The 2021 Topps WWE set helps to ring the final bell (pun intended) on the card company’s involvement with pro wrestling’s premier company.

Panini America, which won the bidding to license WWE cards and stickers, will debut in April with a Prizm product that will coincide with WrestleMania 38 the weekend of April 2-3 at AT&T Stadium in Texas.

The Topps WWE set dropped on Dec. 22, 2021, so this is the swan song. There are several blaster boxes at my local Target store, so I picked one up this week.
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A blaster contains 10 packs, plus a bonus pack. Regular packs have seven cards per pack.

Topps is promising one relic card per box, and my bonus pack had one of them. It was a Match Film Strips Manufactured card of The Undertaker vs. Kane. The match was held March 29, 1998, and was part of WrestleMania 14 in Boston. The Undertaker won the match but was punished after the match when Kane whacked him with a metal chair.

All of you Boston fans must have loved that set of matches. You get Pete Rose, who helped the Big Red Machine beat the Red Sox during the 1975 World Series. And then Charlie Hustle twists the knife further, telling the crowd at the Fleet Center that “My buddy Bucky Dent says hello.” And “I left tickets for Bill Buckner but he couldn’t bend over to pick them up.” Classic stuff, WWE writers at their best.
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Back to the cards.

The base set is broken down in two distinct parts — 95 cards that chronicle top moments and matches, and 105 cards from the WWE Superstar roster. I like the way the wrestler’s name is featured in the Superstars lineup, bold and at the bottom of the card under a WWE logo.

I pulled 33 of those cards, and all of them had a horizontal design on the card front. The card backs have about eight or nine lines of type that describe the wrestler’s achievements and character lines.
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I am not fond of the overuse of teal on the card backs, but that is simply personal preference.

For the Top Moments and Matches part of the base set, I pulled 30 cards. Eleven of these cards were highlights from SmackDown, while five were from Raw.

The design on the card front varies between vertical and horizontal, depending on the match.

The information box under the action on the front is too busy. That is to say, there are too many words. For example, one card, with a two-line description, reads “Randy Orton challenges Edge to a wrestling match.”

​One line is sufficient — Randy Orton challenges Edge. Honestly, 99% of the time the challenge would have been for a wrestling match, so why include that?

There were several inserts in the 2021 Topps WWE set.
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One was an RKO Outta Nowhere card of a May 5, 2008, match that featured Triple H and Mr. Kennedy against the Superstars of ECW.

Another was a Coolest Mixed Tag Teams card of John Cena and Trish Stratus. The card, among 11 in the subset, was from a match in Toronto, marking Stratus’ return to the ring for the first time in two years.

The WWE Hall of Fame Tribute set, featuring 18 cards, concentrates on the New World Order, or nWo. The card I pulled was one of The Outsiders defeating the Harlem Heat in a 1996 Halloween Havoc match. Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were The Outsiders, and the card features Hall as Razor Ramon; Nash was known as Diesel. The Outsiders beat Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray), marking the first time The Outsiders would win the WCW World Tag Team Championship.
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Memorable Entrances is a nine-card insert set. The card I pulled was from WrestleMania 9 in 1993, when Bobby “The Brain” Heenan tried to make an entrance to his ringside seat to announce the matches while riding on the back of a camel. He wound up being seated backward on the animal. It was billed as the World’s Largest Toga Party, and the Brain was decked out accordingly.

​Not a bad set. WWE decided to move on to Panini, which probably offered a more lucrative deal. And as longtime WWE broadcaster Jim Ross wrote in his latest book, Under the Black Hat: My Life in the WWE and Beyond, WWE chairman Vince McMahon’s main focus has always been “cash and creative.”
This was not a bad swan song for Topps.

Here's a podcast I did with Greg McLaughlin in The Rebel Base Card Podcast (he interviewed me):

It is difficult to find blaster boxes of cards in stores like Target and Walmart, although to be fair, things are getting a little bit easier.

So when I saw some blasters at Walmart this week, I immediately snapped up a few. Some were Topps Gallery, which I have already reviewed. The other one was the 2021 Panini Elite Extra Edition, or EEE.

