On This Date in Baseball: June 12

1939 - The greatest-ever gathering of members and future inductees of the Baseball Hall of Fame assembles in Cooperstown, N.Y., for the dedication of the museum: Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, Grover Alexander, Nap Lajoie, George Sisler, Eddie Collins, Tris Speaker, Cy Young and Connie Mack accept their plaques. They also celebrate the centennial of Abner Doubleday's "invention" of baseball.

1957 - Stan Musial plays in his 823rd game for a new N.L. consecutive-game streak.

Dave's Favorite Baseball Cards (Part II)

The 1909 T-206 Honus Wagner

This is the most famous baseball card in the world. It's the scarcest and most valuable, that's for sure. If you even happen to see one while you're out at a garage sale, pick it up for me. I'm good for the money.

Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall, former owner of the Los Angeles Kings, bought the card for $451,000 in 1991. Wal-Mart bought it from them in 1995 for $500,000 only to raffle it off to a customer (obviously some hoosier). The woman who won it, a postal worker from Florida, couldn't afford the taxes. She sold it at Christie's for $640,500 in 1996 to Michael Gidwitz.

Gidwitz was the first owner to top $1 million when he sold it on eBay in 2000 for $1,265,000. It sold again in February of 2007 for a record-setting $2,350,000 to an anonymous collector. In September of 2007, it changed hands again when SCP Auctions of Mission Viejo, California, which had bought minority ownership, brokered a new sale--this time for $2.8 million to a private collector.

It is my strongest hope that the latest owner is a wealthy philanthropist who wants to bestow the Honus Wagner card on me out purely out of kindness just to see the reaction on my face.