Limited Edition

I've been looking forward to this day; though it isn't a "Release Day." It was just the first day I could get down to the Big Box, -after- the known Release Day for 2026 Topps Update. I like being Updated about Baseball. That's why I collect Baseball Cards.

I was also a little nervous about this. That's because for most of 2026, I haven't been able to purchase Baseball Cards at the Big Box. There just aren't ever any there, outside of about a week at this point, somewhere around "Release Day" for a given product. Back in the winter before this baseball season, that was more like a month or so of availability, but that has declined significantly now.

I don't really know why this is happening. It's not just at my hometown Big Box, of which there is only one. I monitor this when I travel, which is often. However I usually don't really care for buying Baseball Cards when I'm traveling, particularly lately in a somewhat smaller pick-up truck than in years past. Sometimes though I do reach for a little comfort cardboard when I'm away from home. But that has been a moot concept, this year.

My goal though was to get at least some 2026 Update, right now, before another work trip starts up in a couple days. Will there be any on the shelves when I return in a few weeks? Hard tellin', I suppose.

The result of this lack of 2026 Baseball Card action at the Big Box is that I am starting to suspect that even the most famous Baseball Picture Card product in all of the history of Baseball Cards, the "Topps Baseball" set produced annually (I don't care for the term 'flagship') — may be on it's way to becoming a Limited Edition product. 

Act Now!

Or, not. Will probably be my reaction to this disturbing trend. It's super bad enough that I can generally no longer watch a Baseball game in a hotel room or at a bar. If I can't even buy Baseball Cards in a store during Baseball season.....

Just one more step down into niche Hobby, I suppose. I will still want and collect Baseball Cards. But if the requirements to obtain some essentially worthless objects, i.e. already scratched off lottery tickets, once a "pack" is ripped - well if that takes any more work than it does now, I may become "audi" from a simple, relaxing entertainment I have enjoyed for most of my life. Let the Millionaires and Billionaires inside the game and the gambling addicts that support both MLB and Fanatics/Topps just enjoy themselves down in their niche grotto all by themselves, I suppose. 

I love Baseball but it's already sort of the new "professional" "wrestling" in that it is fully a Pay-Per-View sport now. Making me jump through any more hoops (than I already do) to enjoy it will just make me want to go Fishing instead. 

Fans are now lining up to argue for or against a Salary Cap in the coming (a little over a month away now) labor negotiations, occasionally labeled a "dispute" before they even start. Occasionally said fans will point to attendance figures in MLB parks being quite healthy — however what they are missing is that attendance is not all that different today than it was when the USA held 200 Million people. There are now 350 Million people in our country, and what is slowly but surely shrinking is the percentage of them that follow Baseball, not the quantity.

In a few days from now the word most circulating around the game will be "ratings." The World Series will be between 2 dreaded "small market" teams. I will just be happy because a Baseball game will actually be on a TV in a hotel room, and perhaps even in a bar, too, though not if an NFL game is happening simultaneously, that is certain. 

All of that being on my mind as I approached the Trading Cards shelves today (jampacked with cards from every sport except Baseball) lead to a bit of a surprise with the cover of this new product: not one, but 2 players from the Central Divisions. The Divisions that haven't been in a World Series in exactly ten years, though of course that 1-in-3 chance, for 2 teams annually, run of "bad luck" has now finally been beaten by the Milwaukee Brewers.

Both Elly de la Cruz and Munetaka Murakami are great hopeful/classic Baseball players/stories and I thought their selection here by Topps was a pair of inspired choices. That cheered me up even before I opened the new, shorter box for a "hanger" pack. I was also pleased to find that shorter box, a bit less of a waste of cardboard. I still will never understand the excess packaging that is a "blaster" but at least these shorter boxes are a tiny step in the right direction.

