Ken Kendrick, managing general partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks, has quietly kept a passion that he has had since childhood: collecting baseball cards. Craig Harris of The Arizona Republic tells us that Kendrick has no ordinary collection, but rather an elite set of cards that includes the rarest of them all – a rare T206 1909 Honus Wagner card that was purchased in 2007 for $2.8 million.

For those unfamiliar with the card, or often time referred as the “Gretzky” Wagner, the little piece of cardboard is one of the rarest because it was pulled from production by the Hall of Fame shortstop Wagner. Wagner did not want to influence children to use tobacco in order to get his baseball card. Now only 50 to 60 of the cards remain, but the “Gretzky” Wagner (named after the hockey great Wayne Gretzky because in 1991 he purchased the card) has the highest quality of them all.

Kendrick has agreed to loan card and 24 others to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York so that thousands of fans could see them. His collection includes an Eddie Plank card from the same set, and rare and high quality cards of Hank Aaron, Joe Jackson, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Ty Cobb, Cy Young and Jackie Robinson.

The idea of having these cards is not to keep them in a safe deposit box,” said Kendrick, who declined to disclose the set’s value. “It’s like art.”

Kendrick adds, “the difference between me and my buddies was, at the end of the day, I had a mom who kept all my cards.”

The cards will be on display for the next two years, but may return to Phoenix next summer when the Diamondbacks host the 2011 All-Star Game.