Actually, after ringing the blaster box up at the self-serve checkout line, my reaction was EEEK! It was $27.95 for a blaster that has five cards in one pack.
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And while that seems steep, each pack does contain an autograph card and a relic. Plus, each base card is numbered to 999, and there is a parallel. In my case, I also received a die-cut card, so even though there was only one base card, it is not like I am trying to build the set.
If you do decide to build the set, there are 198 cards.

The subjects in the set include recent MLB draft picks, key prospects and Dominican Prospect League players.
The design showcases a shiny surface, with a lot of slanted lines that frame the photograph of the player on the card front. Lots of black and bronze. The player’s name is on the bottom of the card in black block letters.
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The card back features a truncated version of the photo on the front, with a six-line biography that summarizes a player’s career if they have put some statistics in the books.

If not, there is a generic description about the DPL.

So, here’s the rundown of what I pulled.

The base card I pulled was of DPL outfielder Josefrailin Alcantara, who was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
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The card of Wande Torres was a Decade Die-Cut, also numbered to 999.

Parallel cards can be found in Pink, Decade Die-Cut (numbered to 203), Turn of the Century (121), Blue (17), Red (5), Black (1/1) and Black Die-Cut (1/1). The card I pulled was a pink parallel of Ryan Webb, the former University of Georgia pitcher who was drafted in the fourth round by Cleveland.

The hot cards started with an autograph card of Nick Nastrini, a Dodgers prospect who had a 1.93 ERA in 2021 for the low Class A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. The signature was on a sticker, which is always a disappointment.

The other hot card was a Future Threads uniform swatch of Cincinnati Reds prospect Nick Lodolo, a pitcher who went 2-2 with a 2.31 ERA in 2021 with the Triple-A Louisville Bats.
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So, not a bad haul. I don’t mind having a taste of a set. This one was expensive, and maybe thee guys will become stars someday. 

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about the 2022 Topps Museum Collection set, which will be released in June:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/2022-topps-museum-collection-offers-plenty-of-relics/

I was 14 when the 1972 Topps baseball set was released, and turned 15 that summer. Nearly 50 years later, it’s still a thrill to look through that set. The player’s photograph looks like the arch leading into my grandparents’ 1940s-style parlor. But the team name, featured in several colors, is very 1970s.

That is the beauty of the Topps Heritage product. Aging collectors like me get to enjoy the design again, viewing it from a more mature (allegedly) perspective.

I had already bought two blasters of the 2021 Topps Heritage high numbers set, but finding more became problematic so I purchased a hobby box.

That helped me bring my base set wantlist down to three, but I still need 12 short prints to complete the 225-card set.
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A hobby box contains 24 packs, with nine cards to a pack. Topps is promising one autograph or relic card in every hobby box.

When I opened the box, there was a card loose on top of the packs — a 1972 foil-stamped 50th anniversary buyback card of Montreal Expos catcher John Boccabella.

That’s one of the great names from 1970s baseball cards, along with Bill Grabarkewitz and Scipio Spinks.

My favorite name from the 2021 high numbers set has to be catcher Chadwick Tromp, who was on the Giants roster but has since been signed by the World Series champion Atlanta Braves. A great name belongs on the roster of an equally colorful team name, and the Braves did just that, optioning Chadwick to their minor-league franchise in suburban Atlanta — the Gwinnett Stripers.
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One addition to this set is a card that was supposed to be included in the “regular” Heritage set – Cavan Biggio (No. 216). The base card apparently was not included in the set due to a production error. That was one of the cards I pulled in the hobby box I opened.

The breakdown of cards in this box was 198 base cards plus seven short prints.

The design of the card is true to the 1972 version, with a vertical design on the front. The photographs mirror the really lame photos from the original, with players posing with bats on their shoulders, pitchers coming set in the stretch, or players standing with their hands behind their backs or below their belt lines.

I had to go back and look at my original 1972 Topps set — were the poses that bad? They sure were.

Points to Topps for authenticity in the Heritage set.

