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I'm composing this post on October 13th, and tomorrow it will be 14 years since my Dad passed away, a day I've gotten much better at navigating as the years go on.
When I started my 1965 Topps blog in November 2019, and upon reaching the first checklist card in the set, I had no idea how to fill a blog post with anything remotely interesting about a card with baseball players' names next to check boxes. So I started to use these checklist posts as a state of the blog/my collecting/my world address. It's therapeutic in a way, even if it's a bit self-serving.
I'm writing this before I start the work day with a full house at home. Our oldest son is home on fall break from Villanova, where he's had a wonderful first few months, despite some campus-wide trauma at the outset. Out youngest son is a sophomore in high school (!) and focused on meeting or exceeding his older brother's GPA and class ranking when he graduates in a few years. Our dog is a lovable but cranky old man at 11 years old. My wife and I have unofficial countdowns going for our planned retirements. The Phillies broke our hearts with another early exit from the postseason. We're doing the best we can in a country that seems continually crueler and consistently dumber. (Be kind, help when and where you can, vote, keep moving forward.)
I'm writing this before I start the work day with a full house at home. Our oldest son is home on fall break from Villanova, where he's had a wonderful first few months, despite some campus-wide trauma at the outset. Out youngest son is a sophomore in high school (!) and focused on meeting or exceeding his older brother's GPA and class ranking when he graduates in a few years. Our dog is a lovable but cranky old man at 11 years old. My wife and I have unofficial countdowns going for our planned retirements. The Phillies broke our hearts with another early exit from the postseason. We're doing the best we can in a country that seems continually crueler and consistently dumber. (Be kind, help when and where you can, vote, keep moving forward.)
From a baseball card collecting standpoint, we're 16 cards away from a complete 1969 Topps set, my 1956 Topps blog is set to post its final post, and I've been working on the design of my 1955 Bowman blog. My 1934-36 Diamond Stars set build has stalled out with four (maybe three) cards remaining including the two (maybe one) version of the uber-expensive Hank Greenberg card(s). I have over a hundred cards in a box for our not-yet-officially collecting 1959 Topps set, and I'm starting to get itchy about collecting the 1966 Topps set, especially since I had bought a nice-looking 1966 Topps Mickey Mantle card in the early 1990s.
I still enjoy the daily or semi-daily routine of picking up an old baseball card, spending some time writing about it, and then sliding it into its home in my set binders. I don't plan on letting up.
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| September 28, 2025 - with Greg Luzinski at Citizens Bank Park |
September 21, 2025 from The Philly Show (America's Pastime)
On Sunday morning, September 21st, I made the hour-long drive to the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania for the latest installment of the Philadelphia Sports Card & Memorabilia Show, known to its friends as The Philly Show. The show has a legitimate official sponsor (eBay) and the advertisement for the event notes the show is in its 50th year. I hadn't attended a baseball card show since the last Philly Show in December, and I was flying solo to this one as our oldest son is in his first month of college at Villanova. I posted a full summary of the show over at The Phillies Room.
I made stops at six tables at the show, all yielding needed cards for our 1969 Topps set, and I left the show with just 16 more cards to go for my version of a complete set. The first place I stopped was a table with well-organized and well-marked binders of commons and semi-stars with 20% Off notes across the front of each binder.
I took my time and found 32 commons and semi-stars needed before asking to see the dealer's star cards from the set. It turned out this first purchase was also my biggest, as I spent over half my allotted budget here, America's Pastime from Fair Lawn, New Jersey, before moving on to my second stop. This was the 21st of 36 total cards bought from America's Pastime, and the 21st of 91 cards for set added overall on the day, and it cost a little under $5 after the dealer discount.
The Card / Twins Team Set / Checklists
With the exception of maybe Bobby Bonds (#630), Fergie Jenkins (#640) and the retired Ted Williams (#650), Tony Oliva (#600) is the biggest name featured in the set's seventh series, so he gets featured on the 7th Series checklist. Denny McLain (#150) on the 1st Series checklist (#57) is the one exception to the rule so far in the set, as the 2nd (#107), 4th (#314), 5th (#412) and now the 7th Series checklists feature the biggest name making a cameo from each series. I've not gotten to the 6th Series checklist (#504) yet, and the 3rd Series checklist (#214) is nothing but names with nobody featured.
Oliva appears four times in the set - on the first card, as an American League batting leader (#1), on an All-Star card (#427), this checklist and on his base card.
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