I'm not a professional grader, just a longtime collector. I have a pretty good idea what constitutes gem mint, and what's considered poor. It's just everything in between that throws me. I've scanned one of my cards here. Help me out by giving it a grade in the embedded poll.

1964 Topps Pete Rose #125
I am a baseball purist, and though that's a position rife with double standards and moral high ground easily eroded by convincing arguments about the game's need for change, I firmly believe that Pete Rose will never be reinstated by Organized Baseball and enshrined in the Hall of Fame. But I'm also drawn to cards of Pete Rose, moral high ground be damned. So when I saw this card in a lot for $20 on eBay, I pounced. I think it's one of the best cards of the 1960s, and certainly one of the highlights of the lackluster 1964 set. But it's offcentered. And how much does that affect it's grade? I have no idea. Help me out.

So in the mid-to-late 80s Fleer was putting out these League Leaders sets. I really hated them. They were so stupid.

I can't really pinpoint what exactly went wrong aesthetically ... oh wait, yes I can -- they were total ugz. I remember as a kid flipping through cards from these sets and just feeling depressed. Absolutely nothing about these cards inspired me. Their existence was pointless and inconsequential. Owning them was a burden. ("Other than that" joke in 3 ... 2 ... 1... ) Other than that they were awesome.

But what really irked me was that many of the players featured in these League Leaders sets DID NOT LEAD THE LEAGUE IN ANYTHING. I mean, surely some of them led the league in something at some point in their career, but that defies the purpose of putting out an annual League Leaders set.

To wit:


Keith Moreland led the league in ... upper thigh circumference.


Pete Rose led the league in ... most games as a player-manager, and most games wagered on, and ridonk bowl cuts, and also doubles (8).


Juan Samuel led the league in ... strikeouts. For real.

Willie Hernandez led the league in ... name changes.


Ozzie Smith led the league in ... slugging (.361). jk, lol.

I was going through a stack of old magazines this evening. These were on the back of a copy of MAD from 1990. It was pretty beat-up, and one of the squares was torn and ruined. Here are the other eight...

One of my favorite games is called Casting Agent. You choose, based on the photograph on the front of their baseball card, the perfect candidate for each role. This morning the show I’m casting is an ensemble dramedy I’ve titled “Man Cave.” It's along the lines of The Wonder Years, only replace the family unit in the 1960s with six middle-age men living under one roof.

The back story is that six friends made a pact in college that if they're single when they're 40, they'll find a way to live together. Needless to say, hilarity sometimes ensues and lessons are learned on every show.

I'm a fan of Elvis Presley. It's the fact that he was a bit of an ass, that he was a drug addict at the end, that he had three TV's, that he had a Jungle Room at Graceland, that he laughed and talked during live recordings, that he was fond of ridiculous jumpsuits and that his album cover art was so darn cool. I'm not talking about the original "Elvis Presley" self-titled album with the rock-a-billy photo and the green and pink text overlay that The Clash ripped off and seems an odd-yet-completely-legitimate choice of inspiration for the design of the 1984 Topps set. That album cover deserves its own, separate dissertation.

I'm talking about the gold lamé army of Elvii raining down on the cover of "50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong." I'm not sure that's even the name of the album, come to think of it. Doesn't matter. The point I'm trying to make is that if you squint real hard at the American League All-Star stickers that I'm finding at an alarmingly common rate, all decked out in their gold foil, if you try real hard, you can almost see Elvis smiling back.

Key word there is "almost." I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm as giddy as a schoolgirl after opening 10 packs of stickers and not finding a single double. Let that sink in. Ten packs of five stickers each and no doubles. I completed nearly 20% of the set in one fell swoop. Unheard of. Unbelievable. Especially in this box, this treacherous box of Dusty Bakers and Hosken Powells, Al Olivers and Chet Lemons.

Here they are, in all their glory.

