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!
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.