[zeprock]

The next player to come up on the randomizer is Albert Fred Schoendienst, a 10-time All-star with three World Championship rings. Red served 67 of his 78 years in baseball with the Cardinals. I currently have 110 different Beckett recognized cards of Red. Here are nine of them.

       
1957 Topps #154 Red Schoendienst
1958 Topps #190 Red Schoendienst
1959 Topps #480 Red Schoendienst

       
1960 Topps #335 Red Schoendienst
1961 Topps #505 Red Schoendienst
1965 Topps #556 Red Schoendienst MG SP

       
1967 Topps #512 Red Schoendienst MG
2005 SP Legendary Cuts Lasting Legends Material #RS Red Schoendienst Jsy
2015 Panini Cooperstown Signatures Blue #35 Red Schoendienst/25 (Serial numbered 10/25, I received this from bamyanks.)

[ricelynnevans75]

The next player to come up on the randomizer is Albert Fred Schoendienst, a 10-time All-star with three World Championship rings. Red served 67 of his 78 years in baseball with the Cardinals. I currently have 110 different Beckett recognized cards of Red. Here are nine of them.

Love these!  One thing I like is that his cards are affordable as well.  I'll need to pick up a '53 Bowman Color for my HoF PC soon.

[zeprock]

Coming up on 1998 today. Here are nine cards from my collection from 1998.

       
1998 Circa Thunder Thunder Boomers #2 Barry Bonds
1998 Collector's Choice StarQuest #SQ73 Barry Bonds SP (A short print from Collector's Choice.)
1998 Finest Mystery Finest 1 Refractors #M12 N.Garciaparra/D.Jeter (Showing both sides of this one.)

       
1998 Finest The Man #TM2 Barry Bonds
1998 Pacific In The Cage #15 Barry Bonds (I know I'm redundant in saying that I miss Pacific's innovative offerings. You can see through the net in the background as it's all die-cut.)
1998 Pinnacle Artist's Proofs #PP14 Greg Maddux (This card made it's way into my collection from Virginia earlier this month.)

       
1998 Pinnacle Inside Diamond Edition #5 Nomar Garciaparra (I got this from the Diamond & Gold Mine when I took time off to assess their haul of cards.)
1998 SP Authentic Chirography #RA Roberto Alomar SP/800 (Another card I got from former member dbroockerd.)
1998 Topps Mystery Finest Bordered Refractors #M16 Cal Ripken

[jack pfiester]

Those Pinnacle Inside Diamond Edition inserts are really tough to pull. I'd estimate that I've opened close to 100 cans and never pulled one!

[zeprock]

It's Willie Stargell's turn today. "Pops" played all 21 of his MLB seasons with the Pirates going to the All-star game seven times, twice leading the NL in home runs, winning two World Championship rings and a MVP Award. In 1979 he became the only player to date to win NL Most Valuable Players Award, NL Championship Series MVP Award and the World Series MVP Award in the same season. Willie was known for his tape measure home runs having hit the longest in history at Dodger Stadium, Olympic Stadium and Veteran's Stadium plus the first home run ever at Shea. I currently have 274 Beckett recognized cards of Willie. It's okay to sing "We are Family" as you browse through these nine cards from my collection.

       
1964 Topps #342 Willie Stargell
1965 Topps #377 Willie Stargell
1966 Topps #255 Willie Stargell

       
1968 Topps #86 Willie Stargell
1971 Topps #230 Willie Stargell
1993 Nabisco All-Star Autographs #6 Willie Stargell

       
1996 Canadian Club Autographs #3 Willie Stargell
2003 SP Legendary Cuts Historic Lumber #WS W.Stargell Arms Down/150
2004 SP Legendary Cuts Legendary Swatches #ST Willie Stargell Jsy

[ricelynnevans75]

Love the Stargell cards. One of my good friends is a grandson of former Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh. I love when his mother comes to visit as she always has some good stories about meeting some of the players, like Stargell, when she was younger. Was close friends with Clemente's wife until she passed.

[zeprock]

I've been scanning cards and working on this thread for more than a year now. I still have lots of stuff to show you from my collection. For a short time when I was a kid my brother and I collected matchbooks. It was in the pre-Bic lighter days so they were plentiful to a couple of young boys who spent hours walking country roads. It didn't take long for our interest to wane on those and now I only collect baseball-related matchbooks because they are unique, interesting, historic and small enough to fit in a pocket of my 9-pocket binder page. There are no dates on any of them so I can only surmise as to when they were issued. Here's several from my collection.


Bill Zuber's Restaurant Matchbooks #NNO Bill Zuber (Bill Zuber was a pitcher with the Indians, Senators, Yankees and Red Sox from 1936-1947. After his retirement, Bill started a restaurant in Iowa and that's probably about the time he had this matchbook printed up. It's older than I am.)
1929 A's Matchbooks #NNO Mickey Cochrane/Al Simmons (These matchbooks of the 1929 Philadelphia A's were made by Custom Matches of Wenonah, New Jersey. Most have a different player featured on each side. I would estimate they are probably from 1979 which would have been the 50th anniversary of that team but I am just guessing.)


