Social Distancing Diary with Baseball Cards: Mantle, the Babe, and Giants

Aloha, everybody, 

In this episode of Social Distancing with Baseball Cards, we check out some tribute and vintage Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, the Babe and more.

Enjoy and aloha! 

Rediscovered Vintage - The Last Of The Cardboard Gold

We've made it to the final installment of my rediscovered vintage - cards that I found in a long forgotten shoebox.  

Thanks to those of you who read along with this series and especially to those of you who commented on the coolness of what I found. I was just as excited to reexamine and reread each card as you were to see and read about it here. It was great bounty, indeed. 

 Let's see what other cardboard surprises await.

One of the best things about these cards is the number of iconic players on classic cardboard images I found. 

I saved Brooks Robinson's 1969 Topps issue for today's installment because it should stand on its own, away from the other cards of the decade.  

The circle of the name balloon mimics the rounded old time batting helmet, which matches the cartoon Oriole's logo. And how about Brooks' mother-lovin' smile? 

For some reason the contents of the shoebox completely skipped the '70's (all of the Dodger cards skipped the 70's as well), but they pick up again in the 80's with a couple of doozies...

 How about a Rickey Henderson Rookie Card for a doozie? 

Talk about a card that defines the hobby.  Young Rickey silhouetted at the plate, full of promise and potential, coiled and ready to strike at the entire league.  

But one RC doesn't make a great shoebox, how about one more...

I'm not a big fan of Damn Mattingly, the manager, but I'm certainly a fan of Donnie Baseball.  No, this one doesn't have the highest "book value" of his three RC's (Fleer, Donruss, Topps), the big money card is the Donruss release, but this one is my favorite. 

This card has everything for a lover of the 80's on cardboard. We get a portrait in the insert and a full image of Mattingly at the ready, on the bag. Old time stirrups and flip-down shades complete the look.  

Finally, a couple of inserts from the 90's. I recall back in the day these Topps Finest refractors were the shite. And you couldn't do much better than refractor reprints of these next two guys.
 

 When I first got into collecting, Mickey Mantle was the king of cardboard. 

Conversations went like this - 
 Collector A: "I got a Big Hurt Lumberjacks insert!"
Collector B: "Yeah, that's cool and all, but I got Mickey Mantle!!"
All other collectors (in unison): "WOOOOOOOOOW!!" 
And the Mick hadn't touched a baseball diamond in more than 25 years. However, I don't think he has as much juice with this generation of collectors. 

Batting cleanup for the box of rediscovered cardboard...

Bat barrel - Check!
Roberto, not "Bob" - Check!
Old timey stadium tiers - Check! 
One of the greatest to ever play the game - Double Check! 

That closes out the old shoebox.  Thanks for readin', gang!

Live Blogging Blaster Pack 5

Last 3 packs...

Great shot of a modern catcher's gear.

BOOOOOOOOOOO !!! but a great looking card.  BOOO !!

 

Bah - what a waste of uniform when he was a Dodger.

Shiny Fisk.  NICE !

Geez, yet another Giant.  BOOO !! but again, a nice looking card.

ATBATT All-Time All-Stars Third Base

Hey everybody,

This post rounds out the infield for ATBATT's All-Star team.  Thanks to those of you who have followed this series.  It's been fun choosing the players and of course, it's a different way for me to show off some of my cards.

Here's an update of the previous position players I chose:

1. Catcher: Johnny Bench

2. First Base: Lou Gerhrig

3. Second Base: Jackie Robinson

4. Shortstop: Ozzie Smith

...and now..Third Base...

From a team full of legendary players, comes the Human Vacuum known as Brooks Robinson.  This was another tough decision to make, since I'm a Mike Schmidt fan.  Lots of times I'll take the side of the argument that Schmidt was the best third baseman ever, but in making this choice, I again went with the infielder who has superior defensive abilities over a big bat.  Heck, there's enough bombers on my all-stars that home runs should not be a worry.

 While Schmidt hit almost twice as many homers as Robinson, I give the responsibility of patrolling the hot corner to Brooks.  He holds the record for most games played by a third basemen (2,870), and he won 16 CONSECUTIVE Gold Gloves, finishing with the highest fielding percentage of all-time .971.

Robinson was no slouch with the bat, with 268 homers and 1,367 RBI's to his name.

Brooks also knows how to come up big in the postseason.  He played his position like few ever have in the 1970 World Series.  Orioles fans probably still talk about it in Baltimore's oldest bars.

Welcome to ATBATT's All-Stars, Brooksie.

THANKS for reading, everybody.