Card of the Day: Rich Eisen 2008 Topps Mayo’s Cut Plug Auto

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Card of the Day: 1894 Mayo’s Cut Plug N302 Anonymous – John Dunlop

Plug: The Harry Kalas Memorial Statue

This morning I was checking up on the Harry Kalas Memorial Statue that is currently in the works.  They have come a long way since this great project got its start after Kalas’s death in 2009.  When its complete, it will be gifted to the Philadelphia Phillies.  I can’t wait to see the finished statue.  It sure will look great standing tall at Citizen’s Bank Park.  For more information about the statue, and if you’ed like to donate please click here.

Back From Baltimore!

Yesterday I took a trip down to Baltimore to scope things out for this year’s National.  While I was there I visited the Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards and the Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum too.

The Baltimore Convention Center takes up three city blocks and looks really nice.  I think there was a pet industry trade show going on yesterday because they had banners all over the place.  But overall I think it will be a nice place to have The National in August.  I didn’t have trouble at all finding a parking space.  In August we plan to park the car at the hotel and walk to the Convention Center each day.  I’m staying at the Hampton Inn at Camden Yards, which is right across from the stadium.

The Sports Legends Museum sits right next to Camden Yards.  It was once an old train station and was the site of an assassination plot against Abraham Lincoln.  Inside you can sit on the exact bench Lincoln sat on while he was on his way to Washington D.C.  There are three floors of historical artifacts that were really great to learn about.  After the museum, I made my way over to Babe Ruth’s birthplace.  Check out some of the photos.  Click on each to enlarge.

1895 Baltimore Championship Banner

1983 World Series Trophy

Babe Ruth has been traded!  On the bottom right-hand side is the transfer order.

Championship pins and buttons – extremely old

1895 Wilbert Robinson Mayo’s Cut Plug #33

The biggest ’87 Donruss card I’ve ever seen!

Kimono presented to Babe Ruth while over in Japan and a Jimmie Foxx All-American jersey.

Frank “Home Run” Baker Yankees sweater

Samari helmet presented to the Orioles while playing in Japan

Colts General Manager Don Kellet made his famous $0.85 phone call and was able to obtain Johnny Unitas from the Steelers using this phone.  For $0.85 he got two Championships.

Unitas’s many awards

Johnny Unitas’s uniform

Babe Ruth statue outside of Camden Yards

Cal Ripken, Jr’s retired number

Outside the Sports Legends Museum you’ll find these baseballs painted on the sidewalk.  If you follow them you should end up at Ruth’s birthplace.

Look!  I made it!  The birthplace of the greatest baseball player of all time – Babe Ruth.  Unfortunately, I was unable to go inside because its not wheelchair accessible.  Being a historic building, I guess it doesn’t have to be.  I wonder how Ruth would feel about that?  The sign out front said “See Ruth’s Rookie Card”.

Missing Paterno

Joe Paterno was due to have his first certified autographed card included in 2008 Topps Mayo Cut Plug football, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.  Ever since the release of this product I have been watching eBay for one to pop-up, but none ever have.  The other day Topps released the SP list for the autograph, relic, and token cards in which Joe Paterno’s name did not appear.  To my surprise I find out that he never made it into the final checklist.  This really surprised me because it looked as if they already had the card made when looking at their promotional video for the product.  Perhaps they have it made and they couldn’t get it into the product fast enough.  Could they include this card in another version of Topps Mayo?  If they never produced the card, I think thats a dirty trick to play on collectors.

 

Originals Are Awesome

One of the best things that card manufacturers, specifically Topps & Upper Deck, have done in recent years is include original cards within their newer products.  I think its great that collectors have the chance of pulling a card from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.  Pulling old cards, gives you the chance to learn about great players that you probably never heard of.  Take this card as an example.

 

This is an original 1894 Mayo Cut Plug football card of Sam “Brinck” Thorne.  He was born in 1873 and died at the age of 56 in 1930.  Thorne was a halfback for Yale and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1970.

The first time collectors could pull any type of vintage cards came during the 1990’s with products such as All-Sport Plus.  Products like All-Sport Plus didn’t last very long because the manufacturer hyped up their product making collectors think a base card from the 1970’s was really worth a lot.  You might have seen infomercials featuring Don West selling products like this.  Topps and Upper Deck have done a much better job allowing collectors to pull vintage cards.  

Just for fun.  Here is a classic Don West 🙂

Joe Paterno to appear in 2008 Topps Mayo’s Cut Plug Football

There will be a lot of college football collectors glad to read this.  While watching the preview for the new 2008 Topps Mayo’s Cut Plug football cards I saw an autographed card of legendary coach Joe Paterno.  To many football collectors this is a huge deal.  Joe Paterno has very little cards made of him and what cards are out there are just base.  It will be interesting to see what the print run is on his cards.  2008 Mayo’s Cut Plug football cards look like an interesting product to break.  Topps has even inserted a few original Cut Plug cards from the past.  It is due to be released this December.

UPDATE:

I knew this wasn’t the first time a card company used the Mayo Cut Plug design.  Here is a Randy Moss insert from 2002 Gridiron Kings.