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1976 basketball card of Moses Malone, who came directly out of high school to play in the pros when he joined the ABA Utah Stars in 1974.  Jumping directly from high school to the pros became commonplace recently but was rare in the 1970s when Malone did it. Malone was drafted in the ABA player dispersal draft by Portland when the leagues merged, but never played for the Trailblazers. They traded him to the Buffalo Braves but he only played 2 games for them before being shipped to Houston. Malone’s career spanned 21 seasons and he won an NBA title with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1983.

1974 Topps “error” card of legendary slugger Willie McCovey. McCovey, who teamed with Willie Mays to give the San Francisco Giants a great power hitting tandem for years, wound up in San Diego at the tail end of his career. Before the ’74 season the Padres were slated to be moved to Washington, D.C.  The move fell through, but not before this card was released. Note that McCovey’s team at the top of the card is listed as “Washington”.  At the Giants new stadium, the part of San Francisco Bay outside the right field wall that is inviting to left-handed power hitters (like Willie was) is unofficially known as “McCovey Cove”.

“The Great One”…Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers, who is the greatest hockey player of all time, bar none. He shattered the NHL record book after joining the league along with the Oilers when the WHA folded. After helping the Oilers end the Islanders’ dynasty and winning multiple Stanley Cups, Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in what is still considered the darkest moment in Canadian sports history. He helped the Kings to the Cup finals and finished his career with the New York Rangers, mostly as an attempt by the league to promote the game.

From www.CheckOutMyCards.com , a 1962 football card of Hall of Famer Bobby Mitchell. On this card Mitchell is listed as a Washington Redskin but is still wearing his Cleveland Browns uniform, having just been traded. He was a respected 1,000 rusher as a back with the Browns, but his being added to the Redskin roster was more than just your standard run-of-the-mill trade. He became the first African-American player on the last NFL team to integrate, and faced heavy prejudice when he arrived in Washington. The Redskins owner at the time, George Preston Marshall, was a staunch segregationist, and only added Mitchell to his roster after the government threatened to revoke his lease on the team’s stadium, which had been built with government money. Needless to say, Mitchell wasn’t welcomed with open arms. To his credit, he persevered as a Redskin player, and was one of many of that era to switch from the “halfback” to the “flankerback” position, essentially becoming a wide receiver rather than a runner.

1963 Topps baseball card, supposedly of Chicago Cubs outfielder Don Landrum. Oops, another error! The picture on the card is of an all-time Cubbies’ favorite, third baseman Ron Santo. Santo was always one of the under-appreciated players of his time, usually playing second fiddle to Baltimore’s Brooks Robinson as far as third basemen of the 1960s. That continues even until today, as Santo has yet to be voted into the baseball hall of fame, an honor he clearly deserves. Landrum was a journeyman in his career, playing for 4 different MLB teams over a 10 year span.

1972 Topps basketball card of NBA great Rick Barry. Barry was one of the league’s most prolific shooters in his career, and was the main cog in the Golden State Warriors’ unexpected title run in 1974. Barry was also one of the league’s greatest free throw shooters, using an unorthodox underhand style. Barry played a brief stint in the old ABA  (with 4 different teams) but his best known for his Bay Area years with the Warriors. He worked as an NBA television analyst after his playing career ended.

1987 hockey card of former Los Angeles King Luc Robitaille. A 2009 inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame, Robitaille, having played 14 seasons in L.A., holds most of the Kings’ career scoring records. He won a Stanley Cup as a member of the Detroit Red Wings in 2002. He was the highest scoring left winger in NHL history upon his retirement in 2005.

1968 football card of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson, a Hall of Famer. Dawson quarterbacked the Chiefs to 3 American Football League championships, one in the league’s third season of existence when they were still the Dallas Texans. The other title game victories sent the Chiefs on to Super Bowls, as they lost the first Super Bowl ever, to Green Bay, then got retribution in Super Bowl IV by defeating the Minnesota Vikings.

This is a 1956 Topps baseball card of Boston Red Sox outfielder Jim Piersall. Piersall played for 5 different teams between 1950 and 1967 and had a decent major league career, but is best known for struggling with bi-polar disorder and being portrayed by Anthony Perkins (of Psycho fame) in the movie Fear Strikes Out. This is a line from Piersall’s autobiography:  “Probably the best thing that ever happened to me was going nuts. Who ever heard of Jimmy Piersall, until that happened?” He worked as a baseball broadcaster after his playing career ended, including a stint with the Chicago White Sox where he was teamed with Harry Caray. Those must have been anything but boring broadcasts.

1973 Topps basketball card of former Los Angeles Laker Pat Riley. Riley was basically a spare part as a player for the Lakers but would later coach them to multiple NBA titles. Riley currently runs the Miami Heat and was responsible for assembling the free agent “dream team”  of Dwayne Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh.