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Billy Ripken had a decent major league career as an infielder, but nothing close to the career enjoyed by brother Cal Ripken Jr., baseball’s all-time iron man. But this “error” baseball card of Billy lives on in infamy. Apparently nobody noticed the little x-rated message on the knob of the bat he’s holding in the picture for this card. One story says that writing “f**k face” on his bat was a prank pulled off by teammates, although Ripken says he wrote the message on the bat to distinguish it as one of his batting practice bats so it wouldn’t get mixed in with his game bats. Wouldn’t a simple “X” have worked for that?

With the Los Angeles Lakers about to begin defense of their NBA title against Boston, a good card to feature is this 1971 Topps card of Laker legend Jerry West. West’s silhouette dribbling the basketball was actually incorporated into the current NBA logo. West’s Lakers were unsuccessful in six attempts to beat the Celtics for the title in the 1960s, and Jerry won only 1 championship ring in his long distinguished career as a player. He had a long run as the Lakers’ general manager and is still considered one of the league’s top talent evaluators.

The Philadelphia Flyers are in a bit of a hole in this year’s Stanley Cup Finals, but even if they don’t come back and win they should celebrate a terrific season. This 1980 Topps card of Flyers’ goalie Wayne Stephenson is from the era when goalie masks were still “Friday the 13th” scary.

This is a 1961 AFL football “error” card of defensive back Austin “Goose” Gonsoulin. The player in the picture is actually Darryl Rogers, who didn’t have much of a playing career but went on to become a legendary college football coach.  The card company can be excused for identification errors on the players in the early years of the AFL. I don’t think the coaches even knew who half the players on their team were back then.

Eddie Grant, shown in this 1911 baseball card, was the first major league player killed in action in World War I. He was Captain of the 77th Infantry Division, and was killed by an exploding shell on October15, 1918.

The 1956 Topps baseball cards included both a profile picture of the player and an action shot on the front of the card. Unfortunately on this Henry Aaron card the player sliding into home plate in the action photo is actually Willie Mays.

The 1961 Fleer card of The Big “O”….Oscar Robertson, one of the NBA’s all-time greats. He starred for the old Cincinnati Royals for 10 years before moving on to the Milwaukee Bucks, where he teamed with a rookie center named Lew Alcindor (we know him now as Kareem Abdul Jabbar) to bring an NBA title to that city.

This is a card of legendary  goaltender Gump Worsley, from late in his career when he was with the expansion Minnesota North Stars. Yeah, he probably looks like your 70 year old grandfather in this card but this is what you end up looking like when you play your entire career, spanning 20+ seasons, without a mask. Actually he did wear a mask but was one of the last holdouts, wearing one for only the final 6 games of his career. His coach once accused him of being out of shape and having a beer belly, and Gump replied, “Just goes to show you what he knows. I only drink Johnnie Walker Red”.

From CheckOutMyCards.com, the 1962 Topps card of Chicago Bears’ legend Mike Ditka. Ditka was the first tight end elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and coached the “Super Bowl Shuffle” Bears to an NFL title in 1986. He was born to be a Bear and even resembles the bear in the team’s logo (especially in his coaching years when he grew some hair).

This a 1955 Bowman card of Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts, who recently passed away. He pitched most of his career for the Philadelphia Phillies and was part of the “Whiz Kids” Phillies’ team in the 1950s. The television frame on the 1955 Bowman cards make them very unique.