Twenty Awesome Baseball Cards

The post title says it all. I'm busy spending some time with my Dad today, as well as running errands and picking up a couple of last minute gifts before Christmas.  Not a lot of time left over for blogging, so let's take a quick look at twenty cool baseball cards that I added to my official, digitally organized collection while cleaning my office this past weekend...

First up, a trio of '56 Topps cards.  Phillies manager Mayo Smith (calling for the slide?)...

...Bucs third baseman Gene Freese...

...and pitcher Ronnie Kline.  These were plucked off of eBay because I'd one day love to complete this beautiful set, I was already picking up some cards from the seller so shipping was free, and they were under $2 each.

This '57 Les Moss is a little beat up for my liking, but it's an acceptable placeholder for the 25 cents it cost me when I plucked it from a quarter box.  Hopefully I'll upgrade this copy to one with a little less surface wear someday, and then send this one out in trade.

This sweet Kellogg's Steve Carlton was also discovered in a quarter box, if you can believe that.  I can't pass on a crack-free HOF Kellogg's card at that discounted price.

From the same quarter boxes, this Stadium Club Griffey.  Yes, it's a simple base card, but what a fantastic photograph of Junior mid-air.

I shelled out 50 cents a piece for this trio of Hostess stars in Bert Campaneris...

...flamethrower J.R. Richard...

...and The Penguin.  I'm not currently pursuing this set or anything, but for mere pocket change these were just too cool to leave behind for another collector to scoop up!

Next let's plug a couple of holes in my barely started 1973 Topps set with a 1972 Victory Leaders card (27 wins for Carlton!)...

...and a really nice Boog Powell.

O-Pee-Chee Stargell, and from the season of the "We Are Family" World Series Champion Pirates to boot!  Maybe my favorite card in the entire post, love those mustard yellow unis.

Speaking of mustard yellow, here's a nice pre-Cardinals Ozzie Smith.

Like many collectors at the time, I adored the "Hot Numbers" inserts from the various Flair releases.  These were some highly coveted inserts at the time, happy to land speedster Kenny Lofton all these years later.

Do I really need to explain why this card ended up in my quarter box stack at one point?  Didn't think so.

Another mid-'90s insert set I really liked was Headliners, from Fleer.  I know, not a ton of thought behind a player plastered in front of some newspaper clippings, but for whatever reason I've always enjoyed these.

1990 Leaf was an amazing set in its time.  As a kid collector at the time I remember these cards demanding big money.  I never had the Frank Thomas rookie back then, as I think it was close to a $100 card if I recall correctly.  These days you can find these cards for relatively cheap coin.  Randy Johnson here was a quarter as well.

We all have those sets that for some strange reason are under-represented in our collections, despite maybe not being all that rare or valuable.  For me, 1984 Fleer is one of those sets.  I've got just a couple of cards from this release, so I'm pleased to add Jim Rice here to my collection.

In closing, a couple of nice looking 1958 Topps cards with Ray Herbert of the A's...

...and Harry Hanebrink of the Braves.

So there you have it, quick and dirty, twenty awesome baseball cards.

I'll be back with more well-thought-out content tomorrow, but until then thanks for stopping by!