The Greatest Baseball Card Ever Made according to Dave

Roberto Clemente would have been 85 years old today. I thought this would be a great time to share a contest entry from a reader Dave, who doesn't have a blog. He emailed me an entry for the best baseball card ever made. Here it is.

"For me, the best baseball card ever made is (1) of a player that I never saw play, (2) of a player on a team that I have never rooted for, and (3) is from a set that is not my favorite. However, it is a powerful image that is about much more than baseball. It is the 1973 card of Roberto Clemente.

The image is wistful. The long shadows show that the picture was taken just before sunset. Most of Clemente’s face is covered in shadows and he is looking away. It seems to perfectly capture the fact that his brilliant career was sun-setting. He was 38 and had completed 18 seasons. No one could have known when the card was designed that this was not only the sunset of a long career but of a short life.

The card, #50, was released in the first series of the 1973 set. Surely it was already in production when news reached Topps that Clemente had lost his life while on a hero’s mission to Nicaragua on the last day of 1972.

I’m confident that when the picture was taken, Clemente was entirely focused on the coming pitch. But I can’t help but feel that in the deeper recesses of his mind, he knew that his life was about much more than baseball. And for me, that is why it is the best baseball card ever made: it transcends the sport."

Thank you for your entry Dave! This is a fantastic card for sure.

Contest Results

There were a few additional contest entries after my last post.

Matt - http://diamond-jesters.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-greatest-card-ever-made-contest.html

Made makes the argument that everyone can own the Greatest Card Ever Made!

Nachos Grande - https://fanofreds.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-baseball-card-olympics-contest-entry.html#comment-form_4546364110069962133

The Sports Cards Olympics needs to happen at the 2020 National!

The Lost Collector - https://thelostcollector.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-baseball-card-olympics.html

I'll host the 2020 Sports Cards Olympics during Spring Training if we can get at least 5 bloggers to attend!

Night Owl - http://nightowlcards.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-silver-lining.html

I'll let you in Greg! Enjoyed your story and the connection you built with your nephew.

So by my count there are 13 entries and Matt accounted for 3 of them, so with only 10 participants and three prizes, the odds of winning are pretty good.

There were a lot of fantastic posts (and one fantastic email submission) and I want to thank everyone that participated and all of you for making these past 10 years on my blog something to remember!

Alright, let's get to the winners.

3rd Place - GCRL for using his 1978 Topps card backs to replay an inning of the 1978 World Series. This wasn't what I had in mind when I mentioned this topic, but I thought it was a terrific idea! I loved the fact that after all the years have gone by, GCRL knew what it said on the back of the cards already. I actually had the opportunity to meet up with GCRL earlier this week at a D-Backs game and it was hard not to mention that he was going in the running to win my contest, but I still needed to review the last few entries.

http://cardsasiseethem.blogspot.com/2019/07/lets-play-ball-to-see-what-might-have.html

2nd Place - Matt gets props for 3 entries, but his winning entry was the one about the 1993 Upper Deck Mike Perez card involving time travel. I absolutely love me some time travel and I love me some baseball cards. Upper Deck did some cool stuff with there cards, but I like your explanation even better!

https://diamond-jesters.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-absolutely-true-story-of-mike-perez.html

1st Place - Bo knocked this one out of the park! If you haven't read Bo's entry, stop reading this post and read his, because it's amazing! His time travel story was entertaining and riveting and I seriously can't wait for the movie. Okay, maybe a movie is a little much, but at least a tv mini-series. How about getting it published in Beckett? That would be cool! He not only told a great story, but he worked multiple bloggers into the story, including yours truly, and even the prizes for this contest. It was a fantastic read Bo!

https://borosny.blogspot.com/2019/07/baseball-card-trading-through-time.html

Bo, congratulations! Well done sir! I loved your post and am happy to let you have first pick at the prizes. Once Bo makes his selection, Matt will get to pick out of the remaining two prizes and then GCRL will get the final prize. Be sure to send me an email with your current mailing address. daniel24303 at gmail.com. Thanks again to everyone that participated! I had a blast reading everyone's posts. let's do this again in another 10 years!

Again, here are the prizes to choose from.