The card backs are horizontal and feature several lines of biographical type (when space allows) and the player’s year-by-year statistics.
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The top right corner of the card back has a cartoon drawing with a quiz question — “Who is the last first baseman with three assists in one inning?” is the query on the back of card No. 538 (Luis Castillo). The answer is upside down under the cartoon (Derrek Lee in 1998).

You get the idea.

Parallels for the base set included a Chrome card of Brewers outfielder Lorenzo Cain and a hobby-exclusive black border card of Orioles outfielder DJ Stewart.

The “hot” card in the hobby box was a Clubhouse Collection relic card of Blue Jays pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu. The card had a nice, deep blue colored blue uniform swatch.

As for inserts, I pulled one 1972 World Series Highlights card of Angel Mangual, whose walk-off single gave the Oakland A’s a 3-2 victory in Game 4. That gave Oakland a 3-1 series lead, but the postseason classic would go the full seven games before the A’s prevailed 3-2 in Game 7. There are 10 inserts in this subset.
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Roberto Clemente has a strong presence in this set, since he died in a plane crash on Dec. 31, 1972. There are 15 cards in the “Roberto Clemente 3,000” insert, a tribute to the Pirates’ right fielder, who cracked a double at Three Rivers Stadium against Mets pitcher Jon Matlack for his 3,000th and final major league hit on Sept. 30, 1972.

I pulled two cards from that insert set, including the one that commemorated Clemente’s milestone hit. The other card referenced a five-hit effort by Clemente on July 13, 1968, against Philadelphia in a 16-inning, 3-2 loss. Clemente went 5-for-7 and walked to reach base six times, but surprisingly did not score a run or drive in any.

Rookie Performers is another 15-card insert set, and I pulled one of Tigers pitcher Casey Mize.

The Combo Cards insert features two or more players in a 10-card offering. The card I pulled was of the Blue Jays, which is the only three-player card in the subset. Featured are Biggio, Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

The last insert should be familiar to Heritage collectors — Now and Then, which is a 15-card set. I pulled the card that commemorates Mike Trout’s 300th career home run.
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My 1970s bias is showing — I love this set. Topps did a nice job with it. That’s a good thing, because the next two years of Heritage products will highlight the bland 1973 set and the slightly more interesting 1974 set. 

For collectors looking for a smorgasbord of cards and designs, Panini America’s Chronicles baseball should fit the bill.

This set features at least 24 different brands. Some you are certain to remember, while others are newer. I found cards from nine different sets, which is quite a variety.

The price for a blaster box is $24.99, and there are four packs containing five cards in each pack. My local Target store had a slew of blasters, plus a few Mega Boxes.

The Mega Boxes guarantee one autograph and have 15 packs with five cards in each pack. The Mega also contains 10 Purple Velocity parallels.

If you are just looking for a taste, then the blaster box is a good choice. But if you are looking for some sizzle, the Mega Box is the way to go. It costs slightly less than two blaster boxes, too.

I just wanted a small sample, so I took the blaster box route.
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The 100-card America’s Pastime brand has been designated as the “base set” for this product.

Surprisingly, I did not pull a base card (America’s Pastime) from the blaster box I bought, but the hot card in the box was from the base set. It was an America’s Pastime Swatches card of Ramon Laureano. This was a nice, thick card with a white swatch. A green swatch might have looked sharper, but I am not going to complain.

I am not going to speak to the designs, since there are too many. But I will mention what I pulled from each set.

There was one Score card of Seattle’s Logan Gilbert. This is a 25-card set.

Chronicles is a 50-card set, and I pulled one of Juan Soto.

Two Elite cards, Josh Bell and Sixto Sanchez, came from that 50-card set.

Timeless Treasures is a 20-card set, and I pulled one card of Joey Bart.

Certified contains 50 cards featuring players from the past and present, and also future stars. I found cards of Luis Robert  and Kyle Lewis.

The Phoenix set has 25 cards, and I pulled Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Titan is a 25-card set and I pulled a Holo parallel of Whit Merrifield.

