Yesterday, I finished the final template I needed for the 1952 Topps set. That, along with the finalized missing player checklist made my 1952 Topps page complete. I decided to work on the '52 set just to do something different, and because it is one of the most iconic baseball card sets ever produced.
While looking for any missing cards that were made for the set, I stumbled across a very cool baseball card set that I have never seen before, isn't listed on TradingCardDB, there is little information about, but to me is a very important set. I stumbeld across set set on the CollectingZIM website, which is ran by a collector named Brad who collects anything Don Zimmer related. If you think you might have anything he needs, I would highly suggest going to his site and emailing him. Anyways, I saw a 1952 Topps Don Zimmer card on google, and it brought me to the CollectingZIM site, and I was able to find a little bit about the set, and I emailed Brad, who kindly responded and gave me what info he knew about it. Aparently, it was pretty obscure and limited. Somebody in the mid-'90's made a custom baseball card set and gave every player who was missing a card in the 1952 Topps set their own card. He did many of the same things I do, even numbering them from where Topps left off. I guess he went to pretty drastic measures to keep his identity hidden, and the main way that sets got into the hands of collectors was by word of mouth, and even then, not many sets were ever printed. I have no idea where these sets were made, who made them, or what the complete checklist would even look like. The set is sometimes referred to as M & A Cards (Masked & Anonymous), and I guess Brad said that the maker of the set also made 1951 and 1952 Bowman sets as well. The only place I have even seen pictures of more cards from this set were on eBay (which I can't figure out what search term I used earlier to find), a few on the Jewish Baseball Museum page, and some on Worthpoint.com. The Worthpoint ones are helpful to a point. I can use them to figure out a few of some that were made, but the photos are very small, so not useful for me to use and get them to the '52 Topps size.
Now that I have found this out, I would really like to find out more about this set. Has anyone else ever heard of it, or ever saw a card from it? Have you ever heard of the '52 Zimmer, Night Owl? I have no clue who to ask about this set. Could it have been Keith Olbermann who made it? The M & A set is an interesting one indeed, and just goes to show that even in the age of the internet where you can find old pictures of baseball players and rosters from the '50's, that there are still some obscure things like a randomly distributed and printed baseball card set featuring custom cards that was made around the time that the internet was becoming popular. Here is a photo of the Zimmer.
People who have read this blog for the last year or so kind of know the situation with my wife where she produces an excess amount of spinal fluid which gives her bad headaches and sometimes can give other terrible symptoms. During the last 2 posts, I wrote about her surgery, and then return to the hospital to get more stitches because spinal fluid was leaking from where they sewed her up after surgery. Well, I just wanted to give an update on where we stand now. BTW, if these updates bore you or bum you out, shoot me an email, and I will stop posting them.
My wife came home from the hospital last Friday, and was able to push through the pain to go back to work on Monday. They adjusted a device in her scalp that is used to drain spinal fluid so it would drain more, hoping to heal some holes that were left after the surgery. We hoped this would fix the issue, and that after a few weeks of pain that they could adjust the device in her scalp back to normal. Last night, she thought that her incision was leaking again, and sure enough, it was. It was leaking a little more this morning, and she called the doctor to let them know. I guess they are ok with her trying to take it easy during the weekend, since she has a CT scan scheduled on Monday. I wish she would go up now, but she has always been one to push herself. Barring anything new happening, I think she is going to go up Monday, have some scans done, and the doctors are going to rethink what they can do to patch any holes in her spine created from the last surgery so nothing will leak. It's just frustrating that nothing seems to go right with this. We've been dealing with it in some way or another since 2014, and sometimes it feels like we are talking to witch doctors who we should be sueing for malpractice, and then other times it all makes sense. I guess sometimes this hobby can seen important, but all of this has made me realize that family and health is, but through it, it has been nice sometimes just to read a blog or two and see what someone has picked up, or to work on some checklists just to get my mind off of everything. It's getting harder and harder to keep the faith through all this, but maybe it will actually get fixed with whatever they decide to do this time.
Thanks for checking out my site and for listening to this somewhat rant of a post.