The question will be, after the World Series — will I be able to buy another one? Or any other packaging format of 2026 Topps Update? We shall see. Until then, I will be living with these first 59 cards as a part of my current mental landscape of the game of Baseball. Let's (finally) see what will be populating that landscape. Batter UP

oooohhhh how I do like a "toe-tap" card and these are especially nice for a player's Rookie Card card. Bryce Harper-esque, if you remember your 2012 Baseball Card history.

Garcia is nicknamed "The Password," a somewhat unsurprising but still entertaining factoid that arrived courtesy of the back of his Baseball Card. Which is my just exactly perfect type of card back - one with useful "deets" about a player. Well done, Topps.

The image there just screams Pittsburgh Pirates all over the card, an excellent choice not just in terms of player activity. I also have always quite liked the Pirates' "Alternate" black uniforms. Too bad the Pirates can't play the Raiders with those on. Bonus black object: the bat. How cool is that?

Although I like following Baseball players on the backs of their cards, one can't really expect a Rookie Card card to indicate much about how their career is going. So it always seems odd when I first pick up a Baseball Card but then immediately reach for the "phone" that knows everything, ever, to see if a Rookie Card player is really going to be a Major League Baseball player (with future Topps Baseball cards) or just a "Cup of Coffee" type ultra-footnote. For J. Garcia, that seems to still be a could-go-either-way.

Of course there will be a higher Rookie Card quotient than usual in Update than in Series 1 or 2, so this new "pack" got expectations met instantly. I remain ever more intrigued with the "Rookie Debut" cards and that meant more, instantly -

The more I casually work on stacks of cards from the 2010s, the more I wish most every Baseball player had a Rookie Debut card. A certified image of a player on his very first day in Major League Baseball. These will be a nice anchor to any Player Collection and I don't view them as just 'padding' or a 'money grab' or any other flip cynical take on these cards. I like a bigger set of Topps Baseball to collect, not a smaller one.

I have no plans to collect all Rookie Debut cards however; I just want to see them all, but keep only selected favorites. Will probably make for some more blog posts this coming winter, my own personal Baseball Card season.

That Connelly Early card there is a great Baseball Card already anyway, with great image composition plus graphics design, so an instant front-runner for the Nifty 9 of these I will probably assemble - presuming I can buy more Update, somehow, somewhere. I do like 2026 Topps Baseball more each time I am able to open some.

Next up, I had a "Pack Debut" of something I have never seen happen in half a century of opening packs of Baseball Cards:

3 cards sequentially, same team

This does create a fuzzy memory of some non-Topps product packaging cards like this, but from decades ago and perhaps not even Baseball, now that I think about it. Pro Set Football maybe?

The final card in the sequence is a Highlight card, for Mike Trout. Last one?

The other 2 cards will supply teeny tiny building blocks in my brain trying to answer the question of why Mike Trout never gets to play on this month of the calendar. I wonder if that's how ChatGPT sorts out Baseball questions, hmmm. Onwards

The horizontals in 2026, I like.

I could see completing a collection of just those to memorialize this set.

Meanwhile, I quickly found another intriguing Debut card -

I will always enjoying seeing the stadium on a Baseball Card. Destiny, awaits.

now, I feel Updated

now, a bit less so

"Traded at the Deadline"

Powder Blue Rookie Card

Powder Blue Highlight

The Braves join the Powder Blue club

you can hear the announcer, now

I have a feeling I will be finding a lot more of this next type of card in the weeks to come. I mean that in both senses - in this set, and in the stores.

This, is a good thing. Though it seems to me that if you don't like a particular City Connect uniform, the good news is that - they may change. And it seems to me that if you like a particular City Connect uniform, the bad news is that - they may change. Why, Rockies, Why? Farewell, Brew Crew? Why, Milwaukee, Why?

Eventually, I reached what I was really looking for

Detroit's brand new Home Alternate uniform is a great "get" on the cardboard

Every pack will have inserts, as we know.

Your feelings about them are particularly important in hanger boxes in my opinion, as each will have a set quantity. 

