5 Baseball Cards to Top Off Your Easter Basket

The colors and puns and cheese of April await

Happy Easter!

However you celebrate this day, or whether you celebrate at all, this is always a great time of year for baseball fans.

We’ve got a new season underway, after all, and Spring always puts us in the mood for some baseball cards (as do summer, fall, winter, eating dinner, going to the doctor, taking my next breath, amont others).

Just in case you aren’t feeling the season yet, here are some cool/silly/great cards to make your Easter a bit more festive.

1951 Bowman Luke Easter (#258)

Easter’s life story is one of hardship and tragedy, but also one of great accomplishment and glory, even if not to the levels he deservied. It’s baseball history all fans should be acquainted with.

For our purposes here, of course, only Easter could lead off and star on our All-Easter Team. He had some great early Bowman cards, too, but none better than this 1951 beauty.

1972 Topps Rich Reese (#611)

At some point in the dusty bowels of my ramblings, I anointed the 1972 Topps Harmon Killebrew card as the best of the set. But Killer has nothing on Twins teammate Rich Reese when it comes to in-your-face lumber among the ‘72s.

When this card was issued, Reese was coming off three straight seasons of double-digit homers. He wouldn’t get there again.

But no Easter basket is complete without some Reese’s peanut butter eggs.

And, speaking of Easter eggs.

1982 Fleer Mike Easler (#481)

Easler was one of the first non-Reds guys who really caught my eye, thanks partly to his dramatic mile-wide stance in the batter’s box.

He could generate some power with that stance, too, peaking with 27 home runs in Boston in 1984.

So, I always liked Easler’s baseball cards, too.

And, when you can get Mike Easler and a photo bomb from a potential Hall of Famer on the same card, it’s a double win.

It’s also a Luis-Tiant-sized Easter Egg.

1982 Topps Shooty Babitt (#578)

“Babitt” was about the closest thing I could find to “rabbit” among my cards when I was a kid. Later, there would be some TCMA-ish nods to Rabbit Maranville, but Shooty was the guy for a lot of years.

And he looked the part on his 1982 Topps rookie card, too: diminutive, young and fit, donning the Billy Ball A’s uniform.

Looked and sounded like he could fly.

He did show some speed on the bases, manifested in both steals and triples in the minors, and in a brief 1981 trip to the majors. He just never “stuck.”

Indeed our Easter Babitt never really got a chance to see his MLB Peeps go stale.

1986 Fleer Limited Edition Jose Cruz (#13)

Cruz is our nod to the proverbial meaning of the season, since “cruz” as a noun is the Spanish equivalent of “cross” in English.

But the player himelf fits right in on Easter morning, too. Always fresh and full of spring-Time energy, Cruz brought enough color to the field to fill a houseful of Easter baskets.

From his windmill stance that outdistanced even Easler’s to his high-flying, hustling playing style, Cruz was always visible on the diamond.

Add in his Astros rainbow and the color scheme lifted from 1975 Topps, and this old Fleer box-set card is ready to dig into the Easter ham.

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Here’s hoping ol’ E.B. made it to your place last night and dropped off some diamond goodies. And, if not, you can always pull out your own stack of cardboard memories … as always!

Until next time, enjoy the jelly-bean-and-Cadbury high, and especially enjoy the shine of our new baseball season.

Thanks for reading.

—Adam