Journey Into the Past

As you guys can probably tell, I'm not big into the Vintage cards. I grew up in the over-production era, and that's where I feel comfortable collecting. I had mulled around the idea of grabbing a few here and there of the players that I liked from sets that I deemed "cool."

A couple weeks ago, I finally pulled the trigger after getting my catalog from All Star Cards and reading the book Cardboard Gods by Josh Wilker.

A Must Read for Collectors

The book is basically a chronicle of Wilker's life through his baseball cards. It wasn't the book I excepted when reading the title, but he did a great job using his collection to help tell his story. After reading the book and looking over the options in the catalog, here is what I decided to spend my allotted "Vintage money." 

Where's the airbrushing?

Love the name. Love the sleeveless Reds jersey he is famous for. Here Big Klu is sporting a White Sox cap but is listed as an Angel. Topps would not be having that nowadays.

I really love the colors of the 1975 set. Too bad my budget won't allow the completion of this set, but picking up players like good ole J.R. here could be just the fix I need.

Shouldn't LSD have been a performance-reducing drug?

After reading the Grantland article about Dock's LSD-aided (?) no-hitter in San Diego as a member of the Pirates, I knew I had to own at least one of his cardboard likenesses. I will have him in a Buckos uni next. For now, though, I'll savor the pinstripes, as weird as that is to say.

Is it me, or do I see an Ace Ventura resemblance? 

Finally, who else better to get than my first card of "The Bird"? Fitting right? I'm a Byrd. He was the Bird. (Makes you think of the movie Good Burger, right?) The was the man, the myth and the legend. 1976 Rookie of the Year. Two-time All-Star. 1976 Cy Young Runner-Up. Then it all ended in what seemed like an instant. The photo for his 1977 card shows how goofy the guy was, which I'm sure you all are already know.

So there you have it. No huge names. No huge prices. Just the way I like it. For those of you that do more with the Vintage than I, how did I do?