[zeprock]

It's the 4th of July! Happy Independence Day! For the holiday I've scanned in nine of my cards that feature "Old Glory".

       
1990 Pacific Cards #NNO Ken Griffey Jr. (This unlicensed card sports Junior in front of the red, white and blue stars and bars.)
1991 Fleer Pro-Visions #4 Mark McGwire UER (I was a huge fan of Fleer's Pro-Visions cards when they came out. Next level for their time.)
1995 Topps Cyber Season in Review #1 Barry Bonds (This Bonds card came as a bonus in my 1995 Topps Factory set. I have three sets of these and each card has a different configuration of the background stripes. One of my other Bonds cards only has one red stripe above the top blue stripe and the other Bonds card has three blue stripes.)

        
2002 Fleer Maximum Americas Game Jersey #13 Greg Maddux (This card has a swatch of Greg's road jersey embedded in it.)
2002 Studio Spirit of the Game #6 Mike Piazza
2003 Stadium Club Born in the USA Relics #NG Nomar Garciaparra Bat (This card features a chip from Nomar's bat.)

         
2003 Upper Deck 40-Man Red White and Blue #327 Derek Jeter (A Mets trader from New York threw this card in as an extra in a trade I made with him many years ago.)
2005 National Pastime Grand Old Gamers #14 Albert Pujols (These Grand Old Gamers inserts are one of my favorites from that year.)
2012 Bowman International #163 Buster Posey

[jhyde77]

Happy 4th of July! Thanks for showing the patriotic cards. That Pujols is really nice looking card. I always liked the Bowman Internationals with the American flags also.

[zeprock]

Richie Ashburn was one of the original "Whiz Kids" with the Phillies. He was a six-time All-star who led the NL in Batting twice and Stolen Bases once. One of the most beloved sports figures in Philadelphia history, Richie also spent time with the Cubs and the expansion New York Mets becoming their first batter in franchise history as well as their first All-star representative. Did you know that during a game in 1957, he hit a foul ball that struck the wife of a Philadelphia sports editor and broke her nose? When play resumed he hit another foul ball that hit her again as she was being carried off on a stretcher. The two would go on to maintain a friendship for many years. I currently have 98 Beckett recognized cards of Richie including these nine.

       
1953 Bowman Color #10 Richie Ashburn
1957 Topps #70 Richie Ashburn
1958 Topps #230 Richie Ashburn


1959 Topps #300 Richie Ashburn
1959 Topps #317 NL Hitting Kings/Willie Mays/Richie Ashburn
1960 Topps #305 Richie Ashburn

       
1961 Topps #88 Richie Ashburn
1963 Topps #135 Richie Ashburn
2004 MLB Showdown Trading Deadline #120 Richie Ashburn CC FOIL

[zeprock]

Moving up another year through my collection brings me to the year 2018. I sold my album collection that year, more than 6,100 albums. I was able to buy a new used Dodge Ram 1500, a really nice camera for my wife, a lawn tractor, pay my property taxes and take a short vacation with the funds. More importantly it freed up a lot of space for more cards. (LOL) I still have more than 2,500 45rpm singles that I need to unload if anyone is interested. Here are nine cards Ive scanned in from 2018 including some notable rookies from that year.

       
2018 Panini National Treasures Greatness Memorabilia #8 Stan Musial/99
2018 Stadium Club Beam Team Black #BTMT Mike Trout
2018 Stadium Club Photo Variations #180 Ted Williams/Color photo (I got this one from garrisc.)

         
2018 Topps Gallery Canvas #116 Shohei Ohtani
2018 Topps Update #US250 Ronald Acuna Jr. RC
2018 Topps Update #US300 Juan Soto RC

       
2018 Topps Update Gold #US153 Japan's Finest/Shohei Ohtani/Ichiro Suzuki (I just recently picked this up from Kerry O.)
2018 Topps Update Rainbow Foil #US43 The Future is Bright/Albies/Acuna Jr.
2018 Topps Walmart Holiday Snowflake Relics Metallic #RJBR Jackie Bradley Jr. (Another "throw in" from my LA trading friend.)

[zeprock]

Today my childhood baseball hero and favorite player of all time popped up on the randomizer. Carl Yastrzemski was the star of the Red Sox team that went to the World Series vs. the Cardinals in 1967. Although the Sox came up short in that one, it was the "Impossible Dream" season and Yaz was front and center winning the Triple Crown that year. As a kid just getting interested in baseball around 1970, Yaz was the hero of many of us in New England. I pulled his All-star card out of the first pack I ever bought back in 1970. I did get to meet him and have him sign some cards for me. For that story, see post #153 in this thread. Yaz was an 18-time All-star who won three Batting titles to go along with seven Gold Glove Awards, a MVP Award and the Triple Croiwn. These days his grandson, Mike, roams right field for the Giants. I'm always excited to add a "new" card to my Yaz collection. As of this posting I have 559 unique Beckett recognized cards of him. Here are nine that I haven't shown you yet from my collection.

