My Secret Santa gift arrived several weeks ago from Peter K. Steinberg of Baseball Every Night, and I held off on opening it until today. Upon opening it, it elicited an actual WOW from me!
The package was a Christmas Card with two wrapped Toploaders inside. I hung the Christmas card on the wall (as we do with all that we get) but I did take a picture of the cards wrapped.
I opened up the first package and what a surprise it was! Al Bianchi was staring back at me, fromm 1957-58 Topps! The second package showed Don Adams from 1972-73 Topps, a great card from a set that's fairly rare in my collection!
Both are people who were missing from my collection! Adams was alphabetically the first missing, Bianchi is a One-Hit-Wonder, this is the only card he ever got! (I think)
This is the first card I've gotten from 1957-58 Topps in over a decade, think the last time I got any was in 2005. Don Adams wears the San Diego Rockets jersey, even though he played part of 1971-72 with the Hawks.
After his playing career Bianchi became the first ever coach in Seattle SuperSonics history, he stayed active in the game until 2009, pretty good considering he'll be 85 in March!
Don Adams got three cards during his playing career and was included on the 2005-06 Topps 1952 Style All-Time Fan Favorites Autographs checklist, but sadly he passed away on Christmas day 2013 at age 66. The Database is showing that I have all of his cards issued during his playing career, but that doesn't match with my chart of missing people. It's probable I made the mistake, as I've found a couple people who I left off the list totally by mistake, so it's not infallible. Either way I am sure that this card is new and I'm thrilled to have it! It's almost like Topps designed this set specifically to cover the Rockets logo on his jersey.
Thank you again Peter- you chose some excellent cards for me! Both are equally excellent! And thank you to Matt of Bob Walk the Plank for putting this all together! Make sure you read both of their blogs, too!
You've got more willpower than me, but I'd bet these were well worth the wait. Nice cards!
ReplyDeleteThat '57 Al Bianchi sure makes for a good Christmas present.
ReplyDeleteBilly! So so so glad that the cards were well received. I agree with Chris about your willpower: it is astounding. Happy Holidays!
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