2 Greg Maddux Cards And A Glass Of Orange Kool-Aid!!!

A few weeks ago, I posted a plea for help in completing my Greg Maddux player collection.  With just 5 cards left to go, I was hoping that a reader or two would have what I needed to get this set done and would be willing to offer it up to me.
Well, David did just [...]

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Dale Murphy 1982 Topps
Can the photographer get any closer, jeez???
One has to wonder with the technology of the early 1980’s how close the person that shot this picture was to Murphy.  And shame on Topps for releasing this picture as part of their baseball set.
Bad, bad, bad…

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2000 Fleer – “Club 3,000″ – Dave Winfield
Date of entry into “Club 3,000″ - September 13, 1993
The Story – Playing for the Twins and at home, Winfield entered this game with 2,999 hits on his resume.  With just 3 weeks left in the season, this was a match-up of a 6th and 7th place team so it [...]

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Signing Results: 1984 ROY & 1985 CY Dwight ‘Doc’ Gooden
Last month former Rookie of the Year, Cy Young Award winner, and World Series champion Dwight Gooden was doing a signing in New York.  The store hosting the event was offering up a free autograph for anyone purchasing $20 of their product.
After a quick and easy [...]

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Andre Dawson 2005 Topps Pristine Legends Baseball – Jersey Relic Card
I picked up this card prior to Andre’s election into the Hall of Fame.  And I am lucky that I did because it would be tough to find it now for the bargain price I paid for it…  another episode of Ebay madness!!!
The card is [...]

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‘Same Card, Different Paths’ – Card #48
1970 Topps - Card # – AKA – ‘The Bill Buckner Rookie Card’

Jack Jenkins – Jenkins’ career spanned 3 major league seasons and in that time he appeared in just 8 games.  A pitcher, used as both a starter and reliever, Jenkins just did not have ‘the stuff’ to stick around long.  His [...]

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1984 Fleer Paul Molitor
Oh Yeah, it’s yearbook time at ‘30-Year Old Cardboard’ again.  This time we have Paul Molitor taking his senior portrait.  Paul has chosen his baseball uniform as his prop, and it is a good choice since he is such a highly regarded baseball star for the school.  Asked about what the future [...]

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1963 Headline: Pete Rose’s Debut A Hit.  2, Actually!!
On this day back in 1963, Pete Rose made his major league debut during Spring Training for the Cincinnati Reds.
The game’s all-time hits king established himself early as he collected two hits in two at-bats against the Chicago White Sox.  And although nobody, except maybe for Pete, [...]

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As the generosity of my readers keeps filling up my mailbox, reader JJ sent over 6 more cards that take care of a few needs on my player collection checklist.
For starters, he knocked off 1 Tim Raines card and 1 Dale Murphy card.

*Note that the 1990 Topps card of Raines actually says ‘Rock’ instead of ‘Tim’ [...]

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Orel Hershiser 1989 Bowman
In a very popular pose, Bowman offers us a nice shot of Hershiser in the beginning phases of his wind-up.  An oversized baseball card, this 1989 Bowman offers us a little more, roughly 1/8 inch, than a standard sized card.  What this specific card offers is a nice shot of the sky during [...]

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1975 Topps Cincinnati Reds Teams Set – Card #369 – Merv Rettenmund
Rettenmund played 2 years for the Cincinnati Reds – 1974 & 1975.
An outfielder, he had a tough time breaking into the everyday line-up of ‘The Big Red Machine’.  During his 2 years with the club, Rettenmund played in 173 games.  He compiled a .227 batting average [...]

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Jay Buhner is the only player to end his career with 300 home runs but drive in fewer than 1,000 runs, finishing his career with 310 homers and 965 RBI.  Darryl Strawberry came very close – he ended up with 335 homers and drove in exactly 1,000 RBI.

**factoid courtesy of ‘Big League Trivia’
My take – Stats [...]

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Benito Santiago turns 45 years old today.
Santiago was an established baseball star when he joined the Florida Marlins in 1993 for their inaugural baseball season.
Santiago was the team’s most well known player, and his Hispanic heritage made him an instant hit in with the fans and city of Miami.  Benito became an ambassador of the game in South Florida and he [...]

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2nd Spring Training 2010 Autograph Success: Brett Butler!!
I sent Brett Butler 4 cards in hopes of him returning two of them back to me.  I offered for him to keep a few if he wanted to.  The other day I had an envelope in my mailbox and inside were the cards I sent to him.  [...]

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Dave Winfield 2007 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic – Game Used Jersey Card
Now this is a great looking card.  When I mention my enjoyment of the modern-era card with a vintage look, this is what I am talking about!!!
That old school San Diego Padres uniform takes me back to the days of Winfield, Ozzie Smith, Steve [...]

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Tim Raines 1986 Fleer
I cannot tell if the photographer had Tim’s attention in this shot or if he was told to not look directly at the camera.  And to be honest, I don’t think that it really mattered wither way…  the card kind of stinks!!!
You all know that I am a sucker for old-school uniforms [...]

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1985 Topps Record Breakers – Card #5 – Joe Morgan
Headline – “Morgan’s 265th Homer At Second Base Surpasses Hornsby Standard”
The Story – Oakland, California, June 24, 1984:  A’s Joe Morgan today belted his 265th career homer as a second baseman.  The blow establishes a new major league record surpassing the former mark of 264 homers [...]

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Hall of Famer Jim Rice turns 57 years old today.
Jim Rice may be one of the best examples of a great hitter that could also hit for power or you can classify him as a power hitter that was a great contact hitter too.  Either way, it works!!  Although we cannot clearly say Rice was [...]

