World Champion of Baseball, Sir Hensley Meulens

Born on June 23, one of the hottest names of the rookie card explosion and future World Champion, Hensley "Bam Bam" Meulens.

1989 Upper Deck #746, Hensley Meulens

According to Beckett.com's checklist, the late 80s presumptive Yankees star appeared on 108 different baseball cards, few more treasured than this Upper Deck RC. New York media loved the prospect of Hensley anchoring their left field spot, which pumped his collector interest to equal that of Ken Griffey, Jr., at least until Bam Bam proved underwhelming in just a half-season of work in 1991.

Once pinstripes management decided Hensley couldn't play above AAA, the market lost interest as well. As years passed, the "MEULENS" name even became a metric for evaluating show dealers. Through 1990, Hensley had his own display section and then 1991 marked his plateau. By 1993, any dealer with that divider still in their table boxes communicated laziness, as they long since should've replaced it with someone newer. The card market had moved on from Hensley Meulens.

Hensley Meulens, Order of Orange-Nassau

Meanwhile, Bam Bam himself resurfaced in Japan, where he slugged the Yakult Swallows to a Japanese national title. Since 2010, his work as Giants hitting coach contributed to a pair of World Series wins. The Netherlands even knighted him in 2012, an honor unique among Major Leaguers. He's become the success story one can't predict with baseball cards.

No long ago, SBNation published a solid profile of Hensley's life, coaching style, and decent odds of becoming a big leaguer manager, a job he's performed capably at other pro levels. Happy 47th birthday to the once and future prospect!

Happy Birthday, Babe Ruth!

Born on Feb 6, 1895, Babe Ruth, although he got both day or year wrong for his WWI draft card. (I assume better records came to light afterwards.) Though never called to serve during wartime, he did enlist and appear in uniform as encouragement for others to join the Armed Forces.

Private Babe Ruth and General Pershing (National Archives)

Babe figures prominently in the type collection, thanks to his massive popularity and marketability. He first appears over and over in the 1920s, and later filled out post-war nostalgia sets. Here's my highlight reel, with links to full set profiles.

1. 1920 W519

Bad strip card scissor work can't mask those Ruthian good looks.

2. 1921 W521

Same picture, reversed image (note the right-buttoned shirt collar). Still smiling!

3. 1924 Williard's Chocolates Sports Champions

Ruth became so famous, he personified baseball to the world. Babe's one of just three such players (alongside Ty Cobb and Eddie Collins) in this multi-sport set from Canada.

4. 1928 Fro-Joy Ice Cream

If you've seen the grip, you better see the swing!

Booooooom.

5. 1928 Babe Ruth Candy

This wasn't THE Baby Ruth bar, which facetiously claimed to be named for a deceased Presidential daughter, but a chocolate licensed through Ruth himself. No matter, that more famous bar blocked Ruth's "real" candy from sticking around, thanks to "potential name confusion." Nice job, legal system.

6. 1948 Swell "Babe Ruth Story" movie cards

These cards focused on a lackluster movie adaptation of Babe Ruth's life, so the whole set sort of qualifies as "Ruth." This one showed the purported link to Ruth's early baseball experience, Brother Matthias, an instructor at his Catholic boys school.

7. 1979 CMC Talking Baseball Cards

Babe's final public address at Yankee Stadium ended up on this square 7" that was half-record, half-card.

The set itself capitalized on the boom in kid-friendly record players, which I owned a couple of during my younger years. Nothing like borrowing some Tom Petty vinyl from the public library and spinning "Refugee" on the ol' Fisher-Price turntable. (Kids, ask your parents about record players...and Tom Petty.)

8. 1980 The Franchise "Babe Ruth Classic"

This "Classic" set's another run of Babe Ruth nostalgia, mixing on- and off-field photos into a direct-to-collector set that's nothing special to look at, unless you like to compare his right-handed writing to his left-handed swinging.

9. 1980 TCMA All-Time Yankees

All-time eyebrows. All-time nose. All-time eatin'. All-time everything!

Many happy returns to fans of The Sultan of Swat and check out BabeRuth.com for 100% more Babe.