My Braves and Hall of Fame Collection - 1998 Donruss Greg Maddux Statistical Standout #'d 23/2500

I collect vintage baseball cards, build a set every once in awhile....sample new releases here and there and chase after cards of my favorite teams and players.

Some of my collecting focuses on the collecting years of my youth - '79 through about '93 or so.....okay, my birth up through my youth.   I call it my FIRST collecting period.

Then, I began rediscovering the hobby in 2011 upon the discovery that I would be having a son.   It only seemed natural and I've really enjoyed it.   Every second of it.   A little TOO much, sometimes.

That leaves a gigantic hobby gap for my collection in the cardboard universe - nearly two full decades!   What happened during these years?   What were the cards like?   What did I miss?   I enjoy reading about and viewing cards from this 'missing' era of mine.   They usually range across the entire collecting spectrum - from horrible, silly and over-cooked to foily-sweet and action-packed.

I don't know the rules about when to use a hyphen.   Any tips, Night Owl?

Every once in awhile, I get the chance to add a card from this era to my collection.   I will usually ensure that it fits into one of my team or player collections or portrays a Hall of Fame player.   In this case, I was able to fit into two of those categories: 

As many of you are painfully aware, I am a Braves fan.   The Braves were the "local" (5.5 hours) team for me as a kid growing up in the Redneck Riviera and it was a BLAST!   Games tickets were cheap, the Murph was THE man and I was able to enjoy the "Bums to Pennants" transition that kicked off in 1991 with a Sid Bream slide.

Therefore, I'm a Maddux fan.   He wouldn't join Atlanta until '93 but the following 10 years resulted in some of the finest team pitching I've known in my lifetime.   I began watching Maddux in Fulton County Stadium whilst sucking down cokes and sighed heavily as he headed back north to Wrigley in 2004.   From starting high school to being underwater in a submarine.   That's quite a journey and Greg was a part of it when I combed the sports pages.

When I saw this 1998 Donruss-Leaf-50th-Anniversary-Statistical-Standout card, I knew I had to have it.  IN fact, I might have to find MORE of these cards!   I think they're fabulous.   The black and white (sepia?) background photo of a glove with a ball is perfection.   Yes, it has the worst looking Maddux signature EVER scribbled across it....but it works for me.   The "Leaf" and "Statistical Standout" foil stamps are just enough and placed just right on both sides of our post-delivery and colorful hurler.

How about the back?

Out of 2500 :)

Okay, the mug shot is a bit meh, but the Don Mattingly-jersey-number-serial-numbered-out-of-2500 aspect of this card makes me happy.   Illogically so.   20 walks in 1997!?!?   And there's that glorious ball & glove again....

Love this card.   Sorry I missed it the first time around, but that's what's great about our hobby - when it comes to cardboard, time is on our side.

Thanks for reading!

Who Doesn't Love Surprises?

Surprise card packages?

Love them.

Who wouldn't?

Asking for nothing in return, these two great fellow collector kept me in mind as they came across random Yanks and some sets NEEDS that I had listed on my blog.

And I couldn't be more grateful - to Darren and Jeff at Potch Wheeler & the Cardboard Heroes and Cardboard Catastrophes, respectively.

Darren sent over a couple of base cards from '11 Lineage and 1991 Fleer that I had needed towards my set completion quests:

Cy and Andujar - brought together for the 1st time by Ryan's Pitch.

  
And who could go wrong with a blue Yankee parallel from 2012?   Particularly this one of Mr. Chavez.   Anybody have a translation for those tats on Eric's arm?

Finally, here are a couple of recreations of a card that was and a card that wasn't.   These 60 YOT's from last year's offering are a great way to pick up copies of legendary cardboard for next to nothing.   I am actually very fortunate and have this actual Rizzuto card in my Yankees collection.   This reprint is a great addition and will be a nice comparison opportunity in a future post.   The Mantle never existed, but it sure is a sharp card now!   When it comes to card designs, '54 through '56 are often at the top of the list.   I hadn't noticed before but the write-ups on the backs are kind of interesting.   In these cases, a couple of tidbits describing the Topps and Bowman relationship from the 50's is provided and make for some interesting suppositions.   Enough chatter - here's Mick and Scooter:

 

"Watch as I slide FOR you whilst making the out."

1956 - When Topps Ate Bowman for Dinner

 Jeff sent over a lot of help for my 2011 Heritage set quest.   I think he had been chasing this one himself, so I really appreciate him sorting out a few to send my way!   Here's what we had along with a couple of my favorites:

The surreal blue sky behind David Price makes the blue in his Rays uniform pop really nicely.   Plus......he's a stud hurler.   The Manager's Dream card was a great capture of the cards from '62.   Pujols and Braun were awesome last year.   Albert has been anything BUT a dream for me as a fantasy manager this year.

I know......we're 7 21 days in.   I'm just jaded.

Great cards.   Great collector friends.   Great surprises.   Thank you, Darren and Jeff!

Thanks for reading, you guys.

And Then There Was One

What's more exciting - the anticipation of a final card or the completion of the set?

Reader Adam has brought my 2011 Lineage NEEDS list to its knees by sending a great package of four of the final five cards from my checklist.   Adam is a Giants fan and I was able to piece together a few odds and ends from my collection.   My favorite from the four Lineage he sent?   Probably Mr. Cy Young:

 

Not only does Cy appear to utilize the same workout routine that I do but he also played for the Cleveland Spiders - and that's just cool.   Oh yes, according to the back of his Uno card (#106 from the set), he also holds the record for complete games at 749.

749 COMPLETE games.  

That's 6,741 innings in tidy little nine-inning bursts.   As Lee Corso would say in the fall, "Yo!"

Ear-Muffs, Kids!

Only one card remains - #175.  

I hadn't looked until now, let's see who it is!   Let's pause for a quick Bing search...........

Oh my....

It's one of my Yankees - CC Sabathia!   Ironically, he could probably work out with me and Cy.

Where 'ya at, CC?!

Thanks for the great trade, Adam, and thanks for reading!