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I love the Platinum Medallion inserts!

Mark McGwire burst onto the MLB scene in 1987 smashing the all-time rookie home run record and winning Rookie of the Year honors as well as an All-star berth.  From that point on home runs pretty much defined his career, leading his league five times, well, that and injuries. Of course he out-slugged Sammy Sosa in 1998 to win the single season home run record and everyone loved him. Then things went bad and just three years later, he was done. He's still a player that I collect and I currently have 1776 unique Beckett recognized cards of Big Mac in my collection. Here are nine of my favorites.

       
1996 Pacific Prisms Fence Busters #FB11 Mark McGwire
1996 Pinnacle First Rate #18 Mark McGwire
1998 Donruss Preferred #16 Mark McGwire FB

       
1999 Pacific Prism Epic Performers #9 Mark McGwire
1999 Topps Gold Label Race to Aaron Black #RA1 Mark McGwire
1999 Upper Deck Crowning Glory #CG2 M.McGwire/B.Bonds (The back of this card featured Barry Bonds, the man who unseated Mac as the single season home run champion.)

     
2001 Donruss Rookie Reprints #RR14 Mark McGwire/1987 (A reprint of Mark's Donruss rookie card which incidentally is valued 2.5x higher than his original Donruss rookie.)
2003 Sweet Spot Classics Game Jersey #MM Mark McGwire
2015 Panini National Treasures Treasured Materials #34 Mark McGwire/99

I'm doing another oddball post today and featuring nine cards that have a connection to public service.

       
1985 Phillies CIGNA #4 Mike Schmidt (This Phillies set was sponsored by Cigna, an American worldwide health services organization based in Bloomfield, Connecticut whose insurance subsidiaries are major providers of medical, dental, disability, life and accident insurance. Each card contains a safety tip on the back.)
1989 Tigers Police #NNO Sparky Anderson MG (These Tigers cards also have safety tips on the back and were given away by the Michigan state police.)
1991 Blue Jays Fire Safety #2 Roberto Alomar (This 36 card standard-size set was jointly sponsored by the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs, the Ministry of the Solicitor General, A and P/Dominion, Oh Henry, and the Toronto Blue Jays.)

       
1992 Padres Police DARE #8 Tony Gwynn (This 30 card set was sponsored by D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) America.)
1993 Dodgers Police #20 Mike Piazza (This set set was sponsored by the Los Angeles Police Department, the L.A. Dodgers, and D.A.R.E.)
1993 Red Sox Winter Haven Police #8 Roger Clemens (Sponsored by the Winter Haven, Florida Police and their Police Athletic League, this set features players who were invited to the 1993 Red Sox spring training camp held annually in Winter Haven.)

     
1994 U.S. Department of Transportation #2 Cal Ripken (This card was co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It reportedly was given out at the Little League World Series.)
1998 Rockies Police #6 Todd Helton (This set was issued by the Colorado Rockies and produced by Grandstand and sponsored by "Decker", a manufacturer of hot dogs. Each card has a safety tip on the back. This card, along with many others, was a recent gift from jack pfiester.)
2004 Topps McGruff #3 Nomar Garciaparra/McGruff/Home Safety (I found this card at a yard sale and over paid for it but it was the only card I saw that I didn't already have and I was big on collecting Nomar at that time. Cards in this set were inserted one per Topps of the Class Packs and feature noted anti-crime cartoon character McGruff along with a Major Leaguer. Each card in the 6 card set deals with a different social issue. This one is on home safety.)

The next player to come up on my random list is Jose Altuve. He's only been in the Majors for about 10 years but he's already been an All-star six times and won three Batting Championships. He's also won a Most Valuable Player Award and a World Championship but we all know how that came about. I think he's a spark plug for his team and I like that he has power and speed for such a diminutive size. I currently have 356 different Beckett recognized cards of Jose in my collection including these nine.

       
2012 Topps Heritage #461 Jose Altuve SP
2015 Topps Factory Set Sparkle Foil #620 Jose Altuve
2017 Topps Archives Gold Winner #293 Jose Altuve (This is a somewhat rare parallel from 2017 Topps Archives.)

       
2017 Topps Heritage Chrome Refractors #THC425 Jose Altuve
2017 Topps Vintage Stock #644 Jose Altuve
2018 Topps Base Set Photo Variations #400A Jose Altuve/Blue shirt

     
2018 Topps Factory Set Foilboard #294 Jose Altuve LL (This card made its way into my collection along with a lot of others courtesy of bonds20001.)
2018 Topps Heritage Clubhouse Collection Relics #CCRJAL Jose Altuve
2018 Topps Update Rainbow Foil #US79 A Game for Everyone/Jose Altuve/Aaron Judge (I have the Gold parallel of this card too and got one if not both of them from kerryandbeth.)

Moving into a new millennium today. When I was a kid in the 60s, I would think, Wow! I'll be 41 years old in the year 2000. Hard to believe that was more than 20 years ago. I went through my cards from the year 2000 and here are nine from my collection.

       
2000 Fleer Club 3000 Memorabilia #CY1 C.Yaz Bat/250
2000 Fleer Gamers Lumber #24 Derek Jeter
2000 SkyBox Genuine Coverage #6 Alex Rodriguez HR

       
2000 Topps Aaron Chrome Refractors #4 Hank Aaron 1957 (My son pulled this from a pack of Topps in 2000. I couldn't believe his luck. Eventually he traded it to me for some Griffey cards.)
2000 Topps Traded #T40 Miguel Cabrera RC (I bought this complete set back in 2000.)
2000 Upper Deck Hitter's Club Autographs #AL Al Kaline (I got this card from a fellow Red Sox collector in Scotland. When I asked him why he liked the Red Sox, wondering what the connection was, he told me that he liked the show Cheers and Sam Malone played for the Red Sox and that's what got him hooked on Red Sox cards. I thought that was pretty cool. I sent a slew of Sox cards overseas to him for this beauty.)

     
2000 Upper Deck Hitter's Club Autographs #ROD Rod Carew
2000 Upper Deck Legends Commemorative Collection #86 Lou Gehrig (This was a gift from a fellow trader in New York.)
2000 Upper Deck Legends Legendary Signatures #SHK Harmon Killebrew (I got this from the same Minnesota collector that I got my ML PLayers Alumni Auto of Harmon from that I displayed back in post #314 on this thread.)

Dave Winfield was a superb athlete being named All-American and winning the College World Series MVP Award . . . as a pitcher. Following college he was drafted by the San Diego Padres, the NBA's Atlanta Hawks, the ABA's Utah Jazz and the NFL's Minnesota Vikings even though he never played college football. He signed with the Padres as a pitcher and skipped the Minor Leagues where the Padres made him an outfielder so they could get his bat in the lineup on a daily basis. He became a 12-time All-star, 7-time Gold Glove winner and 6-time Silver Slugger who added a World Championship and a Hall of Fame plaque to his accomplishments. I currently have 603  unique Beckett recognized cards of Dave in my collection. Here are nine of them.

       
1975 Hostess #37 Dave Winfield (Cut from a box of Suzy Q's.)
1975 Topps #61 Dave Winfield
1976 SSPC #133 Dave Winfield

       
1976 Topps #160 Dave Winfield
1977 Topps #390 Dave Winfield
2002 Sweet Spot Classics Game Bat #BDW Dave Winfield DP


2003 SP Legendary Cuts Historic Lumber #DW1 Dave Winfield Yanks/350
2010 Topps Update #US214B Dave Winfield VAR SP (A short print from 2010 Topps Update.)
2011 ITG Heroes and Prospects Heroes Jerseys Silver #17 Dave Winfield S2

Not just baseball players appear on baseball cards. Sometimes Presidents make an appearance or an announcer or a celebrity. Topps First Pitch inserts from 2015 through 2017 brought all sorts of non-ballplayer people onto their cards from athletes from other sports, musicians, tv personalities, politicians and real life heroes to everyday people. For today's oddball post, I dug through my collection and found nine cards of celebrities to feature.

       
1980 Pacific Legends #28 Chuck Connors (Anyone who watched tv in the early '60s knows Chuck Connors from starring in The Rifleman. Connors had a 40-year film and television career, but before all that, he briefly played in the MLB for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Chicago Cubs. He was such a gifted athlete that before he played in the MLB, he played a season with the Boston Celtics in the NBA and in 1946 was credited as being the first professional basketball player to shatter a backboard.)
1988 Pacific Eight Men Out #34 George Buck Weaver (John Cusack's film career is approaching the 40-year mark and he has starred in numerous films such as Sixteen Candles, The Grifters, Say Anything and High Fidelity. In 1988 he co-starred in Eight Men Out, a film about the 1919 Chicago Black Sox scandal and this card is from Pacific's set commemorating that film. John portrayed Sox third baseman Buck Weaver.)
1991 Legends Sports Memorabilia #NNO Kevin Costner (Costner also has a 40-year film career and holds the distinction of starring in three baseball movies including my favorite, Bull Durham as well as Field of Dreams and For Love of the Game. This card, cut from a magazine, shows him hanging out on the field while working out with the Texas Rangers back around 1991.)

       
1991 Truth or Dare #NNO Jose Canseco/Madonna (Canseco claims that the Material Girl tried to romance him in 1991 and wanted to marry him and have a child with him even though he was married at the time. This unlicensed card is titled after Madonna's book and obviously features both of them.)
1992 Topps Magazine #77 John Goodman/As Babe Ruth (Another actor who's been at it for nearly 40 years is John Goodman. One of his first tv appearances was in a commercial for Skin Bracer where he slapped himself in the face and said, "Thanks, I needed that." He rose to fame on the Roseanne show and starred in many movies including The Flintstones, The Big Lebowski and another of my favorite films, Raising Arizona. In 1992 he portrayed Babe Ruth in The Babe and that is what this card commemorates. It was cut from the pages of a Topps Magazine.)
1992 Upper Deck #SP4 F.Thomas/T.Selleck (Tom Selleck broke into television with a starring role in Magnum P.I. back in 1980 and has been acting ever since, currently in the CBS drama Blue Bloods. Some of his more popular movies are Quigley Down Under, Three Men and a Baby and 1992's Mr. Baseball about an aging ballplayer sent to play in Japan. This short-printed card features Tom working out with Frank Thomas, in a Yankees uniform no less, who had a cameo in the film.)


2008 TRISTAR PROjections Reflectives #400 Billy Crystal (Comedic actor and lifelong Yankees fan, Billy Crystal, rose to prominence in the tv show Soap and then on Saturday Night Live before branching out into movies such as The Princess Bride, Throw Momma from the Train, City Slickers and When Harry Met Sally. In 2008 Billy was signed to a one-day Minor League Baseball contract with an invitation to spring training which led to one at bat as a designated hitter in which he struck out on a full count.)
2014 Topps Archives Major League #MLCRD Roger Dorn/Corbin Bernson (Corbin Bernson was primarily known for his role on L.A. Law when he got the role of Roger Dorn in the movie Major League. This is from a Topps insert set honoring the 25th anniversary of that film.)
2016 Topps Update First Pitch #FP6 Aubrey Plaza (I could have easily filled this post with Topps First Pitch cards but will just show this one of comedic actress Aubrey Plaza known for her role on Parks and Recreation. She was named after a song by the band Bread and here she is on the day she threw out the first pitch at a Dodgers game looking playful with a red, white and blue star design emanating from her left eye.)

