The Newest Additions to my Ark

Not too long ago I made a post of Pirates players with animal nicknames that I added to my collection.  I added some more Mad Dog and Cobra cards to my collection and am now proud to announce adding a dingo. That's right a dingo. Rather than eating a baby, this dingo looks like it was attacked by a baby.

"The Dingo", Dino Restelli was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1949. During his rookie season he hit 7 homeruns in his first 10 games. He would finish his career with 13 homeruns in 93 games.  While I am always on the lookout for cards to complete my Topps sets, I still keep an eye out for early Bowman releases of Pirates of Yesteryear.  Picking up this old 1950 Bowman (a year that Restelli didn't even play) for $3 shipped was too good a deal to pass up.  Truth be told I never even heard of the guy and had to look him up on Wiki and Baseball-reference to find out about him.  Once I realized that his nickname was Dingo, I had to do a follow up to my previous animal nicknames post.

Interesting fact: Dino Restelli was the 3rd to last Pittsburgh Pirate to wear the number 21.  Paul Smith wore the number in 1953 before Roberto Clemente began to wear the number regularly in 1955.

2004 Throwback Threads Dynasty Relics 9/25 (3 piece relic)
And since I promised some more Mad Dog and Cobra cards, here's one of my favorites.  It's a three piece relic featuring a black jersey worn by Willie "Pops" Stargell, a yellow jersey of Dave "The Cobra" Parker, and a bat of Bill "Mad Dog" Madlock.  I managed to pick this up awhile ago for around $30.  Seemed like a reasonable price for the 3 key components of the 1979 World Series team.  At only $10 a relic, it wasn't too overpriced considering the low print run of only 25.  I love that the team's colors were all used in the design of this card and that every player's relic is different to give the card more character.

I also picked up a few more cards from the animal kingdom by adding a couple autographs of the Cobra and Mad Dog.  

The above Dave Parker is from 2010-11 In The Game and features a very large swatch of yellow from Dave's time with the Pirates along with an autograph of the Cobra.  The picture features Parker in his Pirates days (minus the logos of course).  I paid a bit more than I usually would like for an unlicensed card of the Cobra, but for $24 for such a HUGE swatch of yellow and his auto nicely inscribed I didn't want to pass it up.

In addition to the sweet ITG Auto and Jumbo Relic I managed to grab this 2011 Panini Limited Greats autograph of Dave Parker for a small chunk of change, $6.50 to be exact.  The card doesn't have a low print run (499) and is a sticker auto, but it's still an auto of the fricking Cobra!!!!  Personally I really like the design of this card.  The black and white photography for the retired players with a simple border going around the card matched with a nice blue sharpie auto make this card classy looking.  If only the auto was on card instead of sticker.

2005 UD Past Time Signatures 

Mad Dog won 2 batting titles and was an All-Star twice while with the Pirates in 7 years.  He finished his 15 year career with 2008 hits and a lifetime .305 average.
Marking my 4th Auto (3 of which are on card) of Bill Madlock is this 2005 UD Past Time Signatures that I picked up for under $6 shipped.  After coming across this card, I decided to see what other players were in the Past Time Signatures set.  There's a lot of interesting players that don't normally have certified autographs available.  Best of all they're all on card.  So if you're looking for Ray Knight, Luis Tiant, Kent Hrebek, Mike Scioscia, and many more players from the 70s and 80s then this is a good auto series to look into.  Most of the players can be had for less than $10 and you'd be surprised at some of the players on the checklist of your favorite teams that you might not have known had certified autos.