About a week and a half ago I got a random notification from my blog* from Jason (@HeavyJ28) saying that he wanted to send me a card that I’d mentioned I should make a note to look for. Late last week the plain white envelope arrived.
*Though to be fair, ALL notifications from my blog are random and unexpected.
Jason’s relatively new to Twitter but was a blogger before then. He’s a Dodgers fan but we won’t hold that against him. Heck, living out here in Yankeesland now means I’ll take any National League or West Coast support I can find.
The card in question was a 1993 Topps Archives Satchell Paige. The real-deal 1953 card is one of my favorites. Artwork is nice. St. Louis Browns satisfies my desire to have cards from non-existent teams. And Paige is one of the singularly most-interesting baseball characters ever—which makes this card one of those that’ll always be out of my price range.
The Archives card though is a perfectly acceptable substitute. Sure it’s not vintage but it also means I don’t have to freak out about it being protected. And I’m sure my kids will love to see it since the eldest is a huge fan of Dan Gutman’s Baseball Card Adventures and so is fully invested in Satchell’s mythology.
Jason also included a handful of Giants cards from the set. The Willie Mays is another beauty which I’ll never own. The Hoyt Wilhelm is great too as he’s a player with a big cult following. Monte Irvin is a personal favorite of mine (along with Hank Thompson for integration reasons). I actually have Irvin’s 1953 card as well and it’s fun to compare the two and see what’s lost or gained in the reproductions.
And there were a couple other randoms in the envelope. The 1973 Kingman is a nice classic 1970s look. The Bobby Bonds Jr, while technically a Padres card, is fun for a couple reasons. First, as a Bay Area native, it’s fun to see the Cañada College uniform on a baseball card. Also, I have fond memories of watching Bonds Jr play at San José later on in the 1990s. There was always lots of buzz whenever he was announced though even then I felt sorry for the guy for having to try and follow in both is father’s and brother’s footsteps.
Thanks for the mailing Jason!
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I’m so glad you enjoyed the mailing. For anyone interested in a blog even nerdier than my baseball one you linked, I also run cardboardisaac.wordpress.com. Main focus is on Isaac Newton, but also some math articles to drive the nerd score even higher. Jason
I’m a huge fan of the 1991 Topps Archives 1953 set. I opened a bunch of that product back in the day. Might need to see if I can find an affordable hand collated set on eBay. It’d look great displayed in a binder.