Crusade is a 25-card set and I pulled a rookie card of Jo Adell and a Holo parallel of Guerrero Jr.

Overdrive is a 25-card set that is appearing in Chronicles for the first time. I pulled Casey Mize and Trevor Larnach, plus a Holo parallel of Aaron Judge.

There were two Revolution inserts in the blaster that I pulled — Cody Bellinger and Ian Anderson — plus two blaster exclusive Groove parallels of Ryan Weathers and Manny Machado.
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As you can see, Chronicles is a hodge-podge of sets thrown together in one issue. That may be fun for some collectors, but not for me. I like Topps Archives, for example, because it focuses on four distinct sets.
But up to 24? My head was spinning.

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about the feeling among card shop owners in the wake of Fanatics' acquisition of Topps' cards and entertainment divisions:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/card-shop-owners-guardedly-optimistic-in-wake-of-fanatics-acquisition-of-topps/

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about the 1982 Topps baseball set:
www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/1982-topps-baseball-set-marked-start-of-792-card-era/

It’s a shame that Topps lost its license as the WWE’s official card trading manufacturer. It was a product that Topps excelled at, but now they are getting dropkicked out of the pro wrestling market.

I am sure that Panini, which takes over the card sets and stickers beginning in 2022, will be focused on making its WWE product a good one, but there is plenty of history linking Topps and WWE together. Topps and WWE originally signed a deal in 2005 and most recently renewed its deal in 2018.
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Topps Heritage WWE for 2021 looks at current stars with a nod toward the past. Its 100-card base set borrows the design from the 1990 Topps baseball card set.

I was never a fan of the ’90 design, perhaps because it reminded me of how many billions (I am exaggerating) Topps baseball cards were produced that year. Go to any yard sale or thrift shop these days, and inevitably you will find a stack of 1990 Topps baseball.

But that’s OK. Cards look better these days, and even the 1990 design has a boldness to it.

I bought a blaster box, which has 10 packs plus a “bonus” pack. There are seven cards in each pack.

The base set has 100 cards and has competitors from Raw, SmackDown and NXT rosters. The blaster box I bought had 18 Raw competitors, 15 SmackDown cards and eight NXT members.
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I also pulled five Rainbow foil parallels — three from Raw and two from NXT.
What I find more intriguing is the Allen & Ginter-styled inserts, which come two to a pack on average. It’s the first time since 2012 that Topps has used an A&G design in its pro wrestling product.

It’s no secret that I love the A&G design, and the 30-card insert set is represented by some of WWE’s biggest names, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Charlotte Flair, AJ Styles, Eddie Guerrero, “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase, Vader, “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig, the Ultimate Warrior (Jim Hedwig), Razor Ramon and “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt.

Sadly, some of these pro wrestling competitors have died, including Hennig, Guerrero and the Warrior. Also, Randy “Macho Man” Savage, whose card I did not pull out of the blaster.
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The only negative to this insert is that the card backs have very little information, other than telling the collector that “You have just received an Allen & Ginter Card from 2001 Topps Heritage WWE.” No kidding.

Another insert is a 20-card Superstar tribute to The Miz, highlighting his 15-year career that includes two heavyweight title reigns. I pulled five of these cards. 
 
The Superstars Speak! is a 10-card insert set that includes big names such as Ric Flair, The Undertaker and John Cena. The subset concentrates on a wrestler’s catchphrase. The card I pulled from my blaster was Goldberg with the phrase, “Who’s Next?”

There are 18 Superstar Stickers to chase, and I pulled three of them — Alexa Bliss, Cena and D-Generation X.
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Wrestlers always tell the best stories, and Topps Heritage WWE has told some great ones through the years.

Topps refers to its Gallery baseball set as “The Art of Collecting,” and it’s hard to argue, unless you want to throw in terms like “state of the art,” or “the art of the deal.” I’ll stay with Topps’ choice.

The 2021 Topps Gallery set is available as a retail exclusive at Walmart, and I just happened to be at the store today and saw several boxes. Even though the price for a mega box is $79.88, I bought two of them to ring in the new year.

