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.
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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?
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“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:
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2ere's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily previewing the 2022 Topps Stadium Club Chrome set:

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​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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.

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/
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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“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.
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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.
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“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:

​www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/2022-panini-spectra-keys-on-autographs-parallels/

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about the 2022 Topps Brooklyn Collection:

​www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/2022-topps-brooklyn-collection-info-checklist/

Topps Gallery baseball has always been an art-oriented product. So it is not surprising that this year’s set is framed around artistic themes.

After all, the set’s motto is “The Art of Collecting.”

Usually you can only buy Gallery at Walmart as a retail-only product, but the 2022 version is also available this year from the Topps website. I found both blasters and Monster boxes at my local Walmart store.

Since I am not collecting the set, I chose the blaster. For those who want to invest $79.99 for a Monster box — which is kind of like a hobby box, in my view — the advantage is that you will receive two autographed cards.
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Last year I bought two Monster boxes. I went the blaster box route this year, buying only one box for $24.99. The economy, you know. However, buying the blaster meant I’d still receive four exclusive Printer Proof parallels.

A blaster has seven packs, with four cards to pack.

What I like about this set is the museum-like theme. Until 2021, Gallery card designs relied on original artwork. For the second straight year, the card fronts will feature actual photographs.

As in previous years, the main photograph is still surrounded by an inner border that looks just like a picture frame.

Most of the cards I pulled had vertical designs on the card front, although a few did have a horizontal design. I prefer vertical, but sometimes a card does lend itself to a horizontal look.

The card backs feature vital statistics for each player, plus “Gallery Notes” that provide brief highlights separated by three dots in the column-writing style of Dick Young, the late, great New York sportswriter.
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Again this year, the base set consists of 200 cards. Current stars, rookies and retired stars are the focus.

The blaster I opened yielded 24 base cards and Rainbow Foil parallels of Jose Altuve and Spencer Torkelson.

There was also a Green Pattern parallel of Cody Bellinger. which was numbered to 99.

The lone insert in the blaster was a Modern Artists insert of Julio Rodriguez. The artwork was created by Jason Drumheller, an award-winning artist from Baltimore. His motto is “Keep it simple, make it smart.”

That is reflected in the simplicity of the insert.

The four Printer Proof cards featured Tyler O’Neill, Andrew McCutchen, Tony Gwynn and Alek Manoah.

Another interesting set. The 2022 Topps Gallery set is not flashy, but it is a clean and attractive product.

The Allen & Ginter set by Topps is the product I wait for with anticipation every year.

I still enjoy the flagship set, but the A&G set has entranced me with its eclectic output since its debut in 2006. Sure, there are current stars, rookies and Hall of Famers. But stars from other sports, media personalities and actors make this a fun set to collect.

Of course, it is a maddening set, since the short-prints can make it difficult to complete the checklist. But that is the fun of collecting.

I bought a hobby box, since I am not sure when the retail product will hit my area stores. Oh, there is plenty of product now at my local Target — depending on the location, Walmart can have a bonanza of blaster boxes or nothing at all — but much of that is several months old.

With Allen & Ginter traditionally a midsummer set, it has been a bit excruciating this year waiting for it to come out.
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As usual, A&G does not disappoint.

A hobby box has 24 packs, with eight cards to a pack. Topps promises that every hobby box will contain at least three items from this lists of possibilities — autograph cards, relic cards, rip cards, printing plates or book cards.
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There are 298 base cards, with no cards printed at No. 167 and No. 181. There are an additional 50 short prints, which fall in every other pack on average. Interestingly, Topps has a pair of cards — Nos. 337 and 344 — that have SP and non-SP cards. Card No. 337 features Juan Gonzalez (SP) and Manny Ramirez (non-SP), while card No. 344 showcases Lou Piniella (SP) and Luis Castillo (non-SP). I am guessing that Castillo was supposed to be No. 167 while Ramirez was designated at No. 181, since each has a mini card at those numbers.

