Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way

Everything in my card-collectin' career to date has propelled me toward accumulating the six 1974 Topps "Hank Aaron Special" cards that kicked off the base set that year. Player whom I can (barely) remember from his playing days? Check. (I was six when he broke Babe Ruth's home run record). Beautiful cards that are relatively inexpensive? Absolutely. Baseball cards on baseball cards? I want in.

Like I said, Topps #1-6 were all tributes to Hank Aaron, who'd break that HR record on April 8th, 1974 when the new season began. I have #2-6, which I'll display for you presently. #1 is roughly in the $7-$10 range where I've seen it, and I just haven't sprung for it yet - and it doesn't have baseball cards on it, either. The backs of each of these provide a guide to some of Aaron's milestone moments; his best stats; memorable dingers that he hit, and so on.

A truly iconic player, and some truly iconic cards.

Here's What Nate Colbert Did Next

Hey, I'm back over here at Card Hemorrhage. I think I know how to work my scanner a little better, so hopefully my 2+ -week absence didn't drive you away from the hobby completely.

Today we're going to rev things back up with a guy whose player collection I think I'm pretty much done with. It's Nate Colbert - early San Diego Padres slugger and team star through the first half of the 1970s. What did Nate do next to earn himself a spot on a baseball card, post-retirement? Well, he was the hitting coach for the Riverside Red Wave in the early 1990s, and earned himself not one but four minor league baseball cards in that capacity, and I'm delighted to say I've now grabbed all four.

I've also got a couple of cool food issue Colbert oddballs to share with you, but let's do that somewhere down the road. I'll try to get a plethora of card posts going in the next few days. What else are you going to do over the pandemic holiday, right?

New 1972s From My LCS

Yesterday I nailed 14/787ths of the 1972 Topps set I'm working on completing. It came from a Sunday afternoon visit to Lefty's Card Shop in beautiful Burlingame, California, and a hankering I had to look through their hall of famer binders to see what sort of '72s I could afford. I was able to pull 14 once or future superstars from their binders, and I focused my efforts for the most part on VG+ or even a fair "Fair"-graded cards, such was their affordability when doing so.

I rang up a few true dudes in the process, as you'll see. Here's Joe Morgan, who recently passed away, looking tough in an Astros uniform. Looking at his stats for 1971, Joe was nobody's idea of a future hall of famer, nor had he really been anything particularly special earlier in his Houston career. He hit .256, with 13 homers and 56 RBI. And no, there was no OBP nor BABIP nor WAR on his card in 1972. A few years later he'd be a world champion with the Reds. Twice. 

I'm still working on accumulating a ton of commons and a few big hitters in my quest for all 787 of the 1972 cards. Here's how it's going so far, and here are a few others I was able to add on a rainy afternoon in Burlingame.

A Portion of My Heath Bell Collection

Heath Bell was absolutely one of my favorite players ten years or so ago. A relief pitcher who didn't hit the bigs until age 26, and then didn't start dominating until age 31, Bell was both literally and figuratively an outsized figure. No one who ever saw him at the 2011 All-Star Game representing the Padres will ever forget him running in for his turn, then executing the most joyous and perfect slide right in front of the mound. It was then that he went from "guy I like" to "Top 5 favorite players". 

Thing is, Bell really only had those three golden years in San Diego - 2009, 2010 and 2011, with over 40 saves each of those years. He then bounced from Miami to Arizona to Tampa Bay, but never really found the magic touch again. He was 36, after all, by the time it all ended in 2014. He was just such a great personality and such an excellent heir to Trevor Hoffman in San Diego's bullpen that I couldn't help but love the dude. 

It's not like his cards are a big-money wallet drain, either. I picked up a few of them recently and thought you might want to take a look at a portion of my Heath Bell collection.

Here's What Showed Up Recently

This is one of those scan-n-posts. I have had a variety of small orders arrive the past couple of weeks on eBay and whatnot, and it just feel sorta wrong to file some of the better cards away without putting them up on the internet for the people to review. One I'm particularly happy about is "my first Mossi", this Topps 1962 Don Mossi. Mr. Mossi is a baseball card collectors' legend, for obvious reasons. He's one of those guys that you just need to have a card or two of, and I'm pretty sure I'm only getting started on building a set of Mossi cards. Mossi was also a damn good starting pitcher as well, after having started off as a reliever in the 50s and then having been converted to a starter by the Tigers.

I also picked another 1962 single card to kick off another player collection I'd like to pull together, this time for Billy Martin. Some of my earliest baseball memories are of Martin being fired as a manager, first from the Texas Rangers, and then his multiple hirings-and-firings with the New York Yankees. Later, he came here to the SF Bay Area and led the A's to an amazing turnaround in fortunes in the early 1980s. The book BillyBall by Dale Tafoya, which I read earlier this year, is an excellent of those years.

Here are a couple of new Joey Bart gems. He's a dude I collect. Next year I think he might be Rookie of the Year and MVP, I'm pretty sure.

...and here's one of those Bowman Chrome Dawn of Glory cards for Jo Adell, the other prospect whose cards I'm accumulating:

Here's another youngster I've just finished spending a couple of week watching in the playoffs. I'm sure you have as well. I like this guy.

As well as his Dodger teammate Brusdar Graterol, whom I like even better. This is from before he was traded to LA during the offseason:

Finally, another youngster who did some very evil things to my San Francisco Giants this season on his way to the playoffs whilst eliminating us:

Let's round out this post with some of the other gems that came in them mail these past couple of weeks. Let me know if you have any questions on 'em!