2026 Update has

(1) 1991 Topps

(you likes the Red, White, & Blue Baseball Card? Here you go, Canada)

(4) Stars of MLB

The scan doesn't capture it, but the stars are, yup, Powder Blue. 

I do like the Stars of MLB "Retail" inserts this year. I should have a whole pile of them by now, but I don't, because "Retail."

(3) "Diamante" parallels, it appears of various colors also

These are intriguing but I don't care for losing the stadium view on this single card. I could see these, particularly the color versions, working out very well on certain cards / color pairings.

(1) other insert

Standard operating procedure to have a postseason themed insert checklist. 

2026 Update's is: "Autumn Ascensions"

I think I like ones with acorns much better.

(1) All-Star Game insert

Does this guy still play Baseball? Are we sure about this?

(1) Best Pitcher Face parallel

How great is that?

Getting ready for 2027 Heritage

I have read it typed that all Topps designs "grow on you eventually."

One that took longer than most for me was/is 1978 Topps - the very first set of Baseball Cards I actually collected to full completion. I was quite proud of that, at the time.

Some 12 years later, I exchanged that set, and the next 3 after it, for an epic vacation which I will never forget. I am a little less proud of that funding source, but, epic.

Ever since I have had those 4 sets on my mind, particularly when the designs re-appear in the 21st century. 

The nostalgia was notably lacking for the 1978 set, compared to the others. Back in year 1978, I wasn't so enthused about the design. After being introduced to Baseball Cards with bright colors and dynamic graphics, I now had a card with a team name in cursive, reminding us kids of homework in grade school. And little else. A player name and a baseball with the POS in it. That's all, kids.

This same nostalgia surfeit seemed in play back at Topps, which would seemingly prefer to recycle a design a 3rd time before ever manning up to revisit 1978. When that finally happened at scale (100 card checklist) in 2022 Archives, the set was constructed with lots and lots of fake backgrounds — a truly disturbing trend at the time that probably peaked in that set.

That didn't help rekindle a desire to revisit 1978, at all.

But meanwhile, I knew of an easily overlooked re-use of 1978 Topps that occurred back in 2018:

2018 Topps "On Demand 1978 Tribute"

Now of course anyone familiar with 1978 Topps will notice a missing element instantly. A famous 2010s player was like, what's up here?

Far be it from me to explain how Topps could forget to put a baseball on a Baseball Card.

A bigger loss is an effort on the back that couldn't even be called "phoning it in" -

And here I like the little game that should be included on a 1978 Topps card back, and have a big plan for it, some day, hopefully to be seen here, eventually.

But for me, I wasn't noticing the "modern take" loss, as much as the gain - full bleed, yet framed. Has this ever been done on another trading card design? Probably. But, also probably, not very often, at all. I quite liked this major change to original 1978.

A nice way to keep full bleed all without white borders effectively shrinking the image size. Occasionally, this can cause problems though -

oops

One would think that by 2018, Topps coulda figgered out a software way to improve the cropping here; something it seems has been a bit better as the 2020s roll along now.

Another thing that intrigued me about the little 30 card set was finding a few Candids mixed into the usual Baseball action:

these, I always like in a set of Baseball Cards

Now a simple 30 card checklist is essentially no different than an insert checklist, and whenever one revisits a small checklist some reminiscing will be involved -

the classic 1977 Topps wrapper pose

or, the classic 2011 Topps Update pose?

(I hope Night Owl's Night Card binder still needs a #21, but I doubt this)

and sometimes, reminiscing gets, odd

who?

And of course, we can't have a checklist of Topps Baseball Cards that doesn't include .... Rookies. Which is so often where reminiscing can get even weirder still:

This is actually a very nice Baseball Card; I always like the appearance of the Padres 'camo' uniform on a card.

Still, on these small checklists, the Rookies can so easily become very distracting, years later, after they haven't become famous. Particularly when other Rookies on the very same checklist become, a GOAT.

