Set Appreciation Post #10 - 1995 Emotion XL

The local card shop scene in Raleigh is pretty weak.  There is a card shop that is attached to a gas station in one of the far northern suburbs and there is also one that has been dying shopping mall, but actually just moved to within two miles of my house.  Neither are great for different reasons.  I am not going to hold my breath that it's going to be anything great in a new location.  

About a year ago, I was in the dying mall to pick up a pair of extra slim pants for my son.  I had been sorting out some cards at the time, needed a 5,000 count box for storage, so I stopped into the card shop while I was there.  To my surprise, they had out this huge table of old boxes of cards.  Not really their thing.  As you can imagine, the mall card shop's biggest fault is their pricing, which has always been ridiculously high.  The prices on the boxes weren't terrible all things considered, but the Emotion XL box was marked at $30.  A quick search of Ebay listings told me that I had found the rare mall card shop bargain.  Shocking. 

I bought it.  

These were really cool cards back in the day, so I was pretty excited to open this box of cards.  I started opening up the packs and put a bunch of the cards up on my once award winning, now neglected,  Instagram page.  

I ended up with the complete set, but it was much more of a mixed bag than I remembered it to be.  At some point, I stopped posting pictures of the cards.  Yes, I finished up the set.  I put the completed set in a box and shoved them into my card closet.  I liken this set to an old record or CD that you bought at another point in your life.  It was great music at the time, but you can't make it through the whole thing anymore.  

Like the first half of Pearl Jam's Ten album, or almost every Nas album after Illmatic.  

So, let's take a look at the set.  Here is the base card.  

Honestly, I love the full color picture and the last name and team name on the front.  The odd frame corners are a little bit unnecessary, but it's not like they are ruining the card.  The descriptive word is what has not aged well on these cards.  Yes, it would have been awesome to see something like "'Roider" or "Juiced Up" on a Brady Anderson card, but Driving isn't actually all that bad. 

You will see bad in a minute.  Hold that thought.  

Even the pictures on the back of the card are nice.  The little sentence about the player at the top of the card is pretty fair.  The stat line is small, but kudos for mixing in things like AB/HR and OBP% in the mid 1990s.  The card stock is nice too for the mid 1990s. 

THESE ARE TERRIBLE 

Let's get these cards out of the way first.  I went through all 200 cards in the set and picked out 4 that seemed really bad in retrospect.  For more examples, some I disagree with, check out this SB Nation article which likens this set to "Gas Station Cologne".  

"The Heat"??? What does this even mean?  Bichette has a 130 point split difference between his home and road slugging percentage.  He hit almost 300 career home runs, but less than 100 of them came on the road.  I would have gone with something like "Altitude" or "Low Humidity" for his card.  

Will Clark was a pretty intense guy, but this is just stupid.  Couldn't we just get a card that says "Intense", or maybe someone could have used a thesaurus and found a synonym for the word intense.  Personally, I would have done something to reference his tradition of drinking a post game beer.  

Player nicknames aren't emotions.  Dumb.  This is post White Sox, so I would have gone with "Regressing" or maybe "Declining".  

What's dumber than using a player nickname?  

Using a state nickname.  Luckily no Cardinals players have the phrase "ShowMe" stamped on the front of their cards.  

THESE ARE NOT SO TERRIBLE

So, if you clicked on the link to the SB Nation article above, I am going to go against some of the cards that they ripped on in their write up of the Emotion set.  I am not a SB Nation reader, so I was curious about the age of the author, considering he spent a large chunk of the article ripping the Cal Ripken card.  We were born within a few years of each other, so I am going to dismiss age as a factor in his writing and just say it's ignorance in an otherwise humorous article.  

I will give an equally long rant.  

The word on the Cal Ripken word is "Class".  I am not a Cal Ripken person and I rarely write anything about him on this blog.  I agree with the SB Nation article's assertion that MLB went overboard with Cal Ripken during the mid 1990s.  However, the obsession with Ripken was somewhat warranted and necessary.  

Let's review: 

1. Fans were irked with both the players and owners after the strike in 1994.  Many of the angry fans had promised to stay away from the game.  Baseball is the worst professional sport at selling its superstar players, but they went big on them when the games resumed in 1995 for once,  Ripken was included for an important reason.    

2. Ripken's run at Lou Gehrig's consecutive game streak was the first important event that came up after the strike ended.  I am sure that if there was a player closing in on 3,000 hits, 500 home runs, or 300 wins, that would have been blown up too. 

