For years I've had a goal of putting together a collection of cards of famous Jewish people, mostly athletes of course. While still quite modest in size I do finally have my binder full of Jews.
Who better to start this series with than "The Left Arm of God", Sandy Koufax.
I wasn't sure how I felt about Topps Project 2020 when it began. I may have even been a bit confused by it. I certainly didn't understand the frenzy. There was a frenzy, right? So now it's 2021 and I noticed some really low starting prices on the one player I'm most interested in, Sandy Koufax. Impulsively I bid on the one I found most interesting, the Tyson Beck.
I'm going to ask the most obvious question. What's the deal with the barbed wire? I Googled and don't think I found a definitive answer. I'd like the card better without it. Maybe I'd like it better if I understood it.
So now I have a Project 2020 card. I don't have any buyers remorse, nor am I that excited. Pardon me if I sound like the guy late to the movie who's asking what's going on but how do you feel about the set at this point. Did you buy any? Planning to?
Topps has issued a variety of cards featuring some kind of image on "silk". This is one I pulled from a blaster in 2013.
2013 Topps Rookie Patch Sandy Koufax
As with postcards, covers offer a great variety of subject matter. A subset are the silk cachet envelopes. There are a good many baseball subjects available. This one is, of course, of actor and writer Alan Alda.
I was a M*A*S*H fan. I'm sure I saw every episode when it first aired. Toward the end of the series I felt the actors became a bit too sanctimonious and it left a sour taste for me. M*A*S*H may have had more to say than "Hogan's Heroes" but it was still a sitcom.
I came to a new appreciation of Alda through his memoirs and his great work on PBS as a fantastic liason between the scientific community and the general public.
Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah. I'll be sharing cards and videos of some of my favorite "Chosen" baseball players over these eight crazy nights. I celebrate Christmas. Feel free to eat some latkes and celebrate the Festival of Lights along with me.
As is my way, I bought two of these packs almost two years ago and finally opened one today. (I can almost hear your exasperation.) The cards were produced by printer, Allen Miller Jr. under the name Monarch Corona. Here's his website. I know that Mr. Miller was ill some time back but can't find anything about him on the web. Does anyone out there know if he's better and/or if there are any new cards? I'm not sure what the connection is but there is an eBay store that seems to be the place to buy the cards now. It's run by Jim Milo under the wonderful name Grouchy Old Man Baseball Cards.
I don't have a lot to say about the cards.The quality is good, though the images can be a bit fuzzy. What I really like, of course, is the variety of subjects. The backs feature narratives and stats written as if the cards were produced at a particular point in the subject's career. The Koufax and Berg are duplicates for me. I previously posted the complete 8 card Sons of Israel set.
Back in February I bought a blaster of 2013 Topps Series 1 and was underwhelmed with the results. I did get a trade out of it and sold the rookie patch card. I also got a few nice inserts so I guess it wasn't all bad. Forward about six weeks and I received another blaster as a birthday gift from my father-in-law (I'm really easy to buy for). I might have waited but my wife insisted that I open the patch card. Here's what I saw:
Nothing against Chipper Jones (the pull from my first blaster) but that's more like it. Looking at the checklist this card would rank at the top of my want list. So immediately this blaster was a winner.
Sandy Koufax no-hit the Cubs in 1965. My first blaster was also a Cubs "no hitter". More redemption here:
There was also a David DeJesus basecard.
A few more highlights:
Another complaint that I had about my first blaster was the fact that the red parallels were almost all duplicates of base cards in the same box cutting my number of players by a large amount. This new blaster, with Wal-Mart blue variations, did not have that problem at all.
