Bob Filotei on baseball cards

Second baseman Bob Filotei played three seasons in the Reds organization. He then became a scout for various teams, most notably signing current Cardinals star David Freese. Now the National Cross Checker for the San Diego Padres, he kindly answered my questions about baseball cards.

"Topps gave you a $5 contract so they could print your card. Most players kept theirs as a token of their career. I kept mine. Others cashed them for the $5 check.

I grew up a big Pirate fan (grew up in Philadelphia but my father’s family was from Pittsburgh). I would always buy Topps cards at the convenience store and tried to get all the Pirates lineup. Probably threw away more cards than I had. I got Willie Stargell’s card and was able to get him to sign it at a game. However after a few years it started to fade so I traced over it. Probably ruined the value of the card!

I had twins born in 1992 and every Christmas I got my daughter a holiday Barbie and my son a set of Topps baseball cards.  I still have a Converse sneaker box that I had cards from 1978, 1980. I took it out recently to look at it. They had the cards with the three guys who were rookies, some were pretty good, others you never heard of. Interesting to see how different they were from cards from today."

Thanks!