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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.

***  HITS  -  ALL-TIME Leaders  ***
Rank Player (age)          Hits
 1.  Pete Rose             4256
 2.  Ty Cobb HOF           4189
 3.  Hank Aaron HOF        3771
 4.  Stan Musial HOF       3630
 5.  Tris Speaker HOF      3514
 6.  Carl Yastrzemski HOF  3419
 7.  Cap Anson HOF         3418
 8.  Honus Wagner HOF      3415
 9.  Paul Molitor HOF      3319
10.  Eddie Collins HOF     3315
11.  Willie Mays HOF       3283
12.  Eddie Murray HOF      3255
13.  Nap Lajoie HOF        3242
14.  Cal Ripken            3184
15.  George Brett HOF      3154
16.  Paul Waner HOF        3152
17.  Robin Yount HOF       3142
18.  Tony Gwynn            3141
19.  Dave Winfield HOF     3110
20.  Rickey Henderson      3055
21.  Rod Carew HOF         3053
22.  Lou Brock HOF         3023
23.  Rafael Palmeiro       3020
24.  Wade Boggs HOF        3010
25.  Al Kaline HOF         3007
26.  Roberto Clemente HOF  3000
27.  Sam Rice HOF          2987
28.  Sam Crawford HOF      2961
29.  Frank Robinson HOF    2943
30.  Willie Keeler HOF     2932
31.  Jake Beckley HOF      2930
     Rogers Hornsby HOF    2930
33.  Al Simmons HOF        2927
34.  Zack Wheat HOF        2884
35.  Frankie Frisch HOF    2880
36.  Mel Ott HOF           2876
37.  Babe Ruth HOF         2873
38.  Harold Baines         2866
39.  Jesse Burkett HOF     2850
40.  Brooks Robinson HOF   2848
41.  Charlie Gehringer HOF 2839
42.  George Sisler HOF     2812
43.+ CRAIG BIGGIO (39)     2795
44.  Andre Dawson          2774
45.  Vada Pinson           2757
46.  Luke Appling HOF      2749
47.  Al Oliver             2743
48.+ BARRY BONDS (40)      2742
49.  Goose Goslin HOF      2735
50.  Tony Perez HOF        2732
51.  Roberto Alomar        2724
52.  Lou Gehrig HOF        2721
53.  Rusty Staub           2716
54.  Bill Buckner          2715
55.  Dave Parker           2712
56.  Billy Williams HOF    2711
57.  Doc Cramer            2705
58.  Luis Aparicio HOF     2677
59.  Fred Clarke HOF       2672
60.  Max Carey HOF         2665
61.  Nellie Fox HOF        2663
62.  George Davis HOF      2660
     Harry Heilmann HOF    2660
64.  Ted Williams HOF      2654
65.  Jimmie Foxx HOF       2646
66.  Lave Cross            2645
67.  Jim O'Rourke HOF      2643
68.  Rabbit Maranville HOF 2605
     Tim Raines            2605
70.  Steve Garvey          2599
71.  Ed Delahanty HOF      2596
72.  Reggie Jackson HOF    2584
73.  Ernie Banks HOF       2583
74.  Richie Ashburn HOF    2574
75.  Willie Davis          2561
76.  George Van Haltren    2532
77.  Heinie Manush HOF     2524
78.+ JULIO FRANCO (46)     2521
79.  Joe Morgan HOF        2517
80.  Buddy Bell            2514
81.  Jimmy Ryan            2502
82.  Mickey Vernon         2495
83.  Fred McGriff          2490
84.  Ted Simmons           2472
85.  Joe Medwick HOF       2471
86.  Roger Connor HOF      2467
87.  Harry Hooper HOF      2466
88.  Ozzie Smith HOF       2460
89.  Lloyd Waner HOF       2459
90.  Bill Dahlen           2457
91.  Jim Rice              2452 
92.  Red Schoendienst HOF  2449
93.  Dwight Evans          2446
94.  Mark Grace            2445
95.+ STEVE FINLEY (40)     2426
96.  Pie Traynor HOF       2416
97.  Mickey Mantle HOF     2415
98.  Stuffy McInnis        2405
99.  Ryne Sandberg HOF     2386
100. Enos Slaughter HOF    2383

