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Horrid Airbrushing! Without a doubt, one of the worst airbrushing Topps ever did. Please note Philadelphia's Veteran's Stadium (RIP) in the background, long before interleague play. But that's okay. Older Topps airbrushing has character to it that us old guys love! Poor Don Money, traded to make room for some scrub named Schmidt. And worse, this Schmidt guy couldn't even hit .200 the year he replaced Money. Wonder what happened to Schmidt. Money meanwhile played for more than

Not to be confused with the other Brian Giiles. Not to be confused with the White Brian Giles, this is the Black Brian Giles, who was a nothing special player for the early 1980s Mets. He then vanished for years only to re-appear in the late 1990s playing for the Atlantic City Surf in the Independent League. I swear, when I saw him out there, I couldn't help but laugh. He was out of the majors for more than a decade and then he surfaces at the Jersey shore? What are the odds?

The Answer To A Trivia Question! The answer to the trivia question, "Name the only major leaguer to go into a catatonic state while active and in a locker room." Yep, Rogelio "Roger" Moret is the man. I remember this story from years and years ago, though I didn't know the details until recently. It turns out, he was in a catatonic state for only about 90 minutes and he did pitch in the majors afterwards, but not for long. So if you ever want to stump your friends with an imp

Rest In Peace... Another player who died too young. Darrell Porter had way too many issues including his drug addiction. A one time top prospect the Brewers traded from what I heard because he was a pain in the rear. Porter had the last laugh though, winning a World Series ring in 1982 with the Cardinals against his old team. I read his book, "Snap Me Perfect" but was not impressed. I really think people should find a way to deal with their problems besides drugs. Now that's

Yes, he's "that" Danny Ainge. Before he was a Celtics superstar, he was a failed Toronto Blue Jays prospect. This card came from the very first Topps Traded Set in 1981. I didn't follow the NBA at all, so when Ainge left Toronto for the Celtics, it meant nothing to me. But if you think about it, aside from Ron Reed and Ryan Minor, it's hard to think of too many other dual sports stars who played both baseball and basketball. Imagine though, going from an expansion team like t

Is This Guy 80 Years Old? If Horacio Pina doesn't look like he's 60 years old in this photo, then I'm the proverbial Monkey's Uncle. Yet he's only 30 years old at the time of this photograph. Talk about aging poorly. I don't know much about Pina the player, but I do know he only had 11 career appearances for the Angels in 1974 and then didn't appear again in the majors until a two game stint in 1978 with the Phillies, which I do not remember at all. The Phillies purchased him

It's Outta Here! In the late 1970s, we had a video game system called Odyssey 2. It was like Atari but the games were kind of lame. The baseball game was pretty cool though. We played it a lot. Anyway, there were no lineups or player names, just funny shapes swinging something that somewhat resembled a bat. So we would sometimes pretend a certain player was batting or pitching. I realize how ridiculous this sounds, but everytime we said, "Lerrin LaGrow is on the mound," the b

The first of many... There was nothing, and I mean nothing better in life for me at age 8 than opening my first pack of baseball cards for the year. And it wasn't like it is today, new sets coming out every month year round. Nope, it was only Topps and the first packs appeared in March. Well, Mr. Scrivener, a guy I don't know a thing about, was the first card for me in 1977. It stuck with me all these years and is the only first card that I remember. I think the pack came fro