#504 6th Series Checklist 513-588 / Brooks Robinson

It's Valentine's Day as I compose this post, and I can't think of anything more romantic than a baseball card checklist.  I kid, of course, and I'm taking a break from work on a Saturday in an attempt to keep this blog up to date as it chugs towards its conclusion.  Similar to where I was when I wrote about the 7th Series checklist (#582) back in October, we're 16 cards away from a complete 1969 Topps set, and the goal is to complete the set in 2026.  I've been good at keeping up a somewhat regular posting schedule here, on my new 1955 Bowman blog and my occasionally neglected 1934-36 Diamond Stars blog.  The latter should/could wrap up in 2026 as well, as long as I can find the last two cards needed for my set, including the pricey Hank Greenberg card.

Phillies spring training has started in Clearwater, but the snow and ice from almost a month ago is still piled up outside our house.  It was a brutal January, a better February and I'm hoping for a calmer March.

Once the Phillies season begins in earnest, and as I turn my attention to the daily exercise of posting game recaps, a hobby I thoroughly enjoy, my set building blogs could get less attention.  With the hope of wrapping up this blog and my Diamond Stars blog in the coming months, I need to start to plan what's next.  I've already unofficially started collecting cards for a 1959 Topps set build, but I don't want to neglect the 1960s, and committing to collecting the 1966 Topps set seems like a logical next step.  We shall see.

I continue to be grateful for my health, my family's health, and the ability to spend time each week writing about old baseball cards.

Building the Set / Card #633

September 21, 2025 from The Philly Show (Niagara Sports Cards)

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.  My third stop was a smaller table with the impossible to pass up offer of 1969 Topps commons that were only $1, unless marked.  The binder was right at the end of the table, making it an even easier sell.  The prices on some of the cards were stunningly low, so I was even more surprised when the dealer, Niagara Sports Cards, gave me an even deeper discount upon tallying up my total.

I found 12 cards needed from Niagara Sports Cards, and this was the 11th of those 12, and the 74th of 91 cards for the set added overall on the day.  The card was marked at $10, but I paid a little over $7 for it after the bulk dealer discount was applied. 

The Card / Orioles Team Set / Checklists

Brooks Robinson (#550) is likely the biggest name to appear in the set's sixth series, nudging out Willie Stargell (#545) for the cameo spot on the front of the card.  Nolan Ryan (#533) would eventually surpass them both, but in 1969 he had yet to throw any of his seven no-hitters, and he was only 139 strikeouts in to a career that would eventually lead him to strike out an all-time record of 5,714.  

I found it funny that Topps couldn't seem to fit in Yankees Rookies for card #519, shortening it instead to "Yank Rookies."  Robinson appears three times in the set, a base card, an All-Star card (#421) and this checklist card.

#503 Larry Brown - Cleveland Indians / #505 Bobby Bolin - San Francisco Giants

#582 7th Series Checklist 589-664 / Tony Oliva

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.)

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.

September 28, 2025 - with Greg Luzinski at Citizens Bank Park

Building the Set / Card #580
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.

#581 Gary Nolan - Cincinnati Reds / #583 Clyde Wright - California Angels

#314 4th Series Checklist 328-425 / Don Drysdale

It's Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend as I'm writing this, and I couldn't be happier we have no real plans and nowhere to be.  We gathered with family on Friday night for the much anticipated and delicious first burgs and dogs of the summer, and the rest of the weekend will consist of minor projects around the house and waiting for the Phillies games to start.  I'm not going to consider doing anything mildly productive until Tuesday morning.

Similar to last summer, our respite won't last long.  There are very few weekends coming up when we won't be traveling somewhere for our oldest son Doug's baseball tournaments.  And when we're not watching him play baseball, our goal is to have a bunch of college visits scheduled so that he can start to narrow down his application options.  His junior year high school baseball season is thankfully behind us, and I'm looking forward to watching him play on a team this summer that enjoys itself and wins more than it loses.

Our youngest son Ben stays busy too and he was thrilled recently to be asked to help out teaching a beginner's tennis class.  He's got a good group of friends, and it's refreshing to hear him ask if he can go bike riding with them or just hang out with them in lieu of interacting with them via iPad.  His imagination continues to run wild, and he's still taking his story writing to new levels on his very own private (except to a chosen few of us) blog.

I've got a box of 141 cards from our 1969 Topps set sitting on the project table next to me, ready to be written about, scanned and slid into their pockets in my set binder.  This is still a relaxing and enjoyable pastime for me, and I wish I had had this outlet when I was collecting sets in the 1980s or 1990s.  I've spent way more time with this set (and the 1965 Topps set) than I did when my Dad and I were hand-collating Topps sets released between 1970 and 1976.  I'm not breaking any new ground here, and readership hovers between very light to light, but I'm having fun.  I'm already looking forward to working on similar blogs for when I officially start collecting the 1955 Bowman and 1959 Topps sets.  At the pace I'm on now, one or both of those blogs should debut in 2025 or early 2026.  I say "at the pace I'm on now," as similar to last summer, time available to write about 55-year-old baseball cards could dwindle as we happily embrace our summer schedules.

