Friday, February 26, 2016

Sportscaster Series #04 Variations that I Have Found So Far. Please Pass Along Other Information That You Have

Here is what I found for the 24 cards in Series #4 so far.   It looks like the first print run has no letter.  Those can be found printed either in Japan or Italy.  In addition, I am finding print run "A" and print run "B".  So I'm working on getting all four versions for Series #4.

I have every card from print run 'B' and every card but not many cards from print run "A".  For the first print run (blank instead of a letter) I am missing #12 and #22 from Italy and I have all of the ones from Japan.  I only have six cards from deck "A".

Here are the back variations I've seen.  I have yet to check for variations on the front of the cards.

4-10 Earl Anthony - 'A' and 'B' have added awards and records
4-14 Dave Cowens - 'B' has a different caption.  I don't have 'A'
4-15 Rick Barry - 'B' has different caption and awards.  I don't have 'A'
4-19 Volleyball - An American Invention - 'A' and 'B' have different text
4-20 Jonty Skinner - 'B' has added awards. 
4-22 Johnny Bench  ' ' Italy and 'B' have a different caption and records than ' ' Japan.  


Jonty Skinner was the first person to break 50 seconds in the 100-m Freestyle. I worked with him in Colorado many years ago.

Card 4-24 features Bruce Jenner.  The subtitle is "Mr. Track and Field".  Wow!








Sunday, February 21, 2016

Sportscaster Series #03 Variations that I Have Found So Far. Please Pass Along Other Information That You Have

Here is what I found for the 24 cards in Series #3 so far.   It looks like the first print run has no letter.  Those can be found printed either in Japan or Italy.  In addition, I am finding print run "A" and print run "B".  So I'm working on getting all four versions for Series #3.

I have every card from print run 'B' and every card but one from print run "A".  I am missing 3-16 Hank Aaron from deck "A".  For the first print run (blank instead of a letter) I am missing Aaron from both the Japan and Italy prints.  I'm also missing 19 of the 24 first print run cards issued from Italy.  

Here are the back variations I've seen.  I have yet to check for variations on the front of the cards.

3-10 Daniel Moreton - 'A' and 'B' have added awards
3-12 Cornelius Warmerdam - 'A' and 'B' have different text and awards/records
3-15 Julius Erving - 'A' and 'B' have added awards and text
3-16 Hank Aaron - 'A' and 'B' have different text 
3-18 Yukio Endo - 'A' and 'B' have the outdoor icon; ' ' has the indoor/outdoor icon
3-19 Phil and Tony Esposito - 'A' and 'B' have additional text.  They also corrected an error where the names were interchanged in the text.
3-20 Joe Namath - 'A' and 'B' have different captions and text than ' ' 
3-22 Irena Szewinska - 'A' has updated sub-title and text; 'B' makes another update to sub-title and text
3-23 Steve Williams - 'A' and 'B' have added awards
3-24 Dwight Stones - 'A' and 'B' have additional text

Friday, February 19, 2016

Jesse Owens Used to Show Up at Our Park District Events, Especially Track Meets

Today the Jesse Owens movie is out in theaters today.  I had the US version of this card as kid since I subscribed to Sportscaster cards for a while when they were introduced.  Since he was in deck #2 I had his card right away.  

Owens worked for the Chicago Park District for some time.  I remember meeting him at some Park District events.  I distinctly remember having his autograph on a great 5x7 picture.  I kept my autographs in the top drawer of a nightstand in our bedroom.  I kept my cards in boxes on the top shelf of our closet because I valued cards more than autographs I guess.  The cards and everything hidden away in the closet survived.   The autograph didn't fare so well.   





I've got his Starting Lineup figure and a few other modern cards featuring Owens.  

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Sportscaster Series #02 Variations that I Have Found So Far. Please Pass Along Other Information That You Have

Here is what I found for the 24 cards in Series #2 so far.   It looks like the print run can be either 'A' or blank where there is no letter in bold.  For the blank print run I'm finding then printed in either Japan or Italy.  So I'm working on getting all there versions for Series #2.

I have every card from print run 'A' and every card but one from the first print run (blank).  I am missing 2-08 Joe DiMaggio.  Here are the back variations I've seen.  I have yet to check for variations on the front of the cards.

2-01 Une de Main - 'A' has different caption
2-02 Jack Nicklaus - 'A' has different text
2-03 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - 'A' has variations in text and awards
2-04 George Blanda - 'A' has updated awards
2-11 Vasaloppet  - 'A' has additional text
2-17 Johnny Cecotto - 'A' has updated awards
2-19 Eddy Merckx - 'A' has additional text and different title - front and back
2-21 Kornelia Ender - 'A' has variations in text and awards
2-22 John Naber - 'A' has additional text
2-23 Teofilo Stevenson - 'A' has variations in text and awards
2-24 Chris Evert - 'A' has updated records


Please let me know if you have seen other variations.


The cards pictured above are from the Finnish version of the set.  I don't have a checklist so I will wait until I finish (sorry for using that word) the North American set to search for a checklist from Finland.