[zeprock]

I have a love/hate relationship with Barry Bonds. One that he is completely oblivious to. He was probably the best all-around player throughout the 90's (sorry Griffey) with 8 All-star nods, 7 Gold Glove Awards, 7 Silver Slugger Awards and three MVPs before the decade was done. Of course he went on in the 2000s adding 7 more All-star selections, 5 more Silver Slugger Awards and four more MVPs as well as a couple of batting titles and the all-time home run record for both season and career. I was stocking up on his cards right from the first day he broke into the big leagues and amassed an impressive collection and then . . . oh, you know. You can call him a liar, a cheater, a jerk and he may be all of those things but he had talent and I call him the fourth greatest ballplayer of all-time following Mays, Aaron and Ruth. I currently have 2327 unique Beckett recognized cards in my Bonds collection. Here are nine of them.

       
1993 Pinnacle Team Pinnacle #8 J.Gonzalez/B.Bonds (Juan Gonzalez graces the reverse side of this card.)
1995 Ultra Power Plus Gold Medallion #5 Barry Bonds
1998 Topps Mystery Finest Bordered Refractors #M19 Barry Bonds

       
1999 Finest Prominent Figures #PF15 Barry Bonds SLG
1999 Paramount Personal Bests #31 Barry Bonds
1999 Upper Deck Ovation Major Production #S6 Barry Bonds (The texture of the home plate on this card feels similar to a real home plate.)

       
2001 Fleer Genuine Tip Of The Cap #2 Barry Bonds
2001 SP Game Bat Milestone Piece of Action Milestone #BB Barry Bonds
2002 Stadium Club All-Star Relics #SCASBB Barry Bonds Uni G6 (This card came in a bonus pack that a group member of my online trading group, Trading Bases, threw in with a trade. I was standing in the kitchen and started to carefully open the pack when I noticed the thick card inside. I stopped and told my young son who was twirling around my feet to check and see what I got and maybe he'd give me good luck. I pulled the bottom of the wrapper the rest of the way open and handed it to him. You should have seen his face when he pulled this out. He's almost 30 now and still reminds me of when he pulled this card for me.)

[zeprock]

Back in the summer I posted nine baseball cards of players that played in the NBA. Today, just for fun, I am posting nine cards of players that played in the NFL.

       
1955 Bowman #315 Cal Hubbard UMP (Cal played in the NFL from 1927 - 1936 with the New York Giants, Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Pirates and is credited as being the inventor of the position of linebacker. He then umpired for 15 years in the A.L. and eventually became an umpire supervisor. To date he is the only person to be enshrined in both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Baseball Hall of Fame.)
1993 Conlon TSN Color Inserts #22 Jim Thorpe/Card 403 (I wrote a bit about Thorpe way back in post #18 when I showed a postage stamp depicting him. He won Olympic Gold Medals in the pentathlon and the decathlon, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and played baseball for the New York Giants, Cincinnati Reds and Boston Braves.)
1996 Leaf Bronze Press Proofs #34 Deion Sanders ("Prime Time" played football for the Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins and the Baltimore Ravens. He played MLB for the Yankees, Braves, Reds and Giants. The high stepping two-sport star was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011.)

       
1999 Just #147 Ricky Williams (Williams played four seasons in the Philadelphia Phillies minor league system before embarking on his NFL career with the Saints, Dolphins and Ravens. He even spent a year with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.)
1997 Donruss Team Sets Pennant Edition #151 Brian Jordan (Jordan played a couple of seasons with the Atlanta Falcons while also playing in the MLB for the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1992 the Cards gave him a $1,700,000 signing bonus to give up football and play baseball exclusively, ending his football career. He would go on to play for the Braves, Dodgers and Rangers.)
2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #15 John Elway (Elway was a highly touted baseball prospect selected by the Royals in the 1979 draft and then again by the Yankees in the 1981 draft, six spots ahead of Tony Gwynn. John opted for the NFL and became the face of the franchise for the Denver Broncos winning two of his five Super Bowls and eventually ending up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.)