1929 A's Matchbooks #NNO Max Bishop/Jimmie Foxx
1929 A's Matchbooks #NNO Connie Mack (This one has the team's won-loss record on the back.)


Custom Match Books Baseball Greats of the Negro Leagues #NNO Cool Papa Bell (No clue when these Negro League matchbooks were issued but they are cool additions to my collection. Somewhat apropos that I'm posting these today as February is Black History Month.)
Custom Match Books Baseball Greats of the Negro Leagues #NNO Jimmie Crutchfield
Custom Match Books Baseball Greats of the Negro Leagues #NNO Josh Gibson
Custom Match Books Baseball Greats of the Negro Leagues #NNO Bill Perkins


Custom Match Books Baseball Greats of the Negro Leagues #NNO Tweed Webb
St. Louis Cardinals Matchbooks #NNO Cardinals Logo (I have three of these that I got from a Cardinals fan. Each back is different, One is First Granite City Savings another is Belgrade State Bank and this one is Granite City Steel Employees Federal Credit Union.)

[bamyanks]

Hi Mark,

Funny you sould show the Zuber matchbook. Only live about 90 miles from the restaurant, and ate there as a kid when we would meet my grandma and aunt there for lunch. Thanks for bringing back the memory.

[zeprock]

Randy Johnson had to be one of the scariest pitchers to take the mound during my lifetime. "The Mad Hatter", Al Hrabosky was intimidating back in the 70s and Nolan Ryan could blow batters away but when Randy first came up to the Majors, you just never knew where the pitch would be. He'd sling it like a catapult and it would either be in the catcher's mitt or at the backstop before you realized it. Who can forget the dove that crossed in the line of fire of Randy's pitch in 2001 and just exploded upon contact. "The Big Unit" eventually learned to harness his control and it served him well accumulating ten All-star selections, 10 times leading his league in strikeouts, a Triple Crown, two no-hitters including a perfect game and five Cy Young Awards to go with a World Championship on his way to 300+ wins, the all-time career strikeout record for southpaws and a plaque at the Hall of Fame. I currently have 1763 different Beckett recognized cards of Randy. Here are nine from my collection.


1995 Finest Flame Throwers #FT5 Randy Johnson
1996 Pacific Prisms Flame Throwers #FT1 Randy Johnson (Look at the colors, look at the design. Hey Topps! Take notice and make something like this instead of reprinting your classic cards year after year.)
2001 SP Game Bat Edition Piece of the Game #RJ Randy Johnson (This was the very first game-used card I ever owned. Ironically it's a bat card from a pitcher. I got it at a LCS called the Red Zone in Bangor, Maine back in 2001.)

       
2002 Donruss Diamond Kings Inserts Studio Series #DK3 Randy Johnson
2002 Upper Deck Diamond Connection #282 Randy Johnson BLH Jsy
2002 Upper Deck MVP Silver #188 Randy Johnson (The Silver parallel from Upper Deck's 2002 MVP line.)

       
2003 Topps Chrome Record Breakers Relics #RJ1 Randy Johnson ERA Uni B1

2005 Absolute Memorabilia Tools of the Trade Swatch Single Jumbo #166 Randy Johnson
2007 Upper Deck Premier Patches Triple #RJ Randy Johnson/89

[zeprock]

Coming to the end of a millennium, here are nine cards from my collection all from 1999.

         
1999 Finest Peel and Reveal Stadium Stars #4 Ken Griffey Jr. (This scan does not do this card justice as there are sparkly stars on the clear acetate behind Griffey's profile that do not show in the scan.)
1999 Private Stock Exclusive #15 Cal Ripken (My son, who has much better luck pulling cards than I do, pulled this from one of his Christmas packs and eventually traded it to me.)
1999 SkyBox Thunder Dial 1 #D3 Ken Griffey Jr.

       
1999 Sports Illustrated Greats of the Game Record Breakers #1 Mickey Mantle
1999 Ultra Platinum Medallion #173 Alex Rodriguez (Another card I got as payment for helping the Diamond and Gold Mine sort their card inventory.)
1999 Upper Deck Century Legends Epic Signatures #CF Carlton Fisk

     
1999 Upper Deck Century Legends Epic Signatures #FR Frank Robinson (The owner of the Red Zone, a LCS in Bangor, Maine, was planning to give this to his dad but I persuaded him to sell it to me instead. Frank has always been one of my favorite players. The owner's dad was the coach of the Senior Little League team that the team I coached beat for the championship back in 1978. He...did...NOT...like...me. It kind of gave me a sense of one-upmanship to get this card that was supposed to go to him, more than 20 years after he called me most every name in the book because my team wrested the championship away from him. His son didn't recognize me and did not know our history and I left it that way.)
1999 Upper Deck Century Legends Epic Signatures #HK Harmon Killebrew
1999 Upper Deck Game Jersey #GM Greg Maddux HR2