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1. 1956 Topps Ted Williams
I read My Turn at Bat for a 7th grade book report. I learned Ted was the last man to hit .400; he was a fighter pilot, a fisherman, and a big game hunter. My father told me Ted was what John Wayne pretended to be. The problem was I had learned to hate the Duke at age 5. In 1968 my Dad was in Vietnam, Mom and I were waiting in a trailer park in Fort Benning when Hollywood came to town. She signed on to play a Vietnamese extra in the film the Green Berets. The fact that she was a Chicana was a minor detail. I overheard her telling her Colombian friends, who were too light skinned to be considered viable substitutes for the Viet Cong, about Mr. Wayne. I understood that the Duke apparently liked Vietnamese Mexicans and was not shy about it. Why couldn’t he have been more like George Takei? I never told my Dad until he compared the Splendid Splinter to Ole Rooster Cogburn. When I spilled my guts he laughed and said that the Duke must have had great taste. He then explained how during the 50’s Teddy Ball Game used to give him the finger and mouthed F**K You! at him and his little brother when they heckled him from the Municipal Stadium bleachers. He said those tender moments spent with Ted were some of his fondest childhood memories. Obviously Ted was very cool. The fact that he was half Mexican like me sealed the deal. My 1956 Topps Ted Williams was a gift from Dad after my Mom had died. He winked at me when I opened it. I later learned that my mother had laughed very hard when he told her about my disclosure.

2. 1955 Topps Roberto Clemente
See my avatar and user name no other explanation necessary

3. 1954 Topps Hank Aaron
It's April 8, 1974 I’m 10 and dancing in my underwear in front of the Curtis Mathis color TV (our first) and Mom was certain I had lost my mind.

4. 1914 WG4 Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner
Two cards that individually are boring, side by side they become very sexy. I refuse to separate them so I’m bending the rules. My first and only ménage à trois.

5. 1955 Topps Sandy Koufax
1974 was a very good year (see #3), that summer I mowed my neighbor’s lawn and got an advance on my allowance for this beauty. It was my first 1955 Topps card and when I saw it I knew what art was.

6. 1914 Cracker Jack Sam Crawford
A gift from my wife, the only thing sexier than her that night was the Carmel stained Tiger outfielder in my sweaty palms.

7. 1954 Johnston Cookie Hank Aaron
My most recent Christmas gift from my 73 year old father. I learned long ago that James Dean didn’t die in that Porsche Spyder. He is a cigar smoking bachelor living incognito in the Great Northwest.

8. 1956 Topps Jackie Robinson
What a bad ass, he was Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. in flannel before America even knew who they were. It's too bad he wasn't Mexican like me and Ted.

9. 1958 Topps Mickey Mantle
1950s Manhattan, Billy, Whitey, and the Copa need I say more? In this card Whitey has just said, ”Hey Mick check out the rack on the blonde behind home”. The look in Mickey’s eyes says he’s located her.

10. 1953 Topps Satchel Paige
In the fourth grade I traded three chocolate milks to a fat kid for this one. The next day he told me Satch was his big brothers property. He begged for me to send Satch home. He claimed that his brother was going to kill him if Satchel didn’t return. I told him that was an ass whipping he was going to have to take. Twenty-eight years later at my 20th High School Reunion I’m approached by a Jose Canseco doppelganger. He said, “You don’t remember me do you”? He then recounted the saga of Satch and our 4th grade trade. I told him Satchel was at home in my safe and I was prepared to take an ass whipping to keep him there. Thankfully it didn’t come to that.

11. T206 Christy Mathewson
My first proof that Mom was right when she said Graduate School would pay off in the long run. I miss her. I hope the Duke doesn’t realize she is up there with him.