       
2006 SP Legendary Cuts Legendary Materials Silver #BO Bo Jackson Bat/199 (Bo Jackson was probably the best athlete to ever play pro baseball if not for the aforementioned Jim Thorpe. The "Bo Knows" television campaign when he arrived on the scene in the late 1980s was memorable and I was grabbing any Bo Jackson card I could get my hands on. I'll never forget him cranking a lead-off home run in his first All-star game appearance or running up the outfield wall in Baltimore, breaking bats in disgust over his knee or running up the tunnel after scoring a touchdown. Bo could have been an all-time great on the gridiron as well but it turned out that one thing Bo didn't know was how to stay healthy. Give him an A for effort as he tried to come back with the White Sox and Angels but it ended up being a case of what could have been and I believe it could have been amazing. I abandoned my Bo collection by the late 90s but he's still the only player I don't collect that I still feature on my website.)
2016 Topps First Pitch #FP7 Jim Harbaugh S2 (Harbaugh had a 14-year career quarterbacking for the Bears, Colts, Ravens, Chargers, Lions and Panthers in the NFL before becoming a coach. Here he is throwing out the first pitch at a Tigers game.)
2019 Topps Heritage Minors #32 Tim Tebow (Tebow played for the Broncos and the Jets after a stellar college career. Whether he makes it to the Major Leagues or not has yet to be determined but you have to give him credit for his stick-to-it-ness.)

[zeprock]

He just passed away a couple weeks ago and his name came up on the randomized list of players that I collect. An 8-time All-star with six World Championship rings, Whitey Ford was historically the Yankees best pitcher spending his entire career in pinstripes. He led the AL in victories three times and ERA twice and won a Cy Young Award in 1961. I currently have 294 different cards of the "Chairman of the Board". Here are nine from my collection.

       
1955 Bowman #59 Whitey Ford
1957 Topps #25 Whitey Ford
1958 Topps #320 Whitey Ford

       
1959 Topps #430 Whitey Ford
1960 Topps #35 Whitey Ford
1961 Topps #160 Whitey Ford UER

       
1962 Topps #310 Whitey Ford
1966 Topps #160 Whitey Ford
2001 SP Legendary Cuts Game Jersey #JWF Whitey Ford Uni

[zeprock]

In 1986 I graduated broadcasting school and turned my internship at the local tv station into a full-time job and was directing morning updates before the year was done. I was also hired at WWMJ radio in Ellsworth, Maine and began doing a Sunday afternoon shift playing the "hits of today"; Lionel Richie, Whitney Houston, Banarama, Madonna and Mr. Mister.

The Red Sox made it to the World Series that year and then the Mets beat them. Buckner happened. Once again I managed to get complete sets of Topps, Donruss and Fleer as well as their Update sets. Here are nine cards from my collection all released in 1986.

       
1986 Book Promotional Cards #16 Mickey Mantle 1986/The Mick (This card was given away at bookstores as a promotion for Mick's autobiography.)
1986 Donruss #28 Fred McGriff RC
1986 Donruss #39 Jose Canseco RC

       
1986 Donruss Rookies #11 Barry Bonds XRC
1986 Drake's #11 Cal Ripken CS (Cut from the back of a box of coffee cakes, Yodels, Ring Dings, Devil Dogs or some other snack that I consumed too much of throughout the early to mid-80s and then quit cold turkey once they stopped issuing cards.)
1986 Drake's #33 Nolan Ryan CDD

       
1986 Fleer Update #14 Barry Bonds XRC
1986 Sportflics Rookies #13 Barry Bonds (From one of Sportflics first sets utilizing the 3-D technology that Kellogg's had previously perfected.)
1986 Topps Traded #11T Barry Bonds XRC (This set was stocked with first cards of many potential stars when it came out including Will Clark, Jose Canseco, Bo Jackson, Bobby Bonilla, Andres Galarraga, Wally Joyner, Pete Incaviglia and Kevin Mitchell but it was Bonds who ended up being the "big" card in the set.)

[zeprock]

I just started collecting Kris Bryant a couple years ago which makes sense since he's only been playing for a few years. I normally like to wait a couple of years for the hype to slow down on young players as I no longer like to jump on the hype train. I did that way too many times in the '80s and '90s and began to accumulate massive collections of Gregg Jefferies, Kevin Seitzer, Cory Snyder, Dwight Smith and so many others. Nowadays I rarely pursue the hot new thing. A few years ago I made an exception and started collections of Bryant and Yasiel Puig. Puig reminded me why I should hold off and I'm hoping Bryant can put together a solid Hall of Fame career. We'll see. I currently have 330 unique Beckett recognized cards in my collection of Kris including these nine.

