Do you read Sports Illustrated? If you do, you’ll know what I’m about to talk about here. If you don’t, go pick up the issue with the Celtics and Lakers on the cover. There was a great article recently about the ABL. In Alaska, they call that the Alaskan Baseball League. It’s a league where college players go to hone their skills. The feature of the league is the midnight sun game, where the sun can still be shining at midnight, while the players take to the field.
This league has fostered several Hall of Famers, as well as future Hall of Famers. A few of the names you’ll find have played in this league are: Tom Seaver, Dave Winfield, Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi.
You might be wondering if baseball cards were ever produced for this league? That answer would be yes. Some of the cards were printed in the year that the players were actually playing. Others were printed well after. One of the former cards was printed for Yankees first-baseman Jason Giambi. It’s suspected that this is Giambi’s first production baseball card. (See halfway down the page in the previous link.)
Take a look at the whole lot of these cards. It’s a pretty cool and unique group of cards, which could be real collector’s items in years to come.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Pingback: » Baseball Cards for the ABL
Pingback: Baseball News Aggregator » Baseball Cards for the ABL
great post. Because the Goldpanners ballplayers are usually recently out of high school, we are able to produce their very first cards. Our sets represent the all-time first cards for a number of major leaguers, including Bret Boone, Jason Giambi, David Bush, Bobby Crosby, Royce Ring, Greg Dobbs, Ryan Garko, Brendan Ryan, etc., etc. Take a look at our team card shop, called “Scratch ‘n Spit Baseball Cards” :
http://www.goldpanners.com/Scratch-n-Spit/index.htm
Thanks Todd. Thanks for the link to the Goldpanner’s card site too. Some very cool cards there.