It's a Canadian icon on an iconic card design. Paul Henderson is the guy responsible for the most famous moment in Canadian sports history: The series-winning goal against the Soviet Union during the 1972 Summit Series. It's probably only a slight exaggeration to say that every Canadian alive has heard TV announcer Foster Hewitt shouting into his microphone, "Henderson has scored for Canada!" I'm always surprised when I remember that he's not in the hockey Hall of Fame. The moment was so indelible, it should almost be enough on its own.
And, of course, the 1966 Topps set is instantly recognizable for the wood-framed TV design. I really enjoy this set for the nostalgia value. While I wasn't around in the '60s, these cards remind me of Saturday nights when I was just seven or eight years old watching Hockey Night in Canada on a grainy TV and trying to not fall asleep during the Molson and GMC commercials.
Sometimes my scanner has trouble with slabbed cards...But as you can see, Topps continued with the TV design on the back of the cards, making them all the more memorable. This was Paul Henderson's second hockey card and it's my fourth in the 1966 set -- Paul joins Harry Howell, Red Kelly and Pit Martin. I'm hoping to keep adding more cards from this set over time, although I doubt I'll ever complete it thanks to the fact that it includes Bobby Orr's rookie card. One can dream though.
Not long after this arrived in the mail, I wound up at one of the two local hobby shops around here. The place has very little hockey, but a ton of baseball. So I decided to see if I could find any cards from the baseball set that likely inspired this one...
And I lucked out! The shop had five random singles from 1955 Bowman mixed in with a bunch of 1955 Topps singles. I'd never actually seen one of this cards in person before. It turns out that they're actually quite a bit larger than modern baseball cards. Was this a Bowman or were mid-50's Topps cards larger, too? It's also remarkable how closely 1966 Topps hockey mirrored (a nicer word than "copied") this design; it can't possibly have been a coincidence. My favorite detail? The fact that the designers at Bowman felt to add a "Color TV" label to the front, presumably because televisions were still so new back then that some kids may not realize what they were looking at.
But here is the absolute coolest part of these cards: Some of them include a little essay that was written (allegedly) by the player! Eddy Fitzgerald's ode to Ted Williams isn't the most interesting blurb in the set, but it's still a cool detail. I wish modern sets would do something like this.
None of these cards were in great condition, although Bob Friend was especially worse of wear. But the shop owner was willing to sell them all for a buck each, which struck me as more than fair for baseball cards that are now more than 60 years old.
And the big crease on the front of this card is more than made up for another cool essay. Stay in school, kids! As you might expect at a buck apiece, none of these guys were huge stars. But Friend carved out a long and successful career in the bigs; He was a four-time All-Star and lead the National League in ERA in 1955 and the majors in wins in 1958. That 1955 season seems to have been especially good: Friend became the first pitcher ever to win a league pitching title while playing for a last-place team. He even picked up some MVP votes that year.
Another oddity about these cards: Some use dark brown TV frames while others, like this one, use a light brown frame. You can actually see the two different shades on the left of this card, thanks to some poor card-cutting.
A nice look at the former Kansas City Athletics uniforms.
The last player in this lot is also the best: "Moose" Skowron was a six-time All Star and a key supporting piece alongside Yankee legends like Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford. He was a part of World Series-winning team in five of his 14 years in the majors. Four of those rings came with the Yankees between 1956 and 1962. New York then traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers before the 1963 season. The Dodgers (led by pitchers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale) wound up beating the Yankees in the World Series that year -- helped by a Skowron home run in a game 2 win.
Not a bad career. Not a bad group of cards, either.
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