       
2014 Bowman Platinum Chrome Prospects Refractors #BPCP40 Kris Bryant
2015 Panini Prizm Fresh Faces #14 Kris Bryant
2015 Topps #616A Kris Bryant RC

       
2016 Donruss Bat Kings #BKKB Kris Bryant
2016 Topps Toys R Us Purple #350 Kris Bryant FS
2017 Topps Inception Purple #38 Kris Bryant (Thanks to Kerry for this one.)

       
2018 Topps Heritage Clubhouse Collection Relics #CCRKB Kris Bryant HN
2018 Topps Update '83 Topps Gold #8344 Kris Bryant
2019 Topps Chrome Blue Wave Refractors #25 Kris Bryant

[ceylan00]

Zep, your collection is on SUCH a different, higher level. I just really appreciate you taking the time so share it with us. I know I'm a broken record but it seems like every other post you have something I didn't even KNOW about. lol. So, Gracias. And I hope things are going well in real life. God Bless...

[zeprock]

Well we all know that baseball cards first appeared in the late 1800's in tobacco products. I only have one true tobacco card and I pictured it in my first post on this thread. I know that adding those cards to my collection is probably not going to happen due to scarcity and price however, in my opinion, the next best thing is a reprint and I have lots of those. Here are nine tobacco cards from my collection.

       
1953 Red Man #AL14 Early Wynn (These cards were originally sealed in plastic and affixed to the outside pouches of Red Man tobacco products. This is the only other tobacco card I currently own that is not a reprint.)
1977 Dover Publications-1912 Hassan-Triple Folders Reprints #NNO Hughie Jennings/Ty Cobb (This ingenious design contained two T205-like cards on each end that could fold over a black and white center panel. These cards were originally inserted into packages of Hassan Cork Tip Cigarettes. I cut this reprint from the pages of a 1977 Dover magazine.)
1982 Galasso-Turkey Red-T3-1911 Reprints #36 Tris Speaker (These cards were actually cabinet-size cards too large to fit in packages of cigarette packages but instead could be acquired by redeeming coupons from packages of Turkey Red, Old Mill or Fez Cigarettes. They were beautiful works of art and have since been reprinted numerous times by Topps since 2005 right up through 2020. This particular card was reprinted in 1982 by Renata Galasso.)

       
1983 Capitol-1909 T206-Polar Bear Reprints #173 Walter Johnson (The T206 set was the most popular of all tobacco issues appearing over a three year period within sixteen different brands of cigarettes. This reprint was issued in 1983 by the Capitol Card Company.)
1986 Fritsch-N172 Old Judge Reprints #2 King Kelly (These cards were originally issued in the late 1800's in packages of Old Judge and Gypsy Queen cigarettes. Upper Deck has been reprinting Goodwin Champions and Old Judge cards for several years but this particular reprint came from a set issued by Larry Fritsch who made a business out of reprinting many rare card sets.)
1986 Mayo's Cut Plug-1895 N300 Reprints #NNO John Montgomery Ward (This set was originally issued by the Mayo Tobacco Works of Richmond, Virginia. I believe this reprint to have been issued by a company called Poor Man's Cards in 1986.)

       
1988 Card Collectors Company-1911 Mecca Double Folders-T201 Reprints #35 Al Bridwell/Christy Mathewson (These cards were one of the first to list statistics on them. Each card depicted two different players, one when the card is folded and another when the card is unfolded. This card was produced by the Card Collectors Company in 1988 and when folded over depicts Al Bridwell who shares Mathewson's feet.)
1992 Sports Cards-Old Time Tobacco Cards #51 Babe Ruth (I cut this card from the pages of a 1992 issue of Sports Cards Magazine and it's one of a five card set of Ruth cards listed as Old Time Tobacco Cards.)
1995 IMT-Wagner-T-206 Reprint #1 Honus Wagner (As you all undoubtedly know, this is one of the most sought after cards in the hobby. The original version of this card was pulled from circulation almost immediately after being issued due to Wagner's objection to being featured in a tobacco product. This one card Piedmont reprint was issued as a promotion by IMT in Atlanta, Georgia. It was licensed by Curtis Marketing Group and the Honus Wagner Estate and celebrated a contest in which one lucky person could actually win a real T206 Wagner.)

[rjcj2017]

Mark, your pictures are not showing up ... anyone else not seeing them or is it me?

(Because I love looking at your stuff!)

[akaus]

I can't see them either. I am not sure what is going on.

[zeprock]

I am seeing them. When I first checked, I could not and then they began to load up. Perhaps there are too many on this page of the thread that it takes more time for them to load?