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.
​
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.
​
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.
​
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.
​
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.
​
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.
​
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.
​
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.
​
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.
​
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.
​
Ducks features 10 different species of the webbed creatures.

I pulled a Gray Duck.
​
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.
​
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.
​
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.
​
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.
​
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.
​
“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.
​
It is a stunning, eye-opening slice of history that should resonate every day — and especially on Veterans Day.