www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/flawless-basketball-returns-with-high-end-cards-low-print-run-and-embedded-gems/
Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily previewing Panini's high-end Flawless basketball set: www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/flawless-basketball-returns-with-high-end-cards-low-print-run-and-embedded-gems/
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Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about SCP Auctions President/CEO David Kohler's Type I photograph of one the NBA's legendary photographs -- Jerry West sinking a 63-foot shot at the buzzer to send Game 3 of the NBA Finals into overtime:
www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/photo-of-jerry-wests-iconic-buzzer-beater-in-1970-nba-finals-authenticated/ Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily previewing the 2023 Topps Tribute baseball set:
www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/topps-tribute-offers-a-big-hit-in-every-pack/ Big League baseball returns after a one-year absence, and the fun-friendly set has made some changes to its 2023 product. The 310-card set will have five tiers of scarcity. The first 200 cards will be commons, but then it becomes more difficult to complete the set. Cards 201 to 250 are Uncommon Foil cards, with Rare Blue Foil covering cards 251 to 275. Those can be found in every 18 packs. Super Rare Red Foil cards, which will fall one in every 90 packs, cover cards 276 to 300. And the hardest cards to find — Legendary Gold Foil — make up the final 10 cards of the set and fall once every 360 packs. Good luck. As usual, I bought a blaster box, which contains five Electric Orange parallels. This product has 10 packs, with eight cards to a pack. The box I opened had 59 commons and 10 Uncommon Foil cards. The design is simple and understated. On the card front, an action shot of the player is set against a blurred background of fans in the stadium. The photo is framed by a white border with some thin lines thrown in for show. The player’s name begins across the left-hand side near the bottom of the card. His name is in all capital letters, and his team and position is in smaller type. The team’s logo anchors the right-hand corner of the card front. The design appears to be mostly vertical, which I prefer. There are some horizontal designs, too. The Big League logo — “BL” is found in the upper left-hand corner. The design for the card backs uses a horizontal format. It’s clean-looking and attractive. Every player has a four-line narrative that points out highlights and fun facts. There are also year-by-career and career statistics, which take up the bulk of the card back. The Electric Orange parallels include one Uncommon Foil card of Ryan Mountcastle. The other subjects featured are Mookie Betts, Michael Massey, Josh Naylor and Bryson Stott.Inserts are colorful in the Big League set, with some of them having a cartoonish look. The Mascots insert comes over from Topps’ Opening Day set and has 27 cards. The card I pulled was of the San Diego Padres’ mascot, the Swinging Friar. The 8 Bit Ballers has a 1980s feel to it, with the background resembling a video game. There are 20 cards in this subset, and collectors can expect to find one in every four packs they open. The cards I pulled featured Derek Jeter, Adley Rutschman and Jazz Chisholm Jr.). I pulled two cards from the 20-card City Slickers subset. These also fall one in every four packs, and I pulled Mike Trout and Juan Soto cards. The players in this insert are depicted wearing their City Connect uniforms. Roll Call Wildstyle Edition, another 1:4 insert, features the player set against a cartoon-like background. he artwork was done by CES, which is among the artists featured in the Topps Project70 series. The card I pulled was Bo Jackson. The Big Leaguers set, which has 30 subjects, features interesting typefaces, Some look like 1960s or 1970s artists inspired them. The cards I pulled were of Willie Mays, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and a rookie card of Riley Greene. I did not pull any autographs from the blaster box, nor did I expect to. That is for hobby box buyers to seek. Topps Big League is a fun product. It is straightforward in its main design, and there is room for fun in the inserts. Unlike the Opening Day product, this early season release does not mirror the flagship product too closely. That’s a good thing.The base set seems easy enough to complete if you are a set builder, although the four foil tiers may pose a challenge.But it is a pleasant task. Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about Upper Deck obtaining the exclusive license to producer USFL cards in 2023.