Every pack on average has six base cards, an insert and a mini card. There are 300 base minis and 50 short-printed minis. The mini set does not include the non-SP cards of Ramirez and Castillo. Short-printed minis fall once every 13 packs on average.

The design has the main photo framed on three sides with a marbled gray color border highlighted by a thin black line. The Allen & Ginter logo is tucked into the left-hand bottom corner of the card front and is more elaborate looking than last year’s set, which had the product name across the bottom of the card in gold block letters. This year’s product includes the slogan “The World’s Champions” with the A&G logo.

The design for the card backs remains the same, with plenty of statistical information for the players and a short biography for the non-baseball subjects. The statistical numbers remain spelled out, a haughty throwback to the Gilded Age of U.S. history — the time frame when the original Allen & Ginter set was released 135 years ago in 1887.

​I pulled 124 base cards from this year’s set. In addition to the stars, rookies and legends, I found cards of three curlers (Matt Hamilton, John Landsteiner and John Shuster), two musicians (Ian Grushka of New Found Glory and Tim Hause of The Mermaid) and two rappers (B-Real and Ben Dog). I am not sure why Topps made the distinction between musicians and rappers — they are all performers, right? — but that was their call, not mine.

Other sports represented in the box I opened included basketball (Bradley Beal), lacrosse (Charlotte North) and soccer (Sam Mewis). I found a sports agent (Drew Rosenhaus), a sports reporter (Field Yates) and a journalist/comedian (Charlie Berens). There is probably some snark that can be made about Berens’ dual occupation, but you will not get that from me. I have been a sports reporter and am still a journalist. As for being a comedian, my jokes still make my kids groan.

I also pulled a card of actor Danny Glover, tattooist Luke Wessman, barber Davey Cuts and barbecue chef Rodney Scott. And finally, a card of Blake Brice, a 10-year-old “hobby wunderkind” from suburban Denver who has attracted a following with his YouTube videos reviewing sports cards. His channel is the appropriately named BLAKEdown.
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Those were the base cards. There were 12 short-printed cards, and I also pulled the non-SP card of Castillo.
As usual, Topps has mini parallels from the base set. I pulled nine base card minis and a pair of short prints (Scott Podsednik and Zach Wheeler). The minis also come with an Allen & Ginter back and I pulled five base minis plus a short print of Juan Gonzalez.
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Topps also promises a Black parallel once in every 10 packs, and that average was hit with a pair of them in the box I bought — Freakonomics author Stephen Dubner and Brandon Woodruff.

The first hot card I pulled from the hobby box was a relic card of Braves star Ronald Acuna Jr. The card was a round uniform swatch of the Atlanta outfielder. In the very next pack, I pulled the same type of memorabilia card of Trout. These are considered “A Relics.”

Several packs later I pulled a relic card of NFL Network broadcaster Scott Hanson. The piece appears to be from a dress shirt, with some nice intricate lines. Definitely a different kind of relic. This is considered a “B Relic.”

I am always glad to find nice hot cards, but I kind of wished there had been more variety, rather than three relic cards that were all swatches. An autograph or rip card would have been nice. I have pulled one rip card once before, and that was an interesting choice — to rip or not to rip? I ripped.

As expected, the hobby box I bought had a boxloader card. This year’s version was an oversized card of Mike Trout.

​Insert cards showcases the Allen & Ginter penchant for finding traditional and off-the-wall subjects.

Banner Season honors players who excelled during a particular year. I pulled nine of the 50-card subset.
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Pitching A Gem consists of 25 cards and highlights memorable performances on the mound.

 pulled five of these cards, which feature the pitcher set against a background of a gem that matches the player’s birthdate, which is listed at the bottom of the card front.

Famous Rivals is a 10-card set that features rivals from baseball and also outside the sport. Non-sport rivals include Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, George W. Bush vs. Al Gore, East Coast and West Coast, New York Slice and Chicago Deep Dish (no contest), and Pork Roll and Taylor Ham (a thing in New Jersey and surrounding areas). I pulled three cards, including the hysterically named New Jersey and Everyone.

