Harvey

I went on a little COMC spree again this month. While most of my funds were expended adding to my Ryan Braun and Eddie Mathews collections (and more on that later), I added several cards to my Harvey Kuenn collection.  

So, in the interest of randomization and avoiding work that I should be doing, here's a little blog post based around the results of a Google search for "Harvey."

1. Harvey

Jimmy Stewart played the lead character Elwood P. Dowd in the 1950 classic movie based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name. The movie is about Dowd, a man who is an alcoholic who swears that his best friend is a six-foot rabbit named Harvey. His family thinks he's insane, but their attempts to institutionalize Dowd bring the family closer together.  

Apropos of nothing, here's a couple of great Harvey Kuenn cards bringing some baseball greats together:

In the top photo (and I think it's from left to right), we see Billy Martin, Al Kaline, and Harvey Kuenn greeting Donnie Most and Richie Cunningham...oh, wait, that's Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford.  That makes more sense.  

In the bottom photo, we see a group of guys brought together in a parking garage out of respect for Watergate informant Deep Throat.  Actually, no, that's wrong too.  From left to right again, we have Jim Hegan (Mike's dad), Billy Martin, Ray Boone (Bob's dad, Bret's and Aaron's grandad), Harvey Kuenn, future U.S. Senator Jim Bunning, and Al Kaline in a 1958 photo.

Both of these cards are from the Homeplate Sports Cards "Al Kaline Story" set from 1983 -- the BOX for which is available on eBay now. Run Julie! Run for your Life!

2.  Game 1 World Series Pitching Preview

I've linked to the Game 1 preview on ESPN, featuring Matt Harvey and Edinson Volquez.  I rarely visit or watch ESPN these days.  If I do, it's to watch a game.  

I really don't like what's happened to ESPN over the past 15 years or so. It seems as if once guys like Keith Olbermann and Craig Kilborn (the first host of the Daily Show... seriously) started getting gigs beyond being ESPN anchors, everybody on the network started running shtick like a bunch of comedians on cocaine benders in the 1970s.  

Soon thereafter, every segment on SportsCenter was sponsored by Coors Light or GE or Nissan or Joe's Crab Shack and featured one white guy and one black guy yelling at one another about Tim Tebow while a pretty woman watched. Not long after that, the network's entire daily program starting being a white guy and a black guy yelling at one another about Tim Tebow while a pretty woman watched.

And the weird thing is that someone is ... no, actually, a LOT of someones ... are clearly watching this drivel.

Why?

Now, tying again to nothing in this short rant...Harvey Kuenn cards!

Gee, these two cards are swell.  Well, one literally is a Swell Baseball Greats card from 1989.  The other is from Bazooka a/k/a Topps in 1993 and is a Topps "Quadracard" from the Archives.  You'll note that Harvey's card in that set must be one of the original "Pinktober" cards.

3. Steve Harvey Mentoring Program In Atlanta

Steve Harvey is a very funny man. His hosting of Family Feud makes the show worth watching, despite the cringe-worthy double entendre that invades half the questions on the show and despite some of the absolutely stupid ways the producers come up with for male and female anatomical parts, for sex, for farting, and for other bodily parts.

Of course, sometimes Steve isn't the highlight of the show:

Talk about the farmer's daughters....or the farmers themselves, I suppose.

What works with this?

For a truly vintage Family Feud contestant, how about some truly vintage Harvey Kuenn cards -- 1956, 1957, and 1963 Topps, from the top.  I really like the 1957 card -- it's about the only one I've ever seen of Harvey with a ball in his hand.  Most of his cards are like the 1963 -- "here's Harvey hitting."

Still, all three of these cards are pretty awesome, though the color combination on the 1963 Topps isn't exactly easy on the eyes. The red circle sticks out a lot. Like double D's on Carly.

Hey!

4.  Harvey Mudd College

Harvey Mudd College is one of the Claremont Colleges in California. Renown as one of the top small science and engineering schools in the country, Mudd is very selective, accepting just over 13% of applicants in 2014.  

I remember hearing from Harvey Mudd when I was a high school senior and being interested for less than a minute or so. I was certain I wanted to be a lawyer and that going to an engineering school wouldn't help me with that.  I was wrong -- I could have gone to an engineering school.  I just don't know if I would have liked a school with just 750 students.

My last Harvey Kuenn two cards to share are pretty cool and should be kept by a pretty select group too. 

On the left, we have the Topps Stamp from 1962.  The yellow background is far better for this card than that red one from the 1963 Topps.

On the right, we have another red bordered card, this time from the 1981 Detroit News 100th Anniversary set called Detroit's Boys of Summer -- available from Amazon in its original box for just $42.99 (so I'm guessing that it should cost about $15 or so).  Still, that set sounds like it is a must-have for a Tigers' collector.

Thanks for reading -- and don't forget that there are just a couple of days left in my contest. I'll be going to Jacksonville later this week for the Georgia/Florida "World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" so posting might be sparse here until next week.

Go Dawgs!