Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Favorites - M

Topps put out 150 card sets of retired players in 2003-2004-2005. Players are pictured on card designs from their playing days but with different photos than were in the originals. Here are my favorites, alphabetically.

2003 #68

1975 design. Not wild about the border colors on this one (red on orange for the team name?) but it's a nice shot of a young Bill Madlock and it's a Cubs card.

2005 #86

1964 design. Juan looks so sweet here. Not so sweet to face him in 1964. He struck out 206 and only walked 52, winning 21 and losing only 8.

2003 #1

1955 design. Great design , super great player. No complaints here. Next!

2003 #83

1957 design. Remember when the Pirates were good? Bill does. In 1957 he hit a career high .283 but it was not a good year for the Pirates in '57. They finished tied with my Cubbies at 62-92 and in last place, 33 games behind the eventual World Series Champion Milwaukee Braves.

2003 #90

1965 design. For some reason the Cardinals cards always look particularly good. That being said I like this card for the goofy looking Tim McCarver.

2003 #132

1968 design. Not my most favorite card but Willie's a Hall of Famer and I like the Giant's green on the 1968 design. This is one case where the original is actually better.

2004 #85

1968 design. Sam had an ERA of 1.81 in 1968. That was good for second in the AL behind teammate Luis Tiant but Sudden Sam went only 15-14. If I'm not mistaken he lost twelve games in which the Indians scored no more than one run.

2005 #56

1965 design. The last man to win 30 games in a season, McLain went 16-6 in 1965. Don't you love the glasses? I think Denny borrowed them from Floyd the barber.

2005 #80

1970 design. I believe it's right that the players are not the slaves of the baseball owners but I miss the days when the same guys were on your team together for a longer time.

2005 #110

1978 design. Rick was an All-Star in 1978 and the Dodgers made it to the World Series.

2005 #123

1960 design. This is the design of Topps Heritage in 2010. Personally, I like it. As for this card, you can't do any better than Stan the Man.

Blow Out the Candles

1968 Topps #275

Today is former Cardinal and Phillie catcher, Tim McCarver's 68th birthday. Tim inspires a lot of hate as an announcer:

1983 Baseball Legends #104

On this date in 1900 HOF left fielder Goose Goslin was born. Goose was a teammate of the great Walter Johnson on the 1924 World Series champion Washington Senators. It was their only championship. He also won a WS with the 1935 Tigers. From thebaseballpage.com:

"During the 1935 World Series against the Cubs, Goslin kept an entire rabbit in the clubhouse, figuring if a rabbit's foot was good luck, then an entire rabbit must be even better. Goslin delivered the Series-winning hit in Game Six."

1961 Topps #239

These days it seems like you see more athlete's sons having better careers than they did. Not so with Dave Sisler who celebrates his 78th birthday today. Son of HOF'er George Sisler, Dave pitched for 7 seasons with 4 teams compiling a 38-44 record with 29 saves and a 4.33 ERA. Dave did graduate from Princeton University with a degree in engineering.

The story of Babar the Elephant was inspired by Cecile de Brunhoff who was born on this date in 1903. Cecile made up the stories for her children. They told their father about them and it was he who turned them into a series of books. Cecile downplayed her role and refused to have her name on the books.

Here are Cecile, Jean, and the children.