2011 Topps, Freddie Freeman

Card No. 145

The 2011 Topps base set and Update series are replete with great rookie cards, including this one of Atlanta's All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman....The '11 design is neck-and-neck with 2015 in terms of my favorite of the decade....Freddie holds joint citizenship, as he was born in California while both his parents are from Ontario, Canada....Clouted his first big league home run, 9/21/10, against Hall of Famer Roy Halladay....Hit .282 with 21 homers during  the'11 season, his first full year in the majors.

*MK*

2007 Topps, Dontrelle Willis

Card No. 100

The man they called "D-Train," southpaw Dontrelle Willis and the unmistakable black borders of 2007 Topps combine for today's entry....The '07 set is one of two in Topps annals to feature a black border (1971 also)....Willis first appeared on a Topps card in the 2002 Traded and Rookies release....Made his base-set debut the following year, sharing a "Prospects" card with fellow Marlins minor leaguer Jason Stokes.... Nobody started more games (35) or yielded more earned runs (116) than Dontrelle did during the '07 season.

*MK*

1962 Topps, Billy Martin

Card No. 208

Perhaps remembered more for his chaotic days as George Steinbrenner's whipping boy as Yankee manager, Billy Martin is today's featured Jukebox hit.... Played seven of his 11 big league seasons for the Yanks and served five(!) separate stints as the club's skipper....This is Martin's final Topps card as a player....He would pop up in future Topps sets as a manager 11 more times....Billy's rookie appeared in the iconic 1952 set....Concluded his playing days the year prior to this card's release, batting .242 in 114 games between the Braves and Twins.

*MK*

1970 Topps, Bill Mazeroski

Card No. 440

Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski takes a knee and chats it up on this sun-splashed beauty of a card from 1970 Topps....A defensive wiz at second base, Maz was enshrined in Cooperstown in 2001...Famously sunk the Yankees with a walk-off  homer in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series....Bill's rookie card can be found in the 1957 set....His final Topps card was right around the corner from today's Jukebox hit, as the '72 set was Mazeroski's cardboard swan song....Collected four hits including a double in an 11-0 pasting of the Dodgers, 8/23/70.

*MK*

1998 Topps, Dante Bichette

Card No. 155

A member of the inaugural 1993 Colorado Rockies team and a big part of the "Blake Street Bombers" from the mid-to-late '90s, outfielder Dante Bichette is shown taking a mighty cut on today's Jukebox hit....Posted a .316 average and 201 homers over seven prolific seasons in Denver....1998 is the first of two consecutive years Topps went with gold borders on their base cards...Bichette's rookie card is contained in the 1989 set....Dante led all of baseball with 219 base hits during the '98 season.

*MK*

2012 Topps, Jim Thome

Card No. 371

A 2018 Cooperstown inductee and a member of the 600 Home Run Club, Jim Thome is shown here in the midst of this second (albeit brief) go-round with the Phillies....I didn't even realize prior to writing this post, but this is Thome's final Topps card....Thome had three prior cards as a Phil, beginning with his 2003 Update entry....His rookie card appears in the 1992 base set....Jim split the 2012 season--his final is the big leagues--between Philly (30 games) and Baltimore (28 games), clubbing 8 total homers.

*MK*

2002 Topps, Hideo Nomo

Card No. 210

In a span of four seasons beginning with 1998, Hideo Nomo played for five different ball clubs, including the Red Sox....How many of you knew the "Osaka Express" made a stop in Boston?....This isn't Hideo's only Topps card from 2002, as he also made an appearance in that year's "Traded and Rookies" set as a Dodger....You can find Nomo's rookie card in the 1996 Topps set....Back with the club he broke in with, Nomo made 34 starts for the Dodgers in '02, putting up a 16-6 mark with an 3.39 ERA.

*MK*