Next up is Nellie Fox, a 12-time All-star, a three-time Gold Glove Award winner and four-time Hit Leader with a MVP Award to his credit. He was a member of the "Go-Go White Sox" and a keystone partner with Luis Aparicio whose statues appear together outside U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago. It seemed he always had a chaw of tobacco in his cheek. Cancer took him at the age of 47. I only have 62 different Beckett-recognized cards of Fox including these nine.

       
1956 Topps #118 Nellie Fox
1957 Topps #38 Nellie Fox
1958 Topps #400 Nellie Fox

       
1959 Topps #30 Nellie Fox
1959 Topps #408 Keystone Combo/Nellie Fox/Luis Aparicio (Here's Nellie with his double-play partner, fellow HOFer Luis Aparicio.)
1959 Topps #556 Nellie Fox AS


1960 Topps #100 Nellie Fox
1960 Topps #555 Nellie Fox AS
2005 Donruss Champions Impressions Material #405 Nellie Fox Bat T5 (I received this from limitedbaseballcards. Jeramie and I had several trades together long before we both joined Beckett.)

2001 was the year of 9/11. I was standing alone in the control room at the tv station I worked for watching Katie Couric report on a plane hitting one of the Twin Towers in NYC while a live shot of the burning building played behind her. Then I saw the second plane crash into the other tower and could not believe what I was witnessing. Within an hour there were about 20 co-workers in the control room all gathered around watching the horror unfold. My wife was teaching in her classroom when a co-worker of hers came in and gave her the news. I think we all knew where we were and what we were doing on that particular day. Baseball went on after a brief hiatus and I think played a role in the healing of America. Here are nine cards from my collection all from that year.

       
2001 Donruss Classics Combos #14 Lou Brock/100
2001 E-X #131 Albert Pujols/499 RC (I remember pulling this card from a pack of 2001 Fleer Platinum and was surprised that it wasn't a Fleer Platinum card. The owner of Collector's Corner in Brewer, Maine where I'd bought and pulled it said that Pujols was a highly touted rookie and if he went on to have a decent career, I might have a good card there. I believe there are only 499 of these in existence.)
2001 Greats of the Game Autographs #88 Hoyt Wilhelm

       
2001 Leaf Certified Materials Fabric of the Game #12CR Frank Robinson/72
2001 SP Game Bat Milestone Piece of Action Bound for the Hall Gold #BIR Ivan Rodriguez (This is hand numbered 33 out of 35.)
2001 Topps Team Topps Legends Autographs #TT6F Whitey Ford 67 (I got this from former Beckett member dbrookard.)

         
2001 Topps Traded #T247 Albert Pujols RC
2001 Upper Deck #295 Albert Pujols SR RC
2001 Upper Deck Rookie Update Ichiro Tribute Game Pants #JI9 Ichiro Suzuki/100 (I picked this one up at my local Bangor LCS, The Red Zone.)

I did not think Jack Morris was a Hall of Fame pitcher. I thought he was very good, especially in the post-season, but he was only a five-time All-star. He did lead his league in victories twice and strikeouts once and he did throw a no-hitter but I think it was his four World Championships that got him selected by the Veterans Committee. Because I didn't think he would be elected, I did not make an effort to collect his cards but now that he's in, I have been building up my collection of him. I currently have 238 different Beckett recognized cards of Jack. Here are nine of my best from my collection.

       
1979 Topps #251 Jack Morris
2003 Diamond Kings Bronze Foil #171 Jack Morris RET
2005 Diamond Kings Gallery of Stars #GS13 Jack Morris


2005 SP Legendary Cuts Classic Careers Material #JM Jack Morris Jsy
2005 Upper Deck Classics Materials #JM Jack Morris Jsy
2006 Greats of the Game Tigers Greats #JM Jack Morris

         
2007 Sweet Spot Classic Classic Memorabilia #CMJM Jack Morris
2009 Upper Deck Goudey #204 Jack Morris SP
2013 Pinnacle Awaiting the Call #9 Jack Morris