3. Playing more than 2,000 consecutive games is a legitimately impressive record.  You have to be good enough to start.  Good enough to maintain your starting job over other players.  Healthy enough not to get injured over a 16 year period of time.  It's part talent and part luck, but it's not a record anyone is going to touch anytime soon. 

4. Tell me something bad that Cal Ripken did as a person while he was playing baseball?  ((You can't))

With that being said, as a person who watched a lot of baseball in the 1990s, it's not a stretch to say that Ripken was an important part of bringing disgruntled fans back to the game.  Yes, he was a good player.  Yes he was classy.  Ripken chasing Lou Gehrig during the 1995 season was an important hook that soothed a lot of bad feelings.  

Some other good cards.  

I am going to ignore the word "Precision", and instead focus on the fact that McGwire has a mullet in this picture.   Any McGwire card from the mid 1990s where he has a mullet is an instant winner in my book.  In fact, I am going to add that to my little note pad of future post ideas.  McGwire mullet cards.  

Manny Ramirez always had a great looking swing.  I love the look on his face in this card along with the word "Punishing" that is attached to his card.  I know he's a bit of a lightning rod, so I am not sure if/when he will get into the Hall.  Still a great player though.  

I saw this interview a few years back where someone was talking to Dennis Eckersley.  They brought up blown saves and I instantly thought he was going to start talking about the Kirk Gibson home run in the World Series.  Instead, he starts talking about this Manny Ramirez home run from 1995.  Eckersley threw him a fastball on the inside corner, catcher is not moving his glove in the clip, and Manny hit the ball halfway up the bleachers in Jacobs Field.  

Eckersley is smiling after the home run and says "Wow". 

Last one for the not so terrible section of this post.  

This card also gets torn apart on the SB Nation article, but considering Gwynn was one of the first players to use video to improve his hitting, I think it is a pretty fitting label.  Gwynn is a Hall of Famer based on his statistics, but he's also a very important innovator.  Where would baseball be today without him watching video?  I am sure someone else would have done the same thing at some point, but Gwynn turned video into a popular practice.  

The Best Cardinals Card 

I will go with a former player instead.  The Cardinals cards are decent, but none of them really stood out.  However, you don't get many relief pitchers wearing batting helmets on baseball cards.  Yet, here we are with 1986 National League Rookie of the Year Todd Worrell.  

The Todd Worrell card is also ripped apart in the SB Nation article, but I actually like this card as a Cardinals fan who knows something about his background.  He went to tiny little Biola College, which is apparently in the middle of Los Angeles and was founded by some Presbyterian pastor back in the early 1900s.  It's not an athletic powerhouse, but a Cardinals scout went to one of their games while in town to watch another player.  Worrell played outfield and catcher for the team, but occasionally pitched, mainly as a long reliever.  He threw in the mid 90s as a college position player who didn't really work with a pitching coach.  

Obviously, Worrell did not bat often as a back of the game reliever, but he did register a triple as one of his two Major League hits.  I am sure that players like Worrell, who have experience as a position player, take batting practice every so often.  

The back of the card has the more standard pitcher photos.  I like the one in the background with him finishing his pitch.  Worrell was really tall and had this great downward motion with a low finish at the end of his delivery. 

It's not as cool as the Bob Gibson follow through, but I always thought Worrell looked different.  Max Scherzer does something really similar to this too.  

Best Durham Bulls Player

I am going to ignore the word "Cool" and just focus on the fact that this card has a sweet photo of Braves first baseman Fred McGriff.  He had not actually been on the Durham Bulls at this point in his career.  He did not appear on the Bulls until the end of his career while trying to work his way back up to the Majors with the Rays in 2004.  

McGriff ended up making to Tampa. 

That's cool.   

His career was done by the middle of July in 2004.  

That's not cool.  

Best Non-Cardinal/Non-Durham Bull 

in 1995, what was the best reason to buy some Emotion XL cards? Before Strasburg, Bryce Harper, Kris Bryant, Wander Franco, and whatever other uber prospects who were overvalued by baseball card collectors, there was Hideo Nomo.  People were crazy for his cards.  Non-mania might have been worse to some degree because he was actually pitching in the Majors at the same time people were going crazy over his cards.  I didn't go out of my way to find them, but I still ended up with a few from random sets.  

