As I remember those early days of my collecting baseball cards, the Golden Press HOF, and the '61 Fleer gave me a springboard into baseball's history and its great players.
I was very close to my first cousin. He was a couple years older than I, collected cards, and was a real positive influence on me. Anyway, there was something about the '61 Fleer Cap Anson he could not stand. I'm sure Cap's paraffin-sharpened mustache was the crux of the matter. Any that he got, Greg would tear up; he couldn't stand looking at the card. On the other hand, he marveled with admiration at the rippling muscled physique of "The Beast", Jimmie Foxx. Neither Fleer card did "Double X" justice, in my opinion; however, there was a photo in an old baseball history book we discovered at his local library of Jimmie swinging a bat with his shirt off. He was so impressed with his build. Much like I was when I saw the photo in NEWSWEEK of Chicago Black Hawk's star Bobby Hull pitching hay with his shirt off at his cattle ranch in Canada. Just reminiscing.....
--- Brian Powell