www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/upper-deck-will-produce-usfl-cards/ Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about Capt. Dan Adams, who discovered an incredible array of baseball memorabilia while driving through southwestern Maine in 1975:
www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/retired-charter-boat-captain-reeled-in-treasure-trove-of-baseball-memorabilia/ Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about a pair of 1983 sets by Donruss -- the Action All-Stars cards and the Hall of Fame Heroes:
www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/donruss-branched-out-in-1983-with-action-all-stars-hall-of-fame-heroes-sets/ Here’s another book that will be sure to spark debates among sports fans. It’s what we do. Who’s the best? Who’s the greatest? We could argue all day. And that’s what ESPN host Mike Greenberg and his producer, Paul Hembekides, help sports fan do. They play a numbers game in a fast-paced look at sports legends and the numbers we associate them with. Got Your Number: The Greatest Sports Legends and the Numbers They Own (Hyperion Avenue; $25.99; hardback; 317 pages) is more than just assigning a uniform number to a player and saying that athlete “owns it.” For example, golfing great Jack Nicklaus never wore a uniform number while on the links. But Greenberg writes that the number 18 — signifying the Golden Bear’s major championships — tops the number worn by quarterback Peyton Manning. Joe Louis had 25 title defenses, Vin Scully was in the broadcast booth for 67 seasons with the Dodgers, and Rocky Marciano was unbeaten in 49 professional fights. Greenberg runs the gamut from No. 1 to No. 100, and just about every legend is represented, from Red Grange to Tiger Woods. It’s “heated debate with zero consequence,” Greenberg writes. And there will be some sharp disagreements. Right off the bat, I took issue. Greenberg, who lives in the New York City area, assigned No. 7 to John Elway. Not a bad choice, since Elway won two Super Bowls in five appearances and had a slew of eye-popping statistics to back it up. But No. 7 has to be Mickey Mantle — at least in my book. With 12 World Series appearances and seven championships, the Mick owned No. 7. A powerful switch-hitter who played hurt—and many times hung over — Mantle was the guy. Take away Greenberg’s subway tokens for that one. But hey, that’s the point of this book. Many will argue that Elway is indeed who one thinks of when No. 7 is mentioned. “The Drive” against the Browns was awesome. “It is hard to imagine there will ever be an athlete as beloved in any city as John Elway is in Denver,” Greenberg writes. It’s a generational thing, perhaps. We can discuss it over a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7. Can’t quibble with that number. Many of the numbers that Greenberg assigns are slam-dunks — Bill Russell (No. 6), John Havlicek (No. 17) and Michael Jordan (No. 23), to keep it in the basketball family. In baseball there is Ozzie Smith (No. 1), Derek Jeter (No. 2), Babe Ruth (No. 3), Joe DiMaggio (No. 5), Pete Rose (No. 14), Roberto Clemente (No. 21), Willie Mays (No. 24), Jackie Robinson (No. 42) and Henry Aaron (No. 44). And in hockey, Bobby Orr (No. 4), Gordie Howe (No. 9), Mario Lemieux (No. 66) and Wayne Gretzky (No. 99) are perfect selections. I was curious to see who Greenberg would present No. 12 to, but it really was no surprise. You knew it had to be the G.O.A,T., Tom Brady. Same with No. 32. You had candidates like Sandy Koufax and even O.J. Simpson (if you could stomach that), but was there anyone who owned that number better than Jim Brown? It was a nice touch to dedicate 72 to the perfect Dolphins of 1972, and 60 to the number of matches played between women’s tennis greats Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. The number of Grand Slams won by Serena Williams (in addition to her singles titles) could have yielded to the Dolphins’ No. 39, Larry Csonka, but I understand that you have to get Serena in there somewhere. Without revealing every number (why buy the book at that point?), other athletes receive Greenberg’s attention. They include Pat Summitt, Richard Petty, Mildred “Babe” Didrikson, Walter Payton, Bob Gibson, Rod Laver, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, Billie Jean King, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, LeBron James and Wilt Chamberlain. What would have been fun: The inclusion of 1/8, for Eddie Gaedel. He certainly owned that number. What Greenberg sets out to accomplish in Got Your Number is a fun time for sports fans, and he achieves that goal. He has a sharp wit and is not afraid to make fun of himself, as the title of one his previous books, Why My Wife Thinks I’m an Idiot, can attest. The book has plenty of the kind of nuggets that sports fans love. And a reader does not have to follow it in numerical order. Got Your Number is a fun read. And if you should happen to disagree with Greenberg’s choices, or have a different opinion than a friend, that’s OK too. That’s what sports fans do.
If you are a fantasy baseball lover, love reading about up-and-coming player or just simply enjoy crunching numbers, then James Bailey has a book that will scratch your itch.
