When it comes to baseball, there are not many non Twins players that I consider myself a fan of. I have always been true to only cheering for players somehow associated with my favorite Minnesota teams, but there are definitely some notable exceptions that I display without fear of persecution. The first player I have always been a fan of is Sandy Koufax, mainly because of how dominant a pitcher he was during the golden age of baseball. I also heard stories of the 65 World Series from my father, most of which included how amazing of a player he was. My dad was a big Twins fan during that time (he still is), and I couldn’t help but appreciate what Koufax brought to the table. Luckily for me, Topps made a huge move of signing him to a deal for their slate of 2011 products, and I couldn’t be happier.
Earlier today, they made another announcement that has to do with another player I have admired for most of my life. Ever since 1st grade when I did a book report on a Hank Aaron biography, I have gone out of my way to collect him. Aaron will be featured in many of Topps’ 2011 products as well, which is huge due to the Panini/DLP exclusive deal that was in place for the last few years. He remains one of the best baseball players ever to play the game, and I cannot wait to see some of the amazing cards that will be coming from Topps’ sets like Heritage and Gypsy Queen.
When you see just how many people love Hammerin’ Hank’s existing cards, this is considerably that much more of an add for Topps’ product line. Baseball has always been just as much about the history of the game as it is about the current guys and rookies, and that is why guys like Aaron can make your entire year. Aaron hasn’t had any licensed cards since 2005, and its been even longer since he has had hard signed examples. With Topps talking about how on card signatures will be a focus for him, Im sure a lot of people are very happy – myself being among that group.
Aaron, like Koufax, carries huge values in the hobby, again because of dominance and his record breaking home run tally. With Barry Bonds recently eclipsing his total by unnatural means, his record becomes even more valuable to the collectors around the country. Now that he will be signing for Topps, I can guarantee that his value will increase, even though products like Sterling and Triple Threads will tarnish his slate of available cards.
Overall, I hope there will be a lot more announcements like this coming down the pipeline, and even me, a football card collector, is that much more excited for the 2011 products that will be hitting shelves shortly because of stuff like this.
I love the news that they are recruiting older players to sign. Im a young collector but I still like collecting past greats. I’m more of a football collector myself and I like getting cards of players my dad worshipped as a kid. I’m a rams and one player I am going to collect is Eric Dickerson. I love watching tape of him and I just wish there were more cards out there to chose from. Maybe companies will start to put more legend cards out there. If anything it will bring some people back into the hobby instead if just printing crappy cards like panini is doing. It’s a disgrace. They need to learn from tops.
Ad’s for Topps cards these days reminds me of a picture of The Whopper at a B.K drive thru that looks nothing like the smushed, and soggy perpetrator you actually pull out of the box.
I’ll be very interested to see how well Heritage does this year compared to years past given that collectors generally have a love/hate relationship with the 1962 design. I, for one, will be collecting the regular set instead of Heritage this year due to it’s strong design.