Baseball Cards by Egantx7

The T206 Honus Wagner card, first printed in 1909, is considered to be the Holy Grail of the hobby. Certainly, the card was known to collectors prior to 1991, but it was in that year that this man won, at auction, the highest graded version of the card known to exist. Who was the athlete (at the time, playing in Los Angeles) who won the Near Mint T206 card in a 1991 Sotheby's auction?

First and last name needed.

Starting around 1980, Topps and other companies began so mass-producing their cards, that many, even with high demand, weren't very valuable. One notable exception is the Topps traded set card #98T, which features this player on his hard-to-find rookie card, a card that in mint gem condition still often sells for over US$100.

Today, this company has close ties with Upper Deck, but in 1958, this company started a long partnership with Topps to market sporting cards, often times selling the same card that Topps would, with its own corporate name on the card instead of Topps. Those who have read "The song of Hiawatha" know that this company's name means "robin" in a Native American language. Identify this Canadian gum company that has been a large provider of baseball cards north of the border for most of the last 60 years.

Glenn Hubbard was a rather non-descript second baseman for the Atlanta Braves in 1984, likely better known for his facial hair ... until his Fleer baseball card came out that year - a card which inspired the minor league Lexington (KY) Legends to issue a bobblehead doll in tribute to the card in June 2016 (a bobbleheads which still sees people demanding over US$100 on e-bay). In Hubbard's 1984 Fleer card what is draped around Hubbard's shoulder?

Billy Martin's 1972 Topps card, shows him as manager of the Detroit Tigers, and also shows Martin doing this action ... something that Frank Thomas is seen doing in his 1991 Upper Deck card and 1994 Topps Stadium Club cards ... though allegedly these were just lucky pictures. In at least two 19th century pictures (including one baseball card), Old Hoss Radbourn is seen doing this, with the team photo he is in believed to be the oldest known photograph of a human being doing this known to exist. What is this action which apocryphal stories trace to 14th century England, despite this action showing up in its modern usage in ancient Greek plays.

In April 2018, former NFL offensive lineman Evan Mathis decided he wanted to buy a house and auctioned off a Mickey Mantle card for nearly US$2.9 million, the second highest amount ever paid for a baseball card at auction. The Topps baseball card was published in this year, the second of Topps' baseball card run which saw many cases of the cards dumped into the Atlantic after they went unsold. Identify this year, the year after Mickey's MLB debut, corresponding to his first All-Star Game selection.

The 1985 Topps set included a set of cards featuring members of the 1984 Olympic Team ... this included the once highly desirable #401 Mark McGwire card. This guy was on the 1984 US Olympic baseball team, but did not have a card in the 1985 set because he was still in college. He was twice the Big-10ish baseball player of the year, and would win 9 Silver Slugger Awards, 3 Gold Gloves, while being named to 9 All-Star squads. Name this Hall-of-Fame shortstop.

This company was likely the more notable baseball card manufacturer prior to World War II. This Massachusetts-based company produced Big League Chewing Gum, and produced baseball cards from 1933 to 1941. Almost all of the cards were more square in shape compared to modern cards, and featured colorful drawings of players instead of photographs. Its 1933 set neglected to print a Nap Lajoie card, despite it being on the checklist, and only those who wrote to the company got one, making it one of the rarest of all baseball cards. Identify this company whose 1933 set includes cards of Lou Gehrig, and Babe Ruth which are the most valuable cards to ever reach auction for those players.

In 1975, Fleer took Topps and the Major League Baseball Players Association to court, demanding that it was illegal for Topps to have an exclusive contract with Major League players. Though it took a few years, Fleer won in court, and published its first widely available set of baseball cards in 1981. What other company joined Fleer producing a widely available set in 1981? Identify this company which originally marketed film and TV trading cards, sold baseball cards into the early 1990s, and was later affiliated with Score and Pinnacle, but today is owned by Panini, no longer producing baseball cards.

The 1976 Topps card #564 shows this guy blowing an enormous bubble of gum, as the winner of the 1975 Joe Garagiola/Bazooka Bubble Gum Blowing Championship of Major League Baseball. This guy might be best remembered by Dodger fans for calling out that "fat little Italian" (Tommy Lasorda) for ordering Dodger pitchers to hit one of this guy's teammates, prompting Lasorda to say that he would send a limo to make sure that his 0.130 batting average made it into any game against the Dodgers. Years before Malice in the Palace, this guy attacked a Braves fan after being hit with beer, setting off fight #3 of the day in an August 1984 game. Identify this infielder, beloved by Padres fans for his 0.412 batting average in the 1984 World Series. (edited at 7:18 pm, April 29, 2018 (PDT))

Keith Olberman, noted collector and consultant for Topps, did his best to hoard what few copies of the 2006 #297 card he could since Topps was forced to issue an almost immediate recall of the card after it was printed and released in violation of their contract with the MLB Players Association, since this guy had not yet made the Royals' 25 man roster yet. The cards that did make it out sold for over US$1,000, and today still command a few hundred dollars. Identify this 3-time All-Star and 5-time Gold Glove winner who in 2009 began the process of transferring from third base to left field.

First and last name needed.

Which player is depicted on the 1989 Fleer card #616 ... a card that was censored with a small black rectangle, only after many of the cards had been released to impressionable children.

The 2010 film Cop Out, revolves around two NYPD detectives payed by Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis, with Willis trying to track down a thief who steals his 1952 Topps #1 Andy Pafko baseball card while he was trying to sell it to finance his daughter's wedding. Who was the director of Cop Out? This director was directing his first film that he did not write, and even though this film was ripped by critics, it remains this director's highest grossing film. Identify this director who has not been a very bankable director, but stars in and produces the AMC original series Comic Book Men.

Just prior to Topps jumping into the business in 1952, this company was likely the biggest manufacturer of baseball cards. This company's first sets were from 1939 to 1941, but after the War managed to put Leaf out of business before being bought out by Topps in 1956. Identify this company, spun off from Gum, Inc. which in 1953 produced the first set of baseball cards with color photographs. Today it is a division of Topps which publishes specialty sets.

In the most common system used for rating baseball cards, the highest three grades are near mint-to-mint (NM-MT), mint (MT), and "BLANK mint" (also called a "10") which describes cards lacking any staining or imperfection in printing, perfect corners, a surface gloss, and an almost perfectly centered front. This system is used by grading service PSA, and is also used on e-bay when grading cards (hint: if you ever remember seeing Don West on his cable infomercials, he repeated this phrase more than a few times). What is this single word which modifies "mint" to describe the highest condition of card.

First and Last name needed. This guy began collecting baseball cards, seriously, after appearing at an autograph show, and by 2012 had amassed what some in the hobby consider one of the greatest collections of rookie cards the hobby had ever seen, with 500 cards going to auction, and the ten biggest sellers going for over US$1.5 million. This guy's rookie card was a 1991 card in honor of the Cardinals making him the number one draft pick, though he would not start his MLB career until 1996, and would see him play for the Cardinals, Tigers and Nationals. His second All-Star selection came in 2007, the same year he was the NL comeback player of the year. Name this former payer who, unlike his younger brother, Delmon, never got accused of a hate crime or trying to choke a valet. Again, first and last name needed.