Major League Debuts: 2023 Edition ($17.99; paperback; 412 pages) is a deep dive into the 303 players who made their major league debuts during the 2022 season. This wonderful reference guide covers Padres shortstop C.J. Abrams to Marlins pitcher Aneurys Zabala, which plenty of information in between. Bailey is well-equipped to tackle such an ambitious project. He is a former associate editor at Baseball America and has written about baseball for Lindy’s Sports and Ultimate Sports Publishing. Statistics used in the book are provided from Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette of Hidden Game Sports. When he was not digging into statistics, the Rochester, New York, resident wrote five novels. The Greatest Show on Dirt debuted in 2012. It drew upon Bailey’s stint with the Durham Bulls from 1990 to 1992 while he attended North Carolina State University. That was followed by Nine Bucks a Pound in 2014, which followed an underappreciated minor leaguer who decides to use performance-enhancing drugs and then has to deal with the consequences after his steroid use is discovered. A third novel, the non-baseball Sorry I Wasn’t What You Needed, was released in 2015. Bailey’s latest forays into fiction have been the first two books of a trilogy. The First World Problems of Jason Van Otterloo was published in 2018, with a second book, Dispatches from a Tourist Trap, following in 2019.
Major League Debuts has a consistent formula. Bailey devotes approximately a page or page-and-a-half to each player. He begins with a synopsis of the player’s debut, followed by background that lists the player’s career before the majors and any fun facts. The third breakout summarizes the player’s 2022 season, while an “outlook” paragraph gives a projection of the player’s future.
Fun fact that Bailey does not include — and how could he have known? — I attended the 2022 debut of Rays catcher Rene Pinto, who went 2-for-3 with a home run and a single against the Seattle Mariners in a forgettable 8-4 loss on April 26 by Tampa Bay at Tropicana Field. Still, that turned out to be the best debut by a position player during 2022. The best pitching effort also involved the Rays and Mariners, but I did not attend that game. Seattle’s George Kirby shut out Tampa Bay for six innings before a Mother’s Day crowd of 32.501 on May 8. He struck out seven but did not figure into the decision, but Seattle won 2-1 in 10 innings. Before listing the biographies of the players, Bailey feeds the readers some overall statistics about the players. Bailey writes that the average age of the players making their debuts in 2022 was 25 years, 152 days. The youngest player was Francisco Alvarez of the Mets (20.315) and the oldest was Jason Krizan (32.305). Not surprisingly, 223 of the 303 players introduced to the Big Show were born in the U.S. The next biggest group came from the Caribbean Countries, with the Dominican Republic (33) leading the way. Venezuela had 24, followed by Mexico (6) and Cuba (5). Bailey notes that 39 of the players in his research had Tommy John surgery, including some non-pitchers. Each player biography contains complete minor league and major league statistics, including games by position for every season. That would certainly be a useful tool for fantasy baseball players. But why write such an exhaustive book? “I kind of thought about the kind of book I might like to read, and started playing around with some ideas,” Bailey told MiLB.com’s Benjamin Hill on “The Show Before the Show” podcast on Wednesday. “And started playing around with some ideas and it kept on going.”
The statistics are great, and so are the season debuts, summaries and projections, but what makes Bailey’s work stand out is the attention to detail in the players’ backgrounds.
In addition to free sites, Bailey said he subscribed to at least 36 newspapers online. “I literally subscribed to so many of them I still don’t have a complete list,” Bailey writes in his introduction. There are players who have relatives in the majors, like Kody Clemens, the son of Roger Clemens. Joe Dunand of the Marlins is the nephew of Alex Rodriguez, and Maikel Garcia is the cousin of Alcides Escobar. Dalton Guthrie is the son of former pitcher Mark Guthrie, who pitched for 15 seasons in the majors. Fun fact about Dalton; he is only the third player to make it to the majors with the first name of “Dalton.” The others were Dalton Jones, who played nine seasons in the majors and batted .389 in the 1967 World Series with the Boston Red Sox; and Dalton Pompey, who played with the Blue Jays from 2014 to 2018. Buddy Kennedy is the grandson of former major leaguer Don Money, a 16-year veteran who appeared in the 1982 World Series with the Milwaukee Brewers. And Bobby Witt Jr.’s father, Bobby Witt, won 142 games during his 16-season career in the majors. There are several others, too. One that Bailey missed: pitcher Alex Faedo is related to former major leaguer Lenny Faedo, who played for the Twins from 1980 to 1984. Well, you can’t get them all. But 99% is rather good. Besides, the only reason I knew this is because the Faedos are from Tampa. Lenny was an assistant coach for my son’s Little League team in the late 1990s and gave him an autographed baseball. Some of the players had great careers in the minors or as youth players. As Bailey notes, Nick Pratto drove in the winning run in the title game of the 2011 Little League World Series. Matthew Batten also reached the Little League World Series with the Shelton, Connecticut, All-Stars in 2008. Bailey discloses that Jeter Downs, who debuted with the Red Sox, was indeed named for