There's this contest going around that asks card bloggers to show off their 10 favorite cards of their favorite player.
I haven't done anything with this mostly because I'm sick of showing my favorite card of my favorite player.
How's that for being messed up?
But this blog has been going for awhile and there are a number of cards that I've shown too much, just like a favorite song played too often. I need something new, or at least different, to show off.
Babbling about favorite Ron Cey cards is hardly new, but I made an effort to find 10 favorites, while avoiding my absolute favorite. You will not see the 1975 Topps Ron Cey card in this list (nor will I cheat and show the 1975 Topps mini Cey). Instead, let's see 10 Cey cards that I have only half beaten into the ground already.
No particular order here, because unless it's the '75 Cey, all of the Cey cards are my favorites and I can't possibly rank them. They're my children!
1976 Topps: I'm projecting here, but I've always thought Cey appeared to be in an absolute rage in this photo, and he had torn a piece of the railing from the seats behind him, losing his helmet in the process, and was now going to use it as a bat. Check out those forearms.
1979 Topps: A rather original near-check-swing action shot for its time. The best part, though, may be the NBC peacock camera in the background that tells you this is a "Game of the Week"! Somewhere in that stadium is Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek!
2016 Baseball Card Breakdown: OK, some would disqualify this because it wasn't made by a licensed, national card company. But the handiwork is indisputable. And Gavin's attention to detail, combined with Cey's willingness to sign this card, gets it on the list. There is a paltry representation of Cey's contribution to the 1981 World Series on cardboard. It's about damn time.
1981 Fleer Star Stickers: Sadly, there does not appear to be any cards of Cey running the bases, which is how he best demonstrated the reasons for his "Penguin" nickname. But this photo of Cey starting out of the box after connecting gives a glimpse of the squat trot gearing up.
2002 Topps Stadium Club World Champions relic: I own around seven or eight relics of Cey. Many of them, frankly, are not well-designed. This one is. It looks good, it has a theme. Cey's picture seems to match with the year being represented. Sure, there's mention that this is a "regular season" bat relic, not from the postseason, but at least Topps is being forthcoming.
1975 Hostess: I may have banned myself from showing the '75 Topps card, but that doesn't mean I can't show other '75 stuff! This is Cey's first Hostess card. It represents a watershed moment for him, as well as the Dodgers as the photo was taken in 1974. I don't know why Hostess didn't narrow it down from "Infield". He played nothing but third base his whole career until he got to Oakland.
1978 Topps (TTM auto): The first Ron Cey card that I received autographed through the mail. Yup, it still makes me smile.
1983 Donruss Action All-Stars: The early '80s saw an emergence of oddball issues as Topps, Donruss and Fleer sought a competitive advantage. These postcard-sized Action All-Stars certainly were different at the time, and pretty cool. It was one of the first tributes to the 1955/56 Topps issues that I ever saw.
And check out all those stats on the back!!
2001 Upper Deck Decade '70s: The one drawback about retro cards is that you can tell from the way the card was made, or the photo, that the maker has no appreciation for that time period. The maker never saw the player, has no concept of how they looked on the field, what they represented. This card gets it right. This is how I remember Cey at-bat. The proper stance, the proper arm positioning, the proper hair-length.
1974 Topps: Ron Cey's first solo card. It's pretty fine, despite the shadows obscuring just about everything. This card was ultra cool when it came out. Also, there is an underappreciated aspect of cards from this era that is lost in the obsession with every card being a graded 10. I own multiple versions of this card. Each one is cut slightly differently. So each one has a personality distinct from the other '74 Ceys. I like that. And it's why I don't mind obtaining more of this card.
So that's 10 Cey favorites. I could have easily picked 10 other cards and call them my 10 Cey favorites.
Oh, one more thing.
...
...
...
...
...
...
I haven't done anything with this mostly because I'm sick of showing my favorite card of my favorite player.
How's that for being messed up?
But this blog has been going for awhile and there are a number of cards that I've shown too much, just like a favorite song played too often. I need something new, or at least different, to show off.
