Collecting baseball cards is a uniquely American hobby. As a kid growing up in the 1950’s I had shoeboxes full of them. All of my friends did, too. We had so many cards that, when we got older and our interests shifted to teenage pursuits, our moms decided to clean house. Literally. Out went the cards which they considered to be nothing more than junk. Today we wax nostalgic over those cardboard canvasses of our heroes that we treated so casually. That’s also why, in good condition, they are worth small fortunes.
I renewed my interest in card collecting a few years ago. I decided to build a collection of the elites of the game – the ballplayers who are members of three very exclusive clubs: 300 Wins, 3,000 Hits, and 500 Home Runs. It’s an exclusive membership that includes players from before the turn of the twentieth century (Kid Nichols and Pud Galvin are tied for #6 with 361 wins) through players who are active today (Derek Jeter is currently #10 on the all-time hit list with 3,304 hits):
- 300 Wins – 24 players
- 3,000 Hits – 28 players
- 500 Home Runs – 25 players
Each month I’ll feature a baseball card of one of these all-time greats.
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