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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.

Q1: How long have sports cards been around ? (part 1) The first baseball trading cards date back to 1869. For many years, baseball cards were packaged in packs of tobacco as a way to increase sales the same way that today prizes are packaged in boxes of cereal. In the 1920's and 1930's, candy and gum companies started packaging baseball cards in their products as well. Baseball card production was virtually halted in the early 1940's due to paper shortages created by World War II. The "Modern Era" of baseball cards began in 1948 when Bowman Gum Inc. offered one card and one piece of gum in a pack for a penny. The first important football set was the Mayo set featuring college players in 1984. Other than the 1935 National Chicle set no other key football set was issued until 1948 when noth Bowman and Leaf produced sets. Modern Sports Cards (T2) The drop in production from World War I was compounded by the Black Sox scandal and cards were not produced in significant quantities for over a decade. In the 1930s, baseball cards finally began to reappear with candy products. Beginning in 1933, Goudey, a chewing gum company, began producing cards. Gum became the product associated with baseball cards. Goudey produced larger sets of cards than usual and a boon to collector's they numbered them ! For the next several years, Goudey released new sets of cards to coincide with the baseball season. Again a World War (II) curtailed baseball card production. Bowman Gum Company resurrected baseball cards in 1948 soon to be followed by another bubblegum company, Topps. The two competed not only for consumers but also for rights to baseball players with each trying to sign players to exclusive contracts. In 1956 Topps bought out Bowman and enjoyed a relative monopoly for decades. While Topps was dominant nationally, various regionally-produced sets, usually on or in packages of foods. Post Cereal and Jello printed baseball cards on the backs of their boxes from 1961 to 1963 in both U.S. and Canada. In 1962 Post also produced a football card set featuring players from the two countries in each respective country. Fleer and Donruss ended Topps baseball card monopoly in 1981. Topps sued both but the courts ruled that Topps' exclusive rights only applied to sports cards sold with gum. Score in 1988 and Upper Deck in 1989 joined the market. In 1989 Topps reintroduced tje Bowman brand. The baseball card hobby quickly became saturated with cards. The baseball player's strike in 1994 started a rapid decline in interest. Baseball card companies, trying to remain profitable, started introducing improvements in card quality and also measures to prevent counterfeiting. They released many different brands of cards as well as rare and unique cards. Now baseball cards have come full circle and in 2006 there are only two companies marketing and selling baseball cards: Topps and Upper Deck. Fleer went bankrupt and Donruss lost their license. Upper Deck did buy Fleer and began issuing Fleer brand again.

 
***  TOTAL BASES  -  ALL-TIME Leaders  ***
Rank Player (age)        Total Bases
 1.  Hank Aaron HOF         6856
 2.  Stan Musial HOF        6134
 3.  Willie Mays HOF        6066
 4.  Ty Cobb HOF            5854
 5.  Babe Ruth HOF          5793
 6.  Pete Rose              5752 
 7.+ BARRY BONDS (40)       5584
 8.  Carl Yastrzemski HOF   5539
 9.  Eddie Murray HOF       5397
10.  Rafael Palmeiro        5388
11.  Frank Robinson HOF     5373
12.  Dave Winfield HOF      5221
13.  Cal Ripken             5168 
14.  Tris Speaker HOF       5101
15.  Lou Gehrig HOF         5060
16.  George Brett HOF       5044
17.  Mel Ott HOF            5041
18.  Jimmie Foxx HOF        4956
19.  Ted Williams HOF       4884
20.  Honus Wagner HOF       4862
21.  Paul Molitor HOF       4854
22.  Al Kaline HOF          4852
23.  Reggie Jackson HOF     4834
24.  Andre Dawson           4787
25.  Robin Yount HOF        4730
26.  Rogers Hornsby HOF     4712
27.  Ernie Banks HOF        4706
28.  Al Simmons HOF         4685
29.  Harold Baines          4604
30.  Billy Williams HOF     4599
31.  Rickey Henderson       4588
32.  Cap Anson HOF          4574
33.  Tony Perez HOF         4532
34.  Mickey Mantle HOF      4511
     Sammy Sosa             4511 
36.  Roberto Clemente HOF   4492
37.  Paul Waner HOF         4478
38.  Nap Lajoie HOF         4474
39.  Fred McGriff           4458
40.+ KEN GRIFFEY JR (35)    4414
41.  Dave Parker            4405
42.  Mike Schmidt HOF       4404
43.  Eddie Mathews HOF      4349
44.  Sam Crawford HOF       4328
45.  Goose Goslin HOF       4325
46.+ CRAIG BIGGIO (39)      4283
47.  Brooks Robinson HOF    4270
48.  Eddie Collins HOF      4268
49.  Vada Pinson            4264
50.  Tony Gwynn             4259 
51.  Charlie Gehringer HOF  4257
52.  Lou Brock HOF          4238
53.  Dwight Evans           4230
54.  Willie McCovey HOF     4219
55.  Jeff Bagwell           4213
56.  Willie Stargell HOF    4190
57.  Rusty Staub            4185
58.+ GARY SHEFFIELD (36)    4153
59.  Jake Beckley HOF       4147
60.  Harmon Killebrew HOF   4143
61.  Jim Rice               4129 
62.  Zack Wheat HOF         4100
63.  Al Oliver              4083 
64.  Wade Boggs HOF         4064
65.  Harry Heilmann HOF     4053
66.  Andres Galarraga       4038
67.  Roberto Alomar         4018
68.  Carlton Fisk HOF       3999
69.  Rod Carew HOF          3998
70.+ STEVE FINLEY (40)      3966
71.  Joe Morgan HOF         3962
72.  Orlando Cepeda HOF     3959
73.  Sam Rice HOF           3955
74.+ FRANK THOMAS (37)      3949
75.  Joe DiMaggio HOF       3948
76.  Steve Garvey           3941
77.  Frankie Frisch HOF     3937
78.  Chili Davis            3914
79.  Joe Carter             3910 
80.  Larry Walker           3904
81.  Gary Gaetti            3881
82.  George Sisler HOF      3871
83.  Darrell Evans          3866
84.  Duke Snider HOF        3865
85.  Joe Medwick HOF        3852
86.  Bill Buckner           3833
87.  Ted Simmons            3793
88.  Ed Delahanty HOF       3791
89.  Roger Connor HOF       3788
90.  Ryne Sandberg HOF      3787
91.+ LUIS GONZALEZ (37)     3783
92.  Graig Nettles          3779
     Ron Santo              3779 
94.  Willie Davis           3778
95.  Tim Raines             3771 
96.  Jesse Burkett HOF      3759
97.  Mickey Vernon          3741
98.  Jim Bottomley HOF      3737
99.  Dale Murphy            3733
100. Edgar Martinez         3718
 
