Some of My Favorite Pirates Cards For Bob Walk the Plank

By now, many of the members of the baseball card blogging community, as well as the viewers, have learned that Matthew Scott of Bob Walk the Plank is retiring after over 4 years of blogging about all things Pirates.

It's always sad to see a good blogger retire. I know I'm not alone when I say that I thoroughly enjoyed

catching up with Matt as well as the Pirates franchise through his blog despite not being an avid Pirates fan myself. It's quite easy to tell that the blog is run by someone who is extremely passionate about the entire Pirates organization. The blog is focused on one main thing in particular and Matthew has done an excellent job at making the Pirates appealing to everyone, no matter who they typically root for.

As a way to pay homage to Matt and the Bob Walk the Plank blog, I've searched through my Pirates cards to find 10 of my own favorite Pirates cards, a decision usually based on the uniform being worn by the player on each card. The Pirates' black and gold colors have caused them to become quite synonymous and prominent on cardboard and thus, it was difficult to choose just 10 Pirates cards since the classic jerseys gave me hundreds of options to choose from.

The first one being the 1972 Topps Jackie Hernandez card at the top of the page, here is the rest of the 10 Pirates cards I have selected in honor of Bob Walk the Plank.

This Bob Veale card seems to represent the exact opposite of what we expect to see from 2010's baseball cards. Pink is the primary border color, Veale is wearing big glasses that made it on the card, I could go on. However, it really works because the 60's made it work. The card is simply just everything I love about not just the 60's, but the Pirates in general.

1971 Topps is one of the best, if not the best set to feature Pirates players in. The gold and black team colors combined with the black borders are a perfect combination. I knew there would be a ton of colorful borders coming after the 70's, so I went with Jose Martinez's more simple 1971 Topps card for the list.

If I had to list my top 10 favorite baseball cards of all-time, I'm pretty certain the 1978 Grant Jackson card shown above would be an honorable mention at the very least. I have no clue what ballpark this is from or what Jackson is even wearing. All I know is that I'm a huge fan of the entire card, especially the crazy workout jacket he's wearing.

Of all the different combinations the Pirates have done over the years for their jerseys, the all-gold shirt and pants would have to rank as one of my all-time favorites. It's just so eye-catching that the one doesn't really notice the fact that the player isn't wearing much black on his jersey.

Mike Easler appears to be wearing the same jersey on this card that Omar Moreno is wearing on the 1982 Donruss card shown above. The main difference is the hair that is visible on this card while not visible on the Moreno card, and it truly symbolizes not just the era he's playing in, but everything the Pirates were all about at that time.

I actually had to narrow down my choices for the 1983 Topps card I wanted to include down from 18 to 1 as I found 1 sheets worth of options. In the end, I knew I wanted to include a catcher's card which is why this card beat out all the other options. The black catcher's gear is just an added bonus for a card that is already very well-done.

Kent Tekulve remains one of the most interesting players to ever play the game of baseball. He was incredibly skinny and tall and wore such 80's glasses that you wouldn't expect him to have the successful career that he had for the Pirates and Phillies along with a very brief time with the Reds towards the end of the relief pitcher's career.

It's one thing to be able to encapsulate what an era of baseball history was like while it's happening. But for a card company like the Ted Williams company to perfectly recreate what the 70's was all about for the Pirates through a Dock Ellis card 20 years after his best seasons is a totally different, and very impressive feat.

If only Fleer had gone with an accurate Pirates logo to reflect the time period for their 2000 Fleer Greats of the Game card of Phil Garner. If they had done that instead of the 2000's Pirates logo which, I must say, is not my favorite, we would've somehow had an even more impressive card than the one shown above.

I have countless Pirates cards that I could've chosen from with dozens of incredible uniforms that make up everything that I like about the Bob Walk the Plank blog and the Pirates in general. However, I like the cards I chose so much because they range from the 60's all the way to the 2000's. It shows the change in not just baseball, but the Pirates as well. However, the bright uniforms were one of the things that, no matter what, stayed the same.

Thanks for all the great posts Bob Walk the Plank. It's been a pleasure.