Each mega box guarantees 100 cards, which include a pair of autograph cards.

It is a card set I really like because of the museum-like theme. Although previous sets used original artwork, this year’s set uses player photos. Surprisingly, it does not detract from the overall look and feel of the set.

The main photograph is still surrounded by an inner border that reminds you of a picture frame. The backs are the same with the frame theme.
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The 2021 version of Gallery has 200 cards, consisting of veteran stars, greats of the games and rookies.

The set also has image variations, which are difficult to detect. Normally, the photo would be an action shot, as opposed to a mug shot. Not this year. Some of them are very subtle. The best way to tell is to look at the codes on the back of the card. Right there at the bottom, in the last line of type, is a string of letters and numbers. Base cards will end with 290, while variations will end with 345.

That being said, all of the cards I pulled in the two boxes I opened are base cards. No super short prints this time.

The first box I opened yielded 84 base cards, seven rainbow parallels, a blue parallel of Stephen Strasburg numbered to 75 (that happens once in every 113 packs) and one Private Issue parallel of Jarred Kelenic numbered to 250.
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As promised, there were two autograph cards, and both were rookies. One was of Tucker Davidson while the other was of Jordan Weems. The players’ signatures are on stickers, which is a disappointment.

​As for inserts, there were two of the 20-card MLB Originals subset cards, which drop once every 18 packs. I got Randy Johnson and Bo Jackson.

A 19-card insert set called Modern Artists yielded Christian Yelich, and there was a Next Wave insert card of Cristian Pache. That insert set contains 25 cards and falls about once every 15 packs.

Rounding out the inserts in box No. 1 was a Masters of the Craft card of Strasburg.

The second box I opened also had 84 base cards. For my collecting purposes, 63 of those cards were ones I did not have from the first box. So, only 21 doubles, which is really not bad at all.
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Now I only need 53 more cards to complete the base set.

Like the first box, there were two autograph cards. One was a green parallel of Trent Grisham, numbered to 99, while the other signature card was of Chris Rodriguez.

The second box also had seven rainbow parallels, a blue parallel of Akil Baddoo numbered to 75 and a Private Issue parallel of Randy Arozarena numbered to 250.

Unlike the first box, there was only one MLB Originals insert card. This was a good one, though: Shohei Ohtani.There was one Modern Artists insert of Jack Flaherty, and a pair of Next Wave inserts of Kyle Lewis and Luis Robert.

There was one Masters of the Craft card of Yadier Molina.
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Overall, a nice haul. The Gallery set is an attractive way to end the 2021 baseball collecting season. The cards are crisp looking, and if you get to Walmart at the right time, available to buy.

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about the five-card 1978 Topps Zest set:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/1978-topps-zest-cards-a-quirky-tribute-to-hispanic-players/

Here is a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about the 2021 Bowman Draft baseball set, which will be released just before the new year:

​www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/2021-bowman-draft-baseball-puts-focus-on-future-stars/

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about the online exclusive 2021 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup set:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/2021-topps-all-star-rookie-cup-pays-tribute-to-first-year-players/

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about a 1904 scorebook from Anniston, Alabama -- which contains two months of home box scores that chronicled the first pro season of Ty Cobb:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/1904-scorebook-from-teen-ty-cobbs-first-pro-season-set-for-display/

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily previewing the 2021 Panini Prizm football set:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/paninis-2021-prizm-football-offers-larger-set-new-crop-of-inserts/​

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about a game-used Tom Brady jersey from this season that is being sold at NFL Auctions:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/tom-brady-autographed-game-used-jersey-an-nfl-auctions-fundraiser/

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily previewing the 2022 Topps Definitive baseball set:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/2022-topps-definitive-offers-big-hits-limited-press-run/

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about a south Texas collector who bought a Babe Ruth photo, then photo-matched it to the Babe's 1915 rookie season:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/collector-matches-babe-ruth-photo-to-1915-rookie-season/

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about a Grey Flannels auction next month that will include several key items from the collection of basketball great Pete Maravich:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/pete-maravich-memorabilia-highlights-grey-flannels-holiday-auction/

 Now that the World Series is over and the hot stove league is in full swing — and as baseball fans cast worrisome glances toward labor talks and a possible lockout — a good book about the game’s history is appropriate and desperately needed.

