Vintage Fridays: Hal Brown, 1961 Post #78

There's a lot to like about this card. In list form:

1. This is cut right off of the back of a box of Post cereal, circa 1961. As incredible as it is to hold a Topps card that is decades old, it's somehow more impressive to me to be in possession of a card like this. It's more of an artifact, something that kids (and their parents) were even less likely to preserve than a regular trading card.

2.As you can see, the previous owner was somewhat less than precise with their scissors. I can identify with that. The first day my mother picked me up from preschool, the teacher said, "Did you know that he can read?". The following day, she said, "Did you know that he can't use scissors?". Motor skills have never been my strong suit.

3. There's something charming about the phrase "Baseball Star Card". It sounds like it was translated to English by a non-native speaker. Alternately, it's trying to oversell itself. This is not just a baseball card...no! It's a baseball STAR card. Beat that, smart guy!

4. I really do like the unique design that Post used. Since they were printing the card right on the cereal box, they left the back blank. So they've squeezed the stats and the bio right on the front with the photo. It's one-stop shopping! Of course, this also means that they've cropped Hal Brown's picture such that his hands and elbows are cut off.

5. Speaking of the photo, there's the mysterious white square behind Hal's head. Is he posing in a tunnel, and the square is the light at the end? The world may never know.

6. Check out that 1960 stat line. What a year! He pulled his career won-lost record over .500, and walked only 22 batters in 159 innings. The modern-day O's would kill for that kind of control.

7. His bio uses the term "reliefer". Was that a common spelling at the time?

8. There are exactly eight stars separating the card number and the bio. How did they settle on that number?

9. If you check eBay, vintage Post cereal cards are cheap. I'll jump at a vintage card that hasn't been slobbered over by the speculative maven collectors.

Vintage Fridays: Hal Brown, 1962 Topps #488

Check out the wary look on Hal "Skinny" Brown's face there. He's eyeballing someone to his right, probably some callow rookie who's making faces at him and trying to get him to crack up in front of the camera. Hal's been doing his thing in the big leagues for eleven years; he's thirty-six now. "I'm getting too old for this s#!%."

Hal Brown just got better with age, though. In the three seasons prior to the issue of this card (1959-1961), he ranked in the top ten in the American League in walks and hits per inning pitched. He'd also placed in the top six in earned run average for 1960 and 1961. He was a rock of veteran strength on a team full of fresh-faced young hurlers like Milt Pappas, Steve Barber, Jack Fisher, and Chuck Estrada. But as you can tell from Hal's expression in this photo, he probably wanted to wring their necks now and then.