Introduction

1956 Topps #220

When (and if) I ever have additional time to start a second baseball card-related blog, I'd write about each of the 342 baseball cards comprising the 1956 Topps set - where we bought each card, my thoughts on the cards, and where I was during those twenty wonderful years of collecting this set with my Dad.  (February 6, 2011)

In early 2009, still riding the emotional high of the Phillies winning the World Series, I decided I was going to start a blog.  I had long read the great early baseball card blogs that began cropping up in the mid-2000s, and I wanted to throw my hat into the ring.  I decided I was either going to do a blog about the Phillies and their baseball cards, or I would do a complete set blog and cover the cards of the glorious 1956 Topps set.  After mulling my decision over for a few weeks, I decided to start a Phillies-related blog.

The Phillies Room made its debut on March 30, 2009, and two of the first ten posts featured cards from the 1956 Topps set at my Dad's request.  "What's this you're doing?" he asked the morning after my first few posts and "When are you going to put up some more '56s?"  My Dad and I officially started collecting the 1956 Topps set when I was about to enter 7th grade and we finished the set four years before my Dad would pass away at the way too young age of 67, four years ago today.  I always knew I'd eventually get around to launching a blog to chronicle the baseball card set I built with my Dad over a 20 year period.  And now it's here.

This blog will be finite in nature.  I plan on publishing exactly 342 posts - one post for each of the 340 cards in the set, plus the two unnumbered checklists.  I'll write briefly about the player (or league president) on the card and his career, with some biographical information and a summary of his playing days.  I'll feature some of the other more notable baseball cards available for the player and I'll document the player's connection to the Phillies if one exists.  I've always enjoyed tracking a player's career through his history of baseball cards and for each post I'll show that player's first and last cards, along with any Phillies cards that may have existed in between.

Most importantly to me, I'm going to document when and where my Dad and I added each card to our collection.  I took meticulous notes over a 20-year period, keeping track of when and where we found each card including, in most instances, the price we paid for each card.  From the old Ocean City baseball card shows at the Music Pier, to visits to local card stores in South Jersey, to cards that travelled from Kit Young Cards and found their way under the Christmas tree, I know where all of these cards came from.

This won't be a blog that goes into great detail for each player's career.  There are far better places to learn about Mickey Mantle or Ted Williams or Jackie Robinson.  Although ideally, I'd love it if readers of this blog would leave comments with their own memories of each card or each player. What this blog will be is a walk down memory lane for me and a lasting tribute to my Dad.

One final note . . . don't fear if it appears as if this blog has gone dormant for weeks or months at a time.  When the Phillies begin their inevitable and highly probable march towards the 2016 postseason, my attention will most likely focus solely on The Phillies Room.  But I'll be back every now and then over at the 1956 Topps blog loyally plodding through all 342 posts.  My goal is to wrap up this blog in a shorter time frame than it took my Dad and me to complete the set.

Posted October 14, 2015