Chris Sabo Bobblehead

My latest pickup this week is another bobblehead to add to my ever expanding Reds bobblehead collection. Spuds was a member of the 1990 World Champion Reds team and also the 1988 National League Rookie of the Year. A three time All-Star, Sabo was elected to the Reds Hall of Fame on July 17, 2010. This bobblehead was given out to fans in attendance of Reds/Rockies game that evening. Reds fans were treated to an 8-1 victory in addition to taking home this awesome nodder! Unfortunately, if I keep buying bobbleheads or world series tickets, I won't be able to complete the Reds team sets on my 2012 card collecting goals. Guess I need to get back on track soon.

1989 Topps

Gluttony! That's the first word that comes to my mind when I think about 1989. Why? Because it was the ramping up of the hobby. With the introduction of Upper Deck to the scene, things in the baseball card world would not be the same and we would be inundated with a plethora of selection from high end stock cards to inserts, short prints, game used memorabilia, to who knows what else in the years that followed. I'm a simple man and in 1989 I stuck with collecting Topps because I had done so in the past... and spending a dollar for a pack of cards from Upper Deck was a whole lot of crazy to me. I like the 89 Topps set because of a number of reasons: the white border, the curved name plate and photos, the deep colors on the card back. Overall, I think it was a big improvement over the 1988 Topps set. This was the final year for a Topps card for Pete Rose. It was also the year prior to the Reds going Wire to Wire in the 1990 season. While there are a number of Reds cards I like from this year, such as Barry Larkin and Eric Davis, the Chris Sabo card would have to be my all time favorite of this set. The way he's chucking his bat as he heads to first while tracking the ball through his signature glasses is just so sweet! It doesn't get much better than that.

1988 Topps

So with the 10 year anniversary of September 11th coming up, I wanted to share another anniversary that took place on September 11th, but in 1985. It was on that day that Pete Rose passed Ty Cobb to become the all time hit king at 4,192...but Pete would ultimately amass a total of 4,256 hits at the end of his career. 1988 saw the next to last of Rose's regular issued cards and though the design doesn't scream impressive, it is simple and not too overbearing. Reminds me of the 1967 Topps set with smaller letters on the front. What I do like about this set is the backs of the cards. They were produced in an orange color and had little baseballs in the background of the header where the player's name was listed. Very cool! This also had the rookie card of Chris Sabo, who would go to win the National League Rookie of the Year award. Can never go wrong with Spuds.

1991 Topps Stadium Club

This is one of the few sets that I've ever had a desire to complete, and it's my favorite set ever produced by a company. When this set came out in 1991 (the year after the Reds won their last World Series) I knew I had to have it from the moment I opened my first pack of Series I cards. Sure it was expensive (around $10 a pack at my local card store) but I had never seen cards that were like this. Just look at the Chris Sabo card from this set. Full bleed kodak photography, gold foil, glossy finish on both the front and back of the cards, miniature picture of the player's rookie card on the back, and the list goes on and on. Sure it took a bit of money to put together and it's not as valuable as it was back in 1991, but I wouldn't trade my 1991 Stadium Club set for anything.

More Autographed Baseballs

Aside from my autographed team baseballs and the three baseballs from individuals affiliated with the reds that weren't players (Marty Brennaman, Marge Schott, and Hal McCoy), here are the other autographed baseballs in my collection as well as a rundown of why I have them:
Tom Browning - Only Red to throw a perfect game
Johnny Vander Meer - Only pitcher to ever throw back to back no hitters
Chris Sabo - 1988 National League Rookie of the Year
Tommy Helms - 1966 National League Rookie of the Year
Eric Davis - Tied for most grand slams in a month (3)
Frank Robinson - 1956 National League Rookie of the Year and Hall of Famer
Barry Larkin - 1995 National League MVP, 12 time All-Star and future Hall of Famer
Ken Griffey Jr - future Hall of Famer
Joe Nuxhall - youngest player ever in professional baseball (15 years 10 months 11 days old)

Although Robinson (and probably Griffey) was elected to the Hall of Fame not as a Red, he did spend time with the club and made it in to my collection.