SIGnificant Cards - Fleer Genuine Miguel Cabrera Auto

The 2012 baseball season is finally underway. To me the game has completely lost its luster. I can blame many things including ticket prices, concession prices, roids, attitudes and more, but it really comes down to the fact that baseball has become watered down. There are too many games, too many teams and the league has been far too relaxed with its punishment toward players abusing their drug policies.

I was out totally for awhile. You couldn't pay me to watch a game. I'd rather tune in for a hockey game, a game of roundball or my favorite -- the NFL. To be honest, I even prefer NASCAR and Soccer these days. But, in 1999 I decided to attend a few minor league games. I watched this young kid named Lance Berkman just absolutely kill the ball in a couple of games in Las Vegas. I followed him as he eventually was brought up by the Astros. It wasn't until 2002-03 that I got lured back into watching MLB on a more regular basis. I saw the Mudcats play and this skinny kid named Miguel Cabrera was just eating Double A pitching for lunch. It wasn't long before he was brought up to the Florida Marlins and began beating down National League pitching too.

In what seemed like an instant, he became their cleanup hitter. In addition to being a phenomenal pure hitter, he smacked a significant amount of dingers helping the Marlins reach new heights and a World Series victory.

I had been a follower, and his skills made me a fan. I began searching out his rookie and autographed cards. Of the ones I have collected, this is by far my favorite. Fleer, in my opinion was producing the very best baseball cards at the time of their demise. They were trying new things and in some ways they were also playing catch-up with Upper Deck. The fact is, they also crafted some of the very best brands at the same time. Avant, Genuine, Patchworks, Greats of the Game and E-X produced some of the most exciting card designs of modern times. Say what you want about them, but you can never take that away from the team that worked there.

This Cabrera card comes from the 2004 Fleer Genuine Insider collection. The card and the concept is just simply cool. You have what appears to be a thick regular-sized 2.5 x 3.5 trading card. The magic is that the card slides out and inside is a beautiful autograph or in some cases a giant swatch of game-used material. Yeah, I said game-used, not a swatch that could be this, or might be that. You know the ones where the manufacturer won't even tell you what it is, or where it came from. It's not some swatch of junk with no description used just to make the card look nice.

Anyway, enough rambling, it's a cool card, and best of all Russ Cohen found it while dumpster diving at the Fleer offices during our broadcast that reported them closing their doors for good.

Ok, I totally made up that last part, I pulled it out of a pack myself. But wouldn't that have been funny? I know for a fact that people were indeed dumpster diving at the Fleer offices and always wondered what they found. I wish Fleer was still around. Not the Fleer that Upper Deck has, but the real deal. They were creative, innovative and with the exception of a ton of redemption cards, they did a fantasic job producing some of the better baseball cards of the early 2000s.

Update 9/2012: With one day left in the season, Miggy is looking at the first Triple Crown since Yaz did it in 1967! Cabrera is in my opinion the best player in the game today. I applaud the way he's dealt with his demons and is back on top of the game. This is a good story. Who doesn't love a good story?

SIGnificant Cards - Bob Feller 2003 Fleer Rookies & Greats The Naturals

A Bob Feller auto might be easy to find
but it is a must have.

Bob Feller. Where do I start? If you regularly listen to my show Cardboard Connection Radio you know we have a few good stories about Bob. But the one thing that all collectors know is that there are a boatload of Bob Feller autographs out there. I pulled 14 Feller autos out of packs over my years of collecting.

On one show not to long ago, we gave out a prize to the person that showed us the most ridiculous thing Feller ever signed. We did this in jest because there wasn't anything Bob wouldn't sign and collectors loved him for it. It's not often a man that has Feller's career stats still liked to sign his autograph. Well we got a lot of entries but by far the winner was a kid. Yes, you read that right, Bob once signed a kid. You can't make that up and you certainly can't pull that out of a pack!

Among the Feller autos I found in packs, the one pictured here is my favorite.It comes from 2003 Fleer Rookies & Greats. I really like the vintage image and the grayscale and black combination on the card. I think it hearkens back to the days Feller played the game and it didn't need color to be classy. It's also a nice clean and legible signature. Why they opted to do a cut-out auto instead of on card befuddles me a little, but compared to some of the ridiculous autographs you see out there today, Bob had a really great signature.

Now while Feller autos might be pretty easy to come by, there is no denying his greatness on the field. He's an 8-time all-star, hall of famer and many have said he was the best pitcher of his era. With 266 career wins, many write him off because he isn't a member of the 300 club. He is a must have for any real baseball fan that respects the greats of the game.

He served in the U.S. Navy from 1941-1954 and there is not a doubt in anyone's mind that he'd have eclipsed 300 with those additional years in the majors. I have more respect for the fact that he was the first active MLB player to sign up for the military after  Japan attacked Pearl Harbor than I have for him as a player, and he was one hell of a player.