       
1962 Topps #425 Carl Yastrzemski Autographed (One of three cards I had Carl sign for me when I did a commercial shoot with him back in 1987. I've never paid more than I did for this card when I bought it back in the early 1980s for $75. On my next visit to the store I learned that the proprietor of the store felt some remorse for charging me so much and gave me some store credit.)
1963 Fleer #8 Carl Yastrzemski Autographed (Another that I had him sign that same day.)
1963 Topps #115 Carl Yastrzemski

       
1965 Topps #385 Carl Yastrzemski
1966 Topps #70 Carl Yastrzemski
1967 Topps #355 Carl Yastrzemski

 
1971 Topps #530 Carl Yastrzemski (I first set eyes on this card when a fellow Boy Scout brought a new pack to a meeting back in 1971. I later managed to get a rough copy of it for myself and many years later upgraded to this near mint version.)
2001 Fleer Red Sox 100th Splendid Splinters Game Bat #8 Carl Yastrzemski
2001 Topps American Pie Timeless Classics Relics #BBTC17 C.Yaz 68 BA Jsy

[zeprock]

We're headed to the toy store today for an oddball selection of cards.

       
1988 Kay-Bee #25 Cal Ripken (This is from a 33-card boxed set produced by Topps exclusively for Kay-Bee Toy Stores.)
1989 Toys'R'Us Rookies #28 Gary Sheffield (Here's Gary Sheffield before he had the gold caps on his front teeth removed. This set was also produced by Topps and was released as a 33-card boxed set through Toys 'R' Us Stores.)
1989 STC Box Cut #NNO Don Mattingly (This card was never meant to be a card. I had arrived at my weightlifting partner's house to lift and as I walked through his garage, I saw a box on top of his trash can with this picture of Don Mattingly on it. It was a box for a whiffle ball set produced by a Japanese company called STC Toys. It is the size of a standard baseball card and is made of soft plastic with a blank cardboard back. I figured I probably would have the only one of these but I have since seen one on eBay.) 

       
1998 Protalk Talking Cards #5 Ken Griffey Jr./Grand slam homer (This card contains a small battery so that when you press the button, you can hear about 45 seconds of actual highlights being played.)
1998 Topps Etch-A-Sketch #ES2 Barry Bonds (I was pretty good with the Etch-A-Sketch as a kid. I could make some cool landscapes and the like until my younger brother would come along and slap it out of my hand and send it skidding across the floor. This insert set featured actual drawings by artist George Vlosich III done on his Etch-A-Sketch.)
1999 Fleer Tradition All-Star Kite Card #3 Ken Griffey Jr. (Unrecognized by Beckett, this card looks identical to the 1999 Fleer Tradition Ken Griffey Jr. card with the only notable difference being that it is numbered 3 of 6. Thanks to magicpapa for his help in identifying this card as being one that came with an All-Star kite.)

        
1999 Hasbro Starting Lineup Cards #10 Nomar Garciaparra (Famous toymaker, Hasbro issued this card with one of their Starting Lineup dolls back 1999.)
2000 Fanatics Talking Baseball #25 Mark McGwire (Like the Protalk Talking cards, this card also contains a battery and plays an audio highlight from McGwire's 500th home run. This card was distributed by Fanatics Toys and came with a stand-up of Big Mac that stands about a foot tall.)
2001 Donruss Class of 2001 BobbleHead Cards #15 Roger Clemens (Serial numbered to 2000, this card was included with a bobblehead doll produced by Donruss.)

[Phillies_Joe]

Nice!!!! Thank You!

[zeprock]

Today's it's the Bambino's turn to be featured. Of course I collect Babe Ruth, the most famous baseball player of all-time. The Babe transcended the game of baseball. Even today people who cannot name any other baseball player can come up with the name of Babe Ruth. His story is legendary of how he learned the game in an orphanage, became a star pitcher for the Red Sox, was traded to the Yankees in a lopsided deal that left a curse over the Beantown team for decades. The Sultan of Swat was a two-time All-star playing most of his career before there was an All-star game. He was a seven-time World Series Champion, a MVP, a Batting Champion, a 12-time Home Run leader, a six-time RBI leader and as a pitcher led his league in ERA once. There are many tales of Ruth's accomplishments such as his "called shot" in 1932, his 60 home run season in 1927 that stood for 34 years as a season record, his voracious appetite and bellyaches and his place in the "Murder's Row "lineup. His 714 career home runs was the benchmark for nearly 40 years and even today has only been surpassed twice. I currently have 855 Beckett recognized cards of Babe although sadly none from his playing days. Here are nine from my collection.