Pack 27: Greg Luzinski, John Castino, Terry Puhl, Bob Knepper, Dwight Evans

Pack 28: Doug Flynn, Leon Durham, George Brett, Milt May, AL All-Star Dave Winfield

Pack 29: Mike Flanagan, Matt Keough, Pedro Guerrero, AL All-Star Jerry Remy, Dwayne Murphy

Pack 30: Damaso Garcia, Jorge Orta, Floyd Bannister, Mike Norris, Reggie Jackson

Pack 31: Gary Carter, Ken Reitz, Tom Paciorek, Ted Simmons, Ron Cey

Pack 32: George Hendrick, NL All-Star George Foster, John Mayberry, Pete Rose Highlight, Bob Forsch

Pack 33: Alan Trammell, Kirk Gibson, Julio Cruz, Mickey Hatcher, Pete Rose

Pack 34: AL All-Star George Brett, Steve Henderson, Warren Cromartie, Steve Rogers, Gary Gray

Pack 35: Len Barker Highlight, Jerry Mumphrey, Don Baylor, Bump Wills, Billy Almon

Pack 36: Steve McCatty, Fred Lynn, AL All-Star Rick Burleson, Danny Darwin, Cecil Cooper


Some notes. I have a gut feeling that it's going to be much harder now to get all new stickers in a pack . . . Interesting to note that Topps used the same Highlights subjects as in the 1982 baseball card set . . . On the Baltimore Orioles page, there are eight players, three of them are pitchers, and none of them are the shortstop . . . It's Billy Almon on the sticker back, but Bill Almon in the album . . . I still have no Leaders, no Pirates, no Padres, and no World Series stickers . . . I almost have completed the Angels, the Twins, and the Astros pages.

Because I'm a man of my word (most of the time), here's the next 50 numbers from The 792.

#501 - 550

501. Rod Carew In Action, 1982
502. Braves Future Stars, 1982 (RC)
503. Mike Fitzgerald, 1986
504. Dale Murphy, 1981
505. Pete Rose, 1989 (MGR)
I think this is Pete's final Topps card. Here he is, glancing over his shoulder with a hint of paranoia, as if he can smell Giamatti lurking just out of frame.

506. Kurt Manwaring, 1989
507. Ray Fontenot, 1985
508. Alan Wiggins, 1986
509. Lou Whitaker, 1983
510. Fernando Valenzuela, 1982
I picked this card of Valenzuela for two reasons. First, his head is gigantic. Second, he's got some mighty fine penmanship, with nice, thick lettering. You don't see that too often, like he was signing with a paintbrush or calligraphy pen. (That's probably what it was: Fernando had just finished a few studious hours with his calligraphy geisha when in walked the Topps man with his damned contract.)

511. Tug McGraw Super Veteran, 1983
512. Dave Magadan, 1987 (RC)
513. Dave Beard, 1984
514. Jeff Cornell, 1985
515. Robin Yount, 1981
516. Larry Bowa In Action, 1982
517. Milt Thompson, 1986 (RC)
518. Greg Walker, 1984 (RC)
519. Mariners Leaders, 1988
520. Steve Rogers, 1980
521. Nate Snell, 1986
This was always one of my favorite cards. Not sure why.

522. Paul Molitor, 1985
Paul Molitor never got any love from the Topps checklister in the 1980s. He's his generation's Roberto Clemente. That's not a comparison of statistics, but of checklist numbers. It took Clemente literally forever for the Topps checklister to reward his star power with a 2nd tier number. Similarly, here's a 7th year Molitor, toiling away on card #522.

523. Carney Lansford, 1983
524. Tom Brennan, 1983
525. Mike Torrez, 1981
526. Phillies Team, 1980
527. Doug Rau, 1980
528. Luis Medina, 1989 (RC)
529. Marc Sullivan, 1986
530. Rich Gossage, 1986
531. Astros Leaders, 1987
532. Dave Stewart, 1983
533. Jesus Figueroa, 1981 (RC)
534. Pete O'Brien, 1984
535. Lance Parrish, 1982
536. Kirby Puckett, 1985 (RC)
537. Mark Salas, 1986
538. Dennis Eckersley, 1986
539. Rodney Scott, 1981
540. Pete Rose, 1980
541. Cecil Fielder, 1989
It pained me that Fielder's 1986 rookie didn't make it into The 792 (it was bumped out by Rod Carew's 1983 All-Star card, #386). Actually, I'm going to make a change. I'm going to reverse that decision (not something I would generally recommend for would-be checklisters) and re-instate the Fielder rookie. My initial thoughts had been that the Fielder 1986 card didn't become iconic until after the decade ended, but who cares, right? I mean, is the world going to be worse off with one less Rod Carew All-Star card?

542. Paul Noce, 1988 (RC)
543. Damon Berryhill, 1989
544. Rick Sutcliffe, 1980 (RC)
545. JImmy Key, 1986
546. Reggie Smith In Action, 1982
547. Pete Rose, 1985 (MGR)
548. Shane Mack, 1988
549. George Brett AL AS, 1982
550. Carl Yastzremski, 1983


Visuals to be available at Cardboard Junkie.