The "Twisting" tag seems a little weak, maybe "Effectively Wild" would have been better.  I like the picture on the front.  It gives you a little insight into Nomo's pitching motion, but the back is really good.  

Love the picture on the left with Nomo's back.  That's not a side view, that's likely from behind the plate.  

I don't love the description of Nomo's throwing motion as herky jerky.  He paused at two different spots during his delivery.  Lots of pitchers have used a pause mid wind-up to throw off the timing of hitters.  Currently, both Johnny Cueto and Marcus Stroman use a pause.  I believe Marichal used one back in the day.  

How Does It Compare?  

I love the photos.  I like Emotion brand concept on some of the cards, but others do not work for various reasons.  Some of the cards did not age well, others were just not very well thought out, which goes with the gist of the SB Nation article, if you read it.  

Good card stock and photos count for something, but not enough to crack the top half of the sets that I have featured on my Set Appreciation Posts.  

10. 2000 Pacific Paramount Update 

9. 2010 Topps USA Baseball  

8. 2000 UD Ionix 

7. 1995 Emotion XL 

6. 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League

5. 1986 Topps Mini League Leaders 

4. 2001 Fleer EX 

3. 1979 Kellogg's 

2. 2002 Topps Super Teams

1. 1983 Topps 

Mr. Padre

 It's been a few weeks since I have posted a Project 2020 card.  Nothing has caught my eye recently, but I got a card in the mail that I ordered earlier in the summer.  Just took a little while for it to show up in the mail.  I think some of the Project 2020 "investment" guys are dragging their feet on mailing at cards from razor thin profit.  Still thousandaires.  

Big fan of the art of this card though.  

Mr. Padre.  

I am not sure that this scan even does the card justice.  It pains me to scan cards in one-touch cases sometimes.  Looks really scratchy.  Love the art work combined with the two pictures off of the original Topps Tony Gwynn rookie card. 

A picture of the original card.  

The color scheme with the dark brown and orange is probably the most eye-catching and appealing aspect of my newest Project 2020 card.  I also like the palm trees and the border design.   The patterned border seems to be a feature on a lot of the cards from this artist.  More on him in a minute.  The "Mr. Padre" title at the top is also nice, I just wish the color of the font matched the rest of the card a little better.  

Back of the card.  

Love that old Padres logo in the corner.  Feels like that might be older than the 1983 Topps card.  There is also a biography for the artist, who has a background in painting murals.  He's got some nice looking art up in a few different places online.  

Cutting Corners For Conciseness

I have been working on putting together the 1980s, and the lone 1990s, Topps Glossy Mail-In sets over the past two months.  So far, I have finished up the 1983, 1986, and 1989 sets.  This post is all about my completed 1985 set, so I am down to 1984, 1987, 1988, and 1990.

No, I am not going to make my goal of finishing these sets by the end of February. 

Yes, I am fine with it.

The 1985 Topps Glossy Mail-In set is on 40 cards, so it would actually be easier to scan than some of the other glossy sets I have posted.  Yet, I am not going to do it.  Those posts dragged out.  Way too long.  We are going to give the big guy an easy day......

So, I am going to go with my favorite five cards out of the 40. 

You know there are Cardinals players, so let's get those out of the way first. 

Joaquin Andujar was a good pitcher for the Cardinals during the first half of the 1980s.  He was the starting pitcher in Game 7 of the 1982 World Series, which the Cardinals won, and picked up 20 wins in both 1984 and 1985.  This was the last season that Andujar was on the Cardinals, although he is in many 1986 products as a member of the Cardinals.  He doesn't seem like the type of player who would garner a spot in a set like this, always surprised he is in here over the Nolan Ryan and Fernando Valenzuela types.  You know, popular.  

This was also the end of the line for Bruce Sutter with the Cardinals.  Best remembered for striking out Gorman Thomas to end the 1982 World Series.  

I was always surprised that he made the Hall of Fame.  Even more surprised that he still pops up in baseball cards.  Not complaining.  

Love the 1980s Tony Gwynn cards.  Look at that brown uniform.  That's how the Padres are supposed to look.  I am a big fan of baseball cards with action shots, but this a nice look for a staged photograph.  I am sure that this was taken during Spring Training, but it sort of looks like it could also be at some random high school stadium.  

Last two cards are rookies.  

