BASEBALL CARD MEMORIES

The other day when I was at Target I looked over and saw the section where they sell sports cards. There are so many different types now and days everything from movies and TV to politics and star trek and the sports card industry is just so different now than it was back when I was younger. I remember trading cards with my brother back when we were kids. It was simple back then, there was Topps, Fleer, Donruss, and then in 1988 Score. There was not 8 versions of Fleer or 19 versions of Topps but just the one and then every now and then there would be an extended set or rookie set. It is absolutely ridiculous how many cards there are now and what used to be valuable now is no longer so. Oh how times have changed.

To the right are some baseball cards that remind me of when I was a kid. I either obtained these myself (via my Dad buying them for me) or traded with my brother or friends but I owned most of the cards below at one time or another when I was a kid. Below is a little blur or blotter about each card. Ill start from the top left and go left to right and down or you can simply just follow by name as to which card

1. Rickey Henderson Rookie Card - Rickey Henderson was one of my favorite baseball players of all time. I remember trading to get this card from one of my Dad's friend when we were traveling one summer and at a lake somewhere. I was so excited to get this card and even though it was in terrible shape I loved this card and thought it was so cool to have especially after he broke the all time steals record.

2. Darryl Strawberry Rookie Card - Another favorite of mine as I rooted for the NY Mets against Boston in the 1986 World Series. I got this card at a sports card show on Beach Blvd in Westminster, CA in an extended 1983 Fleet Set. This card was in pristine mint condition and I actually kept it that one. One of my more pricey cards at that time since Straw was supposed to be one of the best around.

3. Eric Davis Rookie Card - Yet another favorite player of mine and the best friend of Strawberry this is a card I owned about 7 or 8 of at all times. I don't know how this happened but I had a ton of these cards and I remember when he started doing good I used my duplicates for trade bait. haha.

4. Michael Jordan Upper Deck Card - Upper Deck Baseball incorporated a special edition Michael Jordan "baseball" card in their 1990 set of MJ hitting at batting practice with the Chicago White Sox. This was a very popular card and I only owned 1 copy of it but it was very cool since it was the 1st ever Michael Jordan "baseball" card.

5. Kirby Puckett Rookie Card - This came from a set that both my brother and I owned so we both had a lot of these Topps 1985 cards floating around. There were so many great cards from this set and this Kirby Puckett one was no exception. One of the most humble and kind hearted guys in the league at the time Kirby was a fan favorite everywhere he went, except maybe in Atlanta. haha.

6. Tony Gwynn Rookie Card - I remember loving the 1983 Fleer set because the borders of the cards were brown. That was different and unique. I especially loved this one because Gwynn one of the purest hitters the game has ever seen is shown in the Padres crazy looking Yellow and Brown jersey and the card just synched up so well together with his attire. A great card and a great player!

7. Mark McGwire USA Baseball Rookie Card - Another one that was part of the 1985 Topps set neither my brother or I really paid much attention to this card at the time because it was part of the USA Baseball Team and we really didn't know any of them. Come 1998 I was sure looking through my old cards trying to locate any of these after Big Mac broke the single season HR record. Not sure of its worth today but this one was like a hidden treasure back then since so little people knew how big this card would be.

8. Cal Ripken Jr. Rookie Card - Not one of my more favorite designs of a baseball card but still pretty decent, I mean its Cal Ripken Jr. for pete's sake. One thing I liked about this card was that it listed him as a "third baseman" which we all know he is know for playing shortstop. He did however come into the league playing 3B so that wasn't a goof or anything just weird to see.

9. Julio Franco 1985 Topps Card - One of the few on this list that is not a "rookie" card or RC as known by Beckett but this is one that was always just funny to me. The curly gelled hair and overexcited smile were just too much. I must have had 5 or 6 copies of this one and every time I saw it I thought "this guy looks pretty happy and oh my gosh that hair"! haha

10. Wade Boggs Rookie Card - Tony Gwynn's American League nemesis and easily the greatest hitter in AL at that time the 1983 Donruss rookie card was decent but not like the fleer and topps of that year. I thought the glove and bat was a nice touch but it didn't compare to the brown border on the fleer card or the circle picture face on the topps card of that same year. Still a nice card but one of the few on this list that I never actually owned.

11. Gary Pettis 1985 Topps - Pettis was my favorite baseball player of all but this is not Gary Pettis on this card. I don't know who it was but it sure wasn't Pettis. A major mishap on this one and what was even more noticeable than that was the corny hand under chin high school yearbook type pose by whomever it was on this card. Easily one of the funniest baseball pose's around.

12. Roger Clemens Rookie Card - Another one that both my brother and I had multiple copies of and was not really known as a popular and valuable card at the time but later become both more popular and valuable. Just your typical rookie baseball card showing the "possible" Future Hall of Famer sporting a gold necklace visible outside his jersey. He's so joe-cool.

13. Don Mattingly Rookie Card - I remember always wanting to own this card and my brother was the one who had several copies. I eventually traded to get this one and I always loved the 84 fleer set. In this card Mattingly is obviously playing in a practice game or something because that is not your typical Yankee game uniform attire. One of the best first basemen of his time this was a cool rookie card to own.

14. Ken Griffey Jr. Rookie Card - I never owned this card but man the hype regarding this card was huge. I remember after returning home from the Pony World Series a bunch of my teammates were so excited because they pulled this card out of a pack and you would have thought they won the lottery. Griffey Jr. (the kid) was the biggest thing since sliced break back then but I never really got on the bandwagon I guess and never really tried to even get this card or trade for it.

15. Jose Canseco Rated Rookie Card - This was a gold mine of all gold mines back in the day. Both my brother and I owned this card and it was easily one of the most popular and valuable cards cards at that time. Everyone wanted this card and I had so many ridiculous trade requests for it it wasn't even funny. I did however accept one trade for it. That was when I traded it for my Rickey Henderson RC card at the lake. That's how I obtained that card. Over time this card diminished in value pretty quickly but at one point this was probably the hottest baseball card on the market.