5 Belly-Busting Baseball Cards for Your Thanksgiving Feast

Cardboard has fiber...right?

Major breaking news…Thursday is Thanksgiving here in the U.S.

As usual, there’s plenty to be thankful for, whether or not you celebrate the actual holiday.

I do, and will, so thought I’d share some Thanksgiving-themed baseball cards I’m happy to have around.

Suspend your disbelief for a few minutes, and drink in the splendor of…

1968 Topps Buddy Bradford (#142)

I can just hear you now — “Uh, what does Buddy Bradford have to do with Thanksgiving, exactly?”

Well, how about this?

Buddy’s full name is Charles William Bradford.

The first Thanksgiving, at least sort of or mythologically, took place in Plymouth Colony as a feast to celebrate a bountiful harvest in 1621, which followed the deadly winter of 1620-21.

The governor of Plymouth Colony that fall was William Bradford.

So there’s your Thanksgiving tie-in, enhanced by the presence of Bill (aka William) Voss on this rookie card.

As for Bradford (Buddy, not William), he played parts of 11 seasons in the big leagues, mostly with the White Sox. He hit .226 in 697 total games, with a tendency to strike out and draw walks. He also managed 52 home runs and 26 stolen bases while appearing at all three outfield positions, as a DH, and as a pinch hitter.

Oh, and one game at third base.

All in all, a career to be thankful for.

1971 Topps Ron Hunt (#578)

You can’t have a proper Thanksgiving without a turkey, unless you’re some sort of miscreant. I mean, even the vegans in my family serve their tofu soup out of turkey-shaped ceramic goo boats on this festive day.

We’re going really traditional with our main course for this little exercise, with a turkey hunt.

Or, more specifically, a turkey Hunt.

As in Ron Hunt, the two-time All-Star and second-place finisher in 1963 National League Rookie of the Year balloting (to Pete Rose).

This card itself is a little bit of a turkey, too, thanks to the magic-marker blackout of the Giants logo. A swish here, a scribble there, and Topps had the standout second baseman in his new team’s “uniform” just in time for his 1971 Expos debut.

Couple that handiwork with the classic black borders of the 1971 Topps set, and we even get a nod to Black Friday.

1976 Topps Pie Traynor (#343)

OK, I take back what I said up there in the Ron Hunt entry. You probably could stage a proper Thanksgiving without the bird, provided you slather your harvest table with pie.

Lots and lots of pie.

That was also part of the approach the Pittsburgh Pirates took in the 1920s as they attempted to rebound from some down years that followed the retirement of Honus Wagner.

Among other developments, they plugged in Pie Traynor as their starting third baseman in 1922 and left him there through1934. During that stretch, Pittsburgh won a World Series, lost another, and played winning baseball most years.

Over the course of his 17-year career, Traynor hit a shiny .320 and picked up 164 triples, still 30th all time. For his troubles, he made the Hall of Fame cut in 1948 and the Sporting News All-Time All-Star roster in 1976.

This collector, for one, was pretty thankful to encounter this card and others from the concomitant Topps subset sometime back in the mid-1980s.

1979 Topps Doug Bird (#664)

Dialects differ, and also, sometimes people want to sound cool when they talk about their holidays.

As in, “Man, I’m telling you, that bird must have weighed 30 pounds. I thought the table was going to collapse!”

Or, “I ate so much bird last week that I’m growing feathers on my…uh…baseball cards.”

Which makes this cheeky Doug Bird baseball card a perfect addition to our holiday rotation. He looks pretty happy with himself, like maybe he’s about to sit down to a king’s feast.

Or maybe like he just drew a mound assignment against the Tigers, against whom he went 4-0 with a 2.49 ERA in 19 appearances.

Bird, who passed away this fall (RIP), had an interesting run with playoff teams in the late 1970s and early 1980s, too.

After appearing in three straight American League Championship Series with the Royals from 1976 through 1978, Bird played for the Phillies in 1979, the only time they missed the playoffs from 1976 through 1981.

In 1980, Bird was off to the Yankees, who lost to the Royals in the ALCS, though Bird never took the mound against his old team in that series. He also began 1981 with the Yankees, who again made the playoffs, but alas was sent to the Cubs (with cash and a PTBNL) for Rick Reuschel on June 12.

1984 Topps Rick Sweet (#211)

Rick Sweet is our catch-all representative for all Thanksgiving goodies without “pie” in their name — or even with pie in their name if you have some aversion to Traynor. Heck not only is Sweet our catch-all, he’s also our catch-er.

Bonus!

This particular card brings us another bonus because it’s a career-capper, capturing Sweet’s entire three-year big-league run…that actually spanned six seasons.

After the Pirates drafted Sweet in the 31st round in 1974 and the Padres took him in the third round in 1975, he spent three more years climbing the San Diego ladder. He finally debuted with the Friars at age 25 in April of 1978.

He made it into 88 games that summer before spending 1979 and 1980 at Triple-A Hawaii. The Pads sold his rights to the Mets that December, and he spent 1981 in the New York farm system.

He made it to the Amazin’s for three games in 1982 before they sold him to Seattle, and he finished up his MLB career with 181 appearances for the Mariners in 1982 and 1983 combined.

The Mariners released Sweet in March of 1984, about the time collectors were pulling his final baseball cards.

Sweet.

In case you were wondering, Sweet shared a rookie card with Kevin Pasley and his sweet Mariners airbrush job (a sign of things to come for Sweet)?

And of course, Sweet’s mustache was Sweet.

After he hung up his spikes, Sweet also put together a pretty Sweet minor league coaching and managerial career.

—

Thanks for indulging these cheesy picks — I knew I could count on you.

After all, indulgence is part and parcel of our Thanksgiving holiday, and I had to find some way to get the cheese on the table.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Gobble! Gobble!

—Adam