Sports Cards Ate My Brain

 I've decided to go year by year (or Era by Era) and decide which card is my favorite. We start with my pre-Bowman collection. I've posted my T206 card a few times.  It's not a Boston Brave or Detroit Tiger so someday I will probably replace it to fit better in my PC. I've gathered three lovely Goudey cards that fit nicely in the PC and hope to get more. And these three Play Ball cards are a great, inexpensive option for pre-war cards. Before I reveal my favorite which one do you like? ========================================= We had two guesses for the Fred Marberry. Close but I like the Joe Mowry the best.  The blue and yellow color combo with that "Lou Gehrig Says..." puts it over the top.

Any collector that is remotely interested in the history of baseball cards should have at least one T206 card.  I'm not talking about the various modern Topps sets.  I'm talking about the original tobacco set. If I ever become a billionaire I might pursue collecting the who set but I lucked out a pawn shop almost 20 years ago and came across this beauty. I don't see dirt, corner or edge wear, a slight crease, etc.   I see a beautiful baseball card. This is Rube Geyer from the St. Louis Cardinals.  He played from 1910 to 1913 and went 17 and 26.  So not a household name.  Still, it's a freakin' T206. It has the common Piedmont back so nothing major there. Oh, and the pawn shop was selling it for $3.

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.

To recap:  These are the cards I would take with me if I could take ten 9-card pages with me to Mars. I decided that each part of my collection cannot have more than one page.  The cards must fit into a regulation page as far as height and width but I am taking liberties with how thick some of the cards are. The third page is made up of non-Brave, non-George Brett baseball cards. 1909 T206 Rube Geyer This card has to be included because it is my oldest baseball cards and is from one of the great sets.  This one has the common Piedmont back.  I got it at a pawn shop for $3.  For those of you who may be unaware, cards of all types were packaged with cigarettes in the late 19th and early to mid 20th century. 1968 Topps Game #8 Topps Game cards were inserted in 1968 packs.  This is my favorite one because it is an all-time great plus it is a Home Run.  This is one of the sets I'm trying to complete. 1969 Topps #237 This is Bobby ...