***  TOTAL BASES  -  Active Leaders  ***
Rank Player (age)        Total Bases
 1. Barry Bonds (40)        5584
 2. Rafael Palmeiro (40)    5388
 3. Sammy Sosa (36)         4511
 4. Ken Griffey (35)        4414
 5. Craig Biggio (39)       4283
 6. Jeff Bagwell (37)       4213
 7. Gary Sheffield (36)     4153
 8. Steve Finley (40)       3966
 9. Frank Thomas (37)       3949
10. Luis Gonzalez (37)      3783
11. Juan Gonzalez (35)      3676
12. Manny Ramirez (33)      3668
13. Jeff Kent (37)          3621
14. Ruben Sierra (39)       3610
15. Alex Rodriguez (29)     3576
16. Bernie Williams (36)    3573
17. Julio Franco (46)       3533
18. John Olerud (36)        3530
19. Ivan Rodriguez (33)     3503
20. Mike Piazza (36)        3440
21. B.J. Surhoff            3414
22. Jim Thome (34)          3327
23. Moises Alou (38)        3241
24. Chipper Jones (33)      3213
25. Vinny Castilla (37)     3161
26. Robin Ventura (37)      3133
27. Carlos Delgado (33)     3089
28. Shawn Green (32)        3081
29. Garret Anderson (33)    3062
30. Kenny Lofton (38)       3041

1963 Topps Stickers Another of the interesting Topps Issues of the 1960's ! Topps inserted these Stick-Ons (stickers) in several of series of their 1963 Topps baseball cards. Interestingly, the Stick-On inserts were not mentioned or advertised on wax pack wrappers in 1963. The complete 1963 Topps Stick-Ons set is packed with HALL-OF-FAMERS and contains 46 stickers measuring 1-1/4" x 2-3/4". The Stick-Ons come in 2 distinct variations. They can be found either with blank-backs or the scarcer variation with instructions printed on the back. The Stick-Ons have with an approx. 3/16" "white" band running left to right across the mug shot. This band appears to be lighter than the printing above and below it. Theory is that it is an aging effect caused by the backing strip. TOP STARS: Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, Stan Musial, Al Kaline, Carl Yastrzemski, Ernie Banks and tons MORE !!!

1964 Topps Stand-Ups Topps most popular 1960's test issue !!! Blank-backed and unnumbered, these standard size cards were called "Stand-Ups". "Stand-Ups" refers to a type of card that was die cut around the player's picture. The background section then could be folded in half, so the card could stand up by itself while the player's picture stood alone. Directions for folding are on the background and when folded only the green background remains. 1934-36 Batter Up and the 1951 Topps All-Star sets are 2 other popular standup issues. Thanks to the green and yellow borders and the likelihood that most cards have been heavily folded, 1964 Stand-Ups are extremely difficult to obtain in top grades. The 77 card set features color photographs of the player on yellow and green backgrounds. 22 of the 77 cards were single printed making them twice as scarce and much higher in demand. The set is packed with Hall-of-Famers including MICKEY MANTLE, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, Roberto Clemente, Carl Yastrzemski, Al Kaline, Brooks Robinson, Don Drysdale, Ernie Banks, Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey and more !!!

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