The thought behind this series is very simple: “What is the oldest cards for each team in my collection?”
I’m breaking these down by the current Major League Baseball divisions. I’m also including first cards of relocations and rebrandings. In the first post, I featured my oldest cards for the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
And now, let’s get on with the National League East!
Philadelphia Phillies – 1953 Bowman Color Del Ennis
This was a recent impulse buy… solely because I liked it and it didn’t put a significant dent in my card show budget. Relatively cheap 1953 Bowman will often inspire such impulse purchases.
Milwaukee Braves – 1956 Topps Johnny Logan
Unfortunately I don’t have any Boston Braves cards – I probably should remedy that. My oldest Braves cards are two from the 2nd series of 1956 Topps. Del Crandall is part of a “managers from my childhood, but as players” collection (although I don’t usually need much reason to acquire 1956 Topps cards).
Atlanta Braves – 1966 Topps blah
The Braves moved to Atlanta for the 1966 season and this is the only Braves card I have from the 1st series of 1966 Topps.
This is the 3rd “Rookie Stars” card for Jim Beauchamp (he was a Colt .45s/Astros Rookie Star in 1964 and 1965) and the 2nd for Dick Kelley (1964 Braves Rookie Stars for him)
New York Mets – 1962 Topps Casey Stengel
Even though I’ve been a Mets fan since 1974, I got a relatively late start on my 1962 Mets team set, mainly because the cards are so very MEH. Wood grain borders and airbrushed/capless photos make these cards hard for me to love. Casey Stengel makes up for a lot of that, though.
Montreal Expos – 1969 Topps Maury Wills
I’ve got more Expos from the 5th through 7th series of 1969 Topps (6 cards) than I do from the first four series (5 cards) and Wills is the only one from the 1st Series. That’s all about real Expos uniforms in the later series vs. cheap games played in the early series.
Washington Nationals – 2005 Topps Heritage Tony Batista
I don’t remember which sets came out when in 2005, the first year of Nationals baseball, but Tony Batista’s Nationals uniform is photoshopped, so I’ll go with “pretty early” on this one.
Florida Marlins – 1993 Topps Team Stadium Club Jeff Conine
TEAL! TOO! MUCH! TEAL!
Simply adding a black bill to the teal cap was a huge improvement by itself.
The Shlabotnik Report 
Del Ennis was a really solid player, and one that you almost never hear mentioned these days.
While I knew the name, I didn’t know much about him before I got the card. Three All-Star nods, numerous MVP votes (although never higher than 4th in final voting) and had the Phillies career HR record until Mike Schmidt came along