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Reader Robert Offers Up 97 New Cards For My Player Collections – AWESOME!!!
97 – Are you sure?  Maybe you meant 9 or 7, but definitely not 97…  Wrong!  Robert did in fact send over 97 cards off of my needs list and here is proof:

And when you break the stack down by player, here is [...]

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‘Same Card, Different Paths’ – Card #47
1965 Topps - Card #533 – AKA – ‘The Tug McGraw Rookie Card’

Danny Napoleon – Napoleon’s career spanned just 2 seasons and 80 games.  An outfielder, Napoleon found it hard to break into the Mets’ lineup on a regular basis.  Primarily used as a back-up or replacement in late innings, he only made [...]

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Dale Murphy 1985 Fleer
‘Hey Dale, can you tell that old-timer in the Phillies get-up to get out of my shot, he’s ruining it’, said the photographer.
Come on.  Is this the best image that Fleer had of Murphy for their 1985 base set?  We saw a ton of posed photography on our baseball cards during the 1980’s [...]

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Happy Birthday Joe Carter!!!
 World Series hero Joe Carter turns 50 years old today!!!
Carter’s tremendous home run that won the championship for the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993 still remains as one of the greatest plays I have ever witnessed in sports.  The moment that baseball fans around the world dreamed of is what Carter delivered – a [...]

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1987 Headline: Dawson Signs 1-Year Deal With Cubs
And as they say, the rest was history…
After 11 years as an Expos player, Andre and the Expos were at an impasse while negotiating a contract for future employment.  The Expos wanted to low-ball the superstar, and Dawson wanted to be paid comparably to his peers.  Fed up with [...]

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Orel Hershiser 1993 Fleer Ultra
By the early 1990’s Fleer knew it had to do something with its business to compete with Upper Deck.  Card images and quality had reached a new level and for Fleer – Ultra was the result.
Overall, the Ultra product is very nice.  And for this card of Orel Hershiser from their 1993 [...]

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The only players since 1950 to drive in 100 runs while hitting fewer than 10 home runs are Tommy Herr and Paul Molitor.  Herr drove in 110 runs with only 8 home runs for the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals.  Molitor drove in 113 runs with just 9 homers in 1996 for the Minnesota Twins.

**factoid courtesy [...]

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Willie Stargell turns 70 years old today.
The player that they called ‘Pops’ celebrates a landmark birthday today.
Stargell was and still is the pride and joy of the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise.  Having played with the team for 21 major league season, Stargell, the city of Pittsburgh, and all Pirates fans share a special bond.
An exceptional ball player, [...]

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Andre Dawson 2010 Topps Sterling – Base
More than two months into 2010, and I have finally landed my first Andre Dawson baseball card of the new year!!!
Numbered 72/250, this beauty comes from the Topps Sterling set.  There are several parallel versions of this card in different colors, and this one is the base version.  I’ll look [...]

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1975 Topps Cincinnati Reds Teams Set – Card #108 – Tom Hall
Tom Hall’s career as a Cincinnati Reds player spanned 4 years, from 1972-75.  A pitcher that was used in both starting and relief efforts, Hall was a nice player to have on a pitching staff because he was able to absorb innings, whether long [...]

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Darryl Strawberry 1990 Fleer All-Stars
Here is a nice card issued by Fleer that celebrates Darryl making the 1990 All-star team.
A superstar at this point of his career, the 1990 All-star game was Darryl’s seventh game, and his second to last one.
As for the card?  It’s fair.  I have a few of these featuring other players [...]

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I Dropped 2 More Autograph TTM Requests In The Mail On The Way To Work This Morning…
I had a few extra minutes this morning so I quickly put together 2 more TTM attempts before heading out the door.
Letter #1 is going to Cameron Maybin of the Florida Marlins.  Yeah, I know I already got him [...]

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Reggie Jackson 2005 Fleer ‘Classic Clippings’ – Jersey Relic Card
I feel like I stole this one.  I paid just $2 for this bad-boy.  $2??  Yes, just $2!!!
The card looks great but there is some very puzzling data presented making me wonder what jersey this little swatch may have been cut from.
My notes:

Reggie played for the [...]

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A Very Impressive Stack Of Modern-Era Jim Palmer Cards…
While cruising around Sportlots.com last week looking to secure some new cards for my player collections, I also spent a few minutes trying to seek out a few Jim Palmer cards as well.  With my want list in hand,  I struck out(no pun intended) at each card I [...]

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Paul Molitor 1988 Score – Highlights
In their debut issue, Score included a small set of baseball cards commemorating the biggest accomplishments that occurred during the 1987 season. 
Of them is this card that honors Paul Molitor and his amazing 39-game hit streak.  Starting on July 16 and running up to August 25, Paul Molitor elevated his play [...]

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2000 Fleer – “Club 3,000″ – Robin Yount
Date of entry into “Club 3,000″ - September 9, 1992
The Story – At home, and in front of 47,000+ Brewers’ fans, Robin Yount made baseball history as he joined the ‘3,000 Hits Club’ on this day.  Late in the season with playoff hopes slipping, Yount and his Brewer teammates were facing [...]

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1968 Topps Ron Santo
Yes!!  The first card I am adding to my Ron Santo player collection is the 1968 base card.
And while the ’68s are not my favorite design from the 1960’s, I am thrilled to get this collection going.
In the 1968 baseball season, Santo again did his thing!  He made another All-star game appearance [...]

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