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Tim Raines was finally inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017. He was the National League's speedy counterpart to the AL's Rickey Henderson throughout the '80s. A 7-time All-star with four Stolen Base titles and a Batting Championship to his credit, he was the last player to wear a batting helmet that didn't have an earflap on it. Nicknamed "Rock", not because of his stability on an otherwise mediocre Expos team, but because of the vial of cocaine he carried in his hip pocket prompting his trademark headfirst slides. In 1982 it was estimated he spent $40,000 on the drug and he was a prime witness in the Pittsburgh drug trials of 1985. In 2001 while playing for the Orioles, he played in the outfield next to his son, Tim Raines Jr. becoming the second father-son combo to play in the same game together (following the Griffeys). I currently have 336 unique Beckett recognized cards of Tim. Here are nine from my collection.


1981 Topps #479 Tim Raines RC/Roberto Ramos RC/Bobby Pate RC
1981 Topps Traded #816 Tim Raines
1993 Stadium Club First Day Issue #43 Tim Raines

       
1995 Collector's Choice Gold Signature #495 Tim Raines
2006 Greats of the Game Decade Greats Memorabilia #TR Tim Raines Jsy
2006 SP Legendary Cuts #112 Tim Raines

       
2006 SP Legendary Cuts When It Was A Game Gold #TR Tim Raines
2013 Pinnacle Awaiting the Call Artists Proof #1 Tim Raines
2017 Topps High Tek Autographs #HTTR Tim Raines

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Back in the 1980s and early '90s it seemed like there were a lot of stores that were selling their own baseball cards. Department stores, drug stores, toy stores and even grocery stores were all getting in on the act. Here are nine cards from my collection that all came from store sponsored sets.


1982 Expos Zellers #16A Gary Carter/(Catching stance) (The cards in this set were released in three-card perforated panels and sponsored by Zellers Department Stores in Canada. Each card carried a "pro tip" explained by the featured Expos player and is printed on the card in both English and French.)
1986 Expos Provigo Panels #10 Andres Galarraga (The cards in this set were also issued in three-card perforated panels with two player cards and a an advertising card. Text is also in both English and French. Provigo is a chain of supermarkets based in Quebec.)
1987 K-Mart #5 Mickey Mantle (K-Mart issued several boxed sets starting in 1982 on their 20th anniversary. This Mantle card is from a 33 card set celebrating K-Mart's 25th anniversary and was produced by Topps.)

       
1987 Toys 'R' Us Rookies #13 Bo Jackson (This is one of Bo Jackson's first cards from a set produced by Topps for Toys R Us stores.)
1988 Topps Rite-Aid Team MVP's #23 Mark McGwire (Another set produced by Topps, this one exclusively for Rite Aid Drug and Discount stores.)
1989 Topps Hills Team MVP's #3 George Brett (Hills was a discount department store based in Canton, Massachusetts. This set was printed in Ireland by Topps.)

       
1989 Woolworth's Topps #13 Randy Johnson (This Randy Johnson rookie card was part of a boxed set distributed by Woolworth and produced by Topps.)
1990 Kay-Bee #28 Nolan Ryan (This set was produced by Topps for Kay-Bee toy stores and distributed in boxed sets.)
1990 Topps Ames All-Stars #15 Cal Ripken (Like most all of the Topps produced box sets released for individual stores, this set produced for Ames department stores contained 33 cards.)

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Hall of Famer Jim "Catfish" Hunter was an eight-time All-star and a member of five World Championship teams. He was one of the first big money free agents when he left Oakland and signed with the Yankees at the end of 1974. Bob Dylan wrote a song about him. He was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease at the age of 52 and passed away from it a year later.  As of this posting I have 162 different Beckett recognized cards of Catfish including these nine.

