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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. 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.

***  TRIPLES  -  ALL-TIME Leaders  ***
Rank Player (age)        Triples
 1.  Sam Crawford HOF      309
 2.  Ty Cobb HOF           295
 3.  Honus Wagner HOF      252
 4.  Jake Beckley HOF      243
 5.  Roger Connor HOF      233
 6.  Tris Speaker HOF      222
 7.  Fred Clarke HOF       220
 8.  Dan Brouthers HOF     205
 9.  Joe Kelley HOF        194
10.  Paul Waner HOF        191
11.  Bid McPhee HOF        188
12.  Eddie Collins HOF     187
13.  Ed Delahanty HOF      185
14.  Sam Rice HOF          184
15.  Jesse Burkett HOF     182
     Ed Konetchy           182
     Edd Roush HOF         182
18.  Buck Ewing HOF        178
19.  Rabbit Maranville HOF 177
     Stan Musial HOF       177
21.  Harry Stovey          174
22.  Goose Goslin HOF      173
23.  Tommy Leach           172
     Zack Wheat HOF        172
25.  Rogers Hornsby HOF    169
26.  Joe Jackson           168
27.  Roberto Clemente HOF  166
     Sherry Magee          166
29.  Jake Daubert          165
30.  Elmer Flick HOF       164
     George Sisler HOF     164
     Pie Traynor HOF       164
33.  Bill Dahlen           163
     George Davis HOF      163
     Lou Gehrig HOF        163
     Nap Lajoie HOF        163
37.  Mike Tiernan          162
38.  George Van Haltren    161
39.  Harry Hooper HOF      160
     Heinie Manush HOF     160
     Sam Thompson HOF      160
42.  Max Carey HOF         159
     Joe Judge             159
44.  Ed McKean             158
45.  Kiki Cuyler HOF       157
     Jimmy Ryan            157
47.  Tommy Corcoran        155
48.  Earle Combs HOF       154
49.  Jim Bottomley HOF     151
     Harry Heilmann HOF    151
     Jim O'Rourke HOF      151
52.  Kip Selbach           149
     Al Simmons HOF        149
54.  Wally Pipp            148
     Enos Slaughter HOF    148
56.  Bobby Veach           147
     Willie Wilson         147
58.  Charlie Gehringer HOF 146
59.  Harry Davis           145
     Willie Keeler HOF     145
61.  Bobby Wallace HOF     143
62.  Cap Anson HOF         142
63.  Lou Brock HOF         141
64.  Willie Mays HOF       140
65.  John Reilly           139
     Jimmy Williams        139
67.  Tom Brown             138
     Willie Davis          138
     Frankie Frisch HOF    138
70.  George Brett HOF      137
71.  Babe Ruth HOF         136
     Jimmy Sheckard        136
     Elmer Smith           136
74.  Lave Cross            135
     Pete Rose             135
76.  Shano Collins         133
77.  George Wood           132
78.  Brett Butler          131
     Joe DiMaggio HOF      131
     Buck Freeman          131
81.  Buddy Myer            130
82.  Oyster Burns          129
     Larry Gardner         129
84.  Earl Averill HOF      128
     Arky Vaughan HOF      128
86.  Vada Pinson           127
87.  Hardy Richardson      126
     Robin Yount HOF       126
89.  Jimmie Foxx HOF       125
90.  John Anderson         124
     Hal Chase             124
     Frank Schulte         124
93.  Larry Doyle           123
     Duke Farrell          123
95.  Dummy Hoy             121
96.  Mickey Vernon         120
97.  Hugh Duffy HOF        119
     Fred Pfeffer          119
99.  Joe Cronin HOF        118
     Chick Stahl           118
     Lloyd Waner HOF       118

***  TRIPLES  -  Active Leaders  ***
Rank Player (age)        Triples
 1.  Steve Finley (40)     112
 2.  Kenny Lofton (38)      98
 3.  Johnny Damon (31)      80
 4.  Barry Bonds (40)       77
 5.  Jose Offerman (36)     72
 6.  Ray Durham (33)        70
 7.  Cristian Guzman (27)   67
 8.  Luis Gonzalez (37)     63
 9.  Neifi Perez (32)       60
10.  Reggie Sanders (37)    59
     Ruben Sierra (39)      59
     Tony Womack (35)       59
13.  Omar Vizquel (38)      58
14.  Bernie Williams (36)   55
15.  Carlos Beltran (28)    54
     Royce Clayton (35)     54
     Julio Franco (46)      54
     Ray Lankford (38)      54
19.  Craig Biggio (39)      52
     Jimmy Rollins (26)     52
21.  Nomar Garciaparra (31) 50
22.  Carl Crawford (23)     49
     Raul Mondesi (34)      49
     Michael Tucker (34)    49
     Fernando Vina (36)     49
26.  Juan Pierre (27)       48
27.  Brian Giles (34)       47
     Derek Jeter (31)       47
     Mark McLemore (40)     47
     Jose Vizcaino (37)     47

1956 Topps Pins In addition to their regular issue 1956 Topps baseball card set, which in my opinion, was Topps' nicest regular issue set, Topps released a special pin set. This was the first pins ever issued by Topps. Few issues can compare to the 1956 Topps Pins set. The colorful and attractive 1-1/8" diameter pins, just like baseball cards from the era, were packaged with bubble gum. The pins featured a full color photo of the player with a pin clasp on the reverse. Interestingly, some images for the pin set are the same as those on the regular 1956 Topps cards. Even if you don't want to collect the set, if you collect 1956 Topps cards than YOU MUST add at least one 1956 Topps Pin to your collection. The 1956 Topps Pins set features most of the eras Hall-of-Famers including Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Ernie Banks, Duke Snider, Al Kaline, Yogi Berra, Eddie Mathews and also includes some super tough scarcities such as Chuck Stobbs, Hector Lopez and Chuck Diering. There is not firm opinion as to which of the 3 scarce short prints are the toughest to find. In the end, collectors in the day preferred their cards to pins and Topps cut back the 1956 Topps Pin set issue from a planned 90 pins to just 60.

1977 Topps CLOTH STICKERS One of the few Topps specialty issues of the late 1970's, the set contained 55 cloth stickers of the top players of 1977 along with 18 puzzle cards which joined together to form photos of the 1976 American League or 1976 National League All-Star teams. Very attractive visually, these cloth stickers/cards were a separate Topps test issue and sold in their own packs. Each pack contained 2 stickers and 1 checklist puzzle piece. According to S.C.D., player photos on the front are identical to their 1977 regular cards but the backs are different. The regulation card size 2-1/2" x 3-1/2" stickers have a paper backing which lists the player's career highlights and could easily be removed to allow the cloth to be adhered to a jacket, notebook, etc. TOP STARS: Pete Rose, Nolan Ryan, George Brett, Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Carl Yastrzemski, Johnny Bench, Robin Yount, Lou Brock & more! The 1977 Topps Cloth Stickers set also has a scarcer Mark Fidrych ROOKIE card !!!

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