Babbling about favorite Ron Cey cards is hardly new, but I made an effort to find 10 favorites, while avoiding my absolute favorite. You will not see the 1975 Topps Ron Cey card in this list (nor will I cheat and show the 1975 Topps mini Cey). Instead, let's see 10 Cey cards that I have only half beaten into the ground already.
No particular order here, because unless it's the '75 Cey, all of the Cey cards are my favorites and I can't possibly rank them. They're my children!
1976 Topps: I'm projecting here, but I've always thought Cey appeared to be in an absolute rage in this photo, and he had torn a piece of the railing from the seats behind him, losing his helmet in the process, and was now going to use it as a bat. Check out those forearms.
1979 Topps: A rather original near-check-swing action shot for its time. The best part, though, may be the NBC peacock camera in the background that tells you this is a "Game of the Week"! Somewhere in that stadium is Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek!
2016 Baseball Card Breakdown: OK, some would disqualify this because it wasn't made by a licensed, national card company. But the handiwork is indisputable. And Gavin's attention to detail, combined with Cey's willingness to sign this card, gets it on the list. There is a paltry representation of Cey's contribution to the 1981 World Series on cardboard. It's about damn time.
1981 Fleer Star Stickers: Sadly, there does not appear to be any cards of Cey running the bases, which is how he best demonstrated the reasons for his "Penguin" nickname. But this photo of Cey starting out of the box after connecting gives a glimpse of the squat trot gearing up.
2002 Topps Stadium Club World Champions relic: I own around seven or eight relics of Cey. Many of them, frankly, are not well-designed. This one is. It looks good, it has a theme. Cey's picture seems to match with the year being represented. Sure, there's mention that this is a "regular season" bat relic, not from the postseason, but at least Topps is being forthcoming.
1975 Hostess: I may have banned myself from showing the '75 Topps card, but that doesn't mean I can't show other '75 stuff! This is Cey's first Hostess card. It represents a watershed moment for him, as well as the Dodgers as the photo was taken in 1974. I don't know why Hostess didn't narrow it down from "Infield". He played nothing but third base his whole career until he got to Oakland.
1978 Topps (TTM auto): The first Ron Cey card that I received autographed through the mail. Yup, it still makes me smile.
1983 Donruss Action All-Stars: The early '80s saw an emergence of oddball issues as Topps, Donruss and Fleer sought a competitive advantage. These postcard-sized Action All-Stars certainly were different at the time, and pretty cool. It was one of the first tributes to the 1955/56 Topps issues that I ever saw.
And check out all those stats on the back!!
2001 Upper Deck Decade '70s: The one drawback about retro cards is that you can tell from the way the card was made, or the photo, that the maker has no appreciation for that time period. The maker never saw the player, has no concept of how they looked on the field, what they represented. This card gets it right. This is how I remember Cey at-bat. The proper stance, the proper arm positioning, the proper hair-length.
1974 Topps: Ron Cey's first solo card. It's pretty fine, despite the shadows obscuring just about everything. This card was ultra cool when it came out. Also, there is an underappreciated aspect of cards from this era that is lost in the obsession with every card being a graded 10. I own multiple versions of this card. Each one is cut slightly differently. So each one has a personality distinct from the other '74 Ceys. I like that. And it's why I don't mind obtaining more of this card.
So that's 10 Cey favorites. I could have easily picked 10 other cards and call them my 10 Cey favorites.
Oh, one more thing.
...
...
...
...
...
...
I just couldn't get through the whole post without this card.
Comments
#1: 1974 Topps (Love that action shot. Just wish they would have moved him a little over to the left, so his bat isn't so close to the frame.)
#2: 2016 Baseball Card Breakdown (A TTM custom card that was a gift definitely scores sentimental points there)
#3: 2002 Stadium Club World Champions Relics (Beautifully designed card)
#4: 1975 Hostess (I always though my 1977 Topps Star Wars cards were the first trading cards I ever owned. This post made me realize I've been wrong all of these years. I totally forgot about owning Hostess cards in the 70's.)
#5: 1983 Donruss Action All-Stars (Great... under appreciated 56T tribute set... kinda like Topps Big from the late 80's.)