100th Post

1952 Topps Ray Boone

I've been obsessed with obtaining a 1952 Topps card for several weeks. Somewhat inspired by what the Poor Old Baseball Cards blog has been able to find. I wasn't too picky about who since I probably have not seen anyone who was in the set actually play. I was looking for Phillies, obviously, but not having much luck. Then this Ray Boone card popped up. Ray's son, Bob, played for the Phillies and was the starting catcher for the Phils in the 1980 World Series. He went on to the Angels and Royals and eventually became a manager of the Royals and later the Reds. He has 2 sons (Aaron and Bret) who also played in the major leagues. There may be a 3rd Boone brother who never got out of the minors. Ray, Bob and his sons form one of the few 3-generation baseball families. The Boone family represent 63 years worth of baseball careers.

Ray had a pretty good 13-year career mostly with the Indians and Tigers. He was a 2-time All Star.

The card is not in great shape but considering it's almost as old as I am, it's not too bad. You can see it has a stain on the upper left corner. There are some more stains on the back and a piece of the surface is missing. It actually looks like someone had previously glued it into a scrapbook. That's ok. I only paid $2.00 for it (plus $3.25 for shipping). In mint condition this card has a book value of $60.00.

When I started this blog in February, 2008, I had no idea how long I could maintain it. Along the way I've gotten in contact with some pretty nice people who have other baseball card blogs. My intent was not to make just a baseball card blog and I think I've been successful in that. Although its pretty hard to tell, I think I have maybe 25-30 readers. That's great as I didn't know if I'd get even 1. I read somewhere that the average blog has a readership of 1, so I'm way ahead of average.

Thanks for reading.