Million Card Giveaway #6

Tonight I redeemed my 6th card in Topps Million Card Giveaway.  I was the winner of a 1962 Chuck Essegian.  My 2nd card in the lovely wood-grain border set.  Chuck was a utility infielder with the Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers, Orioles, Athletics, and Indians.  He was a career .255 hitter with 47 HR and 150 RBI.  In the 1959 World Series he set a record with 2 pinch hit home runs against the Chicago White Sox.  He is also one of only two players to appear in both the Rose Bowl and the World Series.  He played running back for Stanford in the 1952 Rose Bowl and played for the Dodgers in the 1959 World Series.

So far my most notable winner has been the 1977 Reggie Jackson.

My M.C.G. Collection also includes a 1987 Paul Molitor, a 1966 Jim Grant, a 1962 Jimmy Piersall, and a 1991 Gene Harris.  Still waiting on that 1952 Mantle!

1971 Dell Today's 1971 Team Stamps

Thanks to Matt from Heartbreaking Cards for identifying this set for me.  It is the 1971 Dell Today's 1971 Team Stamps. 

I discovered there were 25 albums in the complete set, each with 2 pages of 12 player stamps each.  The set that I have comes from their All-Star album.  The stamps were perforated for easy separation, but once separated there were no spaces in the album to put the stamps.  The cards were unnumbered.  I still have no idea why these stamps were laminated and if they were sold that way.  Another mystery remains to be solved.  Thanks again Matt!

Identify These Cards Please!

About 15 years ago I attended an auction that offered quite a collection of sportscards for sale.  I ended up purchasing a couple of boxes not really knowing what I was getting.  I found some interesting cards yesterday from that purchase that I could never identify.  If anybody can help me I would greatly appreciate it.

There were 24 cards in the box.  The cards are roughly 2 1/4" x 3 1/4".  The fronts have player pictures with signatures.  They have dashed lines around the outer edge to appear that they have been cut apart and then professionally laminated.

The backs include the player name and team followed by a brief paragraph detailing many statistics and awards from mainly 1970.  The team logo appears in the background. 

Player Checklist:  Pete Rose, Roberto Clemente, Willie Horton, Luis Aparicio, Ernie Banks, Ferguson Jenkins, Tom Seaver, Willie Mays, Harmon Killebrew, Denny McLain, Rusty Staub, Brooks Robinson, Alex Johnson, Reggie Jackson, Frank Robinson, Hank Aaron, Sam McDowell, Al Kaline, Boog Powell, Carl Yastrzemski, Rico Carty, Frank Howard, Bob Gibson, and Johnny Bench.

1980 Topps Needed

The inspiration for starting this blog was my introduction to card collecting in 1980. Tonight, I dug through boxes to locate those cards. Apparently, I had put them into a binder some time ago so making the list of wants was much easier. It was fun to take the time and look through the set and see what started me on this mad craze and now the chase to finally see it to its completion. Upon opening the binder I was quickly reminded of my start in collecting. After I began to amass my stack of cards, my mother decided they needed to be put somewhere. (No, she didn't throw them out!) So she decided make me some bulletin boards and gave me thumbtacks. You got to love moms. As you can see, this resulted in this Willie McCovey with the pinhole in the upper left corner. Not to be outdone, by grandmother decided that my cousin and I needed to keep track of our cards so they wouldn't get mixed up. She didn't quite understand that we often went home with different cards than we came with, but she still made us put our names on the back. I autographed quite a few cards that summer.

As I continued to go through the cards, I came across a great action shot of Gary Carter.  This type of shot was unusual for 1980 as most of the pictures were stills or batting stances.  I wonder if the runner was safe or out???

Anyway, my 1980 Topps needs are located on my Want List page. Please let me know what you have to trade and we can work something out. Mint condition is definitely not expected. They would look out of place next to these.

Cards You Won't Find in a Player Checklist

As a George Brett collector, I tried to keep up with all of his cards during his playing days.  Since retirement, that has been virtually impossible.  However, there are always cards out there for the player collector that will almost certainly never come up in a search of that player's cards.  Toward the end of Brett's career I never would have imagined to look anywhere but on his own cards.  In 1993 I came across a card in a pack of Score Select that caught my eye.  It was not because Roberto Alomar might become a Hall-of-Famer, nor was it because I was a Blue Jays fan.  Take a look at Alomar turning the 6-4-3 double play....

I would also never have thought to look at any non-baseball set either until I saw....anybody care to offer a guess???

The New Season

Even if you don't follow the Royals, you know, I know, everyone knows what is in store for this team.  What's great about Opening Day is that we get to look at our teams as if they are perfect.  The Royals and the every other team start anew.  They are the same. Same record, same excitement, same hopes and dreams.  It is the one perfect day of the year.  I can go to the ballpark just like 750,000 other people across the United States with the belief that my team has a chance to win it all, and on this day you get to see the best go against the best.  Greinke vs. Verlander.  It should be a great matchup.  Let's just hope my dream gets to hang on for one more day.  At least I know the brat and beer will be perfect!