Boston nemesis Derek Jeter. Or that outfielder Narciso Crook, who was born in the Dominican Republic, learned English when he moved to Trenton, New Jersey, by listening to songs by Emimem. Lil Wayne and 50 Cent. It’s a fair guess that Crook did not learn how to throw by watching 50 Cent. Bryan Hoeing’s mother, Donna Lamping Hoeing, broke the women’s scoring record at Ball State University (1,104 points in 93 games) and was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017. Kramer Robertson’s mother, Kim Mulkey, was inducted into the National Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020 after coaching Baylor to three women’s basketball titles. You get the idea. There is plenty of useful information in this book, and Bailey presents it clearly in a readable format. Readers will enjoy the statistics and the nuts-and-bolts information about each player, but others will gravitate toward the vignettes of each player. The only criticism is that there are no photographs in the book, which would have been nice. Readers enjoy connecting to photos, even if they are only mugshots of the players. Major League Debuts: 2023 Edition is a nice addition to a passionate baseball fan’s library. Bailey indicated that he plans to publish another volume for 2024, highlighting the players who reach the majors in 2023. That is something to look forward to. Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors about a western New York man who took a plea deal after scamming collectors out of more than $33,000 in baseball card sales:
www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/new-york-man-enters-plea-deal-in-wire-fraud-case-that-scammed-collectors-out-of-33k-in-sports-cards/ 2ere's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily previewing the 2022 Topps Stadium Club Chrome set:
www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/2022-topps-stadium-club-chrome-focuses-on-autographs-parallels/ Baseball and history go hand in hand. The history of baseball evokes fond childhood memories, when parents would take their children to watch games or would coach them in youth leagues. But what about baseball in the future? What if it disappears from the American landscape? Could it ever make a comeback? Those are some of the themes that first-time author William R. Douglas addresses in his novel, The Death and Resurrection of Baseball: Echoes from a Distant Past (Woodbridge Publications; $29.95; hardback; 252 pages). Inspired by themes from movies like Field of Dreams and The Sandlot and weaving elements from David Aikman’s When the Almond Tree Blossoms and William Forstchen’s One Second After into his narrative, Douglas tells a futuristic story of hope, the return of family dynamics and what these days appears to be a lost art — getting along with others even if their beliefs are at opposite ends of the spectrum. There is also some baseball names bandied about — directly and indirectly —that will bring smiles to Chicago sports fans. There are even a few casual references to the 1989 film, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and 1984’s The Natural. But now, back to the future and Douglas’ novel. It is 2166, more than a century after a second Civil War had devastated the U.S., killing millions of people. The nation has returned to “horse-and-buggy” mode after a computer virus wipes out data worldwide. Sports are played, but the emphasis is on soccer and lacrosse. Video games (then as now) have taken up the attention of youths. Baseball is nowhere in sight, ever since a crippling three-year players strike. Then, a 5,000-pound bomb was dropped on a stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, on April 11, 2061, killing 1,776 people. Note the irony. The next day, the Second Civil War began, 200 years to the day after the first Civil War began. Double irony. These elements play to Douglas’ strengths. Graduating in 1980 with a degree in journalism, he eventually worked in the information technology field. Add to that his love for history and Chicago sports — particularly the White Sox — and Douglas pulls that knowledge into a compelling narrative that centers around his own hometown of McHenry, Illinois. Joe Scott, a 12-year-old living in McHenry, is exploring in the VFW Woods — a no man’s land that was once the site of the Second Civil War’s bloodiest battle. Scott is walking with a friend when he finds a puzzling relic. It is a sign attached to a fence that reads “No Pepper.” Baseball fans in our time knows what that means, but in Douglas’ narrative the sport vanished from American culture more than a century ago. Scott’s father tries to figure out what it means. That is where Grandpa Moses steps in. Brian Albert Woodbridge is 85 and a member of the revered Crucible Generation. Those were the people who had to deal with the immediate aftermath of the Second Civil War. Affectionately known as Grandpa Moses, he lives in Dyersville, Iowa (there’s that Field of Dreams tie-in) and remains a can-do guy. He is a former congressman who won his seat at age 65 and can drive a big-rig truck, a rarity in these times. What Grandpa Moses also has is a trunk in his attic that contains a secret. “The property of a pirate, filled with gold and priceless gems,” he muses. When Joe Scott and his younger brother Austin come to visit, Grandpa Moses decides the time is right to find out what is in that mysterious trunk. There is no gold, but the relics are priceless. The boys and their grandfather find VHS and DVDs, along with equipment that can play them, along with baseball equipment. There is also a letter dated from 2064, written by