First…my sympathies to Lou Brock’s family and to the St. Louis Cardinals. I tried to find a picture of Lou Brock’s 1974 APBA card. (That year he set a major league record, since broken, for the number of stolen bases in a season. Brock also used to hold the record for most stolen bases in a career and amassed more than 3,000 hits.) How many of you have heard of APBA or Strat-O-Matic? Here is a picture of an APBA card:

This is the APBA representation of George Sisler’s 1922 season. He had a .420 batting average that season. Yes, .420. We have all learned that batting average is not the most important offensive statistic for a player, but that still sounds good to me. Yes, Sisler’s numbers were aided by playing in a home park very favorable for hitters. I believe his batting average at home that year was .473.

Anyway, back to Lou Brock…I remember that his was the first 1974 APBA card I looked at after receiving the set in the mail. Receiving the APBA cards, and later the Strat-O-Matic cards, was one of the highlights of the year for me. I even used to dream of the UPS truck driving down my street to deliver the Strat-O-Matic set.

In college I met another APBA fanatic, Art. One year we didn’t want to wait to receive the cards in the mail so we drove to the APBA headquarters to pick up the cards.

From Sports Illustrated a picture of Lou Brock:

“And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

– John Donne

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I thought I would go back in time for the latest edition of In Or Out?

From wallpaperup.com a picture of a 1934 Packard Twelve Convertible Victoria bodied by Dietrich. As I have written more than once before, ten years ago I had little or no interest in cars of this vintage. I am now very fond of many of these “prewar” cars.

The 1934 Packard Twelve was Model 1108 in the company nomenclature. Despite offering dozens of different model variants that year, total Packard production was just 8,000 units, of which only 960 were Model 1108. Of course, 1934 was in the middle of the Great Depression. In December of that year the unemployment rate was still almost 22 percent.

The Packard V-12 was an “old-fashioned” undersquare (bore < stroke) engine of 445 cubic inches in displacement and producing 160 HP. Despite looking in several sources I could not find a torque rating.

All right, folks…1934 Packard Twelve Convertible Victoria bodied by Dietrich. In Or Out?

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