The Hawk on a poster

As you have read on here before, I enjoy collecting "oddball" items in addition to 'regular' baseball cards. In 1970, Topps produced a set of 24 mini-posters. Now, some may argue as to whether or not this should be considered "oddball" since Topps produced it and it was a set. By today's definitions, this is probably considered some kind of insert or something. In any case, as you can see by the picture, the one I have acquired has been folded and refolded several times since 1970.

My hope was that i would be able to fit the poster in its unfolded state into a full-page holder. Alas, it is a hair too wide for a standard full-page sleeve. I will have to do some hunting to find a sleeve that is a tad wider than standard, yet still fits in a binder. I would guess that BCW has such a thing, but I have not tried them yet.

It's too bad that Topps limited the run of these to 24 because they are kinda cool items to have. I am surprised that they chose Ken Harrelson to be represented when they could have picked Vada Pinson, Graig Nettles, Sam McDowell, or Ray Fosse for crying out loud. I mean, okay, "The Hawk" was better than your average Joe (he hit 30 home runs in his first season as a Triber), but he did most of his "good stuff" before coming to the Tribe. then again, in 1970, I'm sure he was considered quite a steal for Cleveland.

It just seems to me, though, that with your pick of the litter of all the players that year, why go with Harrelson? Maybe it was part of his re-worked contract or something.

Here's a tidbit I picked up while surfing around - supposedly he invented the batting glove - or, the IDEA of the batting glove. Seems he wore a golfing glove to bat with, and the rest, as they say, was history...