       
1960 Fleer #3 Babe Ruth
1961 Nu-Card Scoops #447 Babe Ruth 60th Homer
1962 Topps #141 Babe Ruth Special 7/Twilight Years (I have seven of the ten cards from this subset.)

       
1968 Sports Memorabilia All-Time Greats #11 Babe Ruth
1973 Topps #474 Babe Ruth/All-Time RBI Leader
1976 Topps #345 Babe Ruth ATG

        
2002 Donruss All-Time Diamond Kings #4 Babe Ruth
2011 Topps Factory Set Target Ruth Chrome Gold Refractors #BR59 Babe Ruth 59T (A bonus included in my factory set that year.)
2012 Topps Golden Moments Die Cuts #GMDC1 Babe Ruth (Picked this up from duck6700j earlier this year.)

[zeprock]

George Brett is Mr. Royal. I knew of his brother Ken as a pitcher for the Red Sox long before I heard of George. Brett is one of only four players in MLB history to accumulate 3000 hits, 300 home runs and a .300 batting average (The others are Aaron, Mays and Musial). He is the only player to win a Batting title in three different decades. In addition to those three Batting titles, he won a Gold Glove Award, three Silver Slugger Awards, a World Series Championship, a MVP and was a 13-time All-star. Most people remember him for his temper tantrum after his pine-tar home run against the Yankees. As of this posting, I have 700 unique Beckett recognized cards of Brett. Here are nine of them.

       
1976 SSPC #167 George Brett
1978 Topps #100 George Brett
1979 Topps #330 George Brett

       
1993 Upper Deck Season Highlights #HI7 George Brett
1995 Collector's Choice Gold Signature #49 George Brett
2001 SP Legendary Cuts Game Bat #BGB George Brett

       
2001 Upper Deck Hall of Famers Game Bat #BGB George Brett DP
2002 Ultra Fall Classic Memorabilia #4 George Brett White Jsy
2019 Absolute Triple Memorabilia #23 George Brett

[zeprock]

Well I'm running out of years but I guess that's true of all of us. Moving up to 2019 today and what a life-altering year it turned out to be for me. I started the year on crutches with a swollen knee and after a complete physical in January I was told those three words no one ever wants to hear. "You have cancer." I had a biopsy on Valentines Day that confirmed it and on my birthday in June, I had surgery to remove it. After four and a half weeks of recovery, I went back to work. During a follow-up appointment that fall, I learned that the cancer had spread further than they had thought and they weren't able to remove it all so they scheduled me for radiation treatments the following spring. To all of you men reading this, I implore you to get a PSA test done with your physical. Early detection is key. Here are nine cards from my collection from 2019. I think it's rather sad that five of these nine cards do not have Beckett values listed in the OPG.

       
2019 Diamond Kings Masters of the Game Masterpiece #7 Francisco Lindor (Back in post #380 of this thread, I showed you my 1/1 Pujols card and mentioned it was the only 1/1 card I ever pulled. I completely forgot about this one. Pujols was the first 1/1 I ever pulled and this was the last one to date. I don't collect Lindor so if anyone wants this and has something comparable to trade, let me know and I'll mark this for trade.
2019 Panini Ascension Blue #3 Fernando Tatis Jr. (No logos on this card but you wouldn't be able to tell anyway from this pose. Is this not a beautiful looking card?)
2019 Stadium Club Members Only #132 Rickey Henderson (Two Hall of Famers on this card. I have no idea what it's worth.)


2019 Stadium Club Photo Variations #38 Ryne Sandberg/Batting
2019 Topps #410 Fernando Tatis Jr. RC
2019 Topps 150 Years of Professional Baseball Red #150110 Albert Pujols (I love it when I find something like this in a 10 for $1 box at a card show which is where I picked this up. It's serial numbered 2/10.)

       
2019 Topps Allen and Ginter Rip Cards Mini #380 Mark McGwire (Another pickup from duck6700j.)
2019 Topps Base Set Photo Variations #410 Fernando Tatis Jr./White jersey RETAIL (One of six rookie variations included as a bonus in my factory set. The others were Alonso, 2 different Guerrero Jr., Jimenez and Kikuchi.)
2019 Topps Factory Set Greatest Chrome Reprints Orange Refractors #TGCR12 Stan Musial (I got five different refractors as a bonus in my factory set. This is the only one that was orange. It's numbered 17/25.)