George Brett Card of the Day #5

2003 Topps Series I Record Breakers RB-GB

The 2003 Topps Set included a Record Breakers insert set.  The cards were inserted at a rate of around 1 in every 5 packs.  Purple background cards were inserted in Series I packs while Series II packs had green backgrounds.  The front of the card highlights Brett's 1980 season in which he batted .390.

The back of the card is bright yellow and highlights his 3 batting titles spread over 3 different decades.  His 1980 mark of .390 was the highest since Ted William's .406 in 1941.  Brett also won the American League MVP that year beating out Reggie Jackson for the award.

George Brett Card of the Day #4

2005 Upper Deck Past Time Pennants #34

The 2005 Upper Deck Past Time Pennant set featured 90 cards of baseball's legendary players.  The picture features Brett with another Royals presumably in the on-deck circle.  Based on the 25th Anniversary patch on the uniform, this picture is from 1993.  You can make out the #34 on the back of the batting helmet so this has to Felix Jose, who came over from the St. Louis Cardinals in a trade for Gregg Jeffries prior to the 1993 season.

The back of the card refers to Brett's role during the 1985 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals.  This series still brings bad memories to Cardinals fans for Don Denkinger's missed call at first base in Game 6.  The card lists Brett's five best seasons and his career totals.  Three of those five seasons resulted in him winning a batting title (1976, 1980, and 1990) and made him the only player to win a batting title in 3 different decades.

George Brett Card of the Day #3

1992 Jimmy Dean Living Legend #1

The 1992 Jimmy Dean Living Legend set was a 6 card set available for 3 proofs of purchase plus $1.00.  As you can see, the set is not licensed by MLB.  Front is a picture from Brett's days as a first basemen at the end of his career.

Brett's cumulative statistics are listed on the back with information about his 3 batting championships, one in each of the decades of his career.  Brett had not yet collected his 3000th hit as he was at 2836 following the 1991 season.

George Brett Card of the Day #2

2013 Topps Archives #124

In the 1985 Topps style, this Archives card from 2013 shows George in his traditional batting stance photo.  A picture from early in his career is displayed on the front while career stats appear on the back.

Perhaps, one of Topps worst cardbacks, the red lettering on green background makes his Royal record hitting streak almost unreadable.  Then if you try to look at the stats, you will need a magnifying glass to even try to make them out.  Not a big fan of the Archives sets, but won't turn down a Brett.

George Brett Card of the Day #1

In an effort to blog more in 2014 AND get my George Brett PC under control I am hopeful to do a post about my George Brett cards.  I don't plan on doing the posts in any sort of order, rather to just pick a random card from my collection and highlight it.  I will also be posting the card scans on a separate page of my blog here.

The first card in the series goes to the 1976 SSPC George Brett #167.

This set, originally printed in 1975, challenged the Topps monopoly in the card market.  Based on the 1953 Bowman design, this set is sometimes referred to as the "Pure Card" as the fronts are strictly player photos.  The set maker was eventually sued by Topps and further production of these sets was prohibited.  (http://www.baseballcardpedia.com/)

Another Pursuit - 2000 Upper Deck Legends - Legendary Jerseys

So I have to thank Sewing Machine Guy for this one!  When he started posting about his pursuit for the entire 73 card relic set from 2010 Topps Magic, I began thinking about what type of similar conquest I could look to tackle.  So off I went to my boxes looking for the start of my new pursuit....and there it was.  My first George Brett jersey card from the 2000 Upper Deck Legends set.  Then I realized that I already had the Wade Boggs from that set, but where was it?  Upon searching through more boxes I found it.  Two down and 50 to go.  But wait, there are three cards that are pant relics, do those count?  That Gehrig will be impossible to get.  What about that Koufax signed jersey card?  Oh what the heck, throw them all in and I guess we will see where we go.  

   

From the scan above you can see that I have added another card to the collection with a Frank Thomas purchase.  I also have a couple of others on the way via eBay.  How long will this take?  Probably too long.  However, it will give me something to chase when I get tired of the current set that I am working on, whatever that might be.  I probably should focus on doing one thing at a time, but what fun is that!

Card Show Pickup - HUGE George Brett Bat Card

As a lifelong Royal and George Brett fan I am always on the lookout for "new" items to add to the collection.  While I was browsing at a table and sorting through some 1973 Topps at our local card show this past weekend, this card caught my wife's eye AND she thought I ought to get it.  How great is that.  Now in my earlier post I already said she bailed me out with the cash which I forgot so I guess you can see she got it for "our" collection.  The 2003 Fleer Flair Great Sweet Swatch Classic is huge measuring 5" by 7 3/4".  The picture doesn't do its size justice.  To put it in perspective, the swatch is roughly the same size as the recent Topps Kimball Champions mini cards.   They could have almost put the whole bat in there.  It is numbered 295/320.  I am happy to add it to my George Brett collection.  If anyone knows what type of pack or how you acquired these large cards, please leave me a comment.

Most Recent Addition to the Brett Collection

With the start of this blog and the start of summer, I hope to be adding more cards to my George Brett Collection.  Growing up a Royals fan, Brett was just starting what would be a Hall of Fame career when I was old enough to follow the team.  When I started collecting in 1980 my main focus was to obtain more cards than my friends.  It seemed that every chance we got we were going to the store to pick up a new pack.  Once I entered college and got back into collecting, I realized my collection would need to be much more focused and since Brett was winding down his career I decided to try to obtain every one of his cards (X3).  Why settle for one when you can have three of them and it would look much more impressive to have pages with a whole row of the same card.  That was fine until the most dreaded event happened....retirement.  Of course, that was when the hobby was beginning to explode with inserts and parallels.  While I have obtained just about all of his cards from his career, I haven't even broken through with the cards that have came after his retirement.  While this keeps my chase alive, it is frustrating to know that my goal is impossible to attain.  However, we keep trying and every chance I get to obtain a few more, I will pick them up.  On a recent trip to Dallas, I ran across Nick's Sportscards.  This is one of the nicest, friendliest shops I have been too.  It was great to be able to walk into a store and be surrounded by sportscards instead of people playing some fantasy card game.  Most of the shops within an hour of where I live have either went out of business, consider sportscards a secondary business, or are just plain trashy.  I was able to pick up a few cards to add to my collection and this is my favorite purchase from Nick's, a 2008 Donruss Threads.