Sunday, April 6, 2014

2014 COMC pickups #2: Tigers that earned their stripes long before I was born

Today I'm back with baseball again, specifically a couple Tiger greats that played way before my time--Bill Freehan and Charlie Gehringer:
Bill Freehan 1970 O-Pee-Chee (#465)
When I completed Freehan's run of cards from his playing days, I neglected to include the O-Pee-Chee cards, like this All-Star from 1970.  Since I included that set for the rest of my PCs, I went back and added it to his list as well.
Bill Freehan 1972 O-Pee-Chee
I don't expect these to come terrible cheap, at least not all of them, but I can't complain about the prices I paid for the ones you see today, including Bill's '72 card.  Others, though, especially the higher numbers from certain years, will set me back a bit whenever I end up locating them.
Bill Freehan 1973 O-Pee-Chee
This play at the plate card is definitely a fan favorite, and the photo ranks near the top for me as well.  Obviously the centering is...well, "centering" probably doesn't apply to this card, but as usual I'm not THAT picky about condition.  All that matters is that the fantastic photo is there in all its glory.
Bill Freehan 1975 O-Pee-Chee
I've got the '75 Topps and Mini versions of this, so why not the OPC as well?  You can see that Freehan is listed as a "C-1B," which makes sense since 1974 was the only year in his career in which he appeared in more games at first than behind the plate (65 to 63).
Bill Freehan 1976 O-Pee-Chee
This '76 card is Freehan's final OPC issue, though he did appear in the '77 Topps set.  In all, Bill appeared on 10 cards from that brand, and I'm halfway to owning all of them.
Bill Freehan 2013 Panini Golden Age Mini American Caramel Red Back
My last Freehan pickup this time is from a much, much newer set.  Bill has eight cards in the product, including five minis, and I own six and four, respectively, lacking just the Nadja Caramels Back from the latter group.


Charlie Gehringer 2003 SP Legendary Cuts Historical Impressions (#110/350)
Today's other Tiger is the Mechanical Man, Charlie Gehringer.  My favorite addition for the day is this super thick SP Legendary Cuts insert, which has a manufactured, um, thing, in the middle.  It's kind of hard to describe just based on the scan, but it kind of has the feel of a refrigerator magnet, as weird as that sounds.  The signature is raised, and that photo is actual inset deeply in the circular frame.  There's a couple other versions of this card that are rarer, and I may try to land them eventually.
Charlie Gehringer 2007 SP Legendary Cuts
Keeping with the Legendary Cuts theme, here's another one from a set that came out four years later.  It retains UD's tradition of a classy looking design and classic photo.  This is actually my fourth different card from the product's base set, along with 2002, 2003, and 2006.
Charlie Gehringer 2012 Panini Cooperstown Crystal Collection Red (#236/399)
Finally, I found a nice deal on this red parallel from 2012 Cooperstown.  As of now it's my only parallel of this card, but as nice as these are I have a feeling I'll be adding more before long (especially the blue one!).

These three cards bump up my Gehringer PC to a lucky 13.

Stay tuned for more soon!

2 comments:

  1. Congrats on adding the OPC's That's one of the few areas where I have work to do on my Ron Santo collection. I don't know if I even have one. On the 76 Bill looks like he's trying to sneeze by looking into the sun. That works for me. Ahh-CHOO!

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    1. Thanks, I didn't realize just how tough some of them were until I went to grab them for Freehan and a few others, so good luck with a star like Santo!

      Yeah, I always wondered what Bill was looking at on the '76 card, so we'll go with the magic sneeze theory.

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