And like many a Rookie Card card, finding it years later just results in a far more puzzling "Who?" than one about a faded star from a previous decade. Although I expect my Baseball Cards to answer that question for me, via the cards that appear after the RC card, that option really wasn't coming to mind for me with Christian Villanueva.

Normally I quite like following the Mexican born players in MLB, as tengo amigos de Mexico. Villanueva's career, however, has to be followed by baseball-reference.com as he played just one season in MLB for a reason I can't discern, despite a seemingly successful 2018 campaign. He is still playing Baseball, but back home in Mexico, where no one makes Baseball Cards.

This pleasant trip back to 2018, and 1978, finally became a completed collecting project just recently, when I finally found a For Sale listing that I long expected, even though I already owned a third or so of this set from individual card purchases on COMC. That was a listing for just 29 of the 30 cards. Which existed because:

This is of course THE card from this particular Baseball Picture Card product. Luckily, I had already made the rare (for me) hard decision to spend a two digit sum on this single Baseball Card back during the season when the GOAT demonstrated his mastery of yet another part of playing Baseball, that being running the bases.

I decided that a nice way to make a unique Shohei Ohtani collection would be to simply collect his (very) occasional base-running card, rather than the thousands of pitching & hitting cards available. But you can't really have much of a collection of Baseball Cards without including a Rookie Card card, can you? I can, easily, but I just really wanted this particular card from the small set I was already partly through collecting anyway. This one is very much an In Action card, something not always the case even with base-running cards. I spent just a modestly upper two figure sum of bummin-around-money obtained on COMC by selling off random other low-leverage Ohtani cards pulled from packs, though of course only the ones from after 2018. This card is now a mid three figures card and a winner of the grading lottery might even get four figures for a copy of this one.

Unfortunately the 30 card checklist only has 8 Rookies so I can't quite fit it into my new paradigm of placing Rookies altogether on their own, more easily forgotten page of cards, rather than mixing them in with the Stars of the day. And really I would need the checklist to be 10 RC cards long, as that Ohtani card is now worth a bit more than is best for 9 card page storage, going forward. That's a bit of a shame as I thought it would perfectly anchor a simple page of 9 base-running cards but that's probably not to be, now. Even though I still quite look forward to assembling that page.

Meanwhile this little set presents other binder-ing problems. With essentially nothing to ever look at on the back of the cards, basic 18 cards/page is the way to go with such cards. But what if there are 29 cards? That calls for 7 additions but I think I found a set for that...

...I actually put this (actually 50¢) card in the Buy pile on-sight, instantly, a few moths ago — because I had already forgotten all about 2022 Archives and I was seriously wondering when else Topps had revisited 1978. All despite never ever warming up to Gerrit Cole Baseball Cards, even though I would be more than happy to take him fishing and listen to his Baseball stories.

I guess I had successfully tried to block memories of perhaps the most abominable set of the 2020s, with all those faked backgrounds chock-a-block all over the checklist.

Another option would be to procure the further 10 cards from 2018 Topps On Demand 1978 Tribute, which were inserted into the 2,040 sets produced at a rate of 2 cards/box, meaning there are only 100-ish copies of each one. Those feature players from the year 1978 and I very much wants those, too, but I also just run out of energy trying to chase cards with just 3 digit print runs. I so despise being stuck in a Limited Edition Hobby, so often. Anyhow,

The Results

Vintage Fun

 

We all know we aren't really supposed to "play" with our Baseball Cards by literally mixing them into a mess like the one in this picture. And instead we play with our Baseball Cards every other way imaginable, but definitely never have we ever randomly mixed cards every which way possible, from sets up to 11 years apart, all at once, spread all over everywhere.

Although I do often look at my Baseball Cards the way Yaz is looking at his Baseball Bat there, I didn't go all scrambled eggs with them today. And, some of these cards I don't even own. 

