This bad boy just arrived, and I couldn't be happier. You may be cool, but you will never in your life be the Chick King on his '59 Topps card cool...

Doesn’t get any more artistic than the T3 Turkey Reds. Depicted here is Slim Sallee, who won 19 games for a Cardinals team that only won 51 games in 1913, and who went 21-7 with a 2.06 ERA for the 1919 Worlds Champion Reds...

"Sallee had a rare and unique delivery known as the 'cross-fire.' Wearing his cap yanked low over his eyes, he went through a slow motion procedure that hypnotized batters and exasperated umpires. Placing his right foot to the third base side of the rubber, while keeping his left foot on the rubber at the extreme first base side, Sallee cranked his arms straight up behind his head, leaning far back as he threw his right leg skyward to a set position. He would then step or plant the right leg at a 45-degree angle between first base and home plate, finishing his follow-through on the extreme first base side of the pitching mound, delivering the ball at one of many possible arm angles. Batters constantly complained that it looked as if Sallee’s ball was arriving from first base."

Sallee “had the best control of any southpaw that ever curved a ball over the plate.” - HOFer Roger Bresnahan

(quotes from SABR bio)

You may be cool, but you'll never be Dick Davis with a tilted brim and a freakin' gold tooth on his '81 Topps card cool. This set is underrated, imho - mediocre design but fantastic photography..

The ‘38-‘39 Reds team issue (W711-1) may be the perfect set: Relatively rare, relatively affordable, beautiful design, challenging checklist, and one ultra-rare white whale. Here we have one of the best eligible pitchers not in the HOF, William 'Bucky' Walters, who in 1935, at age 25, switched from 3B to pitcher - just four years later he won the NL MVP and pitching Triple Crown. His complete game shutout in Game 6 of the 1940 World Series (in which he also hit a home run) got the Reds to Game 7, which they won at home...

“Big, important games never fazed him, and he seemed to get better as the game went on. We could count on him. He had a good fastball, a decent curve and a sinker that bore in on right-handed batters. As a former infielder, he could field his position as well as anyone in the game. Best of all, he had good control and an excellent knowledge of the batters’ weaknesses… Bucky was a quiet fellow, not given to much conversation, but he was a fierce competitor.” - Bill Werber

‘50-‘52 Bowman cards are little works of art. Here we have Senators first baseman Mickey Vernon, who had a career year in 1946, when he returned from two years of military service to win the batting title (.353), to go along with 207 hits, 51 doubles, and a .403 OBP…

“If I was pitching and it was the ninth inning and we had a two-run lead with the bases loaded and Mickey Vernon was up, I’d walk him and pitch to the next man.” - Satchel Paige

“Mickey Vernon was the best first baseman in major-league baseball for most of the years of his long career.” - Bob Feller

“I pitched him more carefully than anyone else. He’s not one of those powerful guys always looking down a pitcher’s throat, but he’s always ready. And he’s always guarding the dish. You pitch him outside, and he hits to left. You pitch him inside, and he can put it out of the park.” - Allie Reynolds

(Quotes from SABR Bio, written by Rich Westcott)