2001 UD Hall of Famers Texas to Cincinnati

I really miss sets like this 2001 UD Hall of Famers.  I picked this one up for $8.00 shipped.  Lets look at them all.

The black Babe Ruth, I've always heard of this guy spoken with reverence.

"I played with Willie Mays and against Hank Aaron," Hall of Famer Monte Irvin once said. "They were tremendous players, but they were no Josh Gibson."

Nolan seems to be another guy that everyone likes.  His card values speak to that.  I like seeing him in a Rangers uniform.  Imagine what his win totals would be had he played for better teams.

His longevity is a testament to his work ethic.  Seven no-hitters is just sick.  And just imagine, he also had 12 one-hitters and 18 two-hitters.  37 games of two hits or less!

This photograph seems to capture Carlton Fisk's intensity.

With apologies to my South Side friends it's a shame Carlton didn't spend his entire career in Boston.  He seems the epitome of the New Englander.

Is it just me or is this guy under appreciated?

13 straight season of 100+ RBIs. --and not 101 or 102.  Check out 1932!

These next two photos are disappointing.

Bench and Fisk at catcher were to the 70's what Brooks Robinson and Ron Santo were at 3rd base during the 1960's.  That is, the best at their position in each league.  Bench was one of Ron Santo's biggest HOF boosters.

Maybe the heart of the Big Red Machine, Joe is certainly one of the All-Time greats at 2nd base.

Just so consistent in all areas as a Red.  This card doesn't show his outstanding base on balls totals.  Joe is 5th all-time.

2001 Sunoco Dream Team

I picked up this oddball set on Ebay for 25 cents plus shipping.  According to "The Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards" these cards were sold in three-card packs for 49 cents with a gasoline or Coke purchase.  Other than being on thin card stock they're pretty nice.  I love the titles on the back.  They remind me of the 1960's combo cards.

From the Vault -- Pictures from Wrigley 3 -- Gimme Mick

Back in the day I went to a number of Cubs games with my Canon FTb equipped with a telephoto lens.

The camera looked like this:

The lens looked something like the one below.  It's a fixed focal length of 400 mm, no zoom.  

The whole setup was very heavy and cumbersome.  

After all these years I thought it would be fun to share some of my pictures here. Keep in mind that this was back in the days of film and the photos were scanned on my $50 scanner.  Hopefully they look OK.  Click to enlarge them. 

Johngy, who kindly identified that these pictures are from a game on August 10, 1976  mentioned that #20 was Mick Kelleher.  I think the two pictures below are of #20 after he hit a double in the bottom of the 6th.

Caption, anyone?

I guess I ran out of color film at this point and quickly switched to a roll of B&W.  

This umpire seems kind of nosy.

A few recent pictures of Mick

2005 Signature Decades -- 1970's Hitters

1970's Hitters