9 Cards of #9

A longtime member of the blogging community, It's like having my own Card Shop is celebrating 9 years of blogging. In a week that's seen one of my favorite bloggers, Bob Walk the Plank, retire from the baseball card blogging world, it's very nice to see that there are still plenty of card blogs continue doing what they're doing. 

As a way to celebrate 9 years, It's like having my own Card Shop is throwing a contest to win a package of Paul Goldschmidt cards as well as at least 1 card for the winners PC, which would be Craig Kimbrel in my case. I didn't find out about the contest until late yesterday, and today is the last day to enter. This means that I will have to put off some very exciting news until tomorrow's blog post, so stay tuned for that.

For my entry, I've decided to select 9 cards of #9 for the Boston Red Sox, perhaps the greatest hitter of all-time, Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams. I knew I wanted to choose 9 cards of a player who wore #9 for my entry. There were other players I could've chosen like Roger Maris or Reggie Jackson, but I decided to go with Williams instead.

The Distinguished Service card at the top of this post is quite possibly my favorite card of Williams. It's the first of the 9 cards I'll be showcasing on this blog post. Here are the rest of them.

I remember getting this card at my very first card show that I ever attended many, many years ago with my Dad. I recall coming home with some stacks of Red Sox cards because that's all I really collected back then. Out of all the cards I brought home that day, this one is the only one I truly remember.

The 3rd card is also a card from the short-lived Ted Williams Card Company set. To my knowledge, the set lasted just 2 years. However, it's become one of my favorite sets of all-time due to the design, players included in the set, and the hand-painted cards like the one shown above of Williams himself, who was not afraid to include multiple cards of himself in the set.

Ted Williams is known for having the very first card in the 1958 Topps set, which was remade for the 2001 Topps Archives set, the 1st year of the revived brand. Not only was the card replicated pretty much to perfection, but they also kept the iconic 50's Red Sox logo rather than swapping it out, something I really appreciate due to how big a fan I am of the short-lived 50's logo.

Despite being quite possibly the greatest hitter in baseball history, Williams is often underrepresented in baseball card sets. This is likely due to the shortage of images available to use of Williams. Still, a player of his caliber deserves to be included in sets more than he currently is, though I have seen a steady rise in Ted Williams card production over the last 5 years.

Williams was a very good choice for the first-ever Topps Allen & Ginter set. They went for a lot of historic players in this set such as Mickey Mantle and Monte Irvin. There were definitely more old-time players included in the first couple A&G sets than there have been in Allen & Ginter sets over the last couple years.

Like I said, the last few years have seen a steady increase in Ted Williams cards being produced. After 2007 or so, there were very few cards of his until 2013-2014. After that, he's been fairly well-represented in sets such as Gypsy Queen. Case and point, his base card from the 2015 set. 

2016 was also a good year for Ted Williams card collectors as we saw a card of his with a brand-new modernized image included in 2016 Topps Archives, specifically in the 1991 Topps design. I suppose my favorite part of the card is something I hadn't noticed till right now, the different people all lined up in the background getting ready to take their seats and see Ted play.

The final of the 9 Ted Williams cards I've selected for this post and contest entry is the Power Alley insert from 2016 Topps Gypsy Queen. The card not only features a new image of Williams and a well-done design but also includes his career home run total, 521. Without a doubt, Williams would have surpassed 600 career dingers if not for his years of military service during his prime.