Number one

Might as well not bury the lead here - Dad got me a 1952 Topps Andy Pafko for Christmas this year!

I feel like I've been saying this more and more about the stuff I've been adding to my collection lately, but this is a card I never, ever thought I'd own. It's hard enough finding anything from '52 Topps on the cheap these days, and CARD #1?? Forget it. But once again, Dad comes to the rescue and whacks me over the head with a major boost to the binders. It's been a common tale throughout my collecting life.

It's true that I've gone on record by saying '52 Topps is grossly overrated, but even I can't deny it's an iconic set, and Andy Pafko kicked off what would be a long and fruitful history - baseball cards as we know them might not exist at all these days if Topps hadn't come along.

The back explains how Dad was able to find a copy that fit into the relatively small budgets both he and I have - but back damage doesn't really bother me, and besides, that all-important "#1" is still visible!

Off the top of my head, I can't think of another guy whose (relative) fame is almost solely based on a baseball card. If he wasn't card #1 in '52 Topps, Andy Pafko would've long faded into that miasma of pretty-good-but-never-great '40s and '50s ballplayers whose name might occasionally get mentioned by a diehard fan these days. But thanks to Topps, Pafko's a binder guy, and I want all of his cards - and the card that made that possible is now in my collection!

I found it interesting that you don't often hear about the "Number Ones" of most of the other big companies - so in honor of Andy Pafko, I thought we'd take a look at the guys who got a few of the other card brands we (sometimes) love off and running.

Donruss picked a winner by having (then) future HOFer Ozzie Smith at Card #1 in their inaugural '81 checklist - and it's a darn fine piece of cardboard with those brown-and-gold Padres unis and a sunny Wrigley Field shot.

I honestly had no idea what Card #1 in '81 Fleer was until I looked it up for this post, which seems weird given how monumental the entry of Fleer and Donruss into the marketplace was for the ultimate future of the hobby.

Fleer matched the star power of Donruss by tapping Pete Rose for the #1 slot, though the card itself isn't anywhere near as good as the '81 Donruss Ozzie.

It's not easy to hit a home run on the first try, but I've always thought Score had the best inaugural set of any brand in the history of baseball cards - it's also probably my favorite design in the entire Score catalog.

However, much like Fleer, I didn't know what Score's first card was until I consulted the archives - given the time and place, it makes sense that it'd be Donnie Baseball.

One could argue that, in terms of prestige and general oomph in the hobby, the '89 Upper Deck Griffey has long lapped the '52 Topps Pafko.

Inevitably, I always see this one get mentioned in the "Best Baseball Cards Ever" discussions. Look, I acknowledge the it's a fine card, and I'm proud to own a copy - one that, in true Dime Box fashion has some paper loss along the bottom - but it's nowhere near the best baseball card ever, and probably isn't even in my top five or ten favorite Griffey cards alone.

It's a monumental piece of cardboard, of course - Upper Deck forever changed the trajectory of the hobby, and this is the card that started it all. Take a straw poll of today's collectors, and I'm sure a lot of them would tell you they'd rather have Griffey over Pafko.

Me, though, I'll take Pafko every time. 

(THANKS, DAD!)