I'm always fascinated by early sixties Fleer baseball products. Not being born until the mid-seventies, my first exposure to Fleer was the early eighties cards.Those are the sets I'm familiar with and those eighties sets are the ones that I know like the back of my hand.The 1963 set seems like I'm taking a trip to a strange foreign land and I'm finding out that the customs are similar, yet very different. It looks pleasing and familiar, but odd and eerie at the same time.
I'm not sure I could pick Ray Herbert out of a lineup, but I recognize the name. His exploits were before my time, so it's hard to keep track of everything before that period.
Still, he was a big part of the history of my favorite team. He was an All-Star in 1962 for the White Sox and led the AL in shutouts in 1963 for the Sox. I'm sure the All-Star selection is why Ray is featured here. That's OK in my book.
Fleer reused this design at least twice. In 1998, they produced a parallel set of Fleer Tradition which featured the same photograph as the regular set, but used the 1963 design. They called the parallel set "Fleer Tradition Vintage '63". The 2003 Fleer Tradition set used the '63 design for the base set. This set was proudly proclaimed as the 40th anniversary of Fleer baseball cards.
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