Thought it'd be fun to revisit an old post today, this one my 1972 "dedicated rookie" for all-time great Carlton Fisk: Here's the original write-up as it appeared way back when: While Carlton Fisk's 1972 rookie card (#79) is one of the nicer rookie cards of the decade in my book, both for design AND the fact that one of my favorite players from my childhood is also on it, Cecil Cooper, it still would have been nice to have a "dedicated" rookie card of "Pudge" instead of a three-player card as seen below: Today I post up what could be the last "dedicated rookie" subject in the thread, si ..read more

Today on the blog we have all-time great George Sisler added to my long-running 1971 "Minor League Days: Legends Edition" thread, in this case a baseball legend who put time in the Minors at the end of his career rather than the beginning: Here we see Sisler during his year with the Rochester Red Wings in 1931, one year removed from his last Major League season. In that year at Rochester, Sisler just continued doing what he did best, hit, to the tune of a .309 average with 186 hits over 613 at-bats at the age of 38. The man was a hitting machine, twice topping .400 and finishing up his 15 ..read more

Up on the blog today, we add former Cleveland Indians slugger Al Rosen to my custom "Classic Baseball" set, celebrating the sport I have loved for close to 50 years now: Rosen had somewhat of a meteoric Major League career, with superstar seasons between 1950 and 1955 before a pedestrian 1956 season, then retirement. Just like that. One of the heavy hitters of the Indian teams blessed with uber-pitching (Feller, Garcia, Lemon, Wynn), Rosen had his peak season in 1953 when he just missed a Triple Crown, though taking home the American League MVP Award when he led the league with 43 homers an ..read more

The first National League outfielder I've picked on my "All-1960s Decade Team" is an easy one, as are pretty much ALL outfield slots for both leagues to be honest, and today we start with the great Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates: I'm sure you can also figure out who the other two outfielders for the National League will be as well! Anyway, as for the man himself, Clemente's career is the stuff of legend: His fiery play on the field, his good deeds, and his absolute adoration by teammates and fans alike. On the field Clemente's numbers were incredible: four batting titles, five ..read more

Today on the blog, my Dave Parker mini-card from my custom "Gum Pack" set released months ago as a bit of an "extra" kick to the WTHBALLS checklist: Fun little set to create and produce in unique gum pack packaging! An all-around super-star, Parker hit for average, for power, had a cannon for an arm, and would even steal some bases if needed. By the time he retired after the 1991 season, a nice 19-year career, he posted over 2700 hits, 1200 runs scored, 500 doubles, almost 1500 runs batted in, 339 home runs and over 150 stolen bases! He was a seven-time all-star who also finished in the ..read more

Time to go and add Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk to my custom WTHBALLS "Classic Baseball" set, a custom production I plan on issuing over five series later this year in celebration of the sport I love so much pretty much my entire life: Just a nice in-game shot of the elite catcher. Carlton Fisk immediately made his impact on the game, unanimously winning the 1972 Rookie of the Year Award by hitting .293 and leading the league with nine triples along with 22 homers and 61 runs batted in. Of course, we all know he’d go on to star for both the Red Sox and then the Chicago White Sox over the nex ..read more

Up on the blog today, my 1961 "In-Action" card for "Hammerin' Hank Aaron", from my recent custom "1960s In-Action" Series 2 set released a couple months back: Love this image of Aaron at the plate, and it was fun to create a unique 1961-based template to place it into for the set! As I've stated so many times on this blog, the man was simply out of this world... Let his numbers do all the talking: 2174 runs scored, 3771 hits, 624 doubles, 98 triples, 755 home runs, 2297 runs batted in, a .305 batting average no less than 21 all-star selections! Just tremendous! He also had eight top-5 ..read more

Good day all! On the blog today we take a closer look at former Montreal Expo infielder Pete Mackanin and his 1977 image variations between OPC and Topps: OPC version Topps version   While OPC went with a clear posed photo for their card, the Topps version had this shadowy image of Mackanin out in the Sunshine. Nothing Earth-shattering by any means, but again, questionable image pick for the fine folks at Topps! Mackanin put in nine years in the Majors, between 1973 when he came up with the Texas Rangers and 1981 when he wrapped up his Big League tenure as a member of ..read more

On the blog today, a "missing" 1970 All-Star manager card, even though Topps didn't have base-card All-Star designations, but I did a while back, so I added to that thread with such a card for former Detroit Tigers skipper Mayo Smith, who led the A.L. in the 1969 game: Thanks to his World Championship season of 1968 at the helm of the Detroit Tigers, Smith was the manager for the A.L. in the 1969 "Midsummer Classic", a game that saw the National League prevail 9-3. The Tigers marched to a championship with a memorable 1968 year that saw them win 103 games before stunning the reigning champ ..read more

Today's blog post has my pick (as well as I'm assuming everyone else's pick) for the American League third baseman of the 1960s, Baltimore Orioles legend Brooks Robinson: I mean, as if there would be any other selection for the position! In 1958 he’d play his first full season in the Big Leagues, and it was all cruise control from there, as the great third baseman would go on to grab 16 Gold Gloves, an MVP Award in 1964, appear in 15 All-Star games, and help guide the Baltimore Orioles to two Championships and four A.L. Pennants. By the time he hung up that golden glove after the 1977 seaso ..read more