Any Dwight Gooden card from the mid 1980s was gold when I was a kid.  At one point I traded my 1985 Topps Dwight Gooden card, good story.  I ended up with a bunch of his 1985 and 1986 cards after his career fell off in the mid 1990s.  This Gloss Mail-In card is one of my favorites.  I like this picture a lot.  If you had to describe the things that made Gooden unique to watch, this follow through would have to be somewhere on the list right?  

This is the rant portion of this post.  

So, you watched that short video clip, the last batter was Alvin Davis.  He's one of the oft forgotten, good young players from the 1980s.  Why are there still people running around talking about Wally Joyner, but nobody talks about Alvin Davis?  I talk about Alvin Davis.  

Alvin did win the Rookie of the Year in 1984, so he at least got a little recognition during his career.  His 1984 appearance in the All-Star game was the only time he made it to the Mid-Summer Classic.  In 1987 the American League had Pat Tabler on their roster as a first baseman.  At the All-Star Break Alvin Davis was hitting .303/.384/.476 with 10 home runs, 19 doubles, and 45 RBIs. 

Pat Tabler? 

Pat flippin Tabler.  

That was apart of a three year stretch where he had OPSs of .886, .875, and .920.  His OPS+ were 127, 141, and 156.  I mean his comparable players on Baseball Reference from that stretch are Jeff Bagwell, Adrian Gonzalez, Paul  Konerko, and Ted Kluszewski.  Yes, let's talk about Wally Joyner.  Roll my damn eyes.  

I like Alvin.  He's getting his own post one of these days.  

  

This Set Has Dragged On Long Enough.....

The last of the 1986 Topps Glossy Mail-In set.  There have been two other posts for this set, which is my favorite out of all the Mail-In sets from the 1980s.  It's Cardinals heavy and I have already gushed over the team's left fielder enough in other posts this month.  Last few groups of cards.

Picking out one player from each group to share something, or some thoughts about....... 

Ernie Riles - He was a prospect in this set, ended up spending roughly a decade in the Majors as a utility infielder.  I best remember him on the late 1980s Giants teams with Will Clark and Kevin Mitchell.  Obviously not that level of player, but he contributed to the team.  I like the old Brewers powder blue uniform and MB glove logo hat.  Very nice card. 

Dave Stieb- Since Jack Morris is in the Hall of Fame, we should also go ahead and put Dave Stieb in there too.  He never pitched in the deciding game of a World Series, but he was one of the better pitchers of the 1980s and some of his career numbers are better than what is on Jack Morris's resume.

In the three season prior to 1986, Dave Stieb had a WAR of 21.6 and Nolan Ryan, same three years, had a WAR of 6.5.  I mean Nolan Ryan struck out a bunch of people though, so that's what is important. 

George Bell (Jorge) Begin rant....

There are bad trades in baseball.  It has been a long held belief that the White Sox trading Sammy Sosa was somehow a terrible idea.  Do people not remember how good Jorge Bell was during his career?  He won the American League MVP Award in 1987, but you'd swear the guy was the biggest bum in the world based on the way people talk about the fact that he was traded for Sammy Sosa.  He hit 47 home runs in a season during the 1980s.  The year before the Cubs traded Bell, he hit 25 home runs, 27 doubles, and drove in 86 runs.  Sure, he fell off after he joined the White Sox, but let's stop talking badly about George. 

End rant. 

Browning.  Should I post the video of him on the Wrigley rooftop again? 

I will do a picture instead.  He also once pitched a perfect game.  

This is a really tough group to decide between.  We have a former football player, a Cardinals player wearing the wrong numbered jersey, and a former Durham Bull.  

Since there has been a lot of talk about college football players, and whether they should choose to play baseball or football, lets go with.....

Phil Bradley- He played both baseball and football at the University of Missouri.  As a baseball player he helped the team win the Big 8 (I miss that conference) Conference Championship in 1980 and they made the NCAA Tournament in both 1980 and 1981.  However, Bradley was much better known as a football player, he did not win the Heisman, but he was the Big 8 Offensive Player of the Year three years in a row.  While football has changed a lot in the last 40 years, and the Big 12 has a reputation for not playing defense, many of Bradley's numbers have held up over time.  He is still in the top 10 all-time in passing yards and top 5 in total yards in conference history.  Bradley mainly played with the Mariners, but bounced around at the end of his career.  He made almost 6 million dollars in 1980s money (that's a lot).  

