Collecting By The Book: The Uncommon Life of Danny O’Connell: A Tale of Baseball Cards, “Average Players” and the True Value of America’s Game.

 

When Steve Wiegand was a kid, back in the 60’s, he did with his allowance money what a lot of us kids did…

…he went to the store and bought baseball cards.

I know that I sure did. With every red cent that I could get my hands on. Birthdays, Holidays, the odd chore I was coerced into doing; I’ve mentioned on here my penchant for digging around under couch cushions in order to round up enough scratch for a single wax pack. For me, it was going up to the Ritzlanad Shopping Center, to the candy aisle in the Thrift Drug, where the baseball cards rested on the top shelf, reaching up my hand and digging as deep as I could into the wax box, pulling out a pack somewhere in the middle or at the bottom of the box.

Because all of the star cards were in the bottom packs, right?

And then there’d be the excited walk back home, either alone or with a friend or two, that stale gum in our mouths, breaking our teeth, as we searched through packs hoping for maybe this guy:

Or that guy:

Or that guy:

Or one of the members of my blessed Pittsburgh Pirates:

It was the 1980s and cards were plentiful, the packs were, well, packed, and the wax was still cheap.

What a time to be alive.

For Steve Wiegand, in 1960, the experience was the Par Liquor store., spending a nickel on a pack of cards or two, and the rest on BIG TIME soda.

Steve was a Giants fan.

He always hoped to get this guy in his packs.

He usually got this guy.

And that collecting streak of “bad luck” was the impetus, years later, for Wiegand to write his book: The Uncommon Life of Danny O’Connell: A Tale of Baseball Cards, “Average Players” and the True Value of America’s Game.

Here’s the cover photo again:

I found out about this fantastic book via John Newman’s always excellent and informative Sports Card Nation podcast. John had Steve Wigand on his show back in May for a two-part episode, and it’s beyond worth listening to, if you have an interest in so-called “common” cards and so-called “common” players, like I do. The book is an excellent read. Not only does Wigand do an excellent job telling Danny O’Connell’s story from growing up on the streets of Patterson, New Jersey, to his time in that golden era of 1950s/60s Big League Baseball, to his untimely death at age 40, but he finds a way to weave into his narrative the history of card collecting from cigarette packs to $1,000 1/1 auto refractors blah blah blah.

A collector like me eats books like this for lunch.

And because I tend to pick up some of the cards of players that I read about; I did the same with Danny O’Connell’s cards.

The 1951 Bowman is definitely the oldest card that I now own. It might be the oldest baseball card that I’ve ever owned. The 1953, 1956 and 1961 Topps are the first I have of those years since I got back into collecting 5 years ago.

Special emphasis on the 1955 Bowman, because that too is also my first 1955 Bowman and I’ve always loved this design. 

Have to get some Pirates in this design.

For me, collecting by the book is a fun way to collect because I get to buy older cards, and not break the bank.

Although my fall/winter baseball reading might be making this habit a bit prohibitive.

I’m not sure I know what it means to be a “common” player or be a “common” card in a sport that has only had 20,459 or so players to ever play on a Big League roster in the entire history of the sport. And Mr. Danny O’Connell was so slouch either. He played ten seasons in the Bigs (missing two years for military service) with my Pirates, the Milwaukee Braves, those San Francisco Giants, and then finally ending his career with the second iteration of the Washington Senators in 1962. O’Connell played in 1143 games and managed to get over the 1000 hit mark with 1,049. He was a lifetime .260 hitter. Placed 3^rd in voting for Rookie of the Year in 1950, and 16^th for MVP in 1953.

Not too shabby, huh?

But to a young Steve Wiegand, Danny O’Connell was no Willie Mays.

He was just the guy who seemingly showed up in every single pack that he bought.

In reading Wiegand’s book, I began to think of my own collecting/pack ripping history, and who was always that player who showed up in every single pack, irking me when I was hoping for a Don Mattingly or Barry Bonds card. It wouldn’t have been a Pirate. I was always excited to get Pittsburgh Pirates cards. So, I had to go outside of my hometown team to think of the player who seemingly showed up in every single pack of cards that I bought.

I came up with this guy.

Son of Pirates great and CY Young winner Vern Law, like Danny O’Connell, Vance Law began his career with my Pittsburgh Pirates, before moving on to the Chiago White Sox, Montreal Expos, Chicago Cubs and Oakland A’s, in a career that spanned 11 seasons, 1212 games, 972 hits, and an appearance in the 1988 All-Star game.

Vance was one of those players who got to appear on multiple Future Star cards, along with two Pirates I spent a good many years rooting for.

The fine folks at Fleer and Donruss thought to give him a rookie card of his own.

Yep, Vance Law seemed to show up in every single pack that I ever bought.

Not true…but it felt like

For fun I thought I’d dig around in my “commons” boxes to see just how many of Vance Law’s cards I could come up with.

Surprisingly, I found very little in the one box.

Maybe Vance didn’t show up as much as I thought he did. Still, I’m going to go ahead and think of Vance Law as my Danny O’Connell…maybe if I snoop around enough they’ll be enough info on him to write a book.

Thanks for reading! Happy Collecting!