The Great Stereo Find

Every now and then I read about incredible "finds", like somebody discovering a Babe Ruth rookie card in a piano or rare Ty Cobb cards in a paper sack.

This is not quite on the same level, but as it happened to me pretty recently, it doesn't just make me think " I want that to happen to me but its never gonna".  They were already my cards anyway, but it was still a triumph.

Anyway, on with the story:

About a month ago my sister was dusting behind our stereo when she found a small stack of cards, and gave them to me, because whenever you find cards lying around, t's pretty obvious they're mine.

As I thumbed through them, they're wasn't much to get excited about. Mostly, they were Upper Deck Looney Tunes baseball cards, with some other junk wax cards mixed in.

But then I noticed...

 2 Carlton Fisk rookie cards, both in surprisingly good condition!

There is, by the way, a back story for me having 3 Carlton Fisk rookie cards ( counting the one I already knew I had). Long ago, when my knowledge of the hobby was not as great, as I was thrilled to discover in my 1997 Beckett price guide that Fisk's 1972 Topps rookie card was listed at a stupendous $60!

Of course, that was way back in 1997, but whenever I found that card in my Dad's duplicates, I would trade for it, thus stockpiling a few. However, going forward to 2020, as I didn't know where the others had gone, as I just had 1, I just assumed that I'd traded them back to my Dad.

Anyway, as I already had one I decided to trade them to my Dad for some of his duplicates. I started out with a Mike Schmidt rookie card, as I'd had my eye on that card for awhile because my Dad had 4 (!) copies of it.

Not in great condition, but still a great card. I also got my Dad to throw in 3 commons from 1973 with good photos.

I especially like the guy in the purple suit in the background of Herrmann's card.

Overall, a pretty good haul for the 1st card. But there was still one more to trade..

I ended up deciding on an assortment of 70's stars and semi-stars, of which I'll show a sampling. I like the mountain in the background of Bill Voss' card, something I've noticed on a lot of Brewers cards around then.

I've been fascinated for a long time by Bert Campaneris' 1970 season. For Bert's career, he generally hit about 4 home runs a year, but in 1970 he hit 22! Outside of that, he hit just 57 home runs over 18 years.

1972 was Joe Morgan's 1st year with the Reds, and he went on to win 2 MVP awards for the Big Red Machine in the 70's. Also, I always love it when there are bats strewn about the ground on a card, like in Ted Simmons' card.

Although I'm not a huge fan of the design for 1973 Topps, it has some pretty great photography.  Jim Kaat was actually a pretty good hitting pitcher, as he hit .185 with 16 home runs over his long career. His best season at the bat was actually 1972, as he hit .289 with 2 home runs in 45 at-bats.

And I'll close out with "The Mad Hungarian" himself. 1975 was Hrabosky's best season, as he posted an ERA of a sparkling 1.66, with 22 saves.