Cards I Love Part 1: 1962 Topps Don Drysdale

There are 29 days in February, and I have picked out 29 baseball cards that I love for various reasons.  I plan on sharing one every day for the next few weeks.  I am sure if you are a regular reader, you can probably guess a few cards that are on the list, but there are plenty that I have never mentioned.  Like the one for today.  

I had a few cards from the 1950s and 1960s as a kid, but they were inexpensive and the players were generally not star quality.  Think role players on 1950s and 1960s Cardinals teams.  No Musials, Gibsons, or Brocks.  Those came later on. 

Back to Don. 

At some point in late elementary school my family took a trip to Iowa City, Iowa and the Amana Colonies.  My mother lived in Iowa for a time growing up, and also went to the University of Iowa for grad school.  We walked around, looked at the furniture stores, and ate at the Ox Yoke.  My brother and I were hopeful that there would be some baseball cards at one of the antique stores. 

We were in luck. 

My parents were not carte blanche with baseball cards, and the store had some very good cards.  I do not remember how much spending money I was given for the trip, $20-$30 seems likely, but I decided I was going to get a card of a Hall of Fame player.  I had 1980s cards of Hall of Fame players, but no older cards.  Don was the best card in the group that was within my budget. 

I bought it. 

I am not much of a Dodgers fan.  I am pretty sure that I did not know too much about Don Drysdale at the time.  The important thing is that I could say that I had a good old card in my collection.  It was a big moment. 

Back of the card.  You can see the centering is off on the front and back of the card. 

I am not sure when I ended up getting my first good Gibson or Brock card, but it was not too long after buying this Drysdale card.  This card kind of got shuffled to the back of a box at some point and I forgot about it for awhile.  About 10 years ago when I moved into the house I am living in now, I ran across this card and it brought back all kinds of good feelings. 

Definitely worthy of a prominent place in the collection.