A Look at What Santa Brought . . . with Help from My Mom (#SBWTMABCTJ)

This is a post I look forward to writing all year.  We're on the other side of another Christmas, and our family continued our tradition of turning Christmas into a 3-day event.  We celebrate in our house on Christmas day, at my Mom's house the day after Christmas and with my wife's family a few days after that.  It's a fun three days that leave me happy, slightly tired and stuffed with food.

At my Mom's house, I anxiously unwrapped a present to find a box of Fralinger's Salt Water Taffy.  There wasn't any salt water taffy inside the box, but instead I found the first card needed from my (now outdated) Ten Most Wanted list and a clue to the location of more cards.  With the help of my sons and my nieces, the clue was solved and my boyhood teddy bear was found holding a package with the rest of the cards shown in the photo above.  Once again, my Mom had made a Ten Most Wanted list obsolete!  It was another successful installment of Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim, and the hauls from past Christmases are linked below.

Here's a list of the treasures added in the 2019 Edition of #SBWTMABCTJ:

1949 Bowman #216 Schoolboy Rowe
1952 Topps #185 Bill Nicholson
1953 Topps #10 Smoky Burgess
1956 Topps #296 Andy Seminick
1957 Topps #314 Ed Bouchee
1965 Topps #474 Cookie Rojas
1966 Topps #585 Tony Taylor
1967 Topps #242 RBI Leaders
1970 Topps #645 Don Money
1972 Topps #690 Willie Montanez

These ten most wanted lists are going to be tougher to put together as I'm getting closer and closer to a complete run of Bowman and Topps cards throughout the 1950s and 1960s.  The 1965 Topps Cookie Rojas card completed my Phillies team set from that year, and I now have the pleasure of tracking down those Phillies cards all over again for our 1965 Topps set.

An unexpected surprise was the addition of the 1966 Phillies Yearbook and a Sports Illustrated from 1958 with outfielding and base running tips from Richie Ashburn.  My Mom once again did an amazing job and she already knows how much she means to me.

2011 Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim

Part 1 - Continuing a Tradition

Part 2 - 1971 Topps Set - 13 More Down

Part 3 - 1952 Topps Phillies

Part 4 - 1951 Bowman Phillies

Part 5 - Curt Simmons - Two New Bowman Cards

Part 6 - 1955 Bowman and Topps Phillies

2012 Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim
Part 1 - 1941 Double Play Litwhiler & May
Part 2 - 1963 Topps John Herrnstein rookie card (featuring Willie Stargell)
Part 3 - 1940 Play Ball Phillies - Part 1
Part 4 - 1940 Play Ball Phillies - Part 2
Part 5 - 1950 Bowman Del Ennis

2013 Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim
Part 1 - 1998 Upper Deck Scott Rolen
Part 2 - 1968 Topps Phillies Team Card
Part 3 - 1966 Topps Bob Uecker
Part 4 - 1955 Bowman Robin Roberts
Part 5 - 1965 Topps Johnny Callison
Part 6 - 1954 Bowman Richie Ashburn

2014 Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim
Part 1 - 1952 Bowman and 1953 Bowman Color Richie Ashburn
Part 2 - 1950 Bowman Roberts, 1951 Topps Blue Backs Jones, 1955 Bowman Wyrostek
Part 3 - 1995 Collector's Choice Hayes and 1999 Fleer Mystique Burrell

2015 Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim
Seven Phillies Cards from the 1950s Crossed Off the List

2016 Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim
Part 1 - 10 vintage Phillies cards added to the collection
Part 2 - 2 modern oddball Phillies cards find a new home

2017 Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim
Vintage cards crossed off the list, 1959 Topps Phillies team set completed!

2018 Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim
8th annual haul completes 1953 Bowman Color Phillies team set

2019 Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim
1965 Topps team set completed, getting closer to most 1950s team sets