A bit of a pity because just a few days ago I came across a certain picture in my photo library - 

That's a small town in Michigan, not just in the Upper Peninsula, but on the way totally wonderful Keewenaw Peninsula, one of my favorite places to go. I am fortunate that I do get to visit it several times per year, while working. I love how the continuing existence of that sign illustrates the residual cultural power of Major League Baseball in our Society, some 55 years after George Brunet's last Major League Game. Truly a lifer/gamer, his career continued on after 1971 in Mexican Leagues.

Unfortunately, the most routine Baseball sight up in that area today is an old Little League diamond, sporting grass that hasn't been cut in a decade or two, at this point. 

His sudden appearance on a Baseball Card image, right in front of me just recently, is a clear sign I need to get in a higher gear on collecting his Baseball Cards. Even his Burlap card, a set I am never going to assemble even a 9 card homage for.

But that's all a bit tangential to that bit of from-way-outta-left-field happenstance. Pretty prescient of say, maybe 16 year old me to obtain his appearance on a Baseball Picture Card product, some 42 years before I came across that homage in his old home town. I know I have posted that picture before. If you knew that, I am truly impressed.

So I kinda sorta have a George Brunet card, courtesy of my long-hoped-for reunification with my 20th century Baseball possessions. Which, as it turns out, weren't just Baseball Cards. That big ole box of wonderfulness also included this:

What a nice thing Topps did here, back in the day. What are the odds Fanatics would allow a product like this to be created? Hardly seems likely any more. And such a product today would have to feature mega-successful (?) players like the 2 current players on the "cover" of Series Two, if you can even remember what packages of Series Two even look like, which would be impossible for me if I hadn't written a blog entry about a pack of it, and scanned the wrapper. Because there are still no Baseball Cards for sale in my local grocery store, right in the prime of Baseball season. Excellent work there, Fanatics. Not.

But back in the early 1980s, Baseball Cards were well on their way to a big, big "upswing" - you know, the kind that launch Home Runs. And so Baseball Cards weren't just wrapped in wax and waiting for you in the candy aisle. The first books about Baseball Cards were appearing, and, in other products.

I was quite pleased to discover this in with the collection of my youth. I immediately started thinking about where and when I could assemble it.

And when I opened the box, it does look good for completion — a lot of pieces in there. The key problem with already-opened jigsaw puzzles is of course — what if some previous human being controlling the box, let a piece escape? Let's just banish that thought, and vibe this puzzle together, 100% complete.

One of the very first pieces I picked up should be recognizable to anyone so old they are still reading about Baseball Cards on a screen, rather than blowing twice as much time to have someone else read to them about Baseball Cards as part of a "video." Surely, y'all remember this guy -

'Ol Blue Eyes played Baseball?

are we sure about this?

I would imagine many of you sharpies could even already identify exactly which set this card appeared in originally. I'm not quite that quick on the '60s draw, but my suspicion is it might be a Burlap card. There is only one way to find out...though I know a modern day Baseball Card Influencer would of course present you with a video replay of the process involved, here on this blog, you'll just have to wait a 'lil bit while the 20th Century is lovingly re-lived here at Base Set HQ.

Just the first sorting of the edge pieces instantly supplied Baseball flashbacks -

And even in 1983 or so, the creators of this bit of wonderfulness knew to tip a hat to Rookie Cards:

These peeps knew their Baseball Cards, and they weren't messing around - the Mantle card is an autographed copy.

And their knowledge was not just via the SuperStars (necessarily) teased on the cover of the box. That was certain to me, not just some of the time, but, instantly, when I found this piece -

Surely, you must know that card.

No?

How about now?

Still no? 

Pop Quiz Time: what team does this card purport to represent?

Texas, you say?

Then your 1970s Baseball Card Kid street cred is revoked.

Adults today will blubber on about how much they love the 1971 Munson, or the 75 Brett RC, or be foggy on which decade is which and insist the Ricky RC is The Greatest. 

But if you were ripping packs in the late 1970s - that excerpted bit shown there is from THE most famous Baseball Card of the decade. The folks who made this puzzle were from my tribe.

