I've been attacked.

It used to be that bullies existed only on the school playground, but the internet has given way to a new form of bullying. Whether through text, Facebook, or a host of other social media sites bullies of all ages have various platforms to attack others with little to no repercussions. Even the blogosphere is not necessarily a safe place for these attacks.

Last week I got an unsolicited package from someone in the blogosphere that I considered a friend, even though we have never met in person. Little did I know that attack that would follow. The attack....on my Want Lists, that is.

That's right, P-Town Tom hit me hard. He launched an all out attack on my Want Lists. 

Thank you Tom! I was blown away when I opened up your package and realized what you had done!

I bought a 1983 Topps set at my LCS a few years ago and it happened to be missing one card. #670 - Jerry Mumphrey. The set is now complete thanks to Tom!

One of the collections I purchased in 2019 had a 1989 Topps Traded boxed set that was missing the biggest stars including the Randy Johnson XRC. That set is now complete, thanks to Tom!

While I was working on a Score binder, I was adding some of my favorite subsets from those sets and with the addition of the 1991 Roger Clemens All-Star and 1995 Hitters Inc. cards of Moises Alou and Wade Boggs, those subsets are now complete, thanks to Tom!

1990 Post. Done. Thanks to Tom!

My 1998 Fleer Metal Diamondbacks team set is now complete thanks to the Jay Bell card and thanks to Tom!

The final blow of his attack was a 1956 Topps Herb Score rookie card. It is such a fantastic and tragic card that it will get it's own post tomorrow.

Thank you Tom! Also, I do want to point out that bullying and cyber bullying is real and serious. I hope everyone understands my post and for anyone dealing with this issue should visit www.stopbullying.gov to get help.

Gold Glove or Fielding Bible Award

Can you imagine if baseball cards were only one sided? What a waste that would be? Take this 2018 Topps MLB Awards card of Paul Goldschmidt. The card is for a Fielding Award so it is nice to see a photo of Goldschmidt with his first baseman's glove on. You also get a look at the Los D-Backs uniform. If I had to guess I would say this photo was taken on July 16, 2016 which was Hispanic Heritage day at Chase Field and you can see what looks like a sombrero over Goldschmidt's right shoulder. 20,000 Diamondback branded sombreros were give out at this game. It could have been from a different game, but that would be my guess.

The back of the card tells us about his fielding prowess and how this is his third time winning the award in the last 5 years. There is no mention of what the "fielding award" is so I don't know if it's referencing a Gold Glove or a Fielding Bible Award. Goldschmidt won both Gold Gloves and the Fielding Bible Awards in 2013, 2015, and 2017, so it could be either. I'll be honest, prior to this post, I don't think I knew that the Fielding Bible Awards existed.

How about you? Are you familiar with the Fielding Bible Award?

Oh, and the back of this card also tells us that it is the platinum parallel of this particular card and is serial numbered 1/1.

RIP Hank Aaron

We all thought 2020 was bad, but 2021 looks like it could end up being worse. In just three short weeks we have lost Tommy Lasorda, Don Sutton and now Hank Aaron.

Out of all the Hall of Famers and other MLB legends that have passed over the last year or so, none have hit me harder than finding out that Hammerin' Hank Aaron passed away yesterday. 

Perhaps it's because as the former Home Run King, Aaron is legitimately the biggest name. But I suspect its because I have been a fan of Hank since I was a kid and while I never saw him play, I've ben collecting his cardboard for close to 30 years. His 1976 Topps base and '75 Record Breakers card were the first individual cards I ever bought from a card shop circa 1990.

Here is a look at what I have been able to acquire. My goal is to collect every one of his Topps cards from his playing career.

1954 Topps

1956 Topps

1958 Topps Braves Fence Busters

1958 Topps World Series Batting Foes

1959 Topps Fence Busters

1959 Topps Aaron Clubs World Series Homer

1960 Topps

1961 Topps

1961 Topps 1960 Home Run Leaders

1962 Topps All-Star

1963 Topps Power Plus

1964 Topps 1963 National League Home Run Leaders

1964 Topps 1963 National League R.B. I. Leaders

1966 Topps

1967 Topps

1967 Topps N. League 1966 RBI Leaders

1967 Topps N. League 1966 Home Run Leaders

1968 Topps All Star

1968 Topps 1967 National League RBI Leaders

1968 Topps 1967 National League Home Run Leaders

1968 Topps Game

1969 Topps 

1970 Topps All-Star

1970 Topps 1969 National League Home Run Leaders

1972 Topps

1972 Topps In Action

1972 Topps 1971 N.L. R.B.I. Leaders

1972 Topps 1971 N.L. Home Run Leaders

1973 Topps 

1974 Topps New All-Time Home Run King

1974 Topps Hank Aaron Special 1962-1965

1974 Topps All-Star

1975 Topps

1975 Topps Mini

1975 Topps '74 Highlights

1975 Topps 1957 - Most Valuable Players

1976 Topps

1976 Topps '75 Record Breakers

Aaron had a long career and was featured on plenty of Topps cards during his career between his base, all-star, combo cards, league leaders and other cards. Even with all of the cards I have, I think I am still missing 30 plus cards. 