​I also pulled Bush and Gore, along with the Yankees and the Red Sox.

Suggestion for next time — Tampa Cuban sandwiches and Miami Cuban sandwiches. Tampa wins.

Two other large inserts are food oriented.
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What’s Cookin’? is basically a 10-card recipe that features various condiments and spices. I pulled Dark Brown Sugar and Fresh Ground Black Pepper.

Get That Bread also has 10 cards and features different types of sandwiches. I pulled three of these cards — Burger, Meatball Hero and Turkey Club.
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The final regular-sized insert is It’s Your Special Day, a 15-card set that highlights days of note. I pulled a pair of cards — National Dog Day and National Pajama Day.

As usual, there are mini inserts in the A&G set.

Bearing Fruit has 18 cards of exotic fruits, and I pulled a pair of them (pun not intended) — Lucuma and Mangosteen.
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Ducks features 10 different species of the webbed creatures.

I pulled a Gray Duck.
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Inside the Park has 25 cards featuring U.S. National Parks. I pulled one of Grand Canyon National Park

Finally, Time Out! is a 10-card set that recounts MLB games that were canceled or delayed under unique circumstances. I pulled Power Outage, when a 2012 game between the Red Sox and host White Sox was delayed 21 minutes when the lights went out at U.S. Cellular Field.

There are plenty of things to like about the 2022 A&G set. The base set is relatively easy to finish but the short prints are difficult. The inserts are varied and eclectic. And when one buys a hobby box, there are always hot cards and a box toppers.
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It’s a nice combination.

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about next month's Topps Chrome Update baseball set:

​www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/2022-topps-chrome-update-will-be-offered-in-hobby-shops-retail-stores/

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about a card shop in Texas owned by a pair veterans that was broken into -- on Veterans Day.

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/texas-card-shop-owners-both-veterans-victimized-by-thieves-on-veterans-day/

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about a credit card scammer who was able to walk off with nearly $2,600 worth of sports cards last week:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/alert-credit-card-scammer-strikes-new-jersey-hobby-shop/

I cannot think of a better book to review on Veterans Day. Heroism never gets old.

Buzz Bissinger’s latest effort is intense. Very intense.

At first glance, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II (Harper; hardback; $32.50; 463 pages) appears to be about college football players blowing off steam while waiting for more action as soldiers in the Pacific Theater.

Then you open the book and start reading.

Only 10 pages actually deal with the game, which was played on Dec. 24, 1944, and ended in a scoreless tie.

Sixty five men played in that Christmas Eve contest, with Marines from the 6th Division’s 4th and 26th regiments squaring off in front of approximately 1,500 soldiers at Pritchard Field’s parade ground in Guadalcanal. Fifty-six of them had played college football and several others played in high school. Sixteen players on the roster had been drafted by NFL teams, five had been team captains and three were All-Americans.

“The remaining handful just wanted in on the mayhem,” Bissinger writes.
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The real mayhem would come soon enough. Horrifyingly so. Disturbingly so.

Fifteen men on those rosters were killed during the Battle of Okinawa. They were part of a staggering toll of U.S. casualties. Between April 1 and June 22, 1945, nearly 13,000 Marines, Army and Navy members were killed. Three times as many were wounded. The Japanese also had massive casualties, and the natives of Okinawa suffered greatly.

Every richly detailed chapter in The Mosquito Bowl was nevertheless stark in its description of life and death during World War II. It reminded me of the comments uttered by Col. Walter Kurtz, the off-the-rails officer played by Marlon Brando in the 1979 film, “Apocalypse Now.”

“The horror. The horror,” Kurtz said just before he was killed by Capt. Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen).

The horror was real in The Mosquito Bowl. And the participants were not actors, but established football stars transformed into soldiers. Failure was never an option in their minds, and if victory could be attained through their deaths, then so be it.
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Bissinger, 68, has riveted readers before. There was 1990’s Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream, about the Permian High School Panthers and the culture in Odessa, Texas. The book would inspire a film and television series of the same name. In 2005, 3 Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and the Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager, focused on a three-game series two years earlier between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs, and specifically through the eyes of Cardinals manager (and Tampa native) Tony La Russa.