***  HITS  -  Active  ***
Rank Player (age)          Hits
 1.  Rafael Palmeiro (40)  3020
 2.  Craig Biggio (39)     2795
 3.  Barry Bonds (40)      2742
 4.  Julio Franco (46)     2521
 5.  Steve Finley (40)     2426
 6.  Gary Sheffield (36)   2345
 7.  B.J. Surhoff          2326
 8.  Jeff Bagwell (37)     2314
 9.  Ken Griffey (35)      2304
     Sammy Sosa (36)       2304
11.  Omar Vizquel (38)     2301
12.  John Olerud (36)      2239
13.  Bernie Williams (36)  2218
14.  Luis Gonzalez (37)    2214
15.  Ivan Rodriguez (33)   2190
16.  Ruben Sierra (39)     2147
17.  Kenny Lofton (38)     2142
18.  Frank Thomas (37)     2136
19.  Jeff Kent (37)        2070
20.  Juan Gonzalez (35)    1936
     Derek Jeter (31)      1936
22.  Garret Anderson (33)  1929
     Mike Piazza (36)      1929
24.  Manny Ramirez (33)    1922
25.  Moises Alou (38)      1901
     Alex Rodriguez (29)   1901
27.  Robin Ventura (37)    1885
28.  Benito Santiago (40)  1830
29.  Vinny Castilla (37)   1821
30.  Chipper Jones (33)    1811

1959 Fleer Ted Williams Ted Williams was one of the greatest hitters ever to play the game ! The 'Splendid Splinter' played from 1939-1942 and 1946-1960 all with the Boston Red Sox. He missed 1943 thru 1945 due to military duty when he was a pilot during the wars. For his career he hit .344 with 521 home runs. Ted Williams was one of the biggest stars baseball has ever seen, and his baseball cards remain very popular and valuable. Ted's rookie card was in 1950 Bowman and he was exclusive with Bowman from 1950 thru 1954. In 1954 he also allowed Topps to make his cards which they did from 1954 thru 1958. In 1959 Fleer signed Ted Williams away from Topps and assumed the star Ted Williams would be retiring, put out an entire 80-card set of cards highlighting Ted Williams and illustrating his life both in and out of baseball. Williams decided late in the fall to resign for another year perhaps damaging the sets impact. Today these cards remain extremely popular with most of the cards in teh set still quite affordable. There is one very rare card in this set, #68 picturing Ted with Bucky Harris. UNFORTUNATELY Topps had Bucky Harris under exclusive contract and Fleer had to quickly halt production of this card making it a significant SHORT PRINT. Only a few made it out to the public. This card is quite rare, hardly ever seen and a plain old simple checklist making it the perfect candidate for counterfeiting. NOTE: This card has been counterfeited in significant quantities so you should be very, very careful when looking to acquire this card. Other interesting cards are those that picture Ted with Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Sam Snead and Jim Thorpe. In addition, cards of Ted fishing or with his airplane are also very popular.

1951 O-Pee-Chee Baseball Also know as OPC or Topps Canada, the 1971 set is an interesting set to collect and is really very different than its Topps Counterpart for a number of reasons: OPC changed approx. 20 cards including the introduction of some of the earliest "traded" cards and added more Expo player cards at the expense of #202 "Reds Celebrate" and #289 "White Sox Team". The first four series had different card backs that included French translations - this resetting of the type created several uncorrected errors including ERA’s that look like Batting Averages and Vice-Versa. This set is legendary for its short print run (5% - 10% of Topps’ Production). Anyone who has tried to collect older OPC will attest to the fact that they are hard to find, even in Canada. TOP ROOKIE: Steve Garvey TOP STARS: Nolan Ryan, Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Pete Rose, Ted Williams & MORE !!!

1955 Topps All-American Football In 1955, college football was much more popular with fans than the NFL. This 100 card 1955 Topps All-American Football card set was Topps response to collectors. Topps first major football issue this unique set features the greatest college football players from the first half of the 20th century. The 1955 Topps All-American football card set was issued in one-card penny packs, nine-card nickel packs and 22-card cello packs. The set is jam packed with rookies and stars !!! One of the most valuable 1955 Topps All-American football cards is the rookie card of former Supreme Court Justice Whizzer White. TOP ROOKIES: The Four Horseman, Whizzer White, Fats Henry, Doc Blanchard, Don Hutson, Amos Stagg, Tom Harmon, Ernie Nevers & MORE !!! TOP STARS: Knute Rockne, Jim Thorpe, Sammy Baugh, Red Grange, Otto Graham, Johnny Lujack, Beattie Feathers & MORE !!!

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