Building the Set / Card #302
December 3, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)
Doug and I returned to The Philly Show in early December, once again held inside the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania.  eBay has taken over sponsorship of the show, with the quaint, bubble-lettered Philly Show logo that had been in place since the 1980s replaced with a more modern logo, keeping with the times.  I wrote about the show in a post over at The Phillies Room.

Similar to my strategy from March, I wanted to focus on accumulating commons and having found success with Uncle Dick's Cards before, I didn't mess around and headed right for the neon green binders.  I pulled 145 cards from the binder containing cards 301 to the end of the set, stopping when I reached 500.  This card was the tenth of 145 cards purchased for our set, and after the dealer discount due to my bulk purchase, it cost me a little under $3.50.

The Card / Dodgers Team Set / Checklists

This would surprisingly be the final season for Dodgers' ace Don Drysdale (#400), as a torn rotator cuff ended his 1969 season early and led to his retirement.  After the 1st Series checklist (#57) blew my theory that Topps chose which player should cameo on the checklist card based on the biggest star appearing within that checklist card, I'm starting to think Denny McLain (#150) was an anomaly.  

Drysdale is arguably the biggest star on this checklist card, although a case could be made for Harmon Killebrew (#375), Orlando Cepeda (#385), Al Kaline (#410) or any of the first ten All-Star cards.

#313 Bill Robinson - New York Yankees / #315 Eddie Fisher - California Angels

#57 1st Series Checklist 1-109 / Denny McLain

I took most of March and April off with this blog, having composed and scheduled enough posts to get me through both months.  I think I needed the time away, as when I came back to start creating posts for the massive haul of cards added in March (see below) I was excited to be doing this again.  I also don't have much of a backlog as I write this, and with a busy summer schedule looming, I'm OK with this blog falling behind a bit.  I don't think my tens of readers will mind too much.  I have a 200-count box of cards ready for the blog post treatment, and as I mention below these cards should keep me busy until well into 2024.

The biggest reason for the step away from this blog is that high school baseball consumed all of March and April.  Our oldest son Doug is a sophomore and he was good enough to earn a spot on the varsity team, but he was not quite ready for a starting role.  I was there for every single one of his games, not missing an at-bat or a pitch thrown.  I didn't play high school sports, so I had no idea how many games and practices were squeezed into a short period of time.  I was determined not to miss anything.  I'm the Dad who sits quietly along the left field fence, mostly keeping to myself and keeping clear of the Dads who readily criticize every play, every coach's decision and every umpire call.  Doug is on a brief baseball hiatus before his travel season starts.

Our youngest son Ben continues to excel at tennis and piano, and we're trying to convince him to start a running schedule so that he can improve his cross country times when that starts back up again in the fall.  But as a 7th grader, about to be going into 8th grade, I can appreciate a running schedule isn't exactly high on the list of summer priorities.  He continues to crack me up.  We're immensely proud of both of them.

It's Saturday afternoon, June 3rd, as I compose this post and it's one of the last remaining Saturdays of the summer with nowhere to be and nothing to do.  Seems like a good day to work on this blog and study a 54-year-old baseball card checklist.

Building the Set / Card #110
March 12, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)

In mid-March, Doug and I attended the Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show, held within the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania.  My main focus for this show was accumulating as many 1969 Topps commons as possible, which I did by adding a grand total of 193 cards to our set.  That's almost 30% of the entire set added in one enjoyable afternoon.  I wrote a full summary of the show in a post over at The Phillies Room, found here.

This is the 33rd of the 193 commons and semi-stars purchased, pulled and stacked from the first two neon green binders housing 1969 Topps cards at the multi-table spread of Uncle Dick's Cards from Babylon, New York.  My method was simple - I pulled up a chair, found a card I needed, picked the best of the group from the binder page and set it aside.  After each 100 cards, I'd ask the dealer to tell me how much damage I had done so far.  With a budget in mind, I kept going twice, continuing after card #100 and card #200, and stopping at card #298.  The final amount due was 17% off the sticker price for the pile of 193 cards, with this card costing me around $3.  If I stick to composing posts five times a week, I should go through the stack and be caught up by the end of January.  But as the summer begins, that's becoming a bigger If.

