Secret Santa 2017: Walked The Plank? NO He Homered!

HO HO HO. It's Cardsmas in January? February? Well not really but it is now that I am posting my Ill-Gotten Holiday Pirate Booty from last year's Card Exchange Apocalypse. As many of you bloggers out there know Matt from "Bob Walk The Plank" hosted a Blogger's Secret Santa Gift Exchange for the 2017 Holiday Season. Think a White Elephant Yankee Gift Exchange on PEDs or more accurately ON 2.5" x 3.5" pieces of Cardboard, and memorabilia sometimes smaller sometimes larger. Mostly sports related sometimes not.

I was a little hesitant about signing up because I am still delinquent on some cardboard trades in the trading card universe from several years ago now. A few I have made up some I have not. I have to remind myself of that occasionally in the hopes I'll speed up my recovery efforts.

I "blogged" about my Secret Santa Mail Day at my usual spots on TCC and TCZ. Those are mostly just listings of what I got with some detail, but rarely any pics. The true blogging with pics happens here. This post has extra Holiday Fat Pics.

On Saturday 23 Dec 2017 I  received my Blogger Secret Santa package to me on the same day I sent my Secret Santa package out to Greg. The small package came from Tim B. of "I love the Smell of Cardboard in the Morning" blog.

He hit a multi-run Homer I'd say it was a 3 runner. Total of 38 cards at least one from each of the 4US sports food groups some PC snacks and niche noschs.

BASEBALL: 27 cards the bulk of the package 1 or 2 dupes 3 at the very most.

2008 Donruss Threads Baseball: 50 Frank Howard Washington (dupe) No problem it's Hondo one of my fave Washington Senators of All-Time.

2012 Bowman Chrome Baseball: 61 Gio Gonzalez Nationals (possible dupe)
2014 Bowman Baseball: 55 Ian Desmond Nationals Blue Parallel 074/500

2015 Topps Chrome Baseball: 56 Ian Desmond Nationals
2015 Topps Baseball: National League: NL-9 Bryce Harper Nationals
2015 Topps Baseball: First Pitch: FP-22 Lars Ulrich Musician Giants - I love the First Pitch cards. I need to double check which ones I still need to get.

2015 Topps Baseball Update: Gold Parallel: US300 Max Scherzer Nationals AS Game 1064/2015

2016 Panini Black Friday Baseball: 19 Stephen Strasburg Washington - Wow this is one of the best Non-licensed Panini Baseball cards I've seen in a while. Almost looks like a licensed card. In fact I thought it was one at first glance then I saw it was Panini and just said "Washington".

2016 Topps Baseball: Purple Parallel: 342 Jayson Werth Nationals
2016 Topps Baseball: New Era?: 1 Bryce Harper Nationals

2016 Topps Baseball: First Pitch:
FP-1 Jeff Bauman Boston Bombing Survivor Red Sox
FP-2 Jake Gyllenhaal Actor Red Sox (cameo of Jeff Bauman)
FP-4 Brady Kahle Red Sox - Kid who sold baseball card collection to help pay for his friends brain cancer treatment. Cameo of Wally The Green Monster.
FP-5 Keith Urban Musician Dodgers
FP-7 Chance The Rapper Hip-Hop "artist" White Sox
FP-9 Craig Sager Reporter Cubs
FP-10 Jojo Fletcher Bachelorette (reality personality) Dodgers
FP-12 Tom Watson Golfer Royals

FP-6 Aubrey Plaza Actress Dodgers - Love her Mostly just seen her in commercials. At times she reminds me of Allison Scagliotti (Warehouse 13, Stitchers)

Allison Scagliotti as Claudia Donovan in Warehouse 13 Season 4 Episode 15 "Instinct"

2016 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots:
M-4 Wally The Green Monster Red Sox
M-13 Dinger Rockies
M-20 Fredbird Cardinals
Mascots are one of my niche PCs as is evident from my Mascot Monday series of posts.

