Announcing three new baseball PCs: Boros, Campbell, and Lund

Stay tuned for a new post from Jeff this evening, but first, I have some personal collecting news related to the blog:  I'm announcing three new baseball PCs!  All three have small enough runs that I'm going to do my version of "supercollecting" them--shooting for 100% of their regular print run and then adding any "others" and 1/1s just for fun.  Here they are:

Steve Boros

Flint native Boros was a Michigan SS from 1956 to 1957, at which point he signed with Detroit as a "bonus baby" (this was before the draft) and left Ann Arbor.  He played parts of seven seasons with the Tigers, Cubs, and Reds before his playing career ended in 1965.  He then pursued a managerial career, earning the gig as Oakland's leader for 1983.  Steve was ahead of his time in using computers to analyze stats for advantages, but was fired after a mediocre start the following year.  The Padres came calling in 1986 after '84 pennant-winning skipper Dick Williams resigned abruptly, but lasted just a season in San Diego.  He later returned to the Tigers in multiple capacities towards the end of his life, and was also inducted into the Wolverines Hall of Honor.  He passed away in 2010.

Boros has 16 cards for me to chase, starting with vintage issues from during his career ('58-'65) plus cards in '83, '84, '86, and '87 covering his managerial years.  I made an executive decision to list his six recent Topps Heritage buybacks as "others" because I don't think they really fit under his standard releases.  I have his '86 Topps Traded and '87 Topps (above), and I'll be looking to add more soon!

Dave Campbell

I first mentioned Campbell about a month ago after I picked up the above card at a show, thinking I'd scored a nice vintage Tigers RC and not realizing it was another Wolverine/Tiger combo!  A native of Manistee, Michigan (way up north on Lake Michigan), the man they nicknamed "Soup"--because obviously--signed with Detroit as a free agent after a successful career with the Wolverines that included Michigan's 1962 NCAA title victory (coached by the guy below!).  He appeared in more than 400 games over parts of eight seasons with the Tigers, Padres, Cardinals, and Astros and was involved in trades for two notable players:  Joe Niekro and Tommie Agee.  Campbell has since done quite a bit of color commentating (and video game work!) for several teams.

My collection for him currently consists solely of his '69 Topps RC above, but I look forward to tracking down his nine other vintage cards when I can.

From COMC

Don Lund

You may remember Lund from...yesterday's post.  You're forgiven if you already forgot about that, though, since he appeared as a football player in the TK Legacy M Go Blue autograph set.  As I noted in the post, Lund opted for a baseball career instead, and he played parts of seven seasons with Brooklyn, St. Louis (Browns), and the Tigers (hey, another one!).  After his Major League career ended, Don helmed the Michigan Baseball team for their 1962 National Championship, and also coached for the Tigers.  He's in the Wolverines Hall of Honor as well, and the article I linked above about him in Campbell's words is a good read about the impact he had on others.

His checklist comes in at just eight cards, though it could prove to be a tough group to acquire:  the '53 and '54 Topps plus '54 Bowman might not be cheap, and then he has a pair of autographs (one numbered to 54) in 2003 Heritage.  I'm totally starting from scratch here, but I think it'll be fun chasing another Michigan Football star that opted for baseball, not to mention another Wolverine/Tiger double-dipper!

I'm planning on putting in some work on COMC for these guys soon, but as always if you have anything I'm looking for, please give me a shout!