Not only a good book, but also a work that will get the juices flowing and the arguments going.

That’s what Joe Posnanski achieves in The Baseball 100 (Avid Reader Press; $40; hardback, 871 pages), a massive book of 100 chapters that ranks baseball’s greatest in descending order from No. 100 (Ichiro) to No. 1 (Willie Mays). There are 88 Hall of Famers in the book and plenty of big names in between, including 13 men who played in the Negro Leagues.
 
And there’s lots of room for discussion. Besides, any dyed-in-the-wool baseball fan loves to argue.
 
I’m being honest here: I read every chapter in order and did not skip ahead. I also did not peek to see who was ranked No. 1, although the temptation was great. Some readers will skip around, and that’s their right. It was more satisfying that way because it prevented me from developing any early biases. And in history, that’s crucial.
 
“The trouble with retelling history,” Posnanski writes, “is that it’s hard to fully capture the times and the stakes and the danger.”

Posnanski does it perfectly, viewing each player from the lens of his contemporaries. He crafts wonderful stories and tells them engagingly. There are no snoozers in this book. And there are some interesting revelations.

Who, for example, thought Napoleon Lajoie was as hot-headed and feisty as Ty Cobb? Lajoie once spiked three fielders in the same inning, and was suspended for throwing a wad of chewing tobacco in an umpire’s face. And yet, Posnanski writes, everyone “adored” Lajoie.

“See, beyond the rough and tumble, Lajoie was just so friendly and fun-loving, he was irresistible,” Posnanski writes.

Writing about Frank Robinson, Posnanski notes, that “Frank Robinson, for me, will always represent what it feels like to be eight years old.”

“The mind teeters between what’s real and what is magic,” he writes.

Those are the kinds of insights that make The Baseball 100 such a pleasure to read.
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Posnanski’s writing is punchy, witty with occasional snark, and filled with statistics and personal observations. He has been a sportswriter (at The Kansas City Star), magazine writer (Sports Illustrated and The Athletic), blogger, podcast host and best-selling author. The Baseball 100 oozes with irresistible joy about baseball and memories of the game, and that is due to Posnanski’s curiosity about the players on and off the field.

He is also not afraid to throw in some offbeat pop culture references. The Baseball 100 might be the first time (and correct me if I am wrong, please) that a book about baseball history referenced Romeo Void and its 1982 New Wave hit, “Never Say Never.” If he had also mentioned lead singer Debora Iyall, I probably would have fallen out of my chair.

Posnanski even references Cliff Dapper, who played in only eight major league games but has the highest career batting average for any player with at least 15 plate appearances (.471 in 17 at-bats). He also is the only player ever traded for announcer, as Dapper was traded by the Brooklyn Dodgers to the minor league Atlanta Crackers for Ernie Harwell.

Some of the choices in this book may seem out of left field, but only for where a player is ranked. But the reader soon realizes that ranking is not necessarily Posnanski’s ultimate goal. Sure, he had a framework for deciding who made the top 100: Wins above replacement, peak wins above replacement, how multidimensional a player was, the era in which they played and intangibles (postseason excellence, sportsmanship, leadership, years lost to military service and overall impact on the game). That raises the bar and gives Posnanski’s choices some heft.

But he cannot resist ranking several players by numbers that we associate them with. Joe DiMaggio is ranked No. 56, a nod to his 56-game hitting streak, Grover Cleveland Alexander is No. 26 because of his famous strikeout of Tony Lazzeri in the 1926 World Series. Mariano Rivera is No. 91 because of Psalm 91, the Psalm of Protection. Fitting.

Uniform numbers are the reason for ranking Bob Gibson at No. 45, Jackie Robinson at No. 42, Tom Seaver at No. 41, Greg Maddux at No. 31, Mike Trout at No. 27 and Rickey Henderson at No. 24. Frank Robinson and Mike Schmidt, who both wore No. 20, are tied at No. 20 in Posnanski’s book.

