Minnesota North Stars Cards: 03/22/10

Monday, March 22, 2010

1990-91 Upper Deck #30 Basil McRae

My favorite card of my favorite player. The blood says it all.

1983-84 O-Pee-Chee #167 Brian Bellows (RC)

Brian Bellows was my first favorite hockey player. Dino and Neal were great, of course, but Bellows was the hot rookie in town when I first noticed the North Stars.

1989-90 O-Pee-Chee #216 Basil McRae (RC)

I'm certainly a fan of Neal Broten, Dino Ciccarelli, Bobby Smith, Brian Bellows, Mike Modano, and all the big names from North Stars history. And I have my lower-profile personal favorites (Stewart Gavin, Dirk Graham, Marc Bureau). But, when push comes to shove, my all-time favorite North Stars player is still Basil McRae.

This is Basil's only rookie card -- he didn't have a card in the Topps set of the same year and design.

1985-86 7-Eleven #12 Dirk Graham (RC)

Like the Scott Bjugstad card from this set, this is Graham's real rookie card, even though he didn't have a major-issue, official rookie card for another year.

1985-86 7-Eleven #11 Dave Langevin

It's a shame about the crease across the bottom-left corner. I don't feel quite the urgency to replace this card as I do the McKegney from this set.

1985-86 7-Eleven #10 Keith Acton

1985-86 7-Eleven #9 Brian Bellows

1985-86 7-Eleven #8 Craig Hartsburg

1985-86 7-Eleven #7 Willi Plett

1985-86 7-Eleven #6 Neal Broten

Great shot of Broten and Dino!

1985-86 7-Eleven #5 Tony McKegney

I was a big Tony McKegney fan. He was only a North Star for a couple of seasons, so there are certainly not a lot of cards out there depicting him in a Minnesota uniform. I'm bummes about the crease on the upper-right corner here. I'll have to replace that one of these days.

1985-86 7-Eleven #4 Don Beaupre

1985-86 7-Eleven #3 Curt Giles

Nobody could hip-check like Curt Giles.

1985-86 7-Eleven #2 Scott Bjugstad (RC)

Since it's not from a major-issue set, I don't believe this is technically considered Bjugstad's rookie card, but it does predate his 1986-87 Topps and O-Pee-Chee "rookies" by a year.

1985-86 7-Eleven #1 Dino Ciccarelli

I knew I had these somewhere! While visiting my parents for Sunday dinner tonight, I found my 1985-86 and 1984-85 7-11 Fire Prevention North Stars team sets. The 1985-86 set, which is a standard-sized set, is in much better shape. There are a couple cards in it that have some light creases, but for the most part it's in pretty good shape. Unfortunately, the oversized 1984-85 set it in pretty rough condition. A lot of the cards in that one even have pin holes through the top from when seven-year-old me had them hanging on my bulletin board. I'll have to replace most, if not all the cards in that one.

1990-91 Score #261 Basil McRae (Autographed)

Like many of the autographs I acquired as a kid, I obtained this one by writing to Basil and including a self-addressed, stamped envelope. I guess you never can tell whether or not the signature is authentic in those situations, but Basil wouldn't cheat a kid, would he?