Baseball has been a huge part of Joe Salvatori’s life, and I recently received a piece of his love for the game in the form of a few baseball cards.

Salvatori has coached little league baseball and softball in Rock Falls for many years, often along with his wife, Deb. He is Newman’s girls basketball coach, and I covered quite a few of his team’s games this season. Along the way, we got to talking about baseball cards, and he had a few for me.

The highlight of the stack is an Ozzie Smith Padres card (1981 Topps). He was traded to the Cardinals a couple of years later for Garry Templeton.

The Rico Petrocelli and Vada Pinson cards are special because these were their final original cards.

Each card filled voids on my Want List.

Thank you, Joe!