2016 Topps Baseball: Spring Fever: SF-29 Bryce Harper Nationals
2017 Topps Stadium Club Baseball: Scoreless Streak: SS-SS Stephen Strasburg Nationals
2017 Topps Baseball: Refractor? 212 Tanner Roark Nationals

2017 Topps Baseball: Gold: 327 Danny Espinosa Nationals 1501/2017

2015 Topps Archives Baseball: WF-8 Will Ferrell Giants

BASKETBALL: 5 cards 1 sticker no dupes that I know of.

2013-14 Panini Basketball Stickers: 154 Bradley Beal Wizards

2003-04 Fleer Ultra Basketball:
33 Juan Dixon Wizards
130 Jared Jeffries Wizards
Gold Medallion: 130 Jared Jeffries Wizards die-cut curved corner

2002-03 Fleer Genuine Basketball: Names of the Game: NG 7 of 15 Michael Jordan Wizards

2001-02 Topps Basketball: Top Tandems: TT6 Michael Jordan and Richard Hamilton Wizards

FOOTBALL: 1 card not a dupe.

1971 Topps Football: Game Insert: 7 O.J. Simpson Bills

HOCKEY: 4 cards 3 possible dupes.

1993 Classic Games 4 Sport Collection: 253 Manon Rheaume Atlanta Knights

1993 Classic Games Pro Hockey Prospects: The possible dupes.
1 Manon Rheaume
2 Manon Rheaume
100 Manon Rheume
Manon Rheume one of my PC Players and sort of a niche PC as well.

So yeah this post barely makes it into the end of January to preserve my bare minimum one post a month quota.

Strive For 65 Set Build

 

Updated 30 Jan 2024

Note: As I build this set I will update this post. I have now 377/598 63% (379/600 63.2%)

I don't usually set to many goals, and usually not very lofty ones at that. I don't do New Year's Resolutions either. I also don't like to mention my age much but... well next year 2015 will be the 50th Anniversary of the 1965 Topps Baseball set. One of my favorite sets of all-time.

And OH, it also happens to be my birth year. So yeah next year in April I will turn the BIG Five-0. Not really looking forward to that. I had the sudden realization that it would be very very cool to finally complete the flagship set for my birth year by My 50th and the 50th anniversary of said yadda yadda.

 This "card" of me is not a real card.

It is just a digital mock-up I photoshopped,

well MSPaint(ed) (or MS Photo Editor or both) a few years ago.

I used the Jim Hannan card as a key.

So maybe the blogiverse can help me out here by sending me some '65 Mojo preferably by trade or gift or some small $$ sales. Some of those big named Yankees and Dodgers and various other stars will probably be stumbling blocks. I hope not this is a very special achievement.

Believe it or not I've had this '65 Ernie Banks for as long as I can remember, actually I think it was originally my brother's and I traded something for it (a 1970 Fergie Jenkins or 1958 Willie Mays maybe?) Still one of my all-time fave cards in my collection.

Of course I would like to get them in as best condition as possible but I will accept the sort of poor conditioned ones to. One of the big criteria is the backs need to be relatively clean and all the info readable. They can have some off-centering but not too drastic and not any miscuts (unless an upgraded copy is with the said miscut). Checklist cards I'd prefer to be unmarked but will accept ones that are marked a bit. I just hope they aren't the super messed up ones. LOL. Even with some of the duds if I at least get one of each card in the set (even some very poor old beat up ones that went through the mud bath with the bike spokes it was attached to) my goal will have been met. Then I can upgrade later, but of course I would prefer not to have to do much upgrading.

Out of the 598 (well 600 with 2 checklist variants) cards in the set I only have a measly little 94. Not quite a sixth or a fifth even, I might need one of those soon. I have a LONG way to go.