Tony Gwynn- I guess Jeff Reardon is the least known player in this group, but it's hard to pass up a chance to talk about Tony Gwynn.  The Padres were not the best team in the mid 1980s, but I always think about those years as being some of the best of Tony Gwynn's career.  He could always hit and won several batting titles in the 1980s, a few more towards the end of his career, ending with eight overall.  The thing I liked best about the mid to late 1980s Tony Gwynn was the fact that he stole bases.  He stole 33 in 1984 while winning his first batting title, but went over 50 in 1987 and 40 in 1989.  Gwynn was not exactly the picture of fitness, but he has more than 300 career stolen bases.  I liked fast Tony Gwynn. 

Let's go Darrell Evans.  I used to not like getting his cards as a kid.  He was old.  I saw him play a game towards the end of his career with the Braves.  He was the worst player on the field.  Seriously, the elementary school/middle school version of me was wrong about Darrell.  Not a Hall of Famer, but a good player.  Darrell Evans hit 400 home runs, also walked more than he struck out.  

Fin.  

My Annual Post About A Relic Card

I am always amazed that card companies still make relic cards.  In the span of 20 years we have gone from collectors knocking themselves over to own a small inch sized piece of Tony Gwynn's jersey fixed on the front of an Upper Deck card, to having to sort through dozens of Mark Grudzielanek game used bat cards to find the decent cards in the dollar bins at card shows.

The old ones are still great cards in my opinion.

Mass produced, problems with the relics actually being authentic, companies putting "event" used jerseys on cards, etc.  There are dozens of reasons that people stopped collecting relic cards, but I am surprised that the little square and circular pieces have not just completely gone away.  There will likely always be a place for the premium patch pieces companies use for high end products, but the small piece relics are basically irrelevant.    

I have seen a few products in recent years that have gone to using authentication stickers on relics.  Not sure how popular I would say the cards were, the ones in my collection are there strictly because they were also autographed.

Doubtful I would have a Dallas Keuchel relic card just because.

Welp.  I was purchasing a Jim Edmonds card off of Ebay, just because who wouldn't want to own a card of Jimmy Ballgame wearing some awesome 1990s pinstriped Angels uniform.

I owned one of these hats in college, definitely a go to hat in the collection.  I always check out sellers other items when I am after a card.  Why pay for shipping multiple times?  That's when I ended up with a relic card of Evan Longoria.

The authentication sticker, which tiny, is almost as big as relic swatch.  This card is out of Tribute, which is a nice product, but I see no reason why this won't be in dollar bins soon.  The one redeeming quality about the card happened when I typed the number into the MLB Authentication page.....

The relic comes from a 2016 game between the Rays and Yankees, which did not end very well for the Rays.......

However, this is a Longoria relic, and he did have a hit in the game.....

so at least the relic is not from a game where he just sat on the bench.  Until next year relic cards.....

Six Pack of Stadium Club Part 3

Third night of cool Stadium Club cards.  I am going with nineties players who appeared in the set tonight.  I spent most of the decade in high school and college which afforded me the opportunity to watch a ton of baseball.  Not all of these players are necessarily great Hall of Famers, but they were still all really fun players to watch.  Here's tonight's six cards......

#285 Tony Gwynn - Padres

Gwynn starred for the Padres over two decades.  He had some great years during the nineties including a run at .400 in 1994.  It's great to see a card of Gwynn in with some of the other great players in this set.  There is something nice about seeing a picture of Mr. Padre with a bat in his hands.  

#54 Bip Roberts - Padres

Back in 1996 Score printed a base card featuring Padres utility player Bip Roberts wearing a sombrero.  It's hard to say a card of a baseball player wearing a sombrero is iconic, but I will go ahead and say:  The 1996 Score Bip Roberts is an iconic baseball card.  Cool to see a little bit different view of the Bipster and his sombrero.  

#93 Andy Van Slyke - Pirates 

Van Slyke came up as a Cardinal, but his best years were spent on the good Pirates teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s.  I liked Van Slyke.  He played a good center field, had some speed, and a little bit of pop.  The Pirates kept Van Slyke while allowing Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla, and Doug Drabek walk in free agency.  