The Card / Tigers Team Set / Checklists

Denny McLain (#150) was one of the biggest stories in baseball in 1968, so it's no surprise he graces the 1st series checklist card here.  I put forth a theory with the 5th series checklist (#412) that Topps uses a photo of the biggest player in the series featured on the checklist for the front of the card.  That theory is shattered here as McLain's base card doesn't appear until the set's 2nd series.  This is one of McLain's five appearances in the set, and his third appearance in the set's 1st series as he's already appeared on the 1968 A.L. Pitching Leaders (#9) and 1968 A.L. Strikeout Leaders (#11) cards.  In lieu of McLain, Topps could have featured the reigning National League Rookie of the Year, Johnny Bench (#95).  Henry Aaron (#100), Roberto Clemente (#50) or Ernie Banks (#20) would have been good choices as well.

There are two versions of this checklist available, featuring a slightly different crop of McLain's picture.  I have the "inset photo does not show collar at bottom right" version and then's there the "inset photo has collar showing at bottom right" version.  Honestly, who noticed this first?  I look at a lot of baseball cards, and I can't imagine ever picking up on this negligible difference unless I happened to be handling a stack of these checklist cards.

#56 Rich Reese - Minnesota Twins / #58 Fred Gladding - Houston Astros

#412 5th Series Checklist 426-512 / Mickey Mantle

I have to imagine this will be the only time I add two checklist cards back-to-back while collecting our 1969 Topps set.  The action will pick back up in the upcoming posts as there are several multi-player Rookie Stars cards coming up.

Building the Set / Card #35
December 3, 2022 from The Philly Show (Huggins & Scott Auctions)

At the outset of The Philly Show, more formally known as the Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show, held within the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania, we needed just four cards to complete our 1965 Topps set.  I wrote a full summary of the show in this post over at The Phillies Room.

The show so far had been an all-timer.  Major purchases were made (1965 and 1969 Topps Mickey Mantle, 1969 Topps Reggie Jackson rookie card, Diamond Stars Rogers Hornsby), our 1965 Topps set was completed and I admittedly wasn't ready to leave just yet.  With a little more cash in hand, I decided to find a few more cards for our now newly-collecting 1969 Topps set.  

I found a box of vintage semi-star cards at the table of Higgins & Scott Auctions from Silver Spring, Maryland, with a "50% Off" sign attached to it.  It was truly a hodge podge of minor stars, checklists, multi-player Rookie Stars cards and other assorted randomness.  After confirming the cards were indeed 50% off the sticker prices, I found eight interesting cards needed for our set and parted with my final $50 of the day.  This checklist card, featuring the recently retired Mickey Mantle, was $10 and the priciest of the bunch.

The Card / Yankees Team Set / Checklists

I'm just now realizing Topps uses the star cameo on these checklists to highlight the biggest star to be found within the cards featured.  Bob Gibson (#200) is featured on the set's second series checklist card (#107) and his base card can be found on the back of that checklist.  Similarly, Mantle is featured here and collectors could see he's card #500 by flipping to the back.  This is the first of two appearances by Mantle in the 1969 Topps set, and his next flagship set appearance wouldn't come until 1975 as part of the wonderful league MVP subset.

The second half of The Sporting News All-Stars get highlighted on the front of the checklist and Topps added "SPECIAL!" in case you hadn't already noticed the white background for these cards.

#411 Larry Dierker - Houston Astros / #413 Roland Sheldon - Seattle Pilots

#214 3rd Series Checklist 219-327 / Special Autographed Photos Checklist

This is the first of two checklists in a row, and I'm going to skip the part of these checklist posts where I typically prepare a lengthy state of the union or state of the set summary.  The last checklist post came just a few weeks' ago, and not much has changed since then.  I'm writing this on the evening of Sunday, January 15th, tired from spending the bulk of the day un-decorating the house and putting away Christmas.  It's never fun, and today was no different.  But I am trying to improve my overall mindset when it comes to the month of January.  I don't like the attitude of "let's get this over with," and I've always had the tendency to embrace and enjoy Christmas, and then look forward to the spring and baseball once the holiday season had ended.  As I get older, and as I continue to practice mindfulness, I'm trying to be more grounded in the present and not wish away days, weeks, months.  Even if January is the worst month.  (I could use some more practice.)

Building the Set / Card #34
December 3, 2022 from The Philly Show (Huggins & Scott Auctions)

At the outset of The Philly Show, more formally known as the Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show, held within the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania, we needed just four cards to complete our 1965 Topps set.  I wrote a full summary of the show in this post over at The Phillies Room.

The show so far had been an all-timer.  Major purchases were made (1965 and 1969 Topps Mickey Mantle, 1969 Topps Reggie Jackson rookie card, Diamond Stars Rogers Hornsby), our 1965 Topps set was completed and I admittedly wasn't ready to leave just yet.  With a little more cash in hand, I decided to find a few more cards for our now newly-collecting 1969 Topps set.  

