5 Baseball Cards with Solid New Year's Resolutions
May they inspire your 2026 wax stains and gum dust
Happy Sunday, and, more specifically, welcome to the last Sunday of 2025!
High time to get your New Year’s resolutions in order if you haven’t already. In the spirit of inspiration for that task, here are five baseball cards that will be working on some self-improvement projects of their own in 2026.
1967 Topps Claude Raymond (#364)
Claude Raymond was an All-Star for the first and only time in 1966, representing the Houston Astros along with Joe Morgan.
The right-hander was Houston’s closer that summer, a promotion from his setup role in previous seasons, including 1965, when he led Astros relievers with a 2.90 ERA.
In 1966, Raymond went 7-5 with a 3.13 ERA and 16 saves at the back of the bullpen, and he’d continue to pitch well in that role until June of 1967. That’s when the Astros traded him to Atlanta, where Phil Niekro (!) was the closer.
That move allowed the knuckler to move to the rotation more or less fulltime and sort of changed the course of baseball history.
While Raymond was busy settling in to the Braves’ bullpen, he was still greeting collectors as an Astro. And, just like with his 1966 Topps card, he gave them more than an eyeful.
Now, to be fair to Raymond, the pictures for both cards were almost certainly taken on the same day, probably within seconds of each other, in 1965 or before.
That means he probably contributed to the snafu just once, but the visual assault somehow made it through all the gatekeepers two years in a row.
It’s a lesson — or two — for all of us.
New Year’s Resolution: Pay attention to details.
See also: 10 Fun Classic Baseball Cards that Make Everyday Feel Like Friday
1974 Topps Joe Ferguson (#86)
Joe Ferguson was an excellent quarterback — if not one of the greatest of his era, certainly one of the most durable and present.
For most of 12 seasons, Ferguson helmed the Buffalo Bills, starting 163 of the 164 games he appeared in from 1973 through 1984. Most of those teams were pretty bad, but they did make the playoffs three times (1974, 1980, 1981).
Meanwhile, Joe Ferguson was an excellent catcher, though neither one of the greatest nor most durable of his era (at least judging by games played). Still, he appeared in 300 contests behind the plate for the Dodgers from 1970 to 1976.
Ferguson was at his diamond peak in 1973, when he caught 122 games and hit .263 with 25 home runs and 88 RBI. In one of those games, the Topps photographer caught lightning in a bottle for Ferguson’s 1974 card.
They also caught the backside of Phillies shortstop Craig Robinson as he…bent to clean the end of his bat? Eased into a yoga pose? Searched for a dropped penny?
Meanwhile, Craig Robinson was a tackle for the New Orleans Saints, gearing up for his second season in the NFL. That November (1973, that is), his team would host Ferguson (in his rookie season) and the Bills at Tulane Stadium.
By then, little Craig Robinson had turned two years old, in October, and was probably already making life fun(ny) for his family in Chicago. After all, the Dunder Mifflin warehouse just wouldn’t have been the same without Darryl’s deadpan three decades later.
And you can bet Craig Robinson could have told Craig Robinson — and maybe Craig Robinson and any of the Joe Fergusons — that you don’t turn your back to the audience.
All of which leads us to 1974 Topps Joe Ferguson’s resolution, in asking-for-a-friend (that would be Craig Robinson) style.
New Year’s Resolution: Work on my stage presence.
See also: Which Player Made a Rear End of Himself of the 1974 Topps Joe Ferguson Baseball Card?
1976 Topps Johnny Bench (#300)
If Major League Baseball ever decided to stage a production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, they could fill out a pretty convincing cast lineup with a roster of classic baseball cards.
Let your imagination run wild, and you might envision cards of…
Pete Rose as Lucy and Ray Fosse as Charlie Brown…
Joe Torre and Don Zimmer as Peppermint Patty and Marcie, respectively. Or maybe you’d opt for Bobby Cox and Leo Mazzone? Or Terry Francona and Brad Mills?
Satchel Paige or Roy Lee Jackson as Schroeder…
You get the idea, and I’m sure you’d have your own picks (What are they, by the way??)
And since we’ve already extended the cast beyond what the play usually calls for by adding in Marcie, let’s go ahead and add in another favorite, one that lets us pull in one of the greatest baseball cards of all time.
So, in the role of Pig-Pen, we have…1976 Topps Johnny Bench!
Now, of course, there’s nothing about Bench that screams unwashed or dirty, except maybe his filthy batting lines during the 1970s.
And there are, of course, plenty of other catcher cards, and other-player cards, that feature a cloud of dust. That 1971 Topps Thurman Munson is a classic, for example, but does the cloud belong to Tugboat or to Chuck Dobson??
On the 1976 Bench card, the cloud is all Johnny’s, and it just lingers around him, reminiscent of, well, Pig-Pen. Don’t you get the feeling that the haze followed Bench back into his crouch for the next pitch?
And then to the dugout between innings? And to the batter’s box his next time up?
And maybe all the way to the showers and beyond?
For what it’s worth, Bench’s cards were mostly Clean Gene from 1977 on through the rest of his career, so the Pig-Pen Phenomenon had a short stay in our shoe boxes.
But that one glorious card, one of the most iconic of the 1970s — or any era — has something to work on in the new year.
New Year’s Resolution: Step up my personal hygiene game.
See also: The Last Johnny Bench Card Was a Real Champion
1982 Fleer Woodie Fryman (#189)
Like many pitchers of his generation, Woodie Fryman did a little bit of everything on the mound, and he stayed in the majors until he was 71 years old.
To wit, his lifetime pitching line included a 141-155 record, 3.77 ERA, 322 starts among 625 total games pitched, 68 complete games, 27 shutouts, and 58 saves.
Along the way, the lefthander tossed more than 2400 innings, struck out nearly 1600 batters, walked 890, and gave up more than 2300 hits. That’s a lot of pitches he uncorked over 18 years in the majors for six different teams, starting in 1966.
By 1981, at the age of 41 (OK, so maybe 71 was a slight exaggeration), the man had a right to be tired. So can you blame him for taking a load off, crisscross-applesauce-style right there next to the Buick-sized camera and in front of that industrial metal thing (furnace?) that looks like it belongs in Saw?
Even at the risk of a baseball card photographer catching him in the act?
Nah, you can’t blame him, and it wasn’t Woodie’s first or last foray into the realm of cardboard reclination — see his 1981 Topps and Fleer cards, or his 1983 Fleer issue for further evidence of his chillability.
No doubt thanks in part to his ability to relax and recover, Fryman kept chugging until the second half of the 1983 season. He was 43 years old when he threw his last pitch for the Montreal Expos on July 28.
This card gives us at least two different angles for a change-this-way resolution. As Fryman observers, we could take a page from his book and vow to learn how to kick back a bit…stop and smell the film reel.
That sort of thing.
But from the perspective of the Fryman on the card, or the card itself, we’ll go with…
New Year’s Resolution: Build enough stamina to make it through a one-shot photo session without sitting down.
See also: How 1982 Fleer Made John Littlefield a Hobby Legend
1989 Donruss Ron Washington (#468)
Ron Washington has been through a ton of *stuff* during his major league career. Sure, a lot of it seems to have been self-imposed, but not all of it.
And no matter the source of his trials and tribulations, Washington just keeps coming back to the game he loves. That makes it tough for fans not to love him, too.
Now, about that long career of his…
Washington debuted in the majors with the Dodgers in September 1977, then didn’t show up again until 1981, with the Twins. He played part-time with Minnesota through 1986, then signed successive one-year free agent deals with the Orioles, Indians, and Astros.
By the time he played his final big league game on July 7, 1989, Washington was already 37 years old, and he’d be in the coaching ranks within a couple of years.
But also by the time of that final game, Washington had added one more round of major league cardboard to his master set. That last run included Fleer and Upper Deck cards, but also maybe the most iconic card of his entire career.
Interpret that 1989 Donruss card above how you will, but to me, it always conjures visions of a late night spent catching up with teammates early in Spring Training, followed by a too-early morning workout.
And the blazing Arizona sun stabbing into sleep-deprived eyes that were buried under a mound of pillows just a couple minutes before the camera memorialized the whole scene.
New Year’s Resolution: Get more sleep the night before big days at work.
See also: Ron Washington Had a Rough Night with His 1989 Donruss Card
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You could derive a fitting resolution from just about any baseball card, if you set your mind to it…
1988 Topps Mike Schmidt: Make sure your hair isn’t on backwards before you leave the house.
1960 Gus Bell: Find a way to be this happy at least once a day.
1984 Fleer Roy Lee Jackson: Always carry a spare tuning fork with you — never know when duty will call!
So…
What are some baseball cards that either scream “resolution!” to you or inspire you to make some of your own?
As for me, well, I’m thinking 1984 Fleer Glenn Hubbard or 1986 Fleer Mickey Hatcher might finally inspire me to get a little silly. This place is far too serious.
Thanks for reading.
—Adam
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