“M is for the Many Cards They Gave Me”

One of the great joys of this blog and its Facebook page, and baseball card Twitter, is the discovery of other peoples’ interests and the resulting desire to join in on newly discovered cards. There’s a lot of trading that goes on on Twitter, and most people put up pictures of their new additions.

It’s a doubled edged sword, sharing information and creating possible new competitors for subsequent bidding wars, but, in reality, that’s a non-issue. I’ve been so happy to inspire other collectors to dive into 1952 Parkhurst and 1960 Leaf.  Now it’s my turn to become equally motivated.

I love Mother’s Cookies cards and have 12 team sets from the late ‘80’s to early ‘90’s (I have A’s, Mariners, Dodgers, Giants, Astros and Rangers over those years). They’re beautiful – super glossy, nice smaller size, cool little envelope – what’s not to love?  Richard Borgstrom wrote about his Mother’s Giants experience on the blog.

A few days ago, someone (I can’t remember who), posted a few pictures of oddball cards he was sent. In the lot were some Mother’s Cookies cards, but not the kind I was used to seeing. The team sets I have are of the then-current squads. These were different and I had no idea they existed.

Here they are, in their entirety: the 1987 Mother’s Cookies All Time Oakland A’s All-Stars. Behold the magnificence:

Such a great collection and, despite Canseco’s current place in history, it was way cool that he and Reggie were teammates in Jax’s last year. A card commemorating that is worth having. (I saw Mr. October’s last game, at Comiskey Park. He doubled of Floyd Bannister and singled off Bobby Thigpen).

The nice thing about this set is that there are plenty out there, all around $10 or less. I’ll pick one up in January (I’d already spent my December self-imposed card allowance). I have no fear of getting boxed out by my readers, so go for it!

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Happy New Year to you all. Hope 2018 treated you fairly well (I wish it did for me!) and that 2019 is a great one, bringing you all the cards you want.

Author: Jeff Katz

Jeff Katz is the former Mayor of Cooperstown, the “Birthplace of Baseball” and home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. His latest book, Split Season:1981 - Fernandomania, the Bronx Zoo, and the Strike that Saved Baseball, (Thomas Dunne Books, 2015), received national attention, with coverage appearing in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Sporting News and NPR’s Only a Game, among others. Katz appeared on ESPN’s Olbermann and The Sporting Life with Jeremy Schaap and MLB Network’s MLB Now, with Brian Kenny. Split Season: 1981 was a finalist for the 2016 Casey Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year. View all posts by Jeff Katz