, and Billy Williams in left.  Milt Pappas pitched a complete game 10-hitter and defeated Don Sutton and the Dodger bullpen by the score of 5 to 2 on a 56 degree Saturday in front of 27,528 fans. 

The win put the Cubs one game above .500 with a record of 21-20.  
Fast forward to 2013: When will the Cubs be at .500 again?  No worries.  I'm not delusional.  Yes, I'm already waiting 'til next year.

The picture on the left shows that somebody got bored keeping score after three innings and the Cubs trailing 2 to 1.  What I find more interesting is the right hand page.  There are the token advertisements, ticket information, a brief game schedule, and a list of all the pitchers in the American and National Leagues.

But, let's zoom in on the "Lunch Well -- and Economically" section.
Take what you want from the advertisement, but here's what I noticed:
1. a beer and a hot dog would set you back a paltry total of 95 cents
2. they sold cigarettes within the walls of Wrigley back in the day
3. a bobblehead was only $1.25

Those prices are superb!  Granted, my salary 40+ years ago would probably be a tenth of what it is now, but even Retro-Salaried Me would have jumped at a chance to buy a bobblehead in 1971 at that price!

Bobbleheads from that era look like this...

... and they tend to run for prices somewhere in the $100 to $250 area (if you're lucky).  Yikes!  An addition like that to my bobblehead collection would be quite the catch for this collector!

Moving on... How about the back of the scorecard?
Remember folks, "When you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer."  LOL.  Good stuff!

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you enjoyed the vintage scorecard as much as I did sharing it!

3 comments:

  1. Good stuff. Should look sweet framed, and hanging on the wall. I've started framing scorecards for my hobby room. Problem is I'm so picky that I currently only have two on the wall. If I came across more like your gem there the wall would be filled already.

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  2. I was in Bill's a couple weeks back when on vacation. I had the whole family with me and didn't get anywhere near the time I wanted in that place. But what I saw blew me away.

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