Time to select another card for The Ultimate Baseball Set, a franken-set compiled from all of the baseball cards I own from any brand or year. Today I'll select card #248. Don't worry, I'm not going with Wilbur Howard and his obnoxious 'Stros uniform. Even for such an obscure card number as 248 there were at least a few cards in my collection that outranked Wilbur here:
Babe Ruth occupies #248 in the 2007 Goudey set with a nice Heads Up short print. I don't have any vintage Ruth cards, so this is the closest thing I've got. Not going to make the cut though.
I've yet to select a Red Sox card for this set yet, and I had hopes that this would be my first chance. I like this Pedroia Gypsy Queen mini, but honestly I wouldn't rank it above even the Goudey Ruth card.
Now here's a much more interesting Red Sox card, a 1964 Topps Johnny Pesky. One of my favorite Red Sox cards, from one of my favorite '60s sets. I would have loved to have chosen this card for inclusion in the set, but unfortunately I had to pass on it.
The 1959 Topps Red Sox team card was another really strong choice at #248. I love everything about this card, most of all the old school batting sock logo. There was one #248 that won out over even this card though.
1984 Donruss - #248 - Don Mattingly RC
Yeah, I chose a Yankee over those two great Red Sox cards. I sound like a broken record here (four of the six cards I've selected now are big-name '80s rookie cards), but during the time when I collected cards as a child the rookie card was king. The 1984 Donruss Mattingly was right up there with the best of the decade. In fact, this may be the biggest non-Hall-of-Fame rookie card of the decade. Maybe?
The other reason I selected this one is because I am a huge fan of the 1984 Donruss set. Like many other collectors, I feel it's a level above anything else Donruss ever released. I could devote entire posts to this set (and hope to at some point), but for now I'm happy to have it represented in my Ultimate Baseball Card Set.
The Ultimate Baseball Card Set, which now stands at 6 cards and counting, can be seen
here.
I'd definitely go "biggest non-HOF-caliber RC" of the decade. McGwire 85 Topps and Clemens 84 Fleer Update may be bigger (Bonds 87 Fleer? - in the category but probably behind in my mind) - but those guys would be clear HOF locks if not for the PED issue.
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