My three faves, a contest post

Frankie, who writes My Life In The Sports Card Hobby, has a little contest going that is right up my alley. He's asking fellow bloggers to post their three (or so) favorite cards. That's something I do in my head all the time. I thought it would be easy to do for a post. But it was much tougher than I figured. I have LOTS of favorites. The lists sit over on the sidebar of this blog and reviewing them I realized that I have cards I love that I don't even have on those pages. 

But in the spirit of the contest I gave it a shot. I decided to consider only baseball and leave it at three cards although Frankie was pretty liberal in his rules. Anyway, here goes:

1978 Topps Eddie Murray..... This one speaks for itself. I think it's a classic, one of the best of the era. It's the rookie card of a Hall of Famer in a pose that is seen on few if any other cards. Eddie Murray was a badass and this card captures that. It's far from my most valuable card but that makes no difference. I love this one.

The best card of my favorite player has to be on the list of my favorites. It was the first 'expensive' card I ever purchased. I recall finding it at a card show when they were still in their infancy. This one was at the old Allen Park Inn in Houston. The show, and buying this Brooks rookie, was an eye-opening experience. I have a nicer copy I picked up years later but this is a milestone card for me.

I don't have a lot of tobacco cards, a few dozen I guess. This one is the best of the lot. I could have put my T-206 Chief Bender here but the Mathewson is just a better looking card. Sure it's off-center but the idea that someone pulled this out of a tobacco package 100+ years ago is kind of awe inspiring. Mathewson was already one of the greats when it was issued. I bet this very card made someone very happy.

Both Mathewson and Bender were pretty much 'must haves' for me. I have a couple of books about Chief Bender and find him a fascinating character. As for Mathewson, he's from Factoryville, Pennsylvania where I spent plenty of time in the summers as a kid. I have an aunt who still lives there in a beautiful old home with an amazing view. Her late husband, my uncle, passed much of his baseball library along to me.

So there they are. My three favorite baseball cards. I was forced to leave off a few cards I truely treasure including my Bob Gibson rookie which is my only surviving 1959, my Koufax cards, and any number of others. If I make this list in a few months it might be different.