Who is the most obscure player that you collect?

My Most Wanted list is looking a bit barren these days. The Diamond King sent me a 1992 Fleer Robin Yount Pro-Vision that was on it and before I updated my Most Wanted list I got another pwe from Baseball Card Breakdown with the same card along with several other cards on my Most Wanted list.

These 1987 Fleer Baseball's Hottest Stars cards of Bob Horner and Eric Show complete this set for me. I had bought a collection with this set in it, minus these two cards. The Barry Bonds card was there, but no Bob Horner or Eric Show. I am really enjoying all of the boxed sets from the 80's and so I am happy to call this one complete.

Gavin also sent these two Mother's Cookies cards that complete this set for me. I collect both Piazza and Salmon, so these are extra cool. Piazza and Griffey were my main PC guys when I was a kid and Salmon and I went to the same high school that I did.

This Heritage Flashback card featuring the great Roberto Clemente finishes off this insert set for me.

These cards and the Yount Pro-Vision were all on my Most Wanted list, so thank you very much Gavin!

Gavin also sent a few other cards.

I love the tribute sets that Fleer inserted into their products back in the 90's. I need to see where I am at with this particular set from 1992 Fleer Ultra honoring Tony Gwynn.

Gavin is also probably one of only a few bloggers out there that remember that I collect Ryan Roberts. I haven't been able to add any Roberts cards to my collection in a while. So while I already have this Roberts card, it is nice to know that someone remembers that I collect Tatman.

So my question for you is who is that obscure player that you collect that most people aren't aware of?

Hall of Fame Rookie Card: 1959 Topps George "Sparky" Anderson

Over the past few years I have been drawn to collecting rookie cards of Hall of Famers. Some are cards I dreamed of owning as a kid. Most of the time, finding them in lower condition has allowed me to be able to make the purchase. Sometimes they are still pricey. The most money I have ever spent on a single card was $225 for a 1954 Topps Hank Aaron rookie card. I spent 3 digits on a 1968 Topps Nolan Ryan rookie as well. But I've found that most Hall of Fame rookie cards can be found at reasonable prices. Even cards from the 1950's and 60's can be found for $10 or less, depending on the player, or in this case the manger.

Here is a 1959 Topps George Anderson rookie card. George would only spend one year in the major leagues as a player; 1959. In 152 games he would bat .218 with 34 RBI and 0 home runs.The crazy part to me is that he played in 152 games out of 154, but then never saw more playing time at the big league level. He would spend the next 4 seasons in Triple-A trying to make it back, but never did. In 1964 he would begin his managing career that would ultimately lead to his enshrinement into Cooperstown as he would lead the Reds to two titles and the Tigers to one as Sparky Anderson.

You can see that the condition isn't great, but it is centered nicely and I was able to put in a best offer and get it for $8 shipped off eBay, so I'm happy to add the rookie card of this Hall of Famer to my collection.

Another recent purchase is this light box. I have a lot of issues with lighting in my house when I try to take pictures for the blog. I think it's because most of the time I am doing it in the early hours of the morning when it's still dark. I've see multiple collectors using these recently for taking photos of cards and so I purchased one on Amazon. The two photos above were taken using the light box. Let me know what you think of the photo quality.

Personally I had hoped the photos would turn out better. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. I'm not sure. They don't look horrible, but I feel like they could be better. Let me know if you have any tips or tricks on using a light box.

Pro-Vision from The Diamond King

When I think of Donruss I think of two things. Puzzles and Diamond Kings. One of my goals in 2021 is to organize my collection. I have all 17 Donruss puzzles that they issues in various products over the years. I want to frame each of them and put them up on display. I had seen someone on Twitter that  had framed up one of the Donruss puzzles and I fell in love. I reached out and asked where they got the frame. Wal-Mart. Okay, easy enough. I went to Wal-Mart the other night and found the frame and bought one just to try it out. It looks great, but there are two problems. Problem #1 is that the frames cost $9.87 each before tax. With tax I'm looking at $175 to frame all 17 puzzles. Problem #2 is the space involved to display these 17 famed puzzles is more than I currently have. 

But enough about my problems. Check out how awesome it looks. And this is with bad lighting.

In addition to the puzzles, eventually I will own all of the Donruss Diamond Kings cards that were part of the base Donruss sets. Unlike, The Diamond King, I don't need all of the Diamond Kings that we interred and or numbered. Speaking of The Diamond King, he recently sent me a pwe with this card, which was on my Most Wanted list.

This 1992 Fleer Robin Yount Pro-Vision card was on my Most Wanted list because, just like I want the puzzles and Diamond Kings from Donruss, I want all of the Fleer Pro-Vision cards and I needed this one to complete the 1992 baseball set. Notice I said I want all of the Fleer Pro-Vision cards. I didn't specify the sport and that's because I am going after all of the Pro-Vision cards; baseball, basketball and football. I'm getting close.

Because I was late in opening and then in updating my Most Wanted list, I actually got a second copy of this card from another blogger. Thank you Gavin! The remainder of the cards I got from Gavin will be showcased on a seperate post on another day, although I am going to learn my lesson and update my Most Wanted list now by crossing off the other cards that Gavin checked off my Most Wanted list.