As a journalist, Bissinger won a Pulitzer Prize while writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer. He won the prize in investigative reporting for writing about corruption in Philadelphia's court system.

The prose in The Mosquito Bowl has many elements. Staccato phrases pepper the reader like the report of a machine gun. The language is also earthy, which is to be expected. Being in the military is not always about discipline; it is also about raw language and searing experiences.
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Bissinger explores the fates of several of the game’s key players. These men had offers to play in the NFL, although some of their coaches cautioned them about the pro league’s unsavory reputation at the time. Some men were torn between marrying their girlfriends and starting families, or waiting to see how the war played out.

These were not easy decisions. But, as Bissinger points out, these men were willing to sacrifice their futures. Their heroism and devotion to the American cause in World War II magnifies what the U.S. calls its greatest generation.

The Marines stationed in Guadalcanal waiting for the anticipated invasion of Okinawa were not a patient bunch.

“The wait,” Bissinger writes. “The interminable wait.

“Marines did not like to wait; it was better to know you were going to die than play it over and over in your head. … Semper Fi, Semper Die.”

Here are some of the heroes that Bissinger writes about. All had compelling stories, and Bissinger provides detailed family histories and gives the reader a sense about what made each player special.

• John McLaughry was a football captain who starred at Brown University on the gridiron and in the boxing ring. He was also an artist, where the “lighter side of his personality” was revealed in his drawings and caricatures, “a side of whimsy and cleverness and affection that was not in his personal demeanor.” A drawing McLaughry made of the jungle on the island of Bougainville in 1944 graces the book’s endpapers.
• David Schreiner was an All-American end at the University of Wisconsin. Schreiner’s family in Lancaster was well-to-do, but that did not stop him from clearing tables at breakfast and dinner at the women’s common area at the university to make extra money. His prowess on the field won accolades, but Schreiner confessed to his mother that he “wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible.”
• Tony Butkovich, an All-American at Purdie University, had six brothers and was the son of a Croatian coal miner in Illinois. Nicknamed “Blondie” because of his hair color, Butkovich sent photos to his parents of a parrot perched on his shoulder at Guadalcanal. “Innately big-hearted, a kid in many ways,” Butkovich played with blood and dirt on his face, Bissinger writes.
• George Murphy was team captain for the University of Notre Dame and was the son of a clerk in South Bend, Indiana. He took on more responsibilities with the Fighting Irish when second-year coach Frank Leahy was hospitalized with spinal arthritis. After one victory, Murphy presented Leahy with a football autographed by team members.
• Robert Bauman, who played tackle and punted at Wisconsin, worked in onion fields south of Chicago. He and his brother would take home bruised onions so they could have onion sandwiches, using a stick of Wrigley’s chewing gum afterward to hide the odor. Bauman, Bissinger writes, had “a twinkle in his eye to suggest a little mischief,” who enjoyed beer and cigarettes. He was also obsessed with getting a tan no matter what the weather conditions happened to be.

​From onion fields to the killing fields, Bissinger tells many great stories in this book. Several stick out.

One was about a reconnaissance patrol led by McLaughry on the island of Bougainville in the Solomons chain. Bissinger writes an hour-by-hour, “you are there” account, including McLaughry discovering that an irritating itch he got after sleeping on his poncho was caused by draping the garment over an anthill.

Schreiner agonized over whether to marry his girlfriend, Odette Hendrickson, before going overseas. That was a common cause for anxiety among young couples during World War II, and Schreiner decided to wait until his fighting days were over.

“Sometimes I think it’s unfair to have her wait for me,” Schreiner wrote to his parents. “After all there’s a chance I won’t come back and then where’ll she be? … We should have gotten married before I left and had one in the oven.