Here are the ones I need:
1965 Topps:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 39, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 57, 58, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 76, 77, 78, 79a, 79b, 80, 81, 82, 83, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 102, 103, 104, 107, 108, 109, 110, 112, 113, 114, 115, 117, 119, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 141, 142, 143, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 178, 179, 180, 182, 183, 185, 186, 187, 188, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 196, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 213, 214, 216, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 248, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 256, 257, 258, 259, 262, 263, 264, 265, 266, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274, 275, 276, 277, 278, 279, 280, 281, 282, 283 284, 285, 286, 287, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 307, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316, 318, 319, 320, 322, 323, 324, 326, 327, 328, 329, 330, 333, 334, 335, 336, 337, 338, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 344, 346, 347, 348, 349, 350, 351, 352, 353, 354, 355, 356, 357, 358, 359, 360, 361, 362, 364, 365, 366, 367, 368, 369, 370, 371, 373, 374, 375, 376, 377, 378, 379, 380, 381, 382, 383, 384, 385, 386, 387, 389, 390, 392, 395, 396, 397, 398, 399, 400, 401, 402, 403, 405, 406, 407, 408, 409, 410, 411, 412, 414, 415, 416, 418, 419, 420, 421, 423, 424, 425, 426, 427, 228, 429, 430, 431, 433, 434, 435, 436, 437, 438, 439, 440, 442, 443, 444, 446, 447, 449, 450, 451, 452, 453, 454, 455, 456, 458, 459, 460, 461, 462, 463, 464, 465, 466, 468, 469, 471, 472, 474, 475, 476, 477, 478, 480, 481, 482, 483, 484, 487, 488, 489, 490, 491, 492, 493, 494, 495, 496, 498, 499, 500, 501, 503, 504, 506, 507, 508, 509, 511, 512, 513, 514, 515, 516, 517, 519, 520, 521, 522, 523, 524, 525, 526, 527, 528, 530, 531, 532, 534, 535, 536, 537, 538, 539, 540, 541, 542, 543, 544, 545, 546, 547, 548, 550, 551, 552, 553, 554, 555, 556, 557, 558, 559, 560, 561, 562, 563, 564, 565, 566, 567, 568, 569, 570, 571, 572, 573, 575, 579,  580, 581, 582, 583, 584, 585, 586, 587, 588, 589, 590, 591, 592, 594, 596, 597, 598

Checklist 79 Variation:
79a Checklist cards 1-88 - 61 is Cannizzaro
79b Checklist cards 1-88 - 61 is C.Cannizzaro

Card #21 Don Blasingame Senators - the copy I got (long story short) was in worse condition than the sportlots seller had originally stated they refunded me the .18¢ for it and sent it anyway the problem is the back has some paper glued to it (the opposite of paper loss). You can read some of the stuff but not all of it, and removing the extra paper and glue residue if even possible would ruin the card further than it is. So I need an Upgrade which is why it is still on the list and blue. I picked up a copy of this one at my LCS for $2 it is way off center almost a misscut. The front is off-center down and to the right. The back way off-center to the bottom, on the bottom the last of the white box is on the very edge of the card a hair's-width of blue is at the bottom in places.

Hmmm apparently there is a slight variation with card #508 7th Series Checklist Cards 507-598. There is an ever so slight font size variation a Large and a small. Not sure if I'm going to try for this variation or not. I am currently watching an Ebay listing that is selling the pair for about $20.

