Luis Aparicio: An affordable HOF'er

Luis Aparicio is the living proof that you can still purchase great HOF'ers, even graded, for less than $15 on ebay any given sunday.

During his 18 seasons MLb career, he achieved many distinctions:

• 1956 Al ROY
• 10 time All Star
• 1966 World Series champ with the O's
• 9 Gold Golves at SS (five of them in a row)
• He lead the AL in stolen bases 9 straight seasons and went back home with 506 in his career (34th all time leader)

Finally in 1984 he was elected to the HOF receiving the highest % of votes among his class that also included Harmon Killebrew, Don Drysdale, Pee Wee Reese and Rick Ferrell. He's also a proud member of the Venezuelan Baseball HOF in which he was inducted back in 2003.

The only Aparicio card I own so far is this 1963 Topps but in the next couple of weeks I'll be making a run after a graded copy (even if it's a PSA 1) of his 1956 RC. In the meantime, enjoy:

By the way, who won this contest???

Back in the early 2000 I was busy at the university and completely lost track of baseball and therefore baseball cards. I don't recall how this sweepstakes piece found its place into my collection.

Who won that bat?????? 

I've been doing some research on the Internet but so far I've just been able to find that:

"Robert Shell (14 year old back then) from Baraboo Wis. won a 1928 Philadelphia athletics jersey signed by Cobb, valued at $332,500" as part of this contest.

But who won that bat????

My Ruth's cards

You gotta love reprints as long as they're not from Todd Van Poppel. So when you hit a Hall of Fame shot courtesy of Score 1992:

Or a 1976 Topps honoring the Bambino:

Just open the binder and add that up to your collection.

The truth and main reason for this post is that I've never seen an original Ruth card in person. It's not like the Babe is the only one missing on my list but it's a tight race between him and Cobb for first place; keep digging and I still need to see/own DiMaggio, CY, Gehrig,  and you name it.

Meanwhile I'll keep digging during my flea market adventures and sooner or later I'll be the luckiest man on the face of the earth... unquote.

 

My Rickey Henderson RC tks to Cardboard Icons

Back on March 7th, Ben from CardBoard Icons hosted a contest celabrating his 25,000 visits in which the winner, a.k.a yours truly, won a 1980 Topps #482 Rickey Henderson RC. 

Being new in the blogosphere there's no need to say I was thrilled when I found out.

Tks Ben, this card is mint compare to some in my vintage PC.

Joe's hobby is playing billiards

Joe's hobby is playing billiard. I get it, I get it,  you don't have to say it 2 YEARS IN A ROW!! in the back of his card:

 

Get off my back. Jim Palmer 1977 Topps #600

If one thing this downturn economy is providing me, is way too much time off for a guy who used to work in hotels +70 hours a week (yep, that's legal down here).

Surfing old cards this past couple of day, I was wondered by how so many regular and even star players have listed in the back of their cards facts that had nothing to do with them. I'll call it the "Get off my back" series.

By the time 1977 Topps was released, Jim Palmer had already won his 3 CY awards, made 4 All Star appereances and won 2 of 3 wold series rings; so I have the right to ask Topps: why did you choose Mr. Palmer card #600 to point out that Ron Hunt, Ron Hunt!! was the first Met ever to be choosen for the All Star game? I know Mr. hunt didn't make it as an active player for the 1977 Topps edition but man think about something else if you felt like remembering him; do a "Turn Back the Clock" or something else. Is not like you're trying to think of something nice to say about Tom Gorzelany, man this is Palmer. 

 

Hank Aaron MVP 1957 & Homerun King card. Almost left without them

Back again. Today I want to talk about 2 cards that for some reason almost went unnoticed during my last 3 hour long flea market adventure. I'm talking about a Hank Aaron MVP and a Hank Aaron new home run king.

After been seated for 3 hours (at least now they let me use one of the chairs), I was ready to pay and leave when the dealer was interrupted by an old couple looking at some vintage coins and jewelry, so instead of taking MY seat, I reached over the table and found a little box with some baseball cards the dealer keeps in a separate box (Dominican players and others with sentimental value) where I discovered these Aaron's.  He used to take those special cards out and and hand them over to me 1 by 1 but never the whole pkg. 

Turn back the clock.... tan-tan-tan...

The first time I got my hands on this card, was the TBC version and really caught my attention. The look in his eyes, so weird, so brokeback mountain, so police academy 3, so Pauly Shore, so, so, so...

C'mon, this guy belted 3,023 hits and YOU, so so so called "decision picture publisher" or whatever is your job title, had to choose this 1979 pic for a FOREVER TO BE REMEMBER TURN BACK THE CLOCK EDITION!! man!! Haven't you seen his Topps 1971? or 1974?

Anyway, during my flea market excursions I have gather some other moldy and creased versions of his cards to share.