Sports Cards Ate My Brain

  We delve into the world of baseball in my cosmos of regret.  Here are some of my favorites that I sold on e-bay, I got this card as a surprise insert in an Upper Deck tin.  It had their version of "Old Judge" cards in it.  Also got some nice autographs and memorabilia cards in the tin but this one stands out as the first Playball card I ever owned. Rookie cards of 2 future Hall-of-famers.  I collected the heck out of this set as exhibited by all of the gold parallels I have listed on my trade page. I took a chance on some packs of Royal Rookies just in the hope of getting this card and then I sold it.  Why?!?!?!?  I still have the regular card. I'm a sucker for mullti-sport sets and it was nice to own a bat piece from the last .400 hitter. What a great card.  It's even numbered 60/60 while Mr. Cub wishes Topps a Happy 60th.  Practically perfect. I had no idea who Trout ...

I've never really been in to trying to complete a full set.  I usually collect a player or team instead of needing everything from a particular year.  The exception is 1976 Topps Baseball.  The first pack of baseball cards I bought was from this set on the night after I went to my first Braves games in 1976. I'm about 80-100 cards short of complete right now but will finish this at some point.  I love this design and the player selection can't be beat with the All-Time All-Stars cards making an affordable way to get some of the all-time greats.  That is Aaron's last card and Eckersley's first.  I love the stylized player in the corner of each card, with the exception being on the all-star cards (Bench). It's hard for me to believe that this set came out 41 years ago.  Make's me feel older than I actually am (50).

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've decided to highlight one card a year from George Brett's career plus a few from after he retired.  I've posted before that I saw him hit a home run and then, later in the game, start a brawl with the pitcher during a game at Tiger Stadium in 1980.  This made him my favorite player and I have actively collected his card over the years.  I have many more cards of him but, as part of my efforts to pare down my collection, I'm only keeping some of them. One can only start off a George Brett collection with his 1975 Topps Rookie Card: 1975 is not my favorite Topps set.  After many years of wavering about spending the money I bought this card off of E-bay.  Not sure why I waited so long. George was a solid but unspectacular hitter in the minor leagues as evidenced by the lack of .300 seasons shown here.  The red and green backs are not the easiest to read. George's second mainstream card, 1975 Topps highlights his first .300 season: My fi...

Ok, it's not actually from the past but the card designs are. I have not been actively collecting lately but 2015 Topps Archives includes the 1976 Topps design so I had to get blaster and see what is what. Cards 1 - 100 are in the 1957 design, 101 - 200 in the 1976 design and 201 - 300 in the 1983 design. Pack 1 37 Jhonny Peralta - The "h" right after the "J" always confuses me. 47 Henderson Alvarez 50 Ken Griffey Jr. 105 Joe DiMaggio 139 Michael Wacha 149 Hunter Pence 169 Jon Lester 275 Ted Williams 299 Mark Trumbo 300 Willie Mays The cards did not come out of the pack in numerical order.  By mistake I sorted them before posting.  This is great mix of all-timers in this pack.  The 1957, 1976, and 1983 are three of my favorite designs so I'm hyped so far. Pack 2 220 Jay Bruce 18 Homer Bailey 171 Ian Desmond PGGWB George W Bush Presidential Chronicles - not a fan 19 Hisashi Iwakuma 148 Hyun-Jin Ryu 281 Hanley Ramirez 123 Anibal San...

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 ...

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. Page 2 is all about my favorite player, George Brett.  I got to see George play exactly once.  The game was on August 5, 1980 in Detroit.  We were in Michigan visiting family and my dad took me to see the Tigers.  George hit a 3-run bomb in the first inning and then was knocked down twice by inside pitches in the 6th by Detroit starter Milt Wilcox.  George flew out and, as soon as the outfielder caught the ball, George charged the mound and started a brawl.  It was sublime. 1975 Topps #228 For those of you who don't know, this is George's rookie card.  It has to be included here just because of that. 1979 Kellogg's #50 ...

My concept here is loosely inspired by last week's Big Bang Theory episode in which Sheldon registers to be selected for an expedition to Mars. I started thinking about what I would be able to take with me on such a mission and decided I could take no more than ten 9-card pages from my card collection.  I also 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.  This means my 1956 Topps Ernie Johnson had to be left out but some thicker memorabilia cards are included. Here are my ten page themes. 1. Braves 2. George Brett 3. Other Baseball 4. Football 5. Hockey 6. Basketball 7. Soccer 8. Golf 9. Other Sports 10. Non-Sports cards Here are the nine Braves cards: 1957 Topps 117 - Joe Adcock This is a perfect card to me and represents why I love the 1957 design. Joe looks like all of the 6'4" 210 lbs...

With my birthday coming up in a couple of days I decided to treat myself to my first 2015 Heritage cards.  The design from 1966 is not my favorite but I still like the Heritage concept. I'm very strict in what I'm collecting so most of these cards will be up for trade. There are 8 packs in the box and I'm opening these packs as I type.  (Well, open then type.) Pack 1 397 - Kyle Kendrick 353 - CC Sabathia 358 - Shane Greene 408 - Coco Crisp 416 - Glen Perkins 348 - Orioles (Checklist 336-367)    412 - Rougned Odor (This is a joke, right?) According to baseball-reference.com his name is pronounced \ROOG-ned oh-DORE\.  Of course, one of his nicknames is "Stinky." Keepers - 70 - Yoenis Cespedes - I've been casually collecting Yoenis since his Major League debut.  The Tigers are my favorite AL team so I'm hoping he brings a steady bat this year. News Flashbacks NF7 - Pete Rozelle.  I'll be putting this in my football keepers. Pa...

Here's the rest of what I got at the December card show. 1971 Topps 62 Rico Carty was a great hitter but was limited by injuries throughout his career.  Joe Torre's hat seems to be barely in his head. 1972 Topps 172 Topps occasionally put In Action or similar cards in sets to fill out their planned card count.  I'm not a fan.  Evans appears to be levitating to catch a pop fly. 1973 Topps 1 Forget the crease, this is a perfect card. 1973 Topps 266 Mike looks very intense but someone probably should have told him that he is not in the batter's box.... 1975 Topps 154 And again..... 1975 Topps 499 Marty started for the Braves for 5 years and was the epitome of a light hitting middle infielder.  His career slugging percentage was .347.  He did manage to drive in 57 runs in 1973 but didn't manage even 40 in any other season. 1975 Topps 589 We end our card show posts with the 1975 Braves team.  Clyde King managed during...