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Below are some tidbits on baseball and sportscard collecting along with a listing of the All-Time and Active Leaders in a selected statistical cateogry. Visit our web site for more info on vintage and current baseball, football, basketball, hockey, sports and non-sport cards and card collecting.

Q2: How long have sports cards been around ? (part 2) The first important and mainstream basketball set was issued by Bowman in 1948. Other than a Topps set in 1957-58 and a 1961-62 Fleer set, there were no mainstream basketball sets issued until Topps started producing yearly sets beginning with their 1969-70 set featuring the rookie card of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who then went under the name of Lew Alcindor. In hockey, there were a few sets issued in the 1910's and while O-Pee-Chee issued some sets in the 1930's, the real modern sets began in 1951 with the itroduction of Parkhurst's first set. In racing, while cards go back as far as the early Indy car days of 1911, modern racing sets began in 1988 with the issues released by MAXX. History Of O-Pee-Chee (T5) O-Pee-Chee, also known as OPC, is the Canadian equivalent of Topps. The history of this gum & sports card company is actually quite different. OPC is based in London, Ontario Canada and pre-dates Topps by many years. OPC’s first sports card set was back in 1933 when they produced the V304 hockey cards. The set included stars Eddie Shore and Howie Morenz and has a book value of around $15,000. Their first baseball set was released in 1937. It was a cross between the 1934 Goudeys and Batter-Ups and featured only American League players. The top player in the set is Joe Dimaggio. OPC started their long run of complete baseball card sets in 1965. In these early years, the OPC sets were much smaller than Topps and usually included only the first couple of series. Although they were printed on a slightly different card stock the cards front and backs were nearly identical to Topps but with a small "Printed in Canada" on the back. Baseball was much less popular in Canada and it is estimated that OPC cards from these early years were produced in a ratio of between 1% and 5% of Topps cards making them exceedingly scarce !!! Starting in 1970, OPC baseball cards became more interesting. Canadian legislation demanded that all items produced in Canada carry both French & English so O-Pee-Chee baseball cards became bilingual with their card backs printed in both languages. In 1971, the OPC baseball set had a much more interesting back design and also offered 14 different card photos not in the Topps set of that year. 1972 OPC included a card of Gil Hodges mentioning his death that was not a part of the Topps set. 1974 OPC did include any of the "Washington Nationals/San Diego Padres" variations. In 1977 although the card format remained the same, about 1/3 of the OPC set had different poses/images than their Topps counterparts. In the late ‘70’s, the OPC card fronts appeared similar to Topps but sometimes included traded information with a line across them saying "Now with XXXX". These differences were due the the OPC cards being printed much later into the season allowing for an update of the players status. OPC also was busy with their hockey and Canadian Football League issues. In 1968 they re- entered the hockey market. Today OPC is still strong in the baseball card and hockey card market and has also started printing non-sports cards.

***  DOUBLES  -  ALL-TIME Leaders  ***
Rank Player (age)         Doubles
 1.  Tris Speaker HOF       792
 2.  Pete Rose              746
 3.  Stan Musial HOF        725
 4.  Ty Cobb HOF            724
 5.  George Brett HOF       665
 6.  Nap Lajoie HOF         657
 7.  Carl Yastrzemski HOF   646
 8.  Honus Wagner HOF       640
 9.  Hank Aaron HOF         624
10.  Paul Molitor HOF       605
     Paul Waner HOF         605
12.+ CRAIG BIGGIO (39)      604
13.  Cal Ripken             603
14.  Rafael Palmeiro        585
15.  Robin Yount HOF        583
16.  Cap Anson HOF          581
17.  Wade Boggs HOF         578
18.  Charlie Gehringer HOF  574
19.+ BARRY BONDS (40)       564
20.  Eddie Murray HOF       560
21.  Tony Gwynn             543
22.  Harry Heilmann HOF     542
23.  Rogers Hornsby HOF     541
24.  Joe Medwick HOF        540
     Dave Winfield HOF      540
26.  Al Simmons HOF         539
27.  Lou Gehrig HOF         534
28.  Al Oliver              529
29.  Frank Robinson HOF     528
30.  Dave Parker            526
31.  Ted Williams HOF       525
32.  Willie Mays HOF        523
33.  Ed Delahanty HOF       522
34.  Joe Cronin HOF         515
35.  Edgar Martinez         514
36.  Mark Grace             511
37.  Rickey Henderson       510
38.  Babe Ruth HOF          506
39.  Tony Perez HOF         505
40.  Roberto Alomar         504
41.  Andre Dawson           503
42.  Goose Goslin HOF       500
     John Olerud            500
44.  Rusty Staub            499
45.  Bill Buckner           498
     Al Kaline HOF          498
     Sam Rice HOF           498
48.+ LUIS GONZALEZ (37)     495
49.  Heinie Manush HOF      491
50.  Mickey Vernon          490
51.  Jeff Bagwell           488
     Harold Baines          488
     Mel Ott HOF            488
54.  Lou Brock HOF          486
     Billy Herman HOF       486
56.  Vada Pinson            485
57.  Hal McRae              484
58.  Dwight Evans           483
     Ted Simmons            483
60.  Brooks Robinson HOF    482
61.  Zack Wheat HOF         476
62.+ JEFF KENT (37)         474
63.  Jake Beckley HOF       473
64.  Larry Walker           471
65.  Frankie Frisch HOF     466
66.  Jim Bottomley HOF      465
     Jim O'Rourke HOF       465
68.  Reggie Jackson HOF     463
69.  Dan Brouthers HOF      460
70.  Sam Crawford HOF       458
     Jimmie Foxx HOF        458
72.  Jimmie Dykes           453
73.  George Davis HOF       451
     Paul O'Neill           451
     Jimmy Ryan             451
76.  Joe Morgan HOF         449
77.+ FRANK THOMAS (37)      447
78.  Rod Carew HOF          445
   + IVAN RODRIGUEZ (33)    445
80.  George Burns           444
     Andres Galarraga       444
82.  Gary Gaetti            443
83.  Dick Bartell           442
     Don Mattingly          442
85.  Roger Connor HOF       441
     Barry Larkin           441
     Fred McGriff           441
88.  Luke Appling HOF       440
     Will Clark             440
     Roberto Clemente HOF   440
     Steve Garvey           440
     B.J. Surhoff           440
93.  Eddie Collins HOF      438
94.  Cesar Cedeno           436
     Joe Sewell HOF         436
96.  Wally Moses            435
97.  Billy Williams HOF     434
98.  Joe Judge              433
99.  Joe Carter             432
     Tim Wallach            432

