Ghost of Christmas Past

 

Officially added 3,943 cards to my collection today on TCDb. The good news is, there was not much else to do with -10 degree air temps and -30 degree wind chills! I was able to fit in a good old game of Monopoly today with the family and we confirmed why Dad chose accounting as his career...

As we head into the Christmas weekend, it's hard to believe 38 years ago I received my first baseball card set - 1984 Topps. This was a great set to get introduced into card collecting, with the player close up photo, team names down the left side, and white borders. It doesn't seem like this year gets nearly as much hype as its 1987 wood bordered cousin...

loved this card because Robin Yount was from my hometown of Danville, Illinois

Each Christmas, Santa would bring a full set to open and organize into those famous three ring binders. I remember sitting in front of the fireplace organizing the cards in team order, then alphabetically by player, as I somewhat carefully put the cards away into the plastic sheets. These sets are still in the original binders and sheets and it's still great to open these binders up and look for those star players we all wanted to be like as little kids.

My personal top 10 favorites from 1984 Topps are as follows:

Van Slyke looks like we always did after a tough game at the American Legion, uniform should be filthy and a challenge for Mom to get clean again!

The look on Ryan's face is like "Yes, I am going to blow this effing fastball by you and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it"

Rickey getting ready to steal one of a hundred bases

Reggie getting down to crush that fastball

Not sure why Billy is wearing a garbage bag under his uni

His throwing hand on his wind up is practically in the dirt - look like Jerry is giving this pitch all he has and then some

I read about how much Carter hustled and worked at his position. The effort put forth here is A+

Love the look of this curveball starting out at your head and probably finishing at your knees!

A great shot of the hitting form my son's hitting coach is trying to get him to emulate

Just a good overall fielding shot. Most photos in this set are photos of hitters at the plate, or pitchers but not a lot of fielding poses or action shots. Loved Brett's concentration on this one..