Show a Card that Signifies Your Personal Love of Baseball...

[JollyElm]

...and explain why.

I was looking on ebay last night and ran across a 1974 Seaver card, and man did it bring back great childhood memories...so what the heck, let's start a thread.

As a little kid in Queens, caught up in the fervor of Willie Mays' retirement (and, more importantly, my dad regaling us with his stories of the Say Hey Kid on the NY Giants back in the day) as my beloved Mets got themselves into the sun-marred World Series games in Oakland (close to where I live now, and I can tell you THE SUN NEVER STOPS SCORCHING EVERYTHING), 1973 was a tremendous season. So when the new baseball cards 'finally' started showing up at the local drugstore early in 1974, you felt like an orange and blue clad king when you pulled a Tom Terrific from a pack!! A magically cool horizontal shot with Seaver hurling one in the afternoon sun at Shea as John Milner and a packed house look on??? This says I love baseball to me!!!

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(If anyone cares, card is just a screen grab.)

So, show a card and tell us a story...

[leaflover]

The 3 Amigos! My personal love …… PITCHING!

[rats60]

At the time I fell in love with the game, there were 3 kings of baseball, Koufax (65 & 66 Cy Young), Mays (65 MVP) and Clemente (65 Batting Champ & 66 MVP).

Growing up in Southern California, this was the card to have. In 1965 Koufax pitched a perfect game (his 4th consecutive season with a no hitter), won the pitching triple crown, was unanimous Cy Young winner and finished 2nd in MVP to Mays. However, it was the World Series when he was at his best. With the Dodgers down 3-2 to the Twins, Koufax pitched shutouts in Game 5 and 7 to win the Dodgers their 3rd World Championship in the first 8 years in L.A. In the 80s when Sandy was signing autographs at a card show, I brought my childhood card to get his autograph.

[cesarcap]

Cool idea. These 75's survived my 1st summer of playing baseball in our new neighborhood. We moved from NYC to suburbs of NJ. I had no idea of the Red Sox and Yankees rivalry but after we played. I didn't care about how lousy the Mets were--it was exciting to go to Shea.

I read the newspaper (Star Ledger) and every baseball book I could to find to get more about its history. So, I was super excited to get this MVP card which I'm glad I still have.

As if that weren't enough, the 75WS really hooked me. I kept the batting order w/ my stack of cards for both teams. This Yaz one is an upgrade to the one I have, but I do remember watching Yaz, Fisk, Rose, and Morgan while clutching their cards.

[Exhibitman]

I lived and died with the Bombers that season; as it turned out, my last in NYC. That homer, what joy it brought to my 11 year old self. Was baseball ever as important as it was at that age?

[mr2686]

I've always loved this 1968 card. My older sister gave my 8 year old self a bunch of wax packs for my birthday that summer and this was one of them. Cards, of course, were not as big a deal back then, so this one got handled and thrown around, and lost in drawers. Every couple of years it would pop back up and would make me smile...and then get lost again. It finally got lost again for good, and my sister has since passed away, but everytime I see the card online it brings a big smile to my face and I remember that great summer. Oh hell, I guess I better pick one up soon. LOL

[Peter_Spaeth]

The first year I collected. This card had me hooked. Leaving value entirely out of the equation, it might well be my favorite card even now.

[Vintagevault13]

Darren,

100% agree with your 1974 Seaver card. That is one of my all-time favorites. My card is the 1978 Reggie. I grew up a huge Reggie fan and this card is about as perfect as a card can get IMO. The picture totally embodies Reggie’s iconic swing.




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[mrmopar]

I will keep this brief, but could gush about the early days of my discovery of baseball (and cards). I was a Dodgers fan from the beginning and was especially interested in the Boys of Summer, although it was the late 70s and I lived in WA.

I don't remember the exact year I got this book, but it cemented my love of both the game and of the cards, if I needed it for either. I am going to guess 3rd or 4th grade, which would put it right around 1979.

So many of the cards in this book were etched in my mind and the star power was pretty sparse actually, but it was the 1956 Topps Jackie Robinson that became my first dream card. He shared a blacked out page with the 63 Clemente, the only one like it in the book, and it just made both of those cards pop from the page. I knew I was going to own one of those Robinsons one day. Still one of my favorite cards of all time.

[Gr8Beldini]

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[smrtn240]

love of the game