Two Special Robin Yount Cards

Like many collectors and baseball fans, I follow baseball artist Gypsy Oak on Twitter. I learned Gypsy Oak was a good person soon after I followed him because nearly immediately after I followed him, he sent me two JPEGs by DM that he said I should feel free to use for my avatar:

If ever you have a reason to try to curry favor with me, this is a good way to start. The Yount art looks a little off to me, if only because that uniform should be that beautiful powder blue -- almost Carolina blue, actually. But that is being super picky. Both of these are truly art.

About a week ago, Gypsy Oak tweeted out a happy birthday to Robin Yount using a wood engraving of Robin. I literally said "Wow" out loud to myself and immediately asked GO whether the engraving was for sale and, if so, for how much. He sent me a DM and told me he would sell it to me for $9, and that included shipping.

That wood engraving is now one of the coolest Yount items in my collection:

The only cooler item in my collection might be the Baseball Card Breakdown card of Robin on his motorcycle in 1982, and that's cooler because of my personal tie to that day. This is, however, a very close second.

But this post is about two special Yount cards. That's because GO added in a free gift for me -- a gift that has a value of at least one penny, but for which GO asks $9.95 on eBay:

Using the very art that he sent to me last year, this card is super cool. 

Now, 1978 wasn't exactly Yount's best season in the majors. In fact, thanks to an injury and some waffling about whether he still wanted to be a baseball player, Yount missed the first several weeks of the season. During that time and as is well known by now, the Brewers had a guy whom they had drafted just one year earlier out of the University of Minnesota who filled in for Yount and became as much of a fixture as Yount became -- Paul Molitor.

My thanks go out to Gypsy Oak for the free gift and for being a great artist. It's pretty cool to have art from a guy whose art -- in collaboration with Paine Proffitt -- hangs in the Baseball Hall of Fame!

Let's be clear though -- Gypsy Oak is a much cooler Gypsy than Fleetwood Mac's Gypsy. At least in my book.