I found a box of vintage semi-star cards at the table of Higgins & Scott Auctions from Silver Spring, Maryland, with a "50% Off" sign attached to it.  It was truly a hodge podge of minor stars, checklists, multi-player Rookie Stars cards and other assorted randomness.  After confirming the cards were indeed 50% off the sticker prices, I found eight interesting cards needed for our set and parted with my final $50 of the day.  This checklist card, the second checklist we've already added to the set, was $5, and I consider that a fair price given it's clean and completely unmarked.

The Card / Checklists

Rather than have a star player make a cameo here, as all of the other checklists in the set do, Topps went with nothing but numbers, check boxes and names here in order to fit in the 33-card "Special Autographed Photos" set on the back.  This is more commonly referred to today as the Deckle Edge set, and I'm tracking those here as I add each player's base card to our set.  If I had been collecting this set back in 1969, the presence of these 33 cards would have led me to believe they too were part of the overall set and I would have tried to track them all down.  Topps would add two updated cards to the set with Jim Wynn and Joe Foy replacing Hoyt Wilhelm and Rusty Staub in subsequent printings.

With no star making a cameo on the card, this is the only card in the entire 1969 Topps set that doesn't fall into any team sets.

#213 Gerry Arrigo - Cincinnati Reds / #215 Rico Petrocelli - Boston Red Sox

#107 2nd Series Checklist 110-218 / Bob Gibson

As I did for the checklists in the 1965 Topps set, I'll use these posts to give a brief state of affairs as it relates to building the 1969 Topps set and life in general.  As of this writing, on January 6, 2023, we've got 40 cards out of the eventual 666 I plan to collect - the 664 base cards and then the two variations for the players traded early in 1969, Clay Dalrymple (#151) and Donn Clendenon (#208).  The cards have come together in dribs and drabs, and there are a few major purchases coming up in future posts from the December 2022 Philly Show.

Our sons are as busy as ever, with Doug now pole vaulting for his high school winter track team and spending at least two days a week doing some baseball activities.  Ben is taking a break from school sports, still taking tennis lessons and gearing up for cross country in the spring.  His piano playing continues to improve and amaze us.  They are both excellent students, getting great grades and we're immensely proud of both of them.  Work is work.  Recently, and for the first time, I allowed myself to do the actual math and determine the earliest date at which I could retire with some pension benefits.  The date is actually a little closer than I had thought it was, and knowing the exact date gives me a strange sense of calm.  It's crazy to think I have more work days in my past than I do in my future.

I didn't think I'd want to do a complete set blog again so soon after completing our 1965 Topps set, but I'm glad I made the decision to move forward with this set.  I'm cheating a little, copying and pasting sections from my prior blog as players repeat, but still learning new things about a lot of players who had retired before I was born.  The bottom line is, this is fun for me and even if I'm the only person ever reading this, it's brought me happiness and relaxation.  It's incredibly important to have enjoyable hobbies.

Building the Set / Card #26
September 9, 2022 from La Verne, CA
In early September, I found myself taking the first of two required work trips and I purchased Wifi access on a flight to Orlando in order to catch up on work e-mails.  Dutifully catching up, and not having enough time to watch a full movie, I turned to eBay for the duration of the flight and found a Gus Suhr Diamond Stars card for sale at a very reasonable But It Now price from seller earhart47.  Not wanting the card to travel by itself from La Verne, California, I found four more cards for future set builds at reasonable prices and from high above somewhere over Georgia I clicked Add to Cart on those four cards too.  One of the random cards added to my cart was this checklist card, the first of seven checklists to be added to our set.  The cards were waiting for me when I got home late on the night of September 9th.  Sadly, during the second work trip, this time to Dallas, no new baseball cards were purchased while in flight.  Ironically enough, as I write this, I'm getting ready to go on another work trip, departing on Sunday night.  Maybe I'll need to do some online shopping during the flight . . .

The Card / Cardinals Team Set / Checklists

I like the idea of adding a star player to a checklist card.  With Bob Gibson appearing here, there's a chance the card wouldn't have been immediately discarded by a young collector and it allowed another chance for Topps to feature some of the game's top players.  Topps added star cameos to its checklists between 1967 and 1969, and I'm just now realizing Gibson is featured on the checklist in which his base card (#200) also appears.  He was by far the biggest star in the game in 1968.  Looking ahead to who else received recognition on the checklists in the set, there aren't any surprises.  Topps opted to go full checklist mode with the set's third series, allowing for the 33-card Deckle Edge set to be included as well.

There are two versions of this checklist available, and I've added the error version listing card #161 as "Jim" Purdin.  The corrected version shows him as John Purdin.  I don't feel the need to track down the corrected version - sorry, John.

#106 Jim Hannan - Washington Senators / #108 Tony Taylor - Philadelphia Phillies