Which was a wonderful thing, for me, today, because after a long day at the ER (I was not the patient), some drifting back to old-timey Baseball was just the ticket this evening.

It helped tremendously to be intimately familiar with the designs of all these cards. Yup, that right there is a corner of a 1972 Topps, yes, sir. 

As did owning many of them. Good to see you again, Pops.

Particularly since the box was a little deceptive on what was included inside the 7 square inches of flashbacks. Usually those are created by 1/8" squares.

Perhaps, that familiarity was all a little too much help, as just 100 pieces of such perfect wayback machine good times would never be enough. I basically knew that going in. Which makes owning and operating this Baseball Card blog a Very Good Thing, quite often, as it extends my joy with these goodies from the past.

The cut of my puzzle, as compared to what is seen on the box cover, makes me suspect there may have been a larger, 500, or maybe 1000 piece version of this puzzle created also. One can dream.

Or, maybe some other astute jigsaw puzzle creator has used this concept. I sure hope so. Jigsaw puzzles are incredibly relaxing, I find, and of course, so are Baseball Cards. To combine the two was straight Genius.

So until the day I find another one of these, I will just have to occasionally re-assemble this one. Fun.

My Biggest Baseball Card Day, Ever

 

I have been both eagerly anticipating, and completely dreading, this particular day for a long, long time.

Today I finally discovered whether I still own my childhood Baseball Cards.

How could I lose track of such a thing? Well it wasn't a deliberate decision, that is certain.

Some 20 years ago now, my seasonal life working in different states at different times of year went through a difficult period as my Michigan apartment building was going to be re-modeled. I had a sweet deal there, only having to pay half rent the months I was gone, as my landlord didn't want to lose a tenant (I did mention this was 20 years ago). So with that economic fact and the concept of moving everything I owned out of a 2nd floor apartment and then back again, later, I wanted to cut a deal.

What we worked out was that I would put all of my possessions in one corner of the building while the first apartment was rebuilt. When it was done, that one would be mine and all of my possessions would only have to be moved 10 yards.

After many twists & turns to the story, I eventually learned that my former sweet deal of half-rent for an unused apartment couldn't continue, as my landlord had used public financing of some sort for the remodeling, and the State would now be a participant in the financial end of the renting, which also came with new low income eligibility requirements - no special deals for part-timers. Simultaneously, down at my winter job I was starting up a new business partnership with a co-worker after our previous employer retired - & I needed every last cent I could scrounge. I managed to avoid selling off Baseball Cards, that time, but I could not pay the many months of now full rent for an apartment I wouldn't be living in while launching a new business.

So down all those stairs (extra-tall first floor in a downtown business building) went all of my possessions. Or, almost all. I knew already at the time that a few things were missing, as contractors had been in the building for about a year at that point. But I couldn't worry about it, right then. Everything went to a storage unit and out-of-state I went.

Subsequently, I never could quite get that storage unit emptied, as I lived on-the-road (jobsites) ever more & more. Years passed. New Baseball Cards accumulated. Online Baseball Cards appeared in my life, which was-is wonderful. But all new Baseball Cards inevitably reminded me of my childhood Baseball Cards. And that, was only partially pleasant.

A couple-three years ago now, I finally emptied that old storage unit, after another sweetheart deal finally drew to a close. I was both eagerly anticipating, and dreading, that particular day for a long time. The dread hit, very hard — my record collection assembled in college was largely destroyed by what proved to be a leaky storage unit. The music on all those records is fine, but the value of them is generally gone (molded covers). Many thousands of dollars worth of value.

Plenty of my book collection had also succumbed. However this was only a problem amongst certain boxes stored directly on the floor; most possessions were just fine.

But - my childhood Baseball Cards weren't in that storage unit. The horror, the horror.

I did find a few card items, that might make for an interesting post one of these days, as it included an unopened Hobby Box of a mid-10s product. And my college days Baseball Cards had been with me all along, as those had been acquired after leaving the "nest."