Notes:
26 Jan 2016: Card #10 NL Pitching Leaders.
23 Jan 2016: SF'65SS: Been Sportlotin'.
22 Jan 2016: 7 more cards including Tommy Harper
20 Jan 2016: Just Jim O'Toole
19 Jan 2016: Wow! Mega Mail Day! 13 Packages ties my all-time record for most packages in a single mailday. Not all PWEs/Bubble Mailers had '65 cards. I did get 13 new ones including League Leaders cards 4 and 9, and Team Cards of Braves, Phillies, Pirates and Tigers.
16 Jan 2016: Three cards came in two team cards plus 61 Chris Cannizzaro from checklist number one card 79. Started Saturday status update "Strive for '65 Status: Mid-January 2016".
13 Jan 2016: Updating from some cards received back in Oct or Nov last year.
07 May 2015: Recently got in 3 cards from another collector as a bonus with some cards from a group box break of newer cards and got #390 Bill Freehan from a Sportslot Auction.
27 Mar 2015: Got card #100 in a 3 card lot of Cardinals cards from an Ebay auction.
21 Mar 2015: Two more cards 200 Joe Torre and 415 Curt Flood
13 Mar 2015: One more card came in from sportlots #127
12 Mar 2015: Playing catch up with this post. In the last month or two I got about a dozen new cards for the set, a few from some auctions I think, a couple from another blogger sent in a PWE with that three pocket (cut from a 9 pocket sheet) filled with cards about 3 to 4 cards per pocket whatever comfortably fits, and some (including a dupe plus one graded) from a sale from a member on the SCF forum.
04 Aug 2014: Got 17 cards for this set from a Secret Santa in July package on Friday 01 Aug 2014. The cards fill up my first complete page, and had the final World Series card I needed for that subset.
18 May 2014: This past week I got about a dozen cards in including the Checklist variations I needed so now I have a full checklist sub-set. So actually the total number is 600 cards not just 598 or 599
25 Apr 2014: Got #170 Hank Aaron and Unmarked Checklists 104, 189, 273, 361
17 Apr 2014: From the Bay #400 Harmon Killebrew ($5.95 +$2 shipping)
31 Mar 2014: Got 4 "damn" Yankees for $25 from TCF forum sale.
29 Mar 2014: Picked up a replacement for card #21 as mentioned above.
24 Mar 2014: I put in an order at "Just Commons" for a bunch of the ones I need,  Not a huge amount aprox. 42 cards in total in either VG or EX/MT for $61.45 most in the $1 to $2 range, one I didn't notice until after I had placed the order that it was a whopping $7.50 one of the EX/MT ones (#559 Ed Bailey SP).

Trading Zone Secret Santa

One of the trading card forums I frequent TCZ (Trading Card Zone) had a Secret Santa round of trading for the Winter Holidays. The Santa doesn't have to identify themselves, and usually don't but depending on the group it can be figured out, or they eventually identify themselves if pressured, or the recipient is flipping out over not knowing. I know who my Santa was. For this year I only got two cards but they are beauts. It doesn't really matter how many cards you get, or even the monetary value of the cards, the important thing is that based on your wants and likes that you provided the coordinator, your Santa did their best to try and find something you might enjoy.

Here is what I got:

on the Left: 2003 Upper Deck SPX Combos C-RR Cal Ripken Jr. Orioles and Scott Rolen Cardinals #d 86/90
and on the Right:  2012 Panini Leaf Limited Limited Greats Autograph 29 Frank Howard Senators Auto on-sticker Blue sharpie #d 195/299 (I had gotten and blogged about #007 for myself from Ebay on my Cury W Cards blog)

Here are the backs:

As for what I had sent. My "good little Collector" he is an Andrew Luck Super Collector so I sent him a bunch of mostly Luck cards with 2 or 3 other guys. He really enjoyed what I sent, he had some of them but not all of them. Just as I had one of these cards, but not the other.

A Crinkly Package but not cards

I've been sitting on this post for too long. {SIGH}

One of the card blogs I read fairly regularly is "Crinkly Wrappers". I made a comment on one of Ted's posts a while back and he sent an email in reply w/ a notation that he had checked some of my want lists and had a couple of 2009 Philadelphia Football cards to help w/ my set build and a ton from the 1994 Ted Williams Baseball set to "start/finish" a set (seeing as I had a handful already it would be the latter). All I had to do was send my mailing addy and pay for postage. No problem, done and done. Ain't that the way the blog-universe is 'sposed to work? Then on Monday 19 Mar 2012 a nice package arrives. I had anticipated some of what I saw, but not all.