         
1966 Topps #36 Jim Hunter DP/UER
1967 Topps #369 Jim Hunter
1970 Topps #565 Jim Hunter

       
1971 Topps #45 Jim Hunter
1976 SSPC Promos #2 Jim Hunter (A promo card for SSPC's first and only major set.)
1993 Nabisco All-Star Autographs #3 Catfish Hunter (I got this card by sending in for a complete set of autographed cards from the back of a Ritz crackers box. I actually got two of these as Don Drysdale had passed away during the promotion and they substituted his card with an extra Hunter auto. I still love Ritz crackers with soup, peanut butter, jam, cheese or ice cream. The only time I couldn't eat them was when I was a kid and my Mom made a "mock apple pie" using crackers instead of apples from a recipe on the back of the Ritz box. Not good. )


2002 Upper Deck Vintage Timeless Teams Game Jersey #JCH Catfish Hunter Jsy
2004 SP Legendary Cuts Ultimate Swatches #CH Catfish Hunter Jsy
2005 Donruss Greats Yankee Clippings Material #8 C.Hunter w/o Glove Jsy T5

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1977 was the year I graduated high school. I was at the top of my class which happened to be the first ever graduating class from Hermon Christian School in Hermon, Maine. It's not as prestigious as it sounds though as there were only three students graduating that year. We would have had four but one quit school halfway through the year and joined the Marines. That spring the school loaded up a bus and headed for Massachusetts for a New England academic/athletic competition. I won the high jump that year and would later go on to South Carolina to compete in the Nationals as I mentioned earlier in this thread. While we were in Mass., I stayed with a host family in Palmer, Mass. They had two boys a bit younger than I was and they had the new 1977 Topps baseball cards. I liked the look of them more than the previous year and liked how they put an All-star banner across the bottom of the All-star's cards. One of the boys had Fred Lynn's card and I really liked the look of that one. I was pleased that they were Mets fans and not Yankees fans. I ended up buying their small collections from them before coming back to Maine. We stopped at some stores on the way back and while my schoolmates were buying sodas, candy and snacks, I bought baseball cards. I still have those cards. I doubt if they still have their goodies. Anyway, here are nine cards from my 1977 collection.

       
1977 Hostess #34 Robin Yount SP (A short print cut from the back of a Hostess snack cake box.)
1977 Kellogg's #6 George Brett (Pulled from a box of cereal.)
1977 O-Pee-Chee #240 Pete Rose (Canada's parallel of the Topps set. Other than the French text on the reverse, this card differs from it's Topps look-a-like in that the All-star banner has been omitted from the bottom revealing Pete's socks, not visible on his Topps card.)

       
1977 Topps #6 Strikeout Leaders/Nolan Ryan/Tom Seaver (Two former teammates and future members of the Hall of Fame.)
1977 Topps #170 Thurman Munson
1977 Topps #473 Rookie Outfielders/Andre Dawson RC/Gene Richards RC/John Scott/Denny Walling RC (I think it's interesting to note that of these four players, three went on to become hitting instructors at different levels while the one player who could hit and became a Hall of Famer went on to own and operate a funeral home.)

         
1977 Topps #476 Rookie Catchers/Gary Alexander RC/Rick Cerone RC/Dale Murphy RC/Kevin Pasley RC (Remember Dale Murphy coming up as a catcher? Remember Kevin Pasley? No? Me either.)
1977 Topps #580 George Brett
1977 Topps #650 Nolan Ryan

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This thread has surpassed 10,000 views! Thanks to everyone who has been checking out my collection thus far as I continue to celebrate my 50th year of baseball card collecting by scanning and showing off my favorite players to collect and other oddball items from my collection. It's been fun selecting cards to scan and reliving my collecting experiences along the way. I appreciate all the posts.

