Corkball Bat

 Last weekend my parents went to an estate sale in their neighborhood, and knowing their son loves anything and everything baseball related they forked over $4 for a corkball bat. 

I had never heard of corkball before, but from what I can tell it's a variation of stickball. There are no baserunners in this game and the size of a standard playing field is 30 feet by 250 feet. As few as two people, the pitcher and batter, can play at a time. If the ball is batted between 15 and 150 feet then the batter is awarded a single, 150 to 200 feet is a double, 200 to 250 feet is a triple, and if the ball clears 250 feet then it's a home run. 

The ball itself is the same size as a baseball, but its interior is nearly all cork and it weighs about a third of a traditional baseball. 

This particular bat looks well-loved and from what I find through online searches it appears production started in the 1950's in the St. Louis area. I don't think this one is 60 years old, but I bet it's been around for at least a few decades. This exact model can still be purchased online today from Markwort for $42!

The corkball bat is 36 inches in length and the barrel is only 1.5 inches in diameter. For reference, the picture above shows the corkball bat leaning up against the wall next to my bat collection, which includes my two coaching fungos on the far right. 

I'm not sure if I'll just decorate the man room with the bat or maybe purchase some whiffle golf balls and use them with the bat as a training aide for my sophomore baseball players. 

Thanks for the bat, Mom and Dad!

2 from my Watch List on Ebay

Each morning as I sit eating breakfast I scour Ebay for new-to-me Vogelbach cards. I save the expensive ones to my Watch List and pounce on any cheap ones I don't already have in my collection. 

2020 Allen & Ginter's X Mini Framed Auto, 04/10

I've been watching these two for some time, as they fell in the "Too expensive to purchase" category.  One of them was reduced and I decided to treat myself to both.  

2020 Topps Jumbo Event Sleeve Patch, Red parallel, 03/10

I'm now up to 270 unique Vogelbach cards from 2020. I only have THREE from 2021, and they're all from Topps Archives Signature Series, which takes older cards, adds a signature, and packages them as new. I'm not even sure I should count those. 

Do you save cards using the watch list on Ebay? If so, how many are you watching right now? I'm watching twenty-four currently, with one being of Ryne Sandberg and the rest are of a certain lefty slugger. The current Buy It Now price for all two dozen is just over nine grand. Yeah, I'll never own many of those! 

Thanks for reading!

PWEs Still Make Me Smile

 I'm not as active in the blogging/trading community as I once was, but I'm still enjoying the hobby at my own leisure. Jim, from cards as i see them, sent me a two card PWE last week, and it's magnificent. 

Up first, everyone's favorite jovial slugger: THE VOGELMONSTER!

This is a gold parallel of Daniel Vogelbach 2017 Topps rookie card. Very, very nice. 

The second card from the plain white envelope is one I've had listed on my Top 5 Most Wanted Cards list for awhile.

Stadium Club is so great, isn't it? The is the 2019 Ernie Banks card from Topps most photocentric set. Great stuff. 

Thanks for thinking of me, Jim!