As always, your thoughts and prayers are appreciated, and you are a heck of a community.
-Jeremy
While looking for any missing cards that were made for the set, I stumbled across a very cool baseball card set that I have never seen before, isn't listed on TradingCardDB, there is little information about, but to me is a very important set. I stumbeld across set set on the CollectingZIM website, which is ran by a collector named Brad who collects anything Don Zimmer related. If you think you might have anything he needs, I would highly suggest going to his site and emailing him. Anyways, I saw a 1952 Topps Don Zimmer card on google, and it brought me to the CollectingZIM site, and I was able to find a little bit about the set, and I emailed Brad, who kindly responded and gave me what info he knew about it. Aparently, it was pretty obscure and limited. Somebody in the mid-'90's made a custom baseball card set and gave every player who was missing a card in the 1952 Topps set their own card. He did many of the same things I do, even numbering them from where Topps left off. I guess he went to pretty drastic measures to keep his identity hidden, and the main way that sets got into the hands of collectors was by word of mouth, and even then, not many sets were ever printed. I have no idea where these sets were made, who made them, or what the complete checklist would even look like. The set is sometimes referred to as M & A Cards (Masked & Anonymous), and I guess Brad said that the maker of the set also made 1951 and 1952 Bowman sets as well. The only place I have even seen pictures of more cards from this set were on eBay (which I can't figure out what search term I used earlier to find), a few on the Jewish Baseball Museum page, and some on Worthpoint.com. The Worthpoint ones are helpful to a point. I can use them to figure out a few of some that were made, but the photos are very small, so not useful for me to use and get them to the '52 Topps size.
Now that I have found this out, I would really like to find out more about this set. Has anyone else ever heard of it, or ever saw a card from it? Have you ever heard of the '52 Zimmer, Night Owl? I have no clue who to ask about this set. Could it have been Keith Olbermann who made it? The M & A set is an interesting one indeed, and just goes to show that even in the age of the internet where you can find old pictures of baseball players and rosters from the '50's, that there are still some obscure things like a randomly distributed and printed baseball card set featuring custom cards that was made around the time that the internet was becoming popular. Here is a photo of the Zimmer.
People who have read this blog for the last year or so kind of know the situation with my wife where she produces an excess amount of spinal fluid which gives her bad headaches and sometimes can give other terrible symptoms. During the last 2 posts, I wrote about her surgery, and then return to the hospital to get more stitches because spinal fluid was leaking from where they sewed her up after surgery. Well, I just wanted to give an update on where we stand now. BTW, if these updates bore you or bum you out, shoot me an email, and I will stop posting them.
My wife came home from the hospital last Friday, and was able to push through the pain to go back to work on Monday. They adjusted a device in her scalp that is used to drain spinal fluid so it would drain more, hoping to heal some holes that were left after the surgery. We hoped this would fix the issue, and that after a few weeks of pain that they could adjust the device in her scalp back to normal. Last night, she thought that her incision was leaking again, and sure enough, it was. It was leaking a little more this morning, and she called the doctor to let them know. I guess they are ok with her trying to take it easy during the weekend, since she has a CT scan scheduled on Monday. I wish she would go up now, but she has always been one to push herself. Barring anything new happening, I think she is going to go up Monday, have some scans done, and the doctors are going to rethink what they can do to patch any holes in her spine created from the last surgery so nothing will leak. It's just frustrating that nothing seems to go right with this. We've been dealing with it in some way or another since 2014, and sometimes it feels like we are talking to witch doctors who we should be sueing for malpractice, and then other times it all makes sense. I guess sometimes this hobby can seen important, but all of this has made me realize that family and health is, but through it, it has been nice sometimes just to read a blog or two and see what someone has picked up, or to work on some checklists just to get my mind off of everything. It's getting harder and harder to keep the faith through all this, but maybe it will actually get fixed with whatever they decide to do this time.
Thanks for checking out my site and for listening to this somewhat rant of a post.
As always, your thoughts and prayers are appreciated, and you are a heck of a community.
-Jeremy
Hey bro... sending all of the positive energy I can muster your wife's direction. I hope the pain subsides and the doctors figure and fix the issue.
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