“The point is that I tried to attach a number that fit the player,” Posnanski writes

And Posnanski has a great sense of humor about some of his rankings. Nolan Ryan is No. 50, but after reciting the right-hander’s monumental records (positive and negative), Posnanski confesses that “trying to find a place for Ryan on a list like this is a bit like trying to figure out where the Beatles belong on your list of favorite pastas.”

In other words, relax and let it be.

Some players, like “Shoeless” Joe Jackson are not on the list, and Posnanski left No. 19 blank to remind fans of the 1919 Black Sox.

Pete Rose, meanwhile, is at No. 60.

“You can lose yourself in Pete Rose’s numbers,” Posnanski writes. “You know how Pete Rose played? He played the way old ballplayers imagine they had played.”

Gambling history notwithstanding, you cannot keep Rose out of a book of baseball’s greatest, although writers will keep him out of the Hall of Fame. The same goes for Barry Bonds (No. 3), and Posnanski presents his chapter by breaking it up into passages “for Bonds critics” and “for Bonds fans.”

Controversy has its privileges.

Other players who are most likely persona non grata for Cooperstown include Roger Clemens (No. 13) and Alex Rodriguez (No. 16), who is making his first appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot.

“There’s no point in trying to clean up Alex Rodriguez’s brilliant, infuriating, dazzling, inauthentic, breathtaking, destructive, and altogether messy baseball career,” Posnanski writes. A-Rod was a three-time MVP and “a tabloid back-page tabloid.”

Curt Schilling missed out again in Hall of Fame balloting last year, and he comes in at No. 88 in the book — although Posnanski concedes, “I can’t quite figure him out.”

Schilling is a guy who retweeted a post about a T-shirt advocating the lynching of journalists, but also sent Posnanski a thank you email about his column after the Diamondbacks pitcher won Game 1 of the 2001 World Series.
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“Yes, he would pick fights, say offensive things, push the boundaries of taste and compassion. But he was also deeply generous. In his career, he won the Branch Rickey Award, the Roberto Clemente Award, the Lou Gehrig Award, and the Hutch Award, all of them for charity, community service, and displaying admirable character on and off the field, Posnanski writes. “He gave tirelessly of his time to support the military, to support children’s charities, to support people in need.”
 
The most controversial pick in the book might be Oscar Charleston, at No. 5, but not if you read Jeremy Beers’ excellent 2019 biography, Oscar Charleston: The Life and Legend of Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Player. He is ranked one spot behind Henry Aaron and one ahead of Ted Williams, and Posnanski admits that he wants this ranking “to make you angry.”
 
“I want you to feel the fury of this ranking, feel it down deep,” Posnanski writes.
 
Because Posnanski writes with such joyous flair, it is appropriate that his No. 1 player is Mays. That’s hard to argue, but baseball fans will do that because, well, they love to argue.
 
“Who was the greatest player of all time? You know. Maybe your father told you,” Posnanski writes. “Maybe you read about him when you were young.
 
“The greatest baseball player is the one who lifts you higher and makes you feel exactly like you did when you fell in love with this crazy game in the first place.”
 
There are 100 players tapped in Posnanski’s book. There is something to love about each one of them. And there is something to love about a book you can put down and read again and again.
 
The Baseball 100 deserves that kind of love.

Topps Archives is always a fun set to collect, particularly for vintage card fans. It is cool to see what current stars might look like in a retro design. Bryce Harper, the newly crowned National League MVP, fits perfectly into the 1962 card design. The same is true for a Reggie Jackson card that is displayed in the 1957 design.
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The base set contains 300 cards and is broken into subsets with the various years. Previously, Archives has focused on three vintage sets — and to be honest, I have not always liked the choices. To me, there was not as much emphasis on the 1950s and 1960s sets. They were represented, but my perception is that Topps played up the later designs.