Grandpa Moses’ great-great-grandfather. The letter instructs them that there are two vaults buried in the backyard behind the farmhouse in Dyersville, and they discover more baseball relics, including a copy of “The Sandlot.” “Baseball, huh. It looks like fun,” Joe Scott says. It was. And the players take to the game quickly. Baseball suddenly becomes a national craze and a way for Americans to bond again. After a local newspaper reporter — go figure, newspapers were back in vogue in 2166? — and national media show interest, even the president weighs in. But Scott and his friends had to learn the game. “It was one thing to watch movies and read books,” Douglas writes. “It was quite another to do what they were learning.” The players compete vigorously, but show good sportsmanship and find themselves enjoying the nuances of the sport. Even the fans put away their differences and simply enjoyed the game. It was a sentiment that Grandpa Moses thought about what mesmerized him about the old ballgame. He reached back into a behavior he had read about. People were polarized, where it seemed as if “half of America had developed a hatred for the other half,” that led to the deaths of 90% of the U.S. population. But a steadying influence was baseball. “When the game was over and the seats emptied, everyone who had come in peace, left in peace,” he said. While the baseball strike did not cause the Second Civil War, it removed decency that was exhibited through sports. As a sidebar, when Grandpa Moses and Scott are invited to fly in a U.S. Army plane over the ruins of Chicago, they get to see some of that destruction firsthand. But the reason they were invited soon becomes apparent. The area is still crackling with radiation after an exchange of nuclear weapons caused the deaths of 80 million people in one day. But as the plane flies over the former South Side of Chicago, they see a partial structure that brings back memories of the old ballgame — Comiskey Park. Douglas uses plenty of Chicago baseball references in his novel. Many are fun to find. When a game is scheduled, with the president in the stands and a national television audience watching, other dignitaries arrive. They include Illinois senators Beckert and Baines — could Douglas be referencing former Cubs infielder Glenn Beckert and White Sox Hall of Famer Harold Baines? There’s also a congresswoman named Barton, but it would have been funnier if she had been named Bartman (Cubs fans can wince now). Bill Evans, Ned Chylak, Dave Eddings and August Donatelli are the umpires for the big game, and there’s some nostalgia there. All of the real-life umpires have ties to Chicago. Billy Evans was a Hall of Fame umpire who worked the day Charlie Robertson pitched a perfect game for the White Sox in 1922. Nestor Chylak umpired the Toronto Blue Jays’ first-ever game, which was played against the White Sox in 1977. Doug Eddings was the plate umpire for Game 2 of the 2005 ALCS that involved the infamous dropped third strike while A.J. Pierzynski was batting. And he also was the plate umpire when White Sox pitcher Carlos Rodon tossed a no-hitter in April 2021. And Augie Donatelli umpired a 1956 doubleheader between the Cubs and Braves that saw 15 home runs hit at Wrigley Field. Reggie Spalding, who plays a part at the end of the novel, is a direct descendant of former baseball Hall of Famer and sporting goods pioneer Albert Spalding. The real-life Spalding, who developed the first baseball deemed “official” by the majors, opened his first store in Chicago. The host of the “Good Morning, USA” that televises the game between the White Stockings and Bear Cubs is Laura Tubman, whose seventh great-grandmother was Underground Railroad heroine Harriet Tubman. The president, named Frederick Kennedy, is a Black Irishman whose genealogical branches include former presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Douglas is ever mindful of the impact the original Civil War had on America. In Kennedy’s dedication before the big baseball game, he references the Gettysburg Address, with an opening statement of “five score and seven years ago.” I won’t give away the outcome of the game, but there are more Chicago references. When Scott’s rival Ted Lee Banks hits a home run in the eighth inning, the baseball broadcaster dusts off a “Hey, hey!” like Cubs announcer Jack Brickhouse did when Ernie Banks hit his 500th career home run on May 12, 1970. There is also a player for the Bear Cubs named Roy Hobson, a nod to The Natural’s Roy Hobbs. My favorite reference, though, is that the producer of “Good Morning, USA” is named Arnie Harris. If you followed Cubs baseball and announcer Harry Caray on WGN-TV, you know that the producer of the broadcasts was Arne Harris, who worked the games from 1964 until his death in 2001. The president of American News Network, which produced the fictional game in Douglas’ novel, was Harry Scully, a nice juxtaposition of Caray and Dodgers immortal broadcaster Vin Scully. Maybe I am reading too much into all of these references, but I believe they were put there intentionally. They were fun to read. If there is a criticism with Douglas’ book, it is that the climactic game has too much dialogue between the announcers. But that is a universal complaint even in 2023. It does not detract from the overall presentation; baseball fans will enjoy it. For the most part, the dialogue and narrative is good. There is genuine wonderment that a game that seemed so ancient could make people enthusiastic and relearn the art of agreeing to disagree. It is a nice moral theme. Douglas’ book ends with a scene in heaven, with Jackie Robinson announcing the return of baseball after a century. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and even Shoeless Joe Jackson marvel at the game’s return, but leave it to heaven’s Big Guy to have the final say. “Let’s play ball!” The Death and Resurrection of Baseball is a book brimming with hope. Douglas’ themes are not preachy, but they make one think. As they should. The novel speaks to family values, patriotism and the love of a game that may seem dead to some but still has remarkable resiliency. Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily previewing the 2022 Panini Obsidian football set:
www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/2022-obsidian-football-guide/ Pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training may signal the beginning of baseball season for many fans, but for card collectors it is the release of Topps’ flagship series. Topps’ Series 1 for 2023 has hit the shelves. I no longer chase the set any more, opting instead to build sets for Heritage and Allen & Ginter. I do, however, buy a complete set of Topps when Series 1 and 2 have been out for a while. So for the purpose of review, I stick to buying blaster boxes. The one at my local Target cost $24.99 and had seven packs, with 14 cards to a pack. There is also a commemorative patch in each blaster, giving the collector 99 cards. As usual, Series 1 will feature 330 cards of MLB veterans, rookies, future stars, league leaders and team cards. What will be interesting about the Series 1, 2 and Update series is that every card will have a Golden Mirror base variation. That works out to 990 cards across all three sets, but the odds of pulling one are long — 1 in every 1,360 packs. One way to tell if you have a Gold Mirror card is that the Topps logo on the card front is stamped in gold, rather than silver. But the real tipoff is on the card back, which sports a large “SSP” against a gold background. Good luck. I like the design for this year’s set, as opposed to the 2022 product. There is an action shot on the front that dominates the card, with a white border and a thin line with a primary color of the team’s uniform. A mug shot of the player anchors the bottom left-hand corner of the card, with the team logo directly to the player’s right at the bottom center. The player’s name is in block white letters below the mug, and his position is situated in the lower right-hand corner. Most of the cards I pulled had a vertical design on the front, which I prefer. I know that the 1956 and 1960 Topps sets had horizontal card front designs, but the standard design has been vertical. Certainly, Topps would slip in a horizontal design after that — the 1971 Thurman Munson card comes to mind — but I’ve always believed the vertical design looked much better in card binders. The card backs return to a horizontal design, showcasing vital statistics and year-by-year numbers. Where there is room, a short biography/highlights paragraph is also included. Of the 99 cards I pulled, 84 were base cards. That includes three league leader cards and three team cards. There are plenty of parallels, but the Royal Blue can be found in the retail versions of 2023 Topps. I pulled one of Tigers pitcher Beau Brieske. As for inserts, there are plenty to chase. In keeping with its trend of honoring card designs from 35 years ago, Topps had included a 100-card set of cards featuring the product’s 1988 design. There were two in the blaster I bought — Brendan Rogers and Mookie Betts. The cards feature a silver foil stamp that denotes the 35th anniversary of the 1988 set. Stars of the MLB is a 30-card set, with one card per pack. I pulled seven, plus a Chrome version, which falls once in every 10 retail packs. The Chrome card was Juan Soto. One-Two Punch is a 25-card set that features two pitchers who have combined to lead at the top of their team’s rotations. My card featured Carlos Rodon and Logan Webb. The 2022 Greatest Hits set pays tribute to great at-bats during last season. There are 25 cards in this subset. Betts is also featured in the 30-card promotional Home Run Challenge. The challenge is simple — predict the date when the player will connect for a home run. Collectors who guess correctly will receive a parallel card. Collectors who predict that the home run will travel more than 425 feet will win a special parallel card. All winners will be entered into a drawing, with the winner receiving a trip to the 2024 Home Run Derby at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. Speaking of Arlington, the commemorative team logo card I pulled from my blaster was the Texas Rangers. Topps’ flagship set comes out at the perfect time. In a new era where fans must learn to adjust to ghost runners and no defensive shifts, at least Topps gives collectors what they expect every season. And it's time for baseball season. Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about the Joe Montana Collection that Goldin is selling beginning Feb. 9:
www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/joes-cool-stuff-joe-montanas-personal-memorabilia-will-be-part-of-goldin-auction/ Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about Cooper Davis, a 9-year-old boy from Pennsylvania who wowed the internet last year when Albert Pujols gave him a game-used jersey:
www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/jersey-that-albert-pujols-gave-9-year-old-boy-will-be-displayed-at-hall-of-fame/
“There are no perfect endings,” major league pitcher Marcus Stroman writes in his book geared toward middle school age children. “But there are satisfying ones.”
