My latest Hall of Fame & Tobacco Card Acquisition

The Pirates have 37 Alumni who played at least one game with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Hall of Fame.  Of that group, only 11 were inducted into the Hall having played more games with Pittsburgh than any other franchise that individual had played for.

Recent inductees like Bert Blyleven and Goose Gossage had wonderful careers, but likely won't be remembered a generation from now as being on the Pirates.

The Pirates were a powerhouse in the early 1900s being lead by the greatest shortstop of All-Time, Honus Wagner, and leftfielder, Fred Clarke.

My ultimate goal is to add autographs of Hall of Famers, Roberto Clemente and Honus Wagner, but adding Fred Clarke was a major score to my collection.

This 2015 Historic Autographs includes a cut auto of the 1909 World Series Champion along with an original t206 Piedmont trading card.

Clarke finished his career with over 2,600 hits, a career batting average of .312 and an on base percentage of .386 while swiping 509 bags.  His best season may have come in his final season before joining the Pirates back in 1899 when he hit .340, stole 49 bags, and only struck out 18 times in 681 plate appearances.  He became the player manager his first year with the Bucs in 1900.

I was having a conversation with my brother the other day and what I find most fascinating about adding these incredible cut autographs to the collection is that guys like Fred Clarke had passed away before Carlos Correa's father was even born.  Wrap your head around that for perspective.  Fred Clarke was born before electricity really took off with Thomas Edison's inventions.

Owen Wilson visits the Treasure Room

Growing up, I never gave into peer pressure to smoke or drink thanks to a huge influence of XstraightedgeX hardcore punk rock music.  Bands like Minor Threat, Youth of Today, Chain of Strength, Strife, and many more helped me decide to stay away from those dangerous substances as a teenager.

Today, I finally succumbed to the nicotine addiction.

Kind of...

I added a T-206 card to my PC and it is none other than Owen Wilson.

Not that Owen Wilson from all those terrible Ben Stiller movies.

I'm talking about the 1909 World Series Champion
The 1911 RBI leader
The Single Season record holder for triples (36)

That's the Own "Chief" Wilson I am talking about.

On the back of the card it features the Sweet Corporal Cigarette logo.

Maybe tobacco isn't so wacko
I grabbed this card for less than the price of a few packs of cigarettes.

My first Babe AUTO!!!!

2013 Historic Autographs offered a rather unique product to the public.  Each PSA/DNA contained a cut auto of a historic player and either an original tobacco card OR an original artwork of a tobacco card of the player from 1909-1912.  These retailed for $270 a box.  Each box contained 1 autograph.

I saw the sell sheet of the players available and there were some very big names like Ty Cobb, Nap Lajoie, and Walter Johnson.  There was also a cut auto of the Pittsburgh Pirates all-time Wins leader, Babe Adams which I snagged for $125.

2013 Historic Autographs Babe Adams Cut Auto 10/18

Charles Benjamin "Babe" Adams spent 18 years with the Pittsburgh Pirates posting a 194-139 record with a 2.74 ERA and 1.09 WHIP.  He received above 10% voting for the Hall of Fame only once in 1947.  The two time World Series Champ (1909 and 1925) would go on to serve as a reporter for World War II.

The most remarkable thing I read about Babe was that he once pitched all 21 innings of a game against the NY Giants without allowing a walk.  In nearly 3,000 innings pitched, Babe allowed only 430 walks (1.3BB/9).

HONUS WAGNER T206!!!!!

As a baseball card fan and a Pittsburgh Pirates fan to be more specific, I have always wanted to add a Honus Wagner T206 to my collection.  I have 3 options regarding this goal.
1) Sell my house to buy 1 baseball card and live in my car.
2) Give up the dream
3) Get a reprint version that is worthy of being on display

After getting back my tax return I decided to splurge and go for option 3.

This Honus Wagner T206 from 2002 Topps T206 features an actual bat relic of Honus.  The card is fricking gorgeous. 

Check that off the bucket list.

old tobacco is good for the PC

Bill Abstein was a member of the 1909 World Series Champions Pittsburgh Pirates.  He finished a career in which he played 170 games over the parts of 3 seasons professionally (1906 & 1909 Pittsburgh Pirates, 1910 St. Louis Browns).  His 1909 numbers at the age of 26 were very respectable for that era as he hit 10 triples, 20 doubles, 1 home run, and drove in 70 runs (6th best in the league).  He also stole 16 bases, batted .260 and had 1,402 put outs (3rd best in league) at first base that year.  Unfortunately he also committed 27 fielding errors which was the 2nd most in the league.  I really want to research more about him, partially because I want to find out what made him retire at such an early stage in his career.

Here's the very first authentic T206 tobacco card in the collection.  It's a Piedmont 350 series from 1910 of Bill Abstein.  It's not a perfect specimen of any stretch of the imagination as you can tell by the multiple creases on the card, but it's over 100 years old now.  From what I've seen of these cards, there was an orange tint "variant" and the "red" variant. I believe the red is the harder version to find. 

What do you guys think of my girlfriend's $20 splurge on this item?  Worth it? I think so, if for nothing else to say we now have a T206 in our collection.