Spike Glidden

Your catcher, sir! Your catcher is RATHER LARGE.

And ssssh it’s a secret but we love saying “meeeeeetch” quietly to root for him as we watch gameday in our browser

Sticker that reads “lick rust, eat glass” stuck to a dive bar wall

New CDC guidance just dropped

Recalling those childhood days in Snoqualmie when canoes replaced cars on local streets 😬

Look at that Bob Smith face, just look at it. And I’d go Ruppert Jones SDP/DET.

Unused Pepsi Jr. Mariners game ticket that was canceled due to 1981 baseball work stoppage. It ended up inside a book of my dad’s for decades before rediscovery during COVID, an altogether different “work stoppage.”

YouTube video by TheFatherlongLegs Dusty Trails - Dusty Happy End

Discovered a favorite one-album band did three more songs for a soundtrack back in 2000 & it’s Christmas come early for me

music.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH9I...

Boston Fleet defeat the Vancouver Goldeneyes 2-0.

As our friends at Boston Duck Tours like to say...

QUACK QUACK FLEET WIN. 🗣️

I can imagine Alvin Livingston’s move to open his own company as reflecting a personal drive to create more gum cards, as he continued to try making them at other companies after National Chicle folded in 1937.

Enos Goudey’s own departure from the company in 1932 & Wrigley’s death might also have opened up the opportunity strategically for those companies. Goudey launched Indian Gum by late 1932 and Wrigley used Orbit’s Tattoo brand for similar purposes starting that year.

There was a “restraint of trade” case going through the courts in 1932-34 around the candy lotteries. It doesn’t seem to be what prevented gum card production.

Seems to me like a confluence of legal, economic, and technological events within the gum/candy world. Automated packaging allowed for efficient card inclusion AND legal restrictions strength on candy lotteries AND more retail buyers switched to penny gum from 5c gum.

Short text article describing the creation of gum and trading card company National Chicle, as founded in Cambridge MA by former members of the Goudey Gum company. It mentions they will start production by mid-December.

Colorful trading card of pilot Ruth Nichols from 1933

Back of trading card for pilot Ruth Nichols from 1933, outlining her many achievements as a flier and business owner

Industry announcement of Alvin's founding role in National Chicle, circa Dec 1933, across the Charles River from his erstwhile Goudey Gum HQ. The company "took off" with Sky Birds aviators.

What's your favorite season?

1. the cold one
2. the one with plants
3. the sweaty one
4. the one with decay and monsters

Text list of advertising scenes claimed for USA copyright by the Goudey Gum company during the late 1933 season. They include descriptions like "Boy and girl snow battle" and "Christmas Candle."

Late night research into Goudey's 1933 holiday season advertising via America's copyright office. Here's hoping all of these scenes were respectful! #CardSky

A circular orange graph measuring the percentage of images with alt text that I shared so far during 2025. The percentage is 99%.

Smoked!

Wow, sorry to see that! Wrigley Jr. also passed in 1932, which always felt like a reason for Enos Goudey to exit his gum company. Perhaps more of these passings hit him than I was aware of.

Candy/gum, not candy/GYM, which would perform even worse in its taste focus groups.

Full page ad for Oh Gee Candy Gum by Goudey Gum from a 1930 periodical. The ad shows an elfin character riding a three-layer confection like a comet around a globe, with the product's logo name below it.

"Eat the candy, chew the gum!" Goudey tries out Oh Gee layered candy/gym as a 1930 successor to their massive 1920s hit Oh Boy gum. It does not endure.

Newspaper article about the 1930 retirement of veteran gum salesman Charles W. Frohock. It talks about his experience, travels, and personality.

Some interesting gentlemen worked for Goudey Gum in those days! If I'd been a salesman mistaken for the governor of Texas, the mind boggles at what my first official act might be. ("Prince Albert" in that context refers to wearing a double-breasted coat.)

Magazine article about Goudey Gum's 1929 promotional campaign that featured a branded automobile driving around the eastern USA offering samples. It also mentions the company's expansion to Chicago.

yellow and red Oh Boy Gum label from the Goudey Gum Company

Fun discovery from prewar #CardSky: Goudey's Gum Car with penny gum samples hit Philly in Oct 1929, replete with their "brownies" (pointy-capped elves). Also mentioned, future National Chicle founder Alvin Livingston, then a Goudey sales manager in Chicago.

Troy Wilder pitched for AA Chattanooga in 1979, a .500+ team that fielded 17 pitchers without sending a single one to the bigs! The franchise improved slightly for 1980...by sending _one_ of 17 pitchers to the bigs.

Also got my copy of one of the finest pieces of hobby research you'll ever own. Endlessly fascinating.

I'm absolutely the "main foyer," being accessible on all sides and yet somehow less convenient to use than just entering this house via the garage.

World Series coverage excerpt from the ninth inning of game four, with Cincinnati scoring two runs on three hits and one error by Detroit.

This day-after reporting of a fumbled grounder makes that ninth inning error less likely as the photo, given how many fielders were clustered around third base.

Best TTM of the year, first Laughlin original art (Jim Thorpe to boot), first 1920 Big Head strip card. That last one's probably not Brooklyn pitcher Cadore & looks closer to Cincy's Pat Duncan. #CardSky

I named my fists Alhra and Bosky because they're both mad AND hungary

Hi-Lights dated its "headline" September 23, 1928. A phenomenal Reds/Giants tilt took place that day, with Dolf Luque & Joe Genewich each going the distance in a 14-inning, 2-1 Giants win. Perhaps this card was first meant to honor their epic game?

www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NY1/NY...

If that photo's from game 3, others on that "Merkle" card should be Detroit 3B Pinky Higgins, SS Dick Bartell, and C Birdie Tebbetts. Cincy's third base coach might be Hank Gowdy or HOF manager Bill McKechnie.

Topps Now trading card of umpire Jen Pawol

1955 Bowman trading card of baseball umpire Lee Ballanfant

Since @vossbrink.bsky.social shared his key Pawol pickup, I'll note that 1940 World Series game 3 put Lee Ballanfant at home, so that "Merkle" Hi-Lights could be his second known card! Ballanfant only appears by name in the 1955 Bowman umpire series. #CardSky