The problem created by emptying the storage unit was simple. If my childhood Baseball Cards weren't in there, that meant either I had wisely trundled them back over to my parents' house on the concept of general Security - OR they had been in my old apartment, accessible to a random melange of contractors for a year. As I have described them before, they became Schrödinger Baseball Cards.

The only way to prove their existence, was to go spelunking in a cavern like this one:

That's the closing image from the first Indiana Jones movie, showing the audience where the Ark of the Covenant ended up.

My Dad's basement isn't that large of course, but it was stuffed to the gills with antiques and his lifetime of possessions, some of them valuable, some of them not. Except of course, to him, for whom they were ALL valuable and needed to be kept. Forever.

My Dad is still with us and will be for some time, I can report, but now that he can no longer walk the steps into his own basement, he has finally relented on allowing us to begin sorting it all out.

And after many months and weeks of occasionally hauling things to Goodwill, or Recycling, or the trash can once a week, or a Safety Deposit Box, I could finally reach an area of shelving holding a half dozen remnant boxes of my "stuff."

So today, my final 5 yard journey to find the fate of my childhood Baseball Cards commenced. Truly a pity I hadn't spent my many years of Odyssey away from them eating Lotus flowers with Charlize Theron (how pleasant that would have been), sigh.

What I was mainly on the look-out for, was the image seen above already -

The Topps Super Sports Card Locker

Although my childhood collection was a fair bit larger than what could fit in that well beloved Baseball Card product of my childhood, I was particularly far more keen to find it than a few shoe boxes of cards, because I believed my collection of 1975 Topps, the first Baseball Cards packs I had ever opened, would be inside. 

Instead,

The horrors didn't return as I had finally found the Super Sports Card Locker inside a box sitting on top of the crucial shoe boxes. So I knew my 75s were now just one more box lid away.

Reunification with 8 year old me's key collecting accoutrement was interesting. I kinda screwed up using it, by putting the little team labels down at the bottom of the card slots, instead of on the side panels as intended.

I have long been planning to put this device back into use, as each and every year I still faithfully first sort Series One cards by team, to help me know which player plays on which team - isn't that the point of Baseball Cards? Only much later will I ever re-assemble a set by card number.

Alas, these days the Super Sports Card Locker wouldn't quite work to lovingly pull out an under construction "Team Set" when my favorite team has a new opponent to study, as there are only 26 card slots. Because this product was created before the Mariners and Blue Jays joined Major League Baseball. 

The Locker is a cheerful celebration of sports however, let's admire a little:

Art by Ray Hammond

I think if I peel the protective plastic layer off the front/doors of this storage product, it too will look acceptable once again. So it seems likely come next February I will be putting some cards back in this, although the M's & Jays, and Rays & Marlins, will just have to squeeze in with some extra bunk mates, somehow.

Finally after that very short initial dopamine hit from Memory Lane, there they were:

Reunited

and it feels so Good!

1975 Topps!

I must have sure been proud of my collection of whichever set of Topps "Big" is sitting there next to my truly beloved. I'm sure I'll look through that stack of cards, someday. But not, Today. Today, is 1975 all over again. Hooray!

That picture doesn't reveal a simple thing - my modest collection of The Minis. That stack there with the Mike Marshal '74 Highlight is all Minis. Those came into my collection a few years after 1975, once my family had moved to Michigan, where all my new neighbors could only purchase Minis in 1975. I'm glad to have them, and they almost certainly explain the complete absence of doubles/dups in my regular size 1975 collection. Those are the other 2 stacks in the little shoe box, one standing vertically, one horizontal there next to Big Orel Hershiser. 

And thus I ended up with a new-all-over-again First Card, for 1975 Topps:

Unfortunately, I have zero idea why this card appeared on top of the stack of cards.

But, that's OK.