Jim Bunning's MLB career spanned from the mid-1950s through the early 1970s. He was a seven-time All-star who led his league in victories once and strikeouts three times and is one of only five MLB pitchers to throw a no-hitter in each league. At the time of his retirement in 1971, he was second on the all-time strikeout list just 145 short of 3,000. Bunning was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1996. After his baseball career, Jim went on to become a successful politician representing Kentucky in both chambers of the United States Congress and to this day is the only MLB player to have been elected to both the U.S. Senate and the National Baseball Hall of Fame. I currently have 87 unique Beckett recognized cards of Mr. Bunning including these nine.

       
1957 Topps #338 Jim Bunning RC (Jim's rookie.)
1958 Topps #115 Jim Bunning
1959 Topps #149 Jim Bunning

       
1960 Topps #502 Jim Bunning
1961 Topps #490 Jim Bunning
1964 Topps #265 Jim Bunning

       
1965 Topps #20 Jim Bunning
1966 Topps #435 Jim Bunning
2005 Absolute Memorabilia Autograph Spectrum Silver #135 Jim Bunning/150

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For today's post, here are nine "throwaway" cards.  I call them promotional inserts and they have very little if any value but because I collect any card I don't already have of the players I collect, these have made their way into my collection. I suppose most people would just throw them out along with the wrappers. Beckett doesn't recognize them but if you were buying packs during these years you undoubtedly saw them show up in your packs.


1999 Sports Illustrated Greats of the Game Offer Card #NNO Mark McGwire (I believe this card came in a pack of 1999 Sports Illustrated Greats of the Game. It is an offer to subscribe to Sports Illustrated the magazine and in so doing, you would receive a sheet of mock Greats of the Game cards that feature current players done up in the 2000 Greats of the Game design. I did not take advantage of this offer but nonetheless ended up with all the promotional cards.)
1999 UD Choice Draw Your Own Card #NNO Ken Griffey Jr. (I bought more than a hundred packs of 1999 UD Choice cards back in the day and I got one of these Griffey cards in every pack. I have been giving them out as an extra in most all of my new trades since then and still have several dozen left. Most of you who have traded with me have gotten one. It was a promotion to draw your own card of your favorite player and the winners appeared as an insert set in that year's Upper Deck MVP offering.)
2000 Upper Deck MLB 2001 #NNO Chipper Jones (These Chipper Jones cards were randomly inserted into packs of 2000 Upper Deck. Cards had either the letter M, L, B or the number 2, 0 or 1. All of them were pretty common except for the 2 of which there were only 200 cards. The object of the game was to spell out "MLB 2001" in order to win a PlayStation game.)

       
2002 Topps Gallery Museum Edition Release Card #NNO Mike Piazza (This card was randomly inserted in 2002 Topps packs and promoted that year's Topps Gallery set.)
2002 Topps Series 2 Release Card #NNO Roger Clemens/Albert Pujols/Alex Rodriguez (Found in packs of 2002 Topps Series One, this card promotes the upcoming Series Two. I collect all three players on this card and have one of these in each of those player's collections.)
2008 Upper Deck StarQuest Lucky Spin Promo Card #NNO Derek Jeter (If you weren't lucky enough to pull a StarQuest insert out of a pack of 2008 Upper Deck, maybe you could pull a card promoting the StarQuest inserts. As a bonus, it informed you of the Lucky Spin game you could play online. It's got Jeter on it so what's not to love?)

       
2010 Topps Attax #NNO Ryan Howard/CC Sabathia (I think you could pull one of these out of nearly every Topps pack back in 2010. Howard was a monster at that time and it looked like he was going to set all sorts of home run records but he ended up in the top 25 in strikeouts all-time after his relatively short career. CC is probably headed to the Hall. This was the first year of Topps Attax and it's second to the last year of Topps Attax, a card game played with baseball cards.)
2017 Beckett Sports Card Monthly #NNO Jose Altuve/Carlos Correa (I picked this card up for a nickel at a card show last year and can only assume it came in a Beckett magazine. It features Carlos Correa on the flip side and will always remind me of the year the Astros dishonestly took home a World Championship.)
2019 Topps Silver Pack Promotion/National Baseball Card Day Promo #NNO Bryce Harper (This card promotes Topps Silver Pack Chrome cards exclusively found in hobby boxes of 2019 Topps Update. The reverse promotes 2019 National Baseball Card Day.)