#82 Deion Sanders - Braves 

There were three two sport stars during the 90s: Bo Jackson, Deion, and Brian Jordan.  I always thought of Bo Jackson and Brian Jordan as two sport stars who gave up football over time and became full time baseball players.  Deion kind of went the other way.  He spent time at the beginning of his career with the Yankees and Braves while starring for the Falcons as a football player.  Later in his career he became less and less of a factor in the baseball diamond.  Towards the end of the 1990s he was basically out of baseball.  I always remember Deion for speed.  I love this card of him running.  Ummm, he's got a hole in pants.  

#95 Rob Dibble - Reds 

Dibble is an interesting choice for a Stadium Club appearance.  I know he has made a few appearances in some Topps products recently, but thought this card was cool.  Dibble was a classic end of game closer from yesteryear.  Huge leg kick with a really big fastball.  My best memory of Dibble?  Giving up the fourth home run to Mark Whitten during this game.....

#226 Dennis Eckersley - Athletics 

This card is just awesome.  

Friday Five: Top 5 Sets from 1999

1999 was a really great year for baseball cards.  I remember buying a box of Topps cards right after Thanksgiving that year and being happy and entertained with cards the entire year.  I feel like I could right a book about the card sets from 1999, but instead I have narrowed the list down to just five sets. My five favorites:

5. Skybox Molten Metal- This reminds of this project I started awhile back...I got sidetracked.  That is going to be one of my summer projects.  Back to the set.  I split my first box of these cards with a kid I mentored during the summer while I was waiting to start teaching.  I loved the look and feel of the cards and the inserts were incredible.  There were the Pointillism insert set.....

and of course my favorite cards in the set were the metal parallel cards......

I know the late 90s and early 2000s were filled with tons of 100-200 card, premium such and such, base sets with some cool gimmicky insert sets that were cool for a month or two and are now forgettable.  Molten Metal was a little bit different/cooler than the others.  Other card companies had made insert cards with the pointilism pictures and metal cards, but something about this product clicked with me as a collector.  Cool set and boxes can still be found pretty cheap.  

4. Crown Royale- Pacific was a really important card company for me around this time.  They thought outside the box and had some truly unique looking card products.  I think I did more of their products in 2000, but for me the Crown Royale set was a huge starting point for me in collecting their cards.  Before Crown Royal I tended to think of Pacific as "that other" card company, not Topps or Upper Deck, Pinnacle, or Fleer.  The die cut cards featured the Pacific brand logo crown with a player photo over the top.  The set also featured all of the usual Pacific set trappings with colored parallels and cool looking inserts.  I don't see many boxes of this product anymore, nor do I see many sets.  There are a bunch of the singles up on Ebay and COMC.  There were also a few other cool Pacific products sets from 1999 that are probably a fun project too.   I ended up also putting together an Aurora and Paramount set that summer.

3. SP Signature- This was Upper Deck's answer to the Donruss and Leaf Signature mega-autograph sets.  Packs of this product cost $20 and contained a few base cards and an autograph.  I don't remember pulling anyone too cool out of this product, but I have picked up a whole bunch of these cards over the years, especially the Cardinals.  SP Signature cards are all on card autographs, the set features tons of Hall of Famers, and they are pretty readily available.  Some of the cards can be pretty pricey obviously if you are trying to track down a copy of the Maddux or other short printed star.  Still there are plenty of good players with inexpensive, on-card signatures in this product.  

2.  Sports Illustrated Greats of the Game- Another per pack autograph product that roughly had the same cost as the SP Signature product.  This also had on-card autographs (no stickers in 1999) and featured older players including a bunch of Hall of Famers.  The boxes run hot and cold, but I have already told that story on here before.  Like the SP Signature set there are loads of singles floating around of some pretty good players that can be had for less than an arm and a leg.  This set is definitely worth a little bit of your time and money.  Most year's this set could have easily been the best set of the year, but in 1999 there was this gem......

1999 Century Legends- I like the base set, but this set is here strictly for the autographs.  Unlike SP Signature and Greats of the Game, this was not a per pack autograph set, but this is one of the best autograph sets of all-time.  Black and white backgrounds, color player picture on the side, and clean crisp on card signatures of some of the greatest baseball players of all-time on cardboard.  I own a slew of these and would not trade them.  In fact, I have upgraded several of the cards I owned searching for better copies or nicer signatures.  If you love baseball cards owning at least one autograph from this set should be a must for your collection.  If you are looking for someone inexpensive for the sake of owning one there is Bobby Thomson or Bucky Dent.  from there the price of the cards goes up.  Anyone own a Barry Bonds?