Sports Cards Ate My Brain

Those of us that have collected cards for a long time (over 40 years for me) all have one or a few players that we seem to get many, many good cards for.  We end up with a decent player collection of someone that we don't actually collect actively. Frank Thomas is one for me but the player that stands out the most is Mats Sundin.  I have a hoard of good inserts of him. Me being lazy, I only have one card scanned but it is my favorite.  A 1997-98 Leaf Fractal Matrix X-Axis Silver Die Cut.  Easily one of the most confusing inserts of the 1990's, the Fractal Matrix set featured different colors and shapes which I still have no interest in actually figuring out. If you're a Maple Leaf or Sundin collector drop me a line and maybe we can work out a trade.

So Georgia lost to Belmont in the first round of the NIT this year.  While this is considered an upset, it is not a surprise to me.  UGA basketball history is full of probations and disappointing teams.  Winning 20 games in a season is almost unheard of so this year's team settled on 19. Georgia basketball was terrible until Hugh Durham came along in the early 80's.  He somehow lured Dominique Wilkins to Athens and then recruited some fine player around him.  In 1983 Georgia made it's one and only Final Four appearance, losing to the famous Jim Valvano NC State team that year. Georgia's star player on that team was Vern Fleming. Vern came down to Athens from New York City and ended up being a first round draft pick by the Pacers. This is card 83 from the 1986 Star set.  For those of you who may be unaware, there was no major card set available for the NBA during the mid-eighties.  I had no way to get these cards near my house and ended up g...

A few more weeks and we'll be back in the swing of things for 2017.  I'm looking forward to rooting for the Tigers but will watch local Braves games unless the Tigers are on a network. Remember, I'm not rooting for the Braves this year because of Liberty Medias corporate greed winning out over baseball. The title of this post has 2 meanings as the card I'm highlighting is a 1939 Play Ball card : This is card #91 of John Knott.  According to Baseball Reference he was more commonly known as Jack.   Knott finished 82-103 with a 4.97 ERA during his 12 year career.  He played for 3 teams during that span.  Amazing that he lasted as long as he did.  He struck out less than 500 batters and walked over 600 in 1500+ innings. As with many of my vintage cards, I bought this card at a show.  I'd like to think I'll have enough money some day to buy more 1939 Play Ball but my lottery numbers don't seem overly lucky.

I hit 50 today.  After a major health scare last summer I consider this a major achievement. I was thinking about things I used to like that I no longer even care about and started wondering why I don't watch hockey anymore.  Then I figured it out.... Bonus points to anyone that can tell why, based on these 3 images.

I've never had the urge to collect T206 cards but I felt the need to have one card in my collection since this is the iconic baseball card set of the first half of the twentieth century.  I got this card at a pawn shop for $8 almost 20 years ago.  Rube Geyer.  Never heard of him before I got this card.  This is a Piedmont back.  This was the first tobacco card I ever owned.

I got my first vintage Bowman card a few years ago and have picked up several Braves cards at shows over the past 3 or 4 years.  I don't admit to liking all of the sets but I really like a few of them. The 1950 set is comes as smaller cards than standard.  I like the clean design.  This is outfielder Willard Marshall on card 73.  Here is Willard again from the 1951 set.  I like this better than the 1952 set.  The only real difference is that the 1951 set has the name on the front and the 1952 has a facsimile signature.  As you can see, these cards a little taller than the 1950 cards.  This is card 98.   I bypass the, very plain, 1953 Bowman set and pick up on 1954.  This card is only slightly smaller than the Topps cards of this era.  I have a nice Del Crandall collection.  This is card 32. The 1955 set is ugly to me.  It's the wood grain TV set.  I have one card of Bill Bruton. In my current, c...