It Never Gets Old

One of the great joys of my life has been the enduring popularity of The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading And Bubblegum Book, which I wrote with Brendan Boyd in 1973. (I’m working on a sequel with Dave Moore.)

My friend Josh Wilker has written about baseball cards as well, and quite eloquently, in Cardboard Gods. He’s part of a forum at The American Writers Museum in Chicago next week, where he plans to read from my book, for which I am indeed honored. 

He recently published  a piece about my book on his Cardboard Gods blog. Josh’s post contains more details about the American Writers Museum baseball forum next week. You should check it out.

As for the two characters in the photo below, it has been a long, strange trip... 

Topps Retro Style

The kid in me has been pretty much priced out of the baseball card market, since per-pack prices have gone bonkers, and way beyond what kids these days can (or are willing to) pay. Everything today seems to be about the “chase cards” - the limited-print inserts to basic sets.

I’m more of a “basic set” kind of guy.

But hand it to Topps - by virtue of being in the baseball card market since 1952, the company has a strong, powerful heritage of cards and designs. This Aaron Judge card recalls the design of the Topps 1953 Mickey Mantle card, just as Judge recalls Mantle in so many ways.