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Next up on the player randomizer is 10-time All-star and four-time World Champion Enos Slaughter. I always thought he had one of the most unfortunate names in baseball with the last name of Slaughter and a first name that rhymes with . . . uh . . . oh you know. He must have been taunted mercilessly on the playground as a kid. In the big leagues they called him "Country" because he was from Roxboro, North Carolina and he scored the winning run on his "Mad Dash" from first to home in the 1946 World Series denying Ted Williams and the Boston Red Sox a long awaited World Championship. I currently have 92 different Beckett recognized cards of Mr. Slaughter. Here are nine from my collection.

           
1953 Topps #41 Enos Slaughter
1957 Topps #215 Enos Slaughter
1958 Topps #142 Enos Slaughter

       
1959 Topps #155 Enos Slaughter
1983 Topps 1952 Reprint #65 Enos Slaughter
1991 Topps Archives '53 #41 Enos Slaughter Autographed (In person auto not obtained by me.)

       

1997 Topps Stars Rookie Reprints #14 Enos Slaughter
2005 Donruss Champions Impressions Orange #254 Enos Slaughter
2017 Topps Tier One Legend Relics #T1RLES Enos Slaughter/200

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1978. One year out of high school, I was working at Bangor International Airport as a ramp attendant along with the other two guys I'd graduated high school with. Our foreman got a big kick out of having the entire graduating class working for him. I stayed on for a year and a half leaving for Florida right after Christmas while my two classmates only worked for a couple of months. I coached the Ohmart & Hinckley Senior League baseball team that summer and took the team from last to first place and we won the local championship. I was selected to co-coach the All-star team of which one of our players was future MLBer Mike Bordick. Here are nine cards from my collection all from 1978, heavy on Nolan and Tigers rookies.

           
1978 Hostess #27 George Brett
1978 Hostess #83 Nolan Ryan
1978 Kellogg's #51 Nolan Ryan

       
1978 Topps #6 Nolan Ryan RB
1978 Topps #36 Eddie Murray RC
1978 Topps #400 Nolan Ryan

       
1978 Topps #703 Rookie Pitchers/Larry Andersen RC/Tim Jones RC/Mickey Mahler RC/Jack Morris RC DP
1978 Topps #704 Rookie 2nd Basemen/Garth Iorg RC/Dave Oliver RC/Sam Perlozzo RC/Lou Whitaker RC
1978 Topps #707 Rookie Shortstops/Mickey Klutts/Paul Molitor RC/Alan Trammell RC/U.L. Washington RC (It's not often that you get two Hall of Famers sharing the same rookie card. In fact, I can't think of another instance. I have this card in my Molitor collection. At some point I need to pick up another for my Trammell collection.)

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Al Kaline bypassed the Minor Leagues and went straight to the Detroit Tigers where he played for his entire 22-year career. In 1955 "Mr. Tiger" became the youngest person ever to win a Batting title at the age of 20. He was a 15-time All-star and 10-time Gold Glove winner who passed away earlier this year. He is the one player in my ORG that Beckett incorrectly lists how many cards I have of him. In my left-hand column it lists 390 cards but when I click on that collection, it lists 301 cards. I surmise that it would have something to do with him being the first collection listed (alphabetically) for so long until I started my Adrian Beltre collection. In any event, I currently have 301 Beckett recognized cards of Al Kaline of which here are nine from my collection including some vintage and some relics.

