Up on the blog today, a spotlight on my "Classic Baseball" custom card for "The Great One", Roberto Clemente, all-time great and true hero in a time when the term gets thrown around a bit too freely: On the field Clemente's numbers were incredible: four batting titles, five seasons batting over .340, four 200 hit seasons, 12 all-star nods, 12 Gold Gloves and a Most Valuable Player Award in 1966. And a prime example of Clemente's importance to the game was his immediate induction into Cooperstown by special committee in 1973, waiving the standard five-year wait before a player joins the H ..read more

Good day folks. On the blog today we have a missing 1975 card for Rusty Torres, who appeared in 109 games for the Cleveland Indians during the 1974 season yet was left out of the 1975 set by Topps: Torres hit .187 over 150 at-bats that year, collecting 28 hits with 19 runs scored and 12 runs batted in for the Tribe, playing all three outfield positions while also putting in some time as a designated hitter. His career began in 1971 as a member of the New York Yankees, for whom he played parts of two seasons before heading to Cleveland as part of the trade that got the Yanks Graig Nettles i ..read more

Up on the blog today, my pick for the National League's top third baseman of the 1960s, and I went with Chicago Cubs legend Ron Santo: Ron Santo was no slouch at the hot corner: nine All-Star games, five Gold Gloves, 342 lifetime homers and 1331 runs batted in in a somewhat short 15-year career, mainly for the North Side Chicago Cubs (he played his last year for the South Side Chicago White Sox) in 1974. Just take a look at his career, and see the solid numbers year after year, about as consistent a player you could ever ask for. Between 1963 and 1973 Santo was selected for nine All-Star ga ..read more

Today on the blog we add the "Mechanical man" Charlie Gehringer, one of the most overlooked all-time greats of the game, to my "Minor League Days: Legends Edition" thread: I have him shown here as a member of his first minor league team, the London Tecumsehs, for whom he suited up in 1924 at the age of 21. During his time there he hit .292 before a late-season call-up to the Majors for a five-game stint where he hit a blistering .462 with six hits in 13 at-bats. The following year he began the season with Toronto in the International league, where all he did was collect over 200 hits while ..read more

On the blog today, we spotlight my Hank Aaron mini card from my recent custom "Gum Pack" special set:     Again, just a fun little card to create and print up for fun, celebrating the game I love so much from the era that got me started down this path. 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 finishes for MVP, including taking home the award in 1957, as w ..read more

Today we go and add the very first recipient of the Cy Young Award, Brooklyn Dodgers ace Don Newcombe, to my custom "Classic Baseball" set: Just a beautiful photo of the original Black Ace, the first African-American 20-game winner in either the American or National Leagues, when he first turned in 20 wins in 1951. The N.L. Rookie of the Year in 1949 when he posted 17 wins for the Dodgers, he followed that up with 19 wins in 1950 before the first of his three 20-win seasons the following year. Sadly for him, he would spend the next two years in the military, losing two peak seasons to serv ..read more

Good day my friends! On the blog today, we take a gander at the image variation between OPC and Topps 1977 cards for pitcher Don Gullett: OPC version Topps version Different takes on the same theme here to be honest. Both companies worked quickly to get the ace pitcher into a New York Yankees uniform, for whom he was about to suit up for in 1977 after being an integral part of the "Big Red Machine" Cincinnati Reds, bringing home two straight World Championships in 1975 and 1976. Though hampered by injuries, Gullet would then be a member of another back-to-back championshi ..read more

Up on the blog today, another of my "1960s In-Action" cards from my Series 2 custom set just released, this one a 1960 card of New York Yankees legend Whitey Ford: Just a fun card to create and print up for the "Chairman of the Board", showing him most likely on his way to another victory based off his stellar .690 lifetime winning percentage. What else needs to be said about quite possibly the greatest Yankee pitcher of all? Cy Young winner in 1961, winner of 236 games against only 106 losses (a nifty .690 winning percentage), a 2.75 career earned run average, and a member of six worl ..read more

Good day all! On the blog today, my do-over for Hall of Famer Jim Kaat and his 1969 card, from my custom "1969 Gimmie A Do-Over" set released towards the end of last year: While Topps reused an image for Kaat on their 1969 card, I went ahead and found another one to give it a bit of a refresh. Kaat came up to the Majors as a 20-year-old in 1959 with the Washington Senators, developing into an All-Star starter when the organization moved to Minnesota and became the Twins. If there were a Cy Young winner for both leagues in place for the 1965 season, he most likely would have taken home ..read more

Time for our next player to be named to my 1960s All-Decade All-Star team, with today's entry the American League shortstop of the 1960s, and I chose Luis Aparicio: Now, this pick was NOT as easy as many would think, as I was seriously considering Loa Angeles Angels shortstop Jim Fregosi for the honor. But when it came down to it, I went with "Little Louie". Aparicio had a fine decade in the 1960s, pacing the American League in stolen bases with five crowns from 1960-1964, winning a World Series with the Orioles in 1966, being named to five all-star teams, and winning six Gold Gloves. All i ..read more