1973 Topps, Ted Simmons

Card No. 85

Not until I sat down to write this post did I realize that Ted Simmons will become a baseball Hall of Famer during the summer of 2021....Simmons will be part of a Cooperstown class that also includes Derek Jeter, Larry Walker and union rep Marvin Miller....Ted authored more than 2,400 hits and batted .286 over 21 seasons....This is his third Topps card....His rookie card appeared in the 1971 set....His final Topps card came in '88....Ted enjoyed an All-Star campaign in 1973, batting .310 and collecting 91 RBIs.

*MK*

2015 Topps, Yoenis Cespedes

Card No. 120

Few big leaguers throughout history racked up more frequent flyer miles in a shorter span of time than Yoenis Cespedes did between 2014 and '15....The Cuban superstar was dealt from Oakland to Boston in July 2014 and was subsequently swapped to Detroit in December of that same year....The Mets acquired Yoenis from the Tigers at the '15 deadline....Cespedes was featured in the '15 Update series as a Met....His rookie card can be found in the '12 set....La Potencia slugged five homers with 33 RBIs in 51 games for the Red Sox in '14.

*MK*

1962 Topps, Jim Fregosi

Card No. 209

Has any franchise experienced more of an identity crisis than the Angels?....The club dropped "Los Angeles" and became "California" in 1965....The "Anaheim" era began in '97 and thankfully they're back to just "Los Angeles" as of 2016....Fair or not, Jim Fregosi the player is probably most remembered as the guy the Mets got from the Angels in the disastrous Nolan Ryan trade....As the little gold star indicates this is indeed Jim's rookie card....The future MLB skipper batted .291 in 58 games for the Halos during the '62 season.

*MK*