no. 494 - braves rookie stars

Who is the man: Both Ralph Garr and Rick Kester spent most of 1970 with Triple A Richmond, and each made a quick visit to the majors for the third straight year.

Can ya dig it: This is the second Braves rookie stars card in the set. The other card featured one notable player and one forgotten player, too.

Right on: As you can tell by the massive dings, this was another hand-me-down '71 that I acquired in a trade as a youngster. I'm curious as to which of those cards had the highest number in the set. We must be getting close.

You see these rookies are bad mothers: Ralph Garr has one of my favorite cards in the entire 1975 Topps set, but he was four years away from that at this point. Rookies ain't bad-ass.

Shut your mouth: During an appearance at his alma mater at Grambling University last year, Garr told a reporter for the school paper that only one player was the best who ever played. "There's no one who ever played the game of baseball better than Henry Aaron," he said. "That's my opinion and I believe that as long as I live."

No one understands him but his woman: Kester had appeared in his last major league game by the time this card was issued. He showed up only on these multi-player rookie cards, three consecutive years, in fact. In each case, someone else on the card went on to a more notable career -- Darrell Evans, Ralph Garr and Tom House.

(A word about the back): Stealing home for your first MLB stolen base -- heck, that IS pretty bad-ass.