Cal Ripken played in 2,632 consecutive baseball games. Catherine Bach wore Daisy Dukes in approximately 145 episodes of The Dukes of Hazzard.

The similarities are striking, no?

Well, what about New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter and fourth Ghostbuster Ernie Hudson? Frank "Big Hurt" Thomas and David "Bud Bundy" Faustino?

Perhaps if you squint a little.

Or buy a box of baseball cards.

In one of the more unlikely marriages of the spring, diamond stars and not-so-current movie and TV stars have come together, in the form of their autographs, in a new trading-card series because, well...

Because, well...

Because, well, the kid from A Christmas Story knows.

"Celebrities and entertainers and sports always mix because people are always saying celebrities get paid too much money, and sports stars get paid too much money," says Scott Schwartz, who played the icy-pole-drawn Flick in the 1982 holiday classic.

Schwartz, now 38, is more than a sports-and-celebrity theorist—he was instrumental in wrangling autographs from Bach, Hudson, Faustino and more for Upper Deck's Baseball Spectrum 2007.

Released Mar. 26, the series is a mix of cards with stats, cards with game-worn uniform swatches, cards with the personal autographs of game-playing superstars, and cards with the personal autographs of the Schwartz crowd. Your chances of getting at least one Leif Garrett, Barry Williams, Todd Bridges or Corey Feldman type is pretty good, provided you buy four to five boxes of 20 five-card packs, according to Greg Kohn, baseball product manager for Upper Deck.

And you would want to do that again because...?

"Honestly, it's geared toward people who don't collect baseball cards," says Kohn, and suddenly the picture gets clearer.

The set serves both the collector, say, hot for Hall-of-Fame-bound Ripken memorabilia, and the collector, say, hot for a "May-o-nnaise!" rendering by Officer and a Gentleman Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr.

According to Kohn, Upper Deck was inspired by another card company's commingling of sports stars and non-sports stars. For its set, Upper Deck initially tried to land non-sports stars who, to the naked eye, would appear just as big and shiny as the likes of Ripken and Jeter.

"But we found it difficult to get through [their agents]," Kohn says. "It the past, it's been a struggle to get signatures."

Enter Schwartz, who following a detour in the adult-film industry in the 1990s helps run a Southern California card and Hollywood memorabilia shop with his father.

"We had an ace in the hole with Scott Schwartz," Kohn says. "We came to him, knowing we needed the signatures."

And so Schwartz got signatures.

"My first pitch [to a celebrity] is," Schwartz says, "do you have interest in being on a baseball card?"

Dozens did, including ones who don't do ordinarily do the autograph or celeb-reality TV circuit, such as Anthony Michael Hall, Married...With Children dad Ed O'Neill and, perhaps most surprising, Kristy McNichol.

The Yeti of former child stars, McNichol, a two-time Emmy winner and box-office star in her teens and 20s, hasn't led a public life in more than a decade.

"[I told her] you don't have to go anywhere, it'll take approximately 20 minutes of your time," Schwartz says.

"She thought it was cool," Schwartz says.

Schwartz considers Gossett Jr. his biggest coup—"the man could not have been nicer."

Kohn says he was most surprised Schwartz landed Hall, the former John Hughes player turned Dead Zone star.

"Obviously the names aren't Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts," Kohn says, "but to me they're great names in pop-culture history."

Judging by the action on eBay, collectors agree. One card baring the autograph of 1980s pop star Tiffany sold for $23.28, a Bach went for $21.50, a Faustino for nearly $30. In one survey of recently closed auctions, the only signed player card to draw higher sale prices was a Ripken.

But wait there's more... Upper Deck has also scored ink action from the likes of Vegas' Josh Duhamel and the Black Eyed Peas' Fergie (Duhamel's steady)—their signatures will be dispensed to holders of so-called "mystery celebrity" autograph cards. A like card sold for more than $125 this week on eBay.

"It's something a little bit different," Kohn says of the autograph cards. "It just adds a different element."

One element missing from the Upper Deck set is a card for Schwartz. He says he's been asked to do A Christmas Story set for another card company, so for now he's just wrangling.

And collecting.

"I've been collecting cards since 1975," Schwartz says. "I'm a sports-card junkie."