I knew there would be only a handful of the football cards so barely a poker hand of football cards wasn't a disappointment.

I needed most of them (I already had the Anquan Boldin and I think another one).

2009 Philadelphia Football 6 Anquan Boldin Cardinals

I did not have the Marc Bulger, although I have most of the Rams from this set weird I usually have Bulger cards coming out of my ears. LOL

 2009 Philadelphia Football 174 Marc Bulger Rams

(Front and Back)

Some of the other cards I may show individually later sometime when I talk about their subsets or the next time I do a random sampling of cards.

Then there was this: A ton of cards from the 1994 Ted Williams Baseball set.

 a loaded 8 3/4 x 12 inch flatbed scanner worth of

1994 Ted Williams Baseball Cards.

 9 semi random cards from the base main part of the set.

9 more semi-random cards but these are:
Checklist 1 of 2 plus some of the sub-set cards

(each subset has its own checklist as well)

The Subsets are as follows:

• Cards 93-99 Women of Baseball: The women who played professional baseball during WWII in the AAGPBL (All American Girls Professional Baseball League) the league that was immortalized in the 1992 movie A League of Their Own
• Cards 100-117 The Negro Leagues
• Cards 118-135 The Campaign: Minor League Players (Includes future Major League Players Jason Giambi and Billy Wagner)
• Cards 136-144 Goin' North: Players in their Minor League Uniforms
• Cards 145-153 Swinging for the Fences: Players who have hit 4 homers in one game
• Cards 154-162 Dawning of A Legacy: Cliff Floyd and Tim Salmon careers

A near complete set of 1994 Ted Williams Baseball. 112 out of 162. Some of the higher priced Super Stars, the Namesake cards (Ted Williams) and harder to find cards from the set are missing but with a little shopping around and maybe some begging on card forums and to other bloggers I'll have the set finished sooner than later (then I can start in on the 1993 set). I already had the Women of Baseball sub-set, which I plan on blogging about sometime in the future, and the "3 MuskaSenators" cards from the main part of the set Frank Howard, Walter Johnson, Eddie Yost (I'll blog about them on my other blog I'm about to mention). I did not have any of the Negro League cards from the set. I mentioned that on my other blog "Curly W Cards" (my blog about Washington Baseball cards) in my Frank Howard post that I didn't have any Negro League cards yet. Well now I have some Yay!

My favorite card from the set is still the first one I had gotten of the player mentioned above. Now I have a double of it (and some of the ladies).

Card number 88 Frank "Hondo" Howard - Senators
(Front and Back)

Many many thanks Ted for such a fantastic lot of cards.

My "Graded" Collection

For the record I am not thrilled about graded cards. I think my main reason is it seemed to be originally developed as another way to rob the poor card collector out of his/her hard earned money. OK from a preservation stand point they are probably the best thing for cards, especially fragile perforated cards like stand-ups and sticker/stamp pages/strips, and also they insure authenticity, but from a practical stand point and a financial stand point they suck. They are expensive first for the cost of having the grading company do their thing of grading them and slabbing them, or "entombing" them as some collectors say. Also those who do sell the things try to squeeze out as much money from you as possible for them.

Here are some things I said about the reasons I had been avoiding getting graded stuff:

*I thought they are a pain to store, you have to keep them in separate areas from your ungraded cards due to the case they are in.

*The cost of sending your cards to a company to get graded vs. the grade they will come back as. etc..
 

*The confusion of which company to use. There are about a dozen companies and only 3 or 4 are worth using, depending on who you talk to.
 

*The distance between you and the card through the plastic tomb. It's like looking at your new born kid through the glass window at the hospital.