“If she’ll wait for me I’ll be plenty happy but I can’t blame her if she doesn’t.”
Another story revolves around a girl on Okinawa, probably no older than 7 years old.

Sgt. Raymond Gillespie was near Mount Yaetake when a platoon sergeant took aim and wounded the child. Gillespie reported the incident to a lieutenant, who told him to shut up or face a court martial.

“I’m not here to kill children,” Gillespie retorted.

Gillespie took the child to a main road and flagged down a jeep, which took the girl to a regimental hospital. When he returned to the platoon, Gillespie said the lieutenant never mentioned the incident.

“Which, in the way of the military, meant that it never happened,” Bissinger writes.

Butkovich had a pen pal during the war — Tom Milligan, a 9-year-old boy from the eastern Indiana city of Richmond. The two swapped letters while Butkovich was in boot camp and even when he went overseas.

While stationed in Guadalcanal, Butkovich met a naval coxswain who has headed home to Richmond. Butkovich asked if the man knew the Milligan family, and when he answered in the affirmative, the football star dashed off a few sentences to be hand-delivered to the child, 7,956 miles away, Bissinger writes.

Milligan sent a letter to Butkovich in early 1945, but it came back to him on May 24, stamped “return to sender.” You can guess why.

The first player to die in action at Okinawa was John Henry “Red” Anderson, on April 1. He was 22.

Bissinger ends 15 different chapters with the death of one of the Marines who played in the Mosquito Bowl. The three-sentence effect — name, place of burial and his age — has the metallic clank of a coffin slamming shut. It is direct and sparse in a way that would make a Marine proud.

I am not going to reveal the other players who died at Okinawa — you can read about it — only because each incident has a dramatic story behind them.

After McLaughry learned of the death of his patrol commander, Lt. Col. Joseph McCaffery, he penned a poignant letter to his parents, Bissinger writes.
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“Up ’til now, the war has just been something I read of, heard of, and talked about, back in a nice safe base,” McLaughry wrote. “It all seemed very objective, but now it is just really beginning to come home to me just what it all means.”

The 50 Mosquito Bowl players who survived went on to varied careers, including as football coaches at the high school and college levels. Bissinger writes that other survivors became educators, businessmen in construction or spent their careers in the military.

McLaughry would coach at several colleges, including an unsuccessful stint at Brown, his alma mater.

Like many war veterans, he returned “different, quieter, more inward,” Bissinger writes. McLaughry’s mother saw it in both of her sons, who served during World War II, “empty shells with empty eyes.”

Still, McLaughry lived a long life, dying in November 2007 at the age of 90. After returning from the Pacific Theater, he discovered that his mother kept almost all of his letters. He wrote an 80-page account of the patrol at Bougainville.

That is part of Bissinger’s exhaustive research. There is the added nugget that his father had been in the 6th Division at Guadalcanal when the Mosquito Bowl was played. Whether the elder Bissinger actually watched the game is a fact lost to posterity.

Bissinger documents his research with 111 pages of endnotes, which were culled from military records, correspondence and interviews with survivors.

As for the game?

“The final was 0-0 — a perfect score, really,” Bissinger writes. “No winners or losers.

“Just the two hours of life that turned into death several months later” at Okinawa.

“War is hell” is an overused cliché, but it is certainly appropriate in The Mosquito Bowl. It may not be sports book in the true sense of the word, but Bissinger writes about the hopes and dreams of young men — some of whom would never get the chance to realize them.
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It is a stunning, eye-opening slice of history that should resonate every day — and especially on Veterans Day.

The Topps Update series marks the final installment for the flagship series, and collectors will recognize the formula that has been used for years.

Players who were traded will appear in the uniforms of their new teams, and rookies who have made an impact will also be included in the 330-card set.

The 2022 version follows the same patterns as Series One and Two. The only difference is the numbering, which has a “US” in front of the card number, which runs from 1 to 330.

If you buy a hobby box, you can expect one big hit, either a memorabilia or autograph card. Jumbo boxes have an additional hit, offering one autograph and two memorabilia cards.
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As for me, I remained with my usual pattern of buying blaster boxes. That could change, of course, if I ever hit a Powerball or other lottery game. But I am not counting on that.

But there is one big hit in every blaster box, and that is a manufactured relic. There are 50 of them to collect from retail boxes, and they are thick cards.

The one I received was a batting helmet of Ozzie Albies that was embedded into the card.

The design of the 2022 Update set remains consistent with the flagship product’s first two series. The player is shown in action pose, with the background blurred. It’s a nice effect because it does put the player into sharper focus.
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The design format varies between vertical and horizontal. I prefer the vertical look when solo players are involved, but horizontal does come into play several times in this set. Card No. US93, which shows Bradley Zimmer diving to his left to snare a drive, is a good example of nice horizontal usage. So are cards US156 (Tim Locastro) and US262 (Josh Harrison), which show both of them airborne while executing headfirst slides.

The card backs show the player’s year-by-year statistics, a feature from Topps that I have always enjoyed. Baseball is all about numbers, so seeing them on the back of a card is a handy guide. Sure, collectors can look those numbers up at Baseball-Reference.com, but a true baseball card collector is a numbers geek. At least that’s how I see it.

The blaster box I opened contained 80 base cards, which included a generous amount of veterans and rookies. Some of the rookie cards include the date the player made his major league debut.

There are also combination cards. Other cards, called Veteran Combos, combine several players with some clever tag lines. For example, card No. US83 is called “Picture Perfect” and shows Padres players Manny Machado and Jurickson Profar posing for a photograph.
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“Desert Cool Off” (card No. US221) shows the Diamondbacks’ Ketel Marte being doused with Gatorade by teammate Christian Walker after a victory. And card US168 is called “One Last Dance” and features Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina.

You need to be sharp-eyed to see it, but this year’s All-Star Game 50-card insert set looks almost exactly like the base set. The tip-off is in the lower left-hand corner of the card front, which uses an All-Star Game motif instead of the team logo.

I pulled three of those cards, featuring Jose Altuve, Tony Bonsolin and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

There are several parallels for the base set. I pulled a foil parallel of Clint Frazier, a Royal Blue parallel of Steven Matz and a Gold parallel of Michael Pineda that is numbered 0827/2022.

Every retail pack also includes a Stars of MLB insert card. The 30 cards that make up this insert set have a foil-like, shinier look than the base set. I pulled seven of these cards, plus a Stars of MLB chrome card of Bryson Scott. The chrome cards fall once every 10 packs, so that was a nice pickup.

 For collectors who are nostalgic for the 1980s, the update set continues with the inserts that copy the wood-grain design of the 1987 Topps set.
There are 50 cards in the insert set, and I pulled a pair of them — Hunter Greene and Mariano Rivera.

​Collectors who pine for the mid-1990s can collect the 25-card Topps Black Gold insert, which returns again this year.

emember when finding a Topps Black Gold card was a rare, but fun occurrence? They really stood apart from the rest of the Topps cards.

Well, these cards still have that look and are a nice addition to the set. I pulled a card of Julio Rodriguez.

he cards I really liked from this set was the Diamond Greats Die-Cuts. As the name implies, these are die-cut cards of some of the game’s greats.

​There are Hall of Famers, retired players who could arguably be in the Hall, and current players who are blazing a path toward Cooperstown.

The card I pulled was of Brooklyn Dodgers great Roy Campanella. I interviewed Campanella in the early 1980s at the Dodgers’ spring training camp in Vero Beach, Florida, and he could not be nicer.

t was a great interview and one that brings back good memories, since we talked about his past, the Dodgers future and how the team’s catchers were doing (he was a consultant and instructed catchers that year at Dodgertown.
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The Topps Update set helps put an exclamation point to the baseball card season, although the Allen & Ginter set is arriving soon, much later than usual. It’s a clean set with good photography, and blaster boxes can give a collector more than 25% of the base set.