         
1955 Bowman #23 Al Kaline
1957 Topps #125 Al Kaline
1958 Topps #70A Al Kaline


1959 Topps #360 Al Kaline
1960 Topps #50 Al Kaline
2003 Fleer Fall Classics Series Contenders Bat #AK Al Kaline

       
2005 Sweet Spot Classic Materials #CMAK Al Kaline Jsy
2005 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Memorabilia Red #60 Al Kaline HDR Pants
2010 Topps Heritage Flashback Stadium Relics #AK Al Kaline (This card contains  a chip from a stadium seat from Tiger Stadium.)

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I mentioned before that I collect anything baseball related that will fit in a pocket of one of my nine pocket pages. POGs qualify. These aren't valuable at all but they are just fun. POGs, also known as "Milk Caps" were a game from the early to mid 90s. To play, each participant contributed an equal amount of POGs which were stacked in a tower and then the players would take turns throwing a heavier POG known as a "Slammer" down on top of the stack sending the POGs scattering. All those that landed face up were kept by the thrower and all others would be restacked for the next player. The winner was declared as the player who ended up with the most POGs once they were all distributed. Of course this led to hurt feelings and angry moments on the schoolyards which led to the game being banned in many schools, not unlike marbles in my day. Do you know what POG stands for? That's correct! Passionfruit, orange and guava, the brand of juice that the bottle caps originated from. I don't have a lot of POGs and am always keeping my eyes open for more to add to my collection. Here are a few that I have.


1993 C.C. Made in USA Baseball and Bat POG #NNO
1993 Softball with Bat and Glove POG #NNO
1993 Baby Dinosaur POG #88 (The first three POGs pictured here are difficult for me to identify. They all have blank backs. Back in 2016, I was between tv jobs and drove a FedEx Home Delivery truck for the summer. One of the benefits was that I was on the road alone and could take my time as long as I made all of my deliveries within the day. Another benefit was that I could stop at every single yard sale and garage sale I drove by, which I pretty much did. It was at one of these yard sales where I found a box filled with more than a hundred POGs and I stood there shuffling through all of them looking for anything "baseball". That's where I picked up these first three POGs as well as the 1994 POG. The woman asked for a nickel for all four and I gave her a dime. I think they are great oddball additions to my collection.)
1993 Island Art POG Promo #NNO Nolan Ryan (This POG is also blank backed and promotes Island Art. There is also a Frank Thomas in this set as well as Shaquille O'Neal, Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman.)
1994 World POG Federation Canada Games Series II #13 (I picked this one up with the first three pictured at a yard sale. This one has a WPF logo on the back. The World POG Federation was probably the biggest seller of milkcaps in the UK. Most of the WPF POGs feature the POG mascot pictured here, called POGMAN.)
1995 Megacards Griffey Jr. Wish List Megacap #2 Ken Griffey Jr. (This POG came with my set of 1995 Megacards Griffey Wish List cards. You could receive one of three different Megacaps with the purchase of a complete set.)
1995 Megacards Ruth 100th Anniversary MegaCaps #3 Babe Ruth (To celebrate Ruth's 100th Anniversary, Megacards also issued a Babe Ruth set and each complete set came with one of three limited edition Megacaps.)

    
1993 Ted Williams POG Cards #8 Cleveland Buckeyes/Detroit Stars (The inaugural set of the Ted Williams Card Company was actually the brainchild of Ted's son, John Henry who was always seeking to exploit his father's fame in order to build up his own inheritance. I met John Henry once in the 1990s as he was temporarily a roommate with one of my co-workers at the tv station I worked for at the time in Bangor, Maine. My co-worker was renting an apartment in a house that my Aunt and Uncle lived in back in the 1970s and when I told him that fact, he invited me over. It was rather surreal being back in the same house after 20+ years. My entire conversation with John Henry consisted of us exchanging the word, "Hi." These blank backed POGs were included as an insert to that set and came two to a card and were perforated so that they could be punched out. These two feature the logos of a couple of Negro League teams of which Ted had an affinity for.)
1993 Ted Williams POG Cards #23 Lou Gehrig/Ted Williams