1967 Topps Hall of Famer Lou Brock St Louis Cardinals

In honor of this being Super Bowl Sunday, I wanted to share a super addition to my 1967 Topps Autographed Baseball Card set. It is of Hall of Fame outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, Lou Brock. Card number 285 out of the 1967 Topps Baseball card set of 609 cards.

This card was obtained as a gift from my very good friend and baseball enthusiast, Jim "Z" Zylstra. He sent the card to Lou Brock requesting an autograph and Lou graciously signed the card in a beautiful blue sharpie. Lou is an example of a player who knows how to sign a card, signature is very legible and centered in the card.

Lou Brock's career started in 1961 with the Chicago Cubs. He played there until 1964, when he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. In a trade that history calls one of the most lopsided, Brock, Jack Spring and Paul Toth went to the Cardinals in exchange for Ernie Broglio, Bobby Shantz and Doug Clemens. Lou Brock's career blossomed in St. Louis; winning 2 World Series Championships (1964 and 1967), elected to 6 All-Star games and having his number 20 uniform retired by the Cardinals in 1979. His career statistics are very impressive, 3023 hits, .293 batting average, 149 home runs, 900 runs batted in and at the time, the record 938 stolen bases. He led the league in stolen bases eight times and broke Maury Wills single season stolen base record of 104 by stealing 118 bases in 1974. Lou Brock ended his career in 1979 as a member of the Cardinals and in 1985 he was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

To learn more about Lou Brock's fabulous career, go to wikipedia.org.

Looking for great baseball apparel and collectibles, go to dugoutdug.com.

1967 Topps Maury Wills Pirates Dodgers

The mailbox did not have any new surprises today. Therefore, I went back into my collection of 1967 Topps Autographed baseball cards and found this card of Maury Wills, third baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Card number 570 out of the set of 609. This card is particularly difficult to find because it is from the 7th and last series of cards distributed in 1967.

This autographed card was purchased from a dealer on ebay in November 2009 with a certificate of authenticity. Maury Wills signed the card with a nice blue sharpie.

Maury Wills played 14 years in the major leagues with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates and Montreal Expos. He played shortstop for the majority of his career where he won 2 Gold Glove Awards, the 1962 Most Valuable Player award, appeared in 5 All-Star games and won 3 World Series Championships. His career batting average was .281 with 2134 hits and 586 stolen bases, which was Maury's specialty, leading the league 6 times.

During the 1962 season, Maury Wills stole 104 bases, which set a major league record at that time, a record held by Hall of Famer Ty Cobb since 1915. In fact, Wills stole more bases by himself than each of the other team's entire totals. The next highest total for a team was 99 by the Washington Senators. He won the National League Most Valuable Player award for his efforts. To learn more about Maury Wills, read his biography at wikipedia.org.