At first glance, this looks like one of the nastiest cut Clemente cards even produced. It is off-center 99/1 right and left. But as is the case with many of my vintage cards, the value is more about the player and what the cards is, and not so much about the condition. I ran into this card during a visit to a local thrift shop. Sitting among the stacks of baggies containing 1989 Topps and 1990 Donruss commons was this sealed bag of about 50 cards, all of which appeared to be 1970 Topps. They appeared to be all commons, but even at the price of $2.95, I was not going to let them sit there. I’m a sucker for “vintage” cards, even commons because their condition tell a story. Nothing beats the feeling and smell of old cardboard featuring players of the era. Anyway, back to this card … so as I sat in my car I opened the bag and was thrilled to find Tom Seaver and Rod Carew within the first dozen cards or so. Then about 20 cards later, there was this beautiful Clemente. The centering sucks, but this is the first regular vintage Clemente card I’ve owned. I’d had a few subset ones, but none exclusively dedicated to him. What makes this card the card of the day is the fact that I am reading “Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero.” It’s a biography, something as a baseball fan I absolutely needed to read. I’ll follow up later when the book is done. Hopefully by then I will own the holy grail, the 1955 Topps Clemente rookie, which I hunt for every day. The price and timing just has not been right.

This entry was posted on July 5, 2008 at 8:43 am and is filed under Card of the Day with tags 1970 Topps, baseball, baseball cards, Clemente, David Maraniss, legends, New York Times Best Seller, Pittsburgh Pirates, Roberto Clemente, sports, thrift shoping, vintage, vintage baseball cards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.