Bill's Baseball Card Blog

This is my first thank you post, especially to Greg from  night owl cards  and Bob from  the best bubble  for helping me fill in gaps in my collections! Greg saw that I had 8 Alston cards in a 9 pocket sheet and well it just didn't look right. So he sent me the above 2002 Topps Super Teams '55 and the 2003 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts Alston card below to fill the void. Both are sweet additions to my Alston Collection. But this creates a new (and welcome) dilemma where I now have a second sheet, and it only has 1 card in a 9 pocket sheet! Eight more to go!?!? The same week I received two cards from Bob that will fit in nicely into my Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame collection. The Hugh Critz and Fred Lucas cards below are Galasso reprints of 1933 Goudy Gum Co., Big League Chewing Gum. I normally only collect cards of Reds HoFers while they played for the Reds, but I make exceptions for players from the really early years. There just aren't many cards of these p...

On September 1, 1971, the Pittsburgh Pirates became the first MLB team to field an all-black starting lineup. Twenty-four years after Branch Rickey signed African-American Jackie Robinson, with the support of Commissioner Happy Chandler, Pirates Manager Danny Murtaugh penned the first all-black lineup. And man, it was a good one! I'm never quite sure if I should collect and display cards of players from the year of the significant achievement/occurrence/event, or if I should collect cards from the year after, which may or may not recognize the achievement (i.e., all-black lineup, triple crown season, perfect game, etc.). In this case, I chose the former. Top row: All 1971 Topps. Left fielder HoFer Willie Stargell; center fielder Gene Clines; and right fielder HoFer Roberto Clemente. Middle row: 1971 O-Pee-Chee short stop Jackie Hernandez in a Royals uniform; 1971 O-Pee-Chee card of pitcher Dock Ellis; and a 1972 Topps Rennie Stennett at second base. I don't think To...

2014 Panini - HoFer Ed Delahanty 1988 C.C.C. Reprint - Frank Delahanty (error misspelled last name) DeansCards Reprint - Jim Delahanty The Jan 23 post by Night Owl Cards  night owl cards  inspired me to show some of my collection of baseball brothers and families. Starting above with the Delehanty Brothers: Hall of Famer Ed, Frank, and Jim. There were two other Delahanty brothers that also played briefly in MLB (Joe and Tom), but I haven't seen any cards of them. The DiMaggio brothers are shown below on Gum Inc. Playball Reprints. The Boyer brothers are shown below on 1969 Topps (Clete and Ken), and 1976 JDM/JMC of a 1955 Rodeo Meat Commemorative Set (Cloyd). The Alou brothers actually played together on the same team in the same game in 1963 as shown on the box score below. Felipe and Matty are shown on 1963 Topps, and Jesus on a 1964 Topps. Felipe's son Moises is shown below on a 2006 Topps Opening Day. BTW, his brot...

You cannot deny the great career of Derek Jeter (believe me, I'm not a Yankees fan, so I try to poke holes). Jeter spent his entire 20-year MLB playing career with the New York Yankees. He is a five-time World Series champion, the Yankees' all-time career leader in hits (3,465), doubles (544), games played (2,747), stolen bases (358), times on base (4,716), plate appearances (12,602) and at bats (11,195). He has 14 All-Star selections, five Gold Glove Awards, five Silver Slugger Awards, two Hank Aaron Awards, and a Roberto Clemente Award. In 2017, the Yankees retired his uniform number 2. The cards: Top row, L-R: 1990 Topps; 2000 Fleer Dividends; and 2000 Fleer Tradition. Middle row: 2000 Fleer Tradition; 2000 Fleer Tradition; and a Series 2001 Card 1 of 4 Skippy disk. Bottom row: 2002 Topps; 2004 Topps Opening Day; and 2006 Fleer Tradition. Top row, L-R: 2006 Topps Sports Illustrated for Kids; 2007 Upper Deck; and 2007 Upper Deck Goudy Big League. Middle row: 200...

Richie Ashburn accumulated 2,574 hits with a lifetime batting average of .308 and an on-base percentage of .396 in his 15 year career. With only 29 home runs, he was a true "spray hitter." Ashburn accumulated the most hits (1,875) of any batter during the 1950s. He appears to be well regarded as a center fielder. There are two funny stories I learned of Ashburn from Baseball-Reference. The first: "During an August 17, 1957 game Ashburn hit a foul ball into the stands that struck spectator Alice Roth, wife of Philadelphia Bulletin sports editor Earl Roth, breaking her nose. When play resumed Ashburn fouled off another ball that struck her while she was being carried off in a stretcher. Ashburn and Mrs. Roth maintained a friendship for many years, and the Roths' son later served as a Phillies batboy." The second: "One oft-told story is that on short flies to center or left-center, center fielder Ashburn would collide with shortstop Elio Chacón. Chac...