In The Grip (Aladdin Books; hardback; $17.99; 208 pages), Stroman, 31, gives the reader a gentle but firm reminder that young people are facing a tremendous amount of pressure to succeed and to “fit in” — in school, among their peers, and in athletics. Mental health should be a priority in today’s turbulent times, but it is discussed only when a tragedy occurs. Mass shootings by teens have become disturbingly prevalent and point to mental health issues — at Uvalde, Texas, where an 18-year-old entered Robb Elementary School and killed 21 people last year; at Parkland, Florida, where a 19-year-old opened fire at a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, killed 17 students and staff members and injured 17 others; and Littleton, Colorado, where two teens killed 13 and wounded more than 20 at Columbine High School in 1999. And most recently, the case of a 6-year-old bringing a gun to school in early January 2023 and wounding a first-grade teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia. Stroman’s book is not that heavy, but it carries a message that is uplifting and powerful: Mental health is the key to success on and off the field. Sure, that success may not be perfect, but it is a great building block.
Co-written with Samantha Thornhill, who owns a master’s degree in fine arts from University of Virginia, it is the first book in a semi-autobiographical series for children ages 8 to 12. A second book, The Spin, is due out in July.
The Grip is loosely based on Stroman’s personal experience. At 5 feet, 7 inches tall, Stroman has always faced skeptics who did not believe he had the mettle to succeed. But he overcame the odds and has compiled a 67-67 record in eight seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Mets and the Chicago Cubs. Stroman runs his own foundation, Height Doesn’t Measure Heart, which provides the necessary encouragement for youngsters to realize their dreams. And dreams are what fuel young Marcus in The Grip. He’s a star pitcher for his team and knows he has the physical tools to play baseball at a high level. It is the mental part that worries him, and the book shows Marcus dealing with plenty of doubt. And he does not want to talk about to those closest to him. In the narrative of The Grip, Marcus and his sister are “ping-ponging” between their divorced parents’ homes. His father catches him daily, ramping up the pressure for the young pitcher to excel. A colleague on his team, James, is constantly needling him about his short stature. And an upcoming baseball “assessment” is messing with his mind. That is a lot to put on any young athlete’s plate, especially when, as a pitcher, he is trying to consistently find the plate.
“It’s loosely based around my upbringing as a kid,” Stroman told the Chicago Sun-Times last September. “Young minority kid coming up, divorced parents, playing sports, going through school dealing with everything that young kids are gonna be dealing with — from bullies to juggling schoolwork and homework to living at your mom’s house, then going to your dad’s house being in a divorced household. So I’m excited because it’s truly geared toward mental adversity and mental health, as well.”
In the book, James’ digs about his height really get to Marcus. Had he been able to look into the future he would have seen that height does not necessarily matter. Recently, he has made it to the majors, and left-hander Tim Collins, who pitched for the Royals (2011-14), Nationals (2018) and the Cubs (2019), is 5-7. Southpaw Bobby Shantz stood only 5-6, but he went 119-99 from 1949 to 1964, won eight Gold Gloves and was the American League’s Most Valuable Player in 1952 with a 24-7 record and a 2.48 ERA. By the way, the shortest pitcher of the modern era was Dennis John “Ginty” Gearin, who stood 5-4 and pitched for the New York Giants in 1923 and 1924. Marcus’ support group in The Grip includes his older sister Sabria, his grandmother and a group of friends that include Danny, Jordan and Kai (Stroman’s real-life son, also named Kai, was born in 2022). But the stress about the upcoming assessment is causing him to withdraw.
