A look back at some of your favorite players when they were little kids! Well – not your favorite players, but at least some Little League photos of some current major league players!
This was an insert exclusive to Series 1 from Topps 2010.
Info about the set:
Set description: “Featuring current photos of Major League Stars as Little League, High School, or College players.”
Or, in the case of Ortiz, as a 4-year old pointing at a camera saying “I will break you A-Rod”!
Set composition: 18 cards, 1:6 hobby odds (series one)
Hall of Famers: None – only current players.
How I put the set together:
4 cards from the hobby box
2 cards from an eBay insert lot
2 cards from a card show
7 cards from trades
3 cards from Sportlots
Thoughts on the set: Cool idea. Decent player selection – A-Rod, Ortiz, David Wright, Verlander, Yadier Molina and Johnny Damon are the notable players. But on some level, I kind of like that. Good design that sort of copies the 1980 Topps set. I do like that Topps put a current photo down in the lower right-hand corner – what good is the photo of them as a kid if you can’t compare it to the picture from today?
The backs are fairly interesting reading:
- Aaron Poreda went to the same high school as swimmer Matt Biondi.
- A-Rod was the Gatorade National Student Athlete of the Year. Presumably for his work in chemistry.
- Brian Roberts grew up in Chapel Hill – because his dad was the coach of UNC.
- Clint Sammons and Jeff Francoeur were on the same high school team in Georgia. I know, I have never heard of Clint Sammons either.
- David Wright played on an AAU team that also included BJ Upton, Mark Reynolds and Ryan Zimmerman. Wonder who played third?
- Gordon Beckham’s dad was a quarterback for South Carolina.
- Russell Martin lived in Paris as a youngster before moving to Canada, where he went to the same high school Eric Gagne went to. I wonder how many players from the same Canadian high school were ever teammates in the majors (as they were in 2006).
- Cody Ross has a favorite player – Ken Griffey Jr. – after whom he named his dog
……..
Wait a minute? He named his dog Griffey!!!!!!!!!!!
He stole my dog’s name!!! This is definitely a surprise addition as one of my favorite cards ever!
Card that completed my set: #WTWY-RM – Russell Martin
I got this in a Sportlots purchase at the end of November.
Highest book value: #WTWY-AR – Alex Rodriguez
About 4 bucks currently.
Best card (my opinion): #WTWY-CR – Cody Ross
Ortiz was a pretty easy selection before I read the back. Most of these cards show a) a mediocre player, and b) a picture from little league. Ortiz is a) a pretty significant player historically, and b) a cool picture of him as a youngster. It’s like he’s saying – “watch out, dude. Someday I’m gonna break the curse of the Bambino. And, yeah, that means I’m bowling over you, A-Rod, you sweater-vest-wearing fellow-steroid-taking d-bag.”
But it doesn’t top the Cody Ross dog-named-Griffey card.
Best Reds card: No Reds in the set.
Very cool, I had yet to see the full set at one time. I have to bet that the player’s families get a kick out of these!!
yes – this is a pretty cool insert set and a different twist for sure.