From the category archives:

Baseball Cards

The latest from Hardball Times’ Bruce Markusen’s “Baseball Card Mystery” series: Lenny “Len” Randle. Enjoy.  

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I don’t know if the young collectors nowadays recite this mantra as they go through their friends cards, but back in the day… Gary Cieradkowski, the artist behind the Infinite Baseball Card Set, is having a finite sale of his work. As I’ve written in the past, these are exquisite and imaginative little works of […]

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There are plenty of outlets that will take a photo of you and turn it into a ersatz baseball card like this one I had done on a trip to Cooperstown back in the late 1980s: None, however, will do it up in as artistic and classy a manner as Gary Cieradkowski, creator of the Infinite […]

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When I was a kid, the back of typical non-star card included info about the players hobbies (“Tim likes to read”; “Bob hunts inn the off-season.” Here’s one for former Major Leaguer Jim Piersall, who suffered from mental illness in the early 1950s and wrote about his experiences in the best-seller, Fear Strikes Out. Was […]

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This card sticks out in my mind for some reason. Perhaps it’s the Neanderthal unibrow going on. Etch, who turns 68 today, was17th in American league MVP voting in 1966. His stats: .221 batting average (the lowest for any position player) with 11 home runs and 50 RBIs in 121 games. Slim pickings that year: […]

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From Abebooks.com, a new twist on the old theme of losing one’s prized baseball card: Using it as a place keeper but forgetting to remove it when selling the volume to the local used book store. THE SPORTING “A Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card. It was the original 1952 Topps #311 baseball card and not […]

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John Roseboro, an four-time All-Star catcher for the Dodgers, Twins, and Senators who was gained an extra degree of fame for putting his head in the way of Juan Marichal’s bat during an argument, was born this day in 1933 (died 2002). Roseboro published his memoirs, Glory Days with the Dodgers, and Other Days with […]

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More on 21

April 24, 2011

The Infinite Baseball Card Set Blog posted links to a few reviews about the fun new publication, including that of the Bookshelf.

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Since I started blogging about baseball literature and collectibles, I’ve become increasingly enamored with and appreciative of the “art” of the game. Not the way the players perform, but by those who depict those performances through the pencil, the paintbrush, the camera, or any other method. It’s especially rewarding to find “unknown” artists (although they […]

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You’re the Topps…

March 29, 2011

For those collectors out there, or anyone interested in the “backstory” of things, this is on the MLB Network tonight at 10 eastern/7 Pacific.

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Since there haven’t been any books written about him. Yet. The NY Mets’ likable Ike Davis turns 24 today. I received a shipment of cards yesterday including this one. This wasn’t Davis’ first card. Nowadays they have prospect cards, minor league star cards, etc., in multiple incarnations from multiple manufacturers. When I was a kid […]

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Today we mark the birth of the late Lou Limmer. I don’t eBay often, but when I do it’s usually for some bit of Jewish sports memorabilia. Like this Limmer card from the 1955 Topps set. Colorful, ain’t it? I had the pleasure of interviewing Limmer shortly before he passed.

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One of the all-time greats of the game, Honus Wagner enjoyed renewed fame because of his rare baseball card. He was born this date in 1878. The books specifically on Wagner (he’s included in many histories of the game) are divided into those about his life and those about the card and the collectibles industry. […]

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Following an earlier post about creating a baseball room, I heard from Dave Kaplan, executive director of the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center, who wants to help you get started on the project. The Museum, located on the campus of Montclair State University in Little Falls, NJ, is currently under renovation and is offering […]

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Behind the Times

February 1, 2011

Not sure what’s going on at the “paper of record” lately. Maybe it’s staff cuts. But here are two stories that appeared recently on the pages of the newspaper that appeared elsewhere some time ago. Gil Meche turned down the last year of a $12 million contract because he knew he wouldn’t be able to […]

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Logo loco

January 24, 2011

When I was a kid, I used to collect — in addition to baseball cards — a set of major league logos. If memory serves — and I hope someone will correct me if I’m wrong — they were produced by Fleer and you could peel them off the card and apply them to various […]

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And I would have him on my bookshelf if I still had it. Sabath Anthony Mele, 89-years-young today.

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Three of a kind

January 10, 2011

A couple of days ago I posted an entry about some unique baseball books. Since then I’ve exchanged a few e-mails with Erin Zamrzla, creator of these unique mini-notebooks. I asked how she chose the three relatively obscure players — Sibby Sisti, Andy Seminick, and Don Kolloway — for her project. “I ended up using […]

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This enterprising entrepreneur combines baseball cards with plank pages to create a new kind of baseball book. There are three versions, one for Andy Seminick, one for Don Kolloway, and the third for Sibby Sisti. Why these guys? I’ll ask the artist, “erinzam,” from San Diego. Maybe they just had a bunch of these particular […]

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The Year in Baseball Books

December 31, 2010 · 1 comment

(and other media, of course.) With the close of 2010, I thought I take a few moments to review the highlights of the past 12 months as pertains to our favorite topic. It’s been a banner year for baseball biographies. We’ve enjoyed munch-anticipated titles from major publishers on Hall of Famers such as Hank Aaron, […]

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