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!