[brian1961]

I have enjoyed post-career baseball cards since the year I began collecting--1961. It began with the Golden Press Hall of Fame the kids were showing around at school, amongst their Topps and Post Cereal. The Topps sports thrills of 1961 were my intro to Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Walter Johnson, and Christy Matthewson. The Mantle blasting a 565-foot home run especially moved me. Along with the Fleer All-Time Greats, they were a beautiful introduction to the history of baseball that I found most interesting. This is where I first learned about Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Ted Williams, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, and so on.

Some day those cards of the 90s will be old. True, it seems they made a kazillion of them, but I thought they were made for people to buy and enjoy. If the only reason to buy cards is to hoard them and make a killing off them later, that's pretty sad, shallow, missing the major point, rarely enjoying what you have, and most of all, one chance in 25 or more that it will pay off handsomely. It's not wrong to do that, of course. In retrospect, the cards that have sold the best for me were the ones "I just had to have" because of their subject and beauty, and which I did not buy to re-sell later. For one reason or another, many were sold, but those are the ones that did the best.

Back to the subject, as Leon rightly said, there are so many to choose from. However, here and there, cards were crafted with good taste; surprisingly, some being a little tough to locate. Take Pinnacle, didn't they do the Conlon Collection? Some of the poses were fabulous. Some were positively ugly, stupid, and most revolting. The prime example was the colorized Conlon of Hack Wilson. First they chose him as a Giant. Then they picked this shot of him ducking back from a close pitch. You cannot see his face, but even if you could, what a diabolical waste. Hack had some terrific photos take of him; why not choose the best one from 1930, when he set the STILL-STANDING major league record of 191 runs batted in?

Three of my favorite Conlon color cards are a 1927 Lou Gehrig showing him batting. A honey. Perfect. The Joe Jackson with Cleveland is a delight, and perfection. Finally, the famous shot of Ty Cobb furiously sliding into third with all his might is also perfect. They will never be worth much money, but worth a whole lot to me. As much eye candy as the old and now missed huge Snickers bar.

Pinnacle did a fabulous set on Mickey Mantle. Most of the poses were very well chosen. Should be easily found on eBay for a few bucks.

Beauty is where you find it. As a forum member mentioned, someone had the good sense to take some photos only seen in books or magazines and make nice baseball cards out of them. If you like how it looks, if it moves you as art, buy it, enzhoy it as Maurice Chevalier said. Several will not like this, but some of the newer stuff of long-retired players is much better than most (BUT BY NO MEANS ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) of what was issued during their playing careers.

Lastly, I feel for the Joe DiMaggio collectors. There were so very few cards made of him during his career. Sets that SHOULD have had him do not have him. I'll guess it's because Joe felt he was owed a whole lot more for his image than the other players. In many respects that is true. Take the time he was negotiating his salary with the always mean and tough Yank GM George Weiss, he won. When DiMag wanted a certain figure, Weiss shot back that even Lou Gehrig did not make that much money a year! The Yankee Clipper sank him with, "Then Mr. Gehrig is a very underpaid man." Joltin' Joe got the jingle he wanted. Still wish Bowman, Topps, Fleer and some regional companies had come through with the extra loot to give kids and eventually us adults some more great DiMaggios. The Golden Press Hall of Fame is a beaut. Oh well, Pinnacle to the rescue!

Cheers. --Brian Powell