I still think that way about graded cards somewhat. Although now I won't ban them like I had before having any in hand. Of course there are techniques to "free" your card from it's "Tomb" some work better than others, I think probably the best way to do it without damaging the card is to use a flathead screwdriver and at the top where the paper label is wedge the screwdriver into the seam and then pry a little and then slide it along the edge like opening an envelope. I think you need to hit both top corners loose a little first. Anyway enough about how to free them you can find many videos on YouTube on how to do that.

OK so lets get to discussing the slabbed cards I've got OK.

This first one was the first graded card I ever received in May of 2009. I had never bought one and this one I didn't buy It was in a package from a fellow collector at TCC it was just a "Random Act of Cardness" (My own original saying) from the forum's "Time To Give Something Back!" thread. In the package I had received several other things including a boat-load of Marshall Faulk cards.

Anyway the graded card is a 1997 Topps Basketball Kevin Garnett Graded by FGS (Finest Grading Service) Gem Mint 10. Yowzers. (I jokingly said on the forum he was probably "some loser rookie guy.") I will either trade it for some high-value vintage, or try to sell it.

1997-98 Topps Basketball 148 Kevin Garnett - Timberwolves

Graded by FGS Gem Mint 10

This next card also came from TCC a different user on 24 March 2011. This time from a post called "The Chain" where a package with an assortment of cards is sent around to collectors in a set order and upon receiving the package each collector chooses one card to keep, then replaces that card with a similar type of card and sends the package on to the next collector or "link" in the "chain". There is an option to add another card in a new category to make the selection more interesting. The big problem the experiment had is some people started sending big memorabilia and someone else sent a couple card sets all of which increased the size of the package to a medium flat-rate sized box thus increasing the postage necessary to send on to the next person. That is just a bit of a related tangent to this card, because this graded card was a special "bonus" that the collector who sent me the package sent specifically to me since he knew some of my tastes.

So the second graded card I have is a 2000 Fleer E-X football card # 54 Kurt Warner - Rams graded by Beckett Collectors Club Grading (BCCG) grade a 9 Near Mint or Better.

2000 Fleer E-X Football 54 Kurt Warner - Rams

Graded by BCCG Near-Mint or Better 9

This final graded card was actually my first purchased graded card (received 15 December 2009 for $10.00), well it's more card plus memorabilia because it is a 1971 Milk Duds Baseball FULL BOX Frank Howard Washington Senators Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) Graded EX-5 The Milk Duds set is unnumbered. Alphabetically this is card #9 (69 in the set)- PSA slab has it marked #1 - the # 1 on the box is for the box code not the card number as all the boxes seem to be numbered 1.

1971 Milk Duds Baseball Complete Box - Frank Howard - Senators

Graded by PSA EX 5

When I was a Kid I had some of the Milk Duds cards, I don't recall which ones. I probably got rid of them because they were "hand cut" and thus "destroyed", or my mom did the stereotypical "threw them out". She did that more so with my oldest brother. Little did I know back then, whenever that was, that I would later like to get some more of these in the Complete Box. Not necessarily graded versions. Due to prices of these things, especially the big stars I can't afford to get all of them in graded form.

Mailday Mostly 1972 Topps

I haven't scanned any of these cards from today but I got a boat load of 1972 Topps Baseball from sportlots.com and a couple of 1974 Football Cards from Ebay.

The Baseball Onslaught.

1964 Topps
154 Dick Tracewski Dodgers

1966 Topps
298 Rico Petrocelli Red Sox

1972 Topps Some of these are off center.

20 Don Wilson Astros
150 Norm Cash Tigers
152 Gene Clines Pirates
154 Ted Simmons Cardinals (I might have 3 of this card, not sure)
156 Twins Team Card
160 Andy Messersmith Angels
162 Jerry Bell Darrell Porter Bob Reynolds 1972 Rookie Stars Brewers
164 Tug McGraw Mets IN ACTION (very cool super PC card, YES! I do have his regular card as well - see below)
165 Chris Speier Giants
166 Chris Speier IN ACTION
167 Deron Johnson Phillies
169 Vida Blue A's
173 Clay Kirby Padres
174 Clay Kirby IN ACTION
175 Tom Haller Tigers
176 Tom Haller IN ACTION
178 Paul Schaal IN ACTION
179 Dock Ellis Pirates
182 Ed Kranepool IN ACTION
183 Bill Melton White Sox
184 Bill Melton IN ACTION
185 Ron Bryant Giants
187 Gates Brown Tigers
189 Gene Tenace A's
190 Dave Giusti Pirates
191 Jeff Burroughs Rangers