***  DOUBLES  -  Active Leaders  ***
Rank Player (age)         Doubles
 1.  Craig Biggio (39)      604
 2.  Rafael Palmeiro (40)   585
 3.  Barry Bonds (40)       564
 4.  John Olerud (36)       500
 5.  Luis Gonzalez (37)     495
 6.  Jeff Bagwell (37)      488
 7.  Jeff Kent (37)         474
 8.  Frank Thomas (37)      447
 9.  Ivan Rodriguez (33)    445
10.  B.J. Surhoff (40)      440
11.  Ken Griffey (35)       430
12.  Ruben Sierra (39)      427
13.  Steve Finley (40)      425
14.  Bernie Williams (36)   420
15.  Gary Sheffield (36)    413
16.  Manny Ramirez (33)     411
17.  Garret Anderson (33)   403
18.  Julio Franco (46)      394
19.  Juan Gonzalez (35)     388
20.  Carlos Delgado (33)    384
     Shawn Green (32)       384
22.  Omar Vizquel (38)      376
23.  Moises Alou (38)       375
24.  Todd Helton (31)       373
25.  Bret Boone (36)        366
26.  Jim Edmonds (35)       362
27.  Ray Lankford (38)      356
28.  Chipper Jones (33)     355
     Sammy Sosa (36)        355
30.  Ray Durham (33)        354

1951 Bowman Baseball This was Bowman's largest set to date, both in the size and the number of cards. Due to the major rookies in this set (led by Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays) the 1951 Bowman set is by far the most valuable of their issues. Card fronts were very similarly to Bowman's 1950 set, so much so that several players 1951 Bowman cards look like larger versions of their 1950 card. Bowman again used hand-painted color reproductions of actual photographs. Cards numbered 243 to 324 (High Numbers) were printed in smaller quantities and are scarcer. This is hte series that features the rookie cards of Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays making them even more difficult to obtain. Other notable rookies include Whitey Ford, Monte Irvin, Jackie Jensen and Jim Piersall. TOP ROOKIES: Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays,Whitey Ford, Monte Irvin, Nellie Fox, Joe Garagiola, Jackie Jensen, Jim Piersall .... TOP STARS: Ted Williams, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Bob Feller, Warren Spahn, Duke Snider, Richie Ashburn & MORE !!!

1952,1953,1954,1955 Red Man TOBACCO Red Man Tobacco issued baseball cards in 1952, 1953, 1954 and 1955, making them the only tobacco company to do so since 1920. The cards are very attractive with a large, painted portrait and a short player's bio on the front. On the back is company advertising. 1/2" tabs at the bottom of each card could be exchanged for a prize. The exchange rate was 50 tabs for one free Big League style baseball cap. Thus, cards with the tabs still intact are much, much, harder to find making them more valuable. Without the tabs it is difficult to determine which year certain players were issued. It is usually easiest to determine the year by looking at the expiration date on the back. Subtract 1 from the expiration year to determine the year of the card. Each set is made up of 25 players from each league all personally selected by Editor J.G. Taylor Spink of the "Sporting News". Managers from each league were included in the 1952 and 1953 sets. The 1954 set had four different variations. That brings the total to only 208 cards to complete your Master Red Man Tobacco Baseball Card Set !!! Start collecting now !

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