“Something has its grip on me. Is it fear, or just nerves,” Marcus thinks to himself. “Do I even want to do this?
“I’ve never asked myself that before. And I’ve never wanted to run in the opposite direction of my dreams, until now. What is happening?” Marcus concedes that he does not want to fail at something everyone believes he can do. Marcus’ parents and coaches can see he is struggling. And let’s be honest. Kids at the middle age level are going through changes. They are between cute elementary school students and moodier high schoolers. It is a difficult transition. The timid children are easily bullied, and the level of cruelty is real and unfiltered. It was rough when I was in middle school (we called it junior high school) in 1969 and 1970. It is much tougher now, now that social media is available. Stroman believes that, too, and stresses the importance of every child having a support group. “I feel like a lot of the time in this world, especially with social media, there’s so many people who work against you. Or there’s so many ways that you can give in to people and not allow yourself to truly chase what you want to do in life,” Stroman told the Sun-Times. “So I think it’s extremely important to keep a small group of people who love you and who are going to support you.” In the book, Marcus’ mother is one of those support people, along with his father, sister and grandmother. She recognizes his need to get away from baseball for awhile, so she organizes a rest day for him and his sister. They go to the pool, relax and eat hot dogs.
from hisLater, Marcus and Sabria have fun at the expense of the sneering James, talking up a great workout program called Namorts. That is actually “Stroman” spelled backwards and is a code the siblings used as “the alternate version of us when we wanted to pretend we were kids from another family, with parents who actually got along.”
But James does not know that and remains baffled, to the siblings’ great delight. Because he is still stressing about the assessment, Marcus is encouraged by his mother to visit a “mental-health coach.” And he confesses his real fear: “Everyone believes in me and says I can do it. Everyone believes in me except for me. I’m scared that maybe this time I can’t pull it off.” With guidance and encouragement from his support group, Marcus does indeed do well at the assessment and even strikes out his nemesis, James. This is the only part of the book that is confusing. Marcus gets James to foul off two pitches and then misses with a pitch he believes should have been strike three. Then he throws another strike, but the at-bat continues. “It feels like I’ve been on the mound for an hour,” Marcus thinks to himself. Well, for at least three strikes, anyway.
And then Marcus throws another strike, and on the final pitch of the at-bat, James swings and misses again.
OK, the sequence is confusing, but the final result is what is important. And Marcus even comes to a truce with James afterward, which is a nice touch. In real life, Stroman believes in the mental approach to the game. According to SportsNet New York, his former teammate at Duke University, Mike Seander, introduced him to the 1994 book by Deepak Chopra, “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams.” “It settles me, calms me, gets me where I need to be, reminds me to keep my life in perspective,” Stroman told Newsday in August 2019. “It goes with me everywhere.” The Grip is a book that should be carried around by youths. It is an uplifting story and one that encourages kids to believe in themselves. As Stroman notes, standing tall is not physical, but a state of mind. “If you can believe in yourself, you can do anything,” he writes. Here is a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily previewing the 2022 Panini Playbook Football set:
www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/2022-panini-playbook-football-showcases-booklets-autographs/ Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about Fred McKie, who just bought four 1961 Topps Dice test set cards. They include Mantle, Mays, Musial and Richardson.
www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/1961-topps-dice-test-cards-find/ Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily previewing 2022-23 Donruss Basketball, which will be released next month:
www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/2022-23-donruss-basketball-preview/ Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about the career and cards of Johnny Unitas:
www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/johnny-unitas-football-cards-career/ Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about the career and cards of HOF pitcher Steve Carlron:
www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/lefty-at-78-a-look-back-at-steve-carltons-career-through-baseball-cards/ Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about the 1972 Miami Dolphins and the football cards they had in the '72 Topps set:
www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/players-of-the-perfect-season-1972-topps-miami-dolphins/ Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about Ferguson Jenkins, the Hall of Fame pitcher who turned 80 on Dec. 13:
https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/ferguson-jenkins-baseball-cards/ Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about Panini's Spectra Football, which comes out next month:
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