Tag Archives: topps

Don Bessent

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I’ve been collecting baseball cards since, well, probably when I was about 10 or 11 years old. The first cards I remember buying for myself was a stack of 1985 Fleer commons from a comic book shop. My older brother also gave me his rubber-banded stacks of 1985 Topps Football when he left for the Army.

Anyway, I guess my point is, I should’ve known that Don Bessent (former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher) was born in my hometown, and died in my hometown…but I had no idea. He was from Jacksonville, Florida and graduated high school from here. He went on to play for the Dodgers for several years. I also didn’t know that he died tragically here in Jacksonville. In 1990 he was found deceased in his car, in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant. He apparently died of alcohol poisoning.

A belated RIP to Don Bessent.

1995 Topps Rickey Henderson Variation

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Well, it’s not really much of a variation, but still, I noticed it awhile back when I was going through my stuff, and put the cards aside and have been meaning to do a blog post about them but haven’t until now..

The “variation” is just a small black print dot, but it matches exactly on two of my cards, and doesn’t appear at all on the third. It’s in the same exact spot on the two cards it appears on. (Click the photos below for a larger view)

A few years ago I noticed a similar variation on 1968 Topps #385 Jim Catfish Hunter cards, with a print dot at the top border of each card except the first one in the scan below. Not a big deal as far as variations go, but I thought it was interesting. (Click the photos for a larger view)