May the Best Team Win!

The U.S. and Canada square off in the gold medal game in a few hours. The Blackhawks are represented on both teams and the Cubs have a Canadian of their own so there will be a Chicago connection to the gold either way.

1967 O-Pee-Chee Ron Santo

One hole in my Ron Santo collection is the non-US versions of the original Topps cards. I just added my first O-Pee-Chee, a 1967. It's actually better than my Topps version, a little off-center but with sharp corners and a really nice surface gloss. The year of vintage continues.

Apology to Christy

Yesterday I was so excited by my new purchase of cigarette cards that I mistakenly said they were my oldest cards. I completely forgot about my small cache of baseball cards. So here's the cream of the crop, a T-205 Christy Mathewson from 1911. Sorry Christy.

1928 Wills's Wonders of the Sea

Last Saturday I was browsing on Ebay and pulled up a search of tobacco cards and found the following 17 cards being offered at a starting bid of .99+$1.50 s/h. I put in a bid of $1.08 not expecting to win but got lucky when no one else bid. These are now my oldest cards. They were issued in Great Britain in 1928. For reference, in 1928 Rogers Hornsby led both leagues in hitting with a .387 average, Babe Ruth hit 54 home runs and tied Lou Gehrig with 142 RBI's. The Yankees won 101 games and demolished the St. Louis Cardinals four games to none in the World Series. Ruth and Gehrig went wild, Ruth hitting .625 with 3 HR, 4 RBI and 9 runs scored, while Gehrig hit .545 with 4 HR, 9 RBI and 5 runs scored.

1993 Leaf Studio Favorites Part 2 -- Astros Conspiracy

A Chicago area guy and member of the 1984 Cubs. Can't help but love the smile on the front.


Hall of Famer Dave Winfield. Pet peeve is people saying "ax" instead of "ask". Yeah, I mean, yes.

Unless you read all of the cards you might never notice a little conspiracy going on. Check out the pet peeve of these three Houston Astros stars:


Any Astros fan know if there's a back story here? I assume this was a sort of baseball prank on a friend. I love it!

1993 Leaf Studio -- Favorites

After seeing a few of the 1993 Leaf Studio cards on various blogs I decided to check Ebay for a complete set. I found one with a starting bid of .99 with 6.50 shipping. Lo and behold I was the only bidder so I now have a complete 220 card set for just $7.49. What attracted me to this Studio set in particular was the bold design of the players against their team's logo. Very graphic! There's really nothing I don't like about these cards. Player facsimile signatures appear on the front in a cool color changing foil. The Studio logo in the upper right or left corner is also foil but is nicely inconspicuous. The backs feature close-ups with faces to a greater or lesser degree cut off vertically giving an arty look while allowing space for some fun player info.

Here are the first of four groups of my favorites:


Everyone loves Nolan, right? Great wide-eyed look on the back. Favorite players as a kid were Willie and Sandy. Can't argue with that. Great pet peeve -- unpolished shoes.


Mark might have been in law enforcement if he hadn't been an athlete -- Hmmm DEA? His pet peeve is waiting -- Hmmm waiting years to tell the truth? -- waiting forever to get into the Hall of Fame? Poor Mark, so much waiting.


Watch out Mark, you're being followed by Canseco again. Don't bend over! If Jose hadn't been an athlete he might have been a NUCLEAR PHYSICIST! Really?!!



Yankees manager Joe Girardi. Gotta give him props for his boyhood heroes, Jose Cardenal an especially my favorite, Ron Santo.



Here's Red's third baseman Chris Sabo wearing his iconic glasses. Obviously grew up a Tiger's fan with George Kell and Al Kaline as boyhood favorites. Mind your manners at the table with Chris. Chew with your mouth closed.

Card of the Day -- Fine Wine

Yesterday's Olympics featured a couple of great hockey games, Russia beating the Czechs and the US over Canada. I know at one point in the first game the name, Gordie Howe was mentioned.

Here's Mr. Hockey in his 24th season. He would go on to play eight more, 6 in the WHL.

1969-70 Topps #61

The back of the card reads, "Like fine wine, Gordie Howe is getting better with age. He the greatest of the great and hold more NHL records than any two players combined. Five scoring championships, nine first All-Star berths, three MVP awards." At the time he had accumulated 732 goals and 954 assists.

Card of the Day -- Carlton Meets Carlton

I'm a big fan of multi-player cards. One of my goals this year is to add a bunch of the vintage variety (for me, pre 1970) to my collection. I have a few in my COMC basket. The card of the day is not vintage but is fun. Fleer had a bunch of these in the early eighties.

Can you believe the White Sox wore these uniforms for six seasons ('76-'81)? Softball anyone? At least Fisk only had to endure their hideousness for one season.

Separated at Birth?

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Charles Krauthammer



Barkeeper Moe Szyslak

Today's 1971 Chicago Cubs

This is another of my recent Ebay purchases. The pictures speak for themselves. Here are all 12 pages: