Blow Out the Candles May 28

One of the all-time greats Jerry West  is celebrating his 74th birthday today.

Career highlights and awards

NBA Champion (1972)
NBA Finals MVP (1969)
14× NBA All-Star (1960–1974)
NBA All-Star Game MVP (1972)
NBA scoring champion (1970)
10× All-NBA First Team (1962–1967, 1970–1973)
2× All-NBA Second Team (1968, 1969)
4× NBA All-Defensive First Team (1970–1973)
NBA All-Defensive Second Team (1969)
NCAA Final Four MOP (1959)
2×SoCon Player of the Year (1959, 1960)
2× Consensus NCAA All-American First Team(1959, 1960)
2× NBA Executive of the Year (1995, 2004)NBA 35th Anniversary TeamNBA 50th Anniversary Team
#44 Retired by the Los Angeles Lakers

Current D-Backs manager and 1988 NL MVP Kirk Gibson is celebrating #55 today.

Autographed Baseball Cards A-Z

When I got back into collecting five or so years ago one of the things that excited me was the availability of autographed cards.  Perhaps I went a little overboard but I think I picked up some nice cards.  This will be an A-Z series of posts with varying numbers of cards.

I thought I was done with the F's but I found two more.

This makes my third Bill Freehan.  It's different than the other two, being an action shot and it's on card.  I have all three of the Topps ATFF base sets.  They're great.

2005 Topps ATFF #FFA-BF

It's "Super Sam" Fuld.  Sam has an interesting background and like Cubs great Ron Santo he battles diabetes while playing baseball.  Love his hustle.  I was sorry to see him leave the Cubbies.   Unfortuately there are only so many spots.

2008 Bowman #224 324/500

One of the cogs of the "Big Red Machine", he won four consecutive Gold Gloves ('74-'77).  He was coincidentally the 3000th strikeout victim of the guy on the next card.

2004 Topps #TA-CG

I liked the second card here.  It has a nice relic (pants by the way), but I wanted an on card auto.  Love these Fleers and Bob has a clear distinctive signature.

1999 Fleer GOTG

2005 UD Hall of Fame Baseball Hallworthy #HW-BG1 15/15

Arizona Daimondbacks manager Kirk Gibson may not be a Hall of Famer but he had some great moments.  You know his home run off Eckersley.  He also won a Championship with the Tigers.  His signature is not very legible but it has an arty kind of vibe to it.

2001 Fleer GOTG

Random Pack Break

OOOH, 1990 Donruss!

Nothing special here.

Or here.

A nice Wizard.

I like the red fronts but I'm not digging the orange backs.

The "Old Man" in just his fifth season

Dodger fav and current D-Backs skipper

"O'Terrell"?

Nice pic, Jack!

3419, 452 -- Must be Yaz!