You might disagree, but that’s OK.
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The designs for 2021 Topps Archives cover seven retro sets — one for each decade of the company’s 70-year involvement in baseball cards.

o, this year’s 33-card base set has throwback designs from 1957, 1962, 1973, 1983, 1991, 2001 and 2011.

​Not content to look at the past, Topps also included a look into the future with a 2091 design. To be honest, the design appears to be rather conservative for a set that will drop 70 years into the future. It’s too streamlined and safe for my taste.

As usual, I bought a blaster box. I visited my local Walmart and found to my delight that there was a full shelf of baseball blasters, along with complete sets of the flagship 2021 Topps set.

Say what you want, but to me, that’s a sure sign that things are returning to normal somewhat.
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Here is the breakdown for the “vintage” cards I pulled. There were 53 base cards and six inserts in the blaster. My box had six cards with a 1957 design, 11 from 1962, six from 1973, five from 1983, six from 1991, eight from 2001, six from 2011 and five from 2091.

There is a nice, yet ironic touch on the 2091 cards. In the upper left-hand corner of the card front is a logo that touts “Topps, 140 Years of Baseball.”

The irony is that in August, Topps learned that it lost its exclusive licenses with MLB and the MLBPA, so the 2091 cards will not have logos and team names. Perhaps Fanatics, which won the exclusive rights to produce cards, will have a deal in place that allows Topps to continue to churn out cards (under the Fanatics umbrella). Time will tell.
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The MLB deal with Fanatics begins in 2026, while the MLBPA partnership begins after 2022.

Blaster boxes include three “exclusive” 1989 Topps Big foil cards. They are part of a 50-card insert set, and the three I pulled were Buster Posey, Mike Mussina and Miguel Cabrera.

Even with 2021 technology, it can be difficult to make the 1957 Topps design look good. The players’ names — in white and yellow, or red and blue — blend in with the players’ uniforms, making it difficult to read.

The other sets are much easier to read. Out of the bunch, I’d have to say the 1962 “woodies” are my favorite.
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There are variations in the base set, although there were none in the blaster box I opened. In the 1962-style cards, there are green tint variations, just like the original set.

​As one might expect, the variations are for some of the bigger names, like Babe Ruth, Shohei Ohtani, Babe Ruth, Mike Trout and Harper.

Other variations include cards that include a Topps emblem, and a “father-and-son” card. As an example, a current player such as Bo Bichette is the main photograph on a 1983-themed card, while his dad (Dante Bichette) is featured in the circle photo beneath the main shot. It’s a nice touch.
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There were three inserts in my blaster box. A Topps Peel-Off card of Juan Soto, one of 15 that mirror the 1963 Topps insert, was one of them. I also pulled a Movie Poster Card of the 1995 Seattle Mariners, which “advertised” Ken Griffey Jr., Jay Buhner, Edgar Martinez and Randy Johnson. The card carries the title, “My Oh My.”

The final insert was a Shining Stars card of Jarred Kelenic. This 15-card subset is a nod toward the 1991 Bazooka set put out by Topps.

Archives has something for everyone. It’s cool to see Bob Gibson and Ernie Banks featured on cards with a 1991 design, or Frank Robinson on a 2001-themed card. Cy Young on a 1973-style card is priceless, although, why is his team name on the back of his card in the stats called “Americains”? I can understand “Americans.”

It's also nice to see the 1991 designs that include Mike Trout and Ichiro, or David Ortiz smiling in a 1957 card design.
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It’s just a fun set. 

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily previewing Panini America's 2021 Obsidian football set:

​www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/2021-panini-obsidian-football-preview/

Here's a story I wrote about the Rose Hill Gymnasium, which has been home to Fordham University basketball since 1925. Pieces of the floor are being offered to collectors:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/rose-hill-gymnasium-floor-fordham-sold/
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Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about a Nov. 5 robbery at The Bullpen, a card shop in Los Angeles:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/the-bullpen-card-shop-in-la-robbed-more-than-1m-in-product-stolen/​

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about the December release of Panini America's Impeccable football:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/paninis-2021-impeccable-football-heavy-on-autograph-cards/