This card proved to be the just exactly perfect Baseball Card to dive into another long-awaited card enjoyment: finally reading Night Owl's 1975 Topps blog, some 14 years after I discovered it. I could never bring myself to start into that, knowing that Schrödinger's cat might have died in that storage unit, or a shifty contractor employee's grimy hands. So today has another wonderful and long hoped for milestone: really learning just who some of these players really were. And my first specific, as in, by-card-number reading of NO's blog revealed the mystery of that batting helmet, at long last, courtesy of another courteous reader of that entry, in the comments.

The mystery of the stack continued. Let's go back 51 years...

In a little better shape than the Brooks, but what was the connection? Was I pulling Stars out of the little slots in the Super Sports Card Locker, 20 years back? 

   Maybe.

What a relief to know I really do own my own copy of this Baseball Card, so easily memorable courtesy of Purple + Pink. And mine is as AUTHentic as it gets with centering like that. Just exactly perfect.

And I was of course, yeah, reading the backs, immediately. This one supplied the first treat:

- as the Topps card back writer gives us a sly reference to Ryan's nickname there in the cartoon / trivia question.

That little trio of cards soon surrendered to proper Baseball Card organization as decided on by 8 year old me: team by team, is The Way.

Thus next appeared a robust amount of 1975 Topps Detroit Tigers, probably reinforced significantly in the later years of the decade by my neighbors, after rounds of backyard Home Run Derby.

That held an answer to something I had been wondering through the 2010s, on the next card, as well as informing a bit of up-to-the-moment Baseball action -

What I had been wondering all through Lamont's run coaching for the Tigers while Jim Leyland was managing all those great teams 20 to 10 years back now - was where did Lamont play in the Bigs (Detroit, surprise), and what position (Catcher, like oh so many Managers, Coaches, and Broadcasters)? 

This card is a perfect one to enjoy for me today, as the Tigers' next series is with Pittsburgh, where a Fan Favorite from those Leyland teams, Don Kelly, is the Manager now. And he has in turn hired Gene Lamont to be his Bench Coach. 1975 Topps, still part of The Game. I would have to think Gene Lamont has to be the very last MLB paycheck receiving 1975 Topps card though. The 3 broadcasts this coming week will be a little sweeter now.

The Tigers collection also held an entry for my newest and long-overdue Player Collection, though that one was not launched until events in 1978:

Following along soon after was another Player Collection need, on another robust team effort as my Mom's family was from Missouri -

The team organization quickly made me move into a let's-cut-to-the-chase mode, no matter how much I was loving each and every Baseball Card flashback to 1975.

The one card the most on my mind though all those years of uncertainty,

was this one:

I'm fairly sure this Baseball Card is not considered one of the better Hank Aaron Baseball Cards ever made. 

But for me, THIS IS MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE BASEBALL CARD.

And it's not really close to the 99 other cards that might be in 2nd place. I pulled this Baseball Card from a wax package at some point during the 1975 Baseball season, with still fresh memories of being summoned to the TV set by my otherwise not-sports-fans-at-all parents, when Hammerin' Hank became the new Home Run King not long before.

And now, I owned Hank Aaron's Baseball Card! How freaking cool is that?

Infinitely cool. 

And even though I could have purchased a copy of this card at any time in about the last 40 years, a new copy wouldn't be MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE BASEBALL CARD, because it wouldn't have been the one I pulled from a pack. Simple as that.

Now of course, one can't peruse a stack of 1975 Topps Baseball Cards without pondering the two most famous cards in the set. I presumed I had pulled both of them as a youth, & -

- yeah, I'm still reading the backs and learning the workings of Major League Baseball.

Do you know how old Robin Yount was during his Rookie season in 1974?

18.

I did not know that until the year 2026, all thanks to Topps Baseball Cards. Truly an impressive stat when you think about it.

Alas, it does not appear that 8 year old me lucked into owning the other key Rookie card in the set, for a player on Kansas City's team. A slight disappointment to be sure, but that's nothing compared to the immense Joy I re-obtained today, with the Baseball Cards my Mom didn't throw out.

For now though, I have some Baseball Cards to read. Cya soon...