#556 A's Stars

The first thing that comes to mind when I look at this card is, why did Topps choose these 3 for this card? With my limited knowledge of A's stars and 1969 baseball, I would have gone with Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue and Rollie Fingers. But, looking back at the timeline in all these player's careers helped me see better, for myself, the answer to my question.

Sal was the up-and-comer who had established himself well the year before and really hit his stride in 1969. He was selected to his first All-Star Game, hit 31 home runs and batted .281. Bert was an obvious choice. He was just scary on the base path, swiping 62 that year. His previous year he led the majors with another 62 steals, was 11th in MVP voting and was selected to his first All-Star Game. Danny finished 2nd to Yaz in the AL batting titled in 1968, "The Year of the Pitcher", hitting .290 to Yaz's .301.

As for Reggie, Vida and Rollie, they were all still fresh outta the minors from Iowa and Vancouver! And along with Catfish, they would go on to become legends a little later winning 3 championships in a row for Oakland.

I picked up this card on eBay last week for 25 cents, along with 5 more commons all for a quarter or two each. This was the first time I had seen the team stars format for this set, since I mostly only have lower numbered cards. I really love this card and can't wait to find more like it for the other teams!

Deckles at "The Topps Archives" blog

I found a couple of interesting blog posts about the deckle edge insert set over at The Topps Archives today. The first post highlights the details of the set and the second post clears up the confusion over the whys and hows on the variations found.

Be-deckled

The Deckle is in the Details

#392 Bob Burda

Mark over at Stats on the Back gave away free cards to about 60 fellow collectors last month with his Giveaway #2. I mentioned that I collected '69 Topps along with other wants, and I didn't really expect to see any, but Mark did throw one in with the rest of the goodies, which I'll post soon on my other blog.

I've never heard of Bob Burda, but this at least puts another check mark on the higher numbered needs on my list, but, of course, is an awesome addition to this collection. Bob spent his career excelling in the minors and coming up to the show regularly when needed. Ironically, the "stats on the back" of this card might be some of the most dismal I've ever seen on a baseball card. Bob ended up being a career .224 hitter with 13 home runs and 78 RBIs in 388 games played.

PunkRockPaint's LOST... The Retro Baseball Set

PunkRockPaint's blog features some of the best home made cards on the 'net.. and one of his latest creations happens to be based on the '69 Topps set! PunkRockPaint has been making a set featuring characters and moments from the ABC TV series "Lost" and this one is #46 in the series.

Check it out..