192 Cubs Team Card - A couple of times in the 1970s it seemed that only the Cubs did this cut-out heads team thing on the team cards. I think I had a poster of this once as a kid, not 100% sure such a product existed let alone if I actually had it.

201 Phil Roof Twins (way off center)
202 Scipio Spinks Astros
204 Tommy Helms Astros
206 Dal Maxvill Cardinals
209 Joe Rudi A's
212 Grant Jackson Orioles
213 Billy Parker Art Kusnyer Tom Silverio 1972 Rookie Stars Angels
214 Mike McQueen Braves
215 Alex Johnson Indians (Off Center)
216 Joe Niekro Tigers
217 Roger Metzger Astros
218 Eddie Kasko Red Sox
219 Rennie Stennett Pirates
220 Jim Perry Twins

The 1972 Topps Baseball is the ultimate in 1970s design style, here are a couple of examples of the styling. The following cards I already had, I had forgotten that I had scanned the second two.

One of my fave Old-Time Players Frank Howard, began his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers but is most remembered as a Washington Senator (They then became the Texas Rangers and the 1972 is the Debut of the Texas Rangers on Cards)

Frank Howard # 350

Even though Tug McGraw played on two teams I'm not very big on. The Phillies and The Mets (Since some trades of some Nationals to the Mets I am more appreciative of them) If you are old enough to remember the 1970s you may remember Tugs comic strip based on his MLB career "Scroogie". The main character played for a team call the PETS. Somewhere I have a Scroogie book and a couple of comic strip clippings when I find them I'll try to remember to scan them.

Tug McGraw # 163

Just because he is the Home Run King Here is Hammerin' Hank IN ACTION.

Hank Aaron IN ACTION # 300

Now the Football Cards I got:

1974 Topps
148 John Matuszak Oilers RC.

1974 Wonder Bread
15 Tom Mack Rams - My first 1974 Wonder Bread Football card.

Let's begin at the begining or at least 1965.

1965

What a year 1965 was. I happen to like it because it was the year I was born. It is also a pretty good year for cards especially baseball. I won't forget about football, but at that point American Football had the NFL and the AFL (American Football League - which later became the NFL's American Football Conference). The cards of the NFL were made by the now defunct Philadelphia Cards which was revived sort of with a new retro football set this year in 2009. The AFL cards were by Topps the most significant card of which is the Joe Namath Rookie Card (RC).

For me its the baseball cards from Topps of that year. The card at the top of Jim Hannan is a typical common card he happens to be of a player from the Washington Senators my fave baseball team as a kid. I would be sorely disappointed in the off season 0f 1971 when they were moved to Texas to become the Rangers. As a result my interest in baseball declined, but oddly enough not my interest in collecting baseball cards, as I also collected football and Non-Sports. I would not get really interested in baseball again until 2003 or '04 (probably 2004 due to the Red Sox World Series Win) just before the announcement that the Montreal Expos, who were owned at the time by the MLB, would move to Washington. They would then become the Washington Nationals.

My two fave cards follow; the first from a player that would be remembered for being a great Washington Senators player, even though he began his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

FRANK HOWARD

The second, and I think my absolute fave card, I think it may have been my "first card" (Since I have two older brothers who at one time collected baseball cards as kids I got many hand-me-downs before I really became involved in serious collecting so I can't remember having a "first card"), from this series is from Mr. Cubbie Himself:

ERNIE BANKS