Gorgeous Portraits Highlight Set That Focuses on Italian-American Baseball Players

The National Ethnic Heritage Foundation and the Order of the Sons of Italy have teamed to produce a 100-card set that celebrates baseball's Italian-American Baseball Heroes. Available with a $49 donation, the 100-card set consists of original life-like oil portraits from a team working under the supervision of George Kotsovos.

The set has a print run of 10,000 and cards are printed with metallic gold foil. Card backs include biographical information and lifetime stats.

The checklist ranges from Hall of Famers like Joe Dimaggio and Roy Campanella to recent stars like Craig Biggio, John Smoltz, Mike Piazza and Jason Giambi.

You can make your donation here to receive the set. You can also go there to see a complete gallery of the paintings.

Here's a handful of what you can expect:

Is This the Worst Sticker Autograph of All Time?

Browsing on eBay, I came across this card from 2005 Playoff Prime Cuts. The card design overall is very attractive. The alternating game-used pieces show that they're just not oversized single relics posing as a dual. It's got an all-time great. And it has an autograph.  What the heck is going on with that autograph?

I've got a few beefs with sticker autographs, but a big one is the fact that often they don't hold the entire signature. This is probably the most extreme example I've seen. It looks as though a good half of Aaron's autograph is gone, a victim to the edges. Add to that a bit of apparent smudging and you've got one immensely disappointing card.

Although I understand Aaron hasn't been of the greatest health in recent years, which would affect his signatures, it doesn't excuse Playoff for letting this one out there. It's called quality control. If something isn't at it's greatest, it should be removed from distribution. I feel bad for the person who pulled the card. It'd be great without the autograph and amazing if the scribble was even half an inch higher. But as it stands, ick!

Box Break: 2009 Razor Sports Icons: Cut Signature Edition

Let's do it.

Here's the box (which was provided by Razor):

Inside there's one card - a cut signature. It could be Babe Ruth or it could be Al Barlick. The checklist covers all the major sports, not just baseball. I still haven't figured out why Ringo Starr or Ozzy Osbourne are in a product called Sports Icons, though. This is a product where even when you don't pull a big-time player, you're still going to get something solid. As in no late-round draft picks who came up, played a game or two then disappear into the abyss of the dugout bench.

The set appears to be popular from a busting standpoint as well. eBay has little unopened product left and what's there is being listed for about $125 per box.

Here goes.

Jim Plunkett limited to two copies.

Jim Plunkett isn't a baseball player so I'm off to Google for a second. Pardon me if Plunkett is an all-time all-time great and I just commited blasphemy for not immediately knowing who he is.

From Wikipedia:

James W. "Jim" Plunkett (born December 5, 1947 in San Jose, California) is a former American football quarterback who played collegiately for Stanford University, where he won the Heisman Trophy, and professionally for three National Football League teams: the New England Patriots, San Francisco 49ers and Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders. He led the Raiders to two Super Bowl victories (XV and XVIII). He is the only retired quarterback to start, and win, two Super Bowls who is not also in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

Not a bad football player, I guess. But he's no Babe Ruth either.

From a busting perspective, there's two conflicting thoughts here. My first is, "Jim Plunkett - dang." But on the otherhand, it is limited to a pair of copies. Yes, it's manufactured rarity but I'm sure there's more than a couple of people out there who would find trade value in such a card. To that end, Razor's done a good job of ensuring value in Sports Icons. Although I could have done better with the player, it's still far better than busting a similarly priced box like SPx and getting a rookie I've never heard of and only a handful of shiny cards to go with it.

Design wise, Razor continues to do clever things without any sort of license. There's no picture of the athlete anywhere. In fact, they're name isn't anywhere on the card itself other than the signature. It's Beckett who identifies who it is and the rarity.

The design is very clean. There's a patriotic feel with the color scheme and stars. It's not too cluttered, in my opinion. It's a little disappointing to see the Sports Icons logo so large and the signature window not much bigger, especially when a couple of loops in Plunkett's names are slightly cut off.

With all the possibilites this box offered, it was a fun break. Granted it wasn't my money that was on the line here thanks to Razor providing it, but I imagine if I'd spent the money on this rather than most any new product not named Allen and Ginter I'd feel a bit better about how I'd spent my c-note and change.

A Day at the Movies: King of the Hill featuring Fergie Jenkins and the Chicago Cubs

King of the Hill

Filmed over the course of the 1972 and 1973 seasons, King of the Hill is a laid back yet informative look at Fergie Jenkins, the only Canadian in the baseball Hall of Fame, and baseball in general as it was at the time. Interestingly, there's lots of talk of big contracts and baseball becoming a big business, just as we talk about them today. Perhaps it's a timeless thing. Yet there's still lots of nostalgia and history in the documentary.

If you have an hour to spare, check out this little slice of Canadian filmmaking.

Gallery: 2009 Topps Baseball Legends Commemorative Patch Cards

I was lucky enough to escape the cold Canadian winter last week and head down to Phoenix. While a trip to Spring Training wasn't meant to be, I did make it to Target and sampled every type of pack offering they had for 2009 Topps Baseball (rack pack, cereal box and blaster). While this may not seem like much to most, any baseball cards to this Canadian from a store is always fun.

From my blaster I got this:

Although it was no Babe Ruth (that was the Gold Refractor card from the cereal box), I thought these looked pretty neat - much better than most of the Upper Deck manufactured patch cards that often have a tiny head shot photo at best. They seem to be solid sellers too, with most going for over $10 on eBay right now, which isn't bad considering a blaster is $19.99 and you get 10 packs with it was well. Had the checklist been smaller, I may have gone after the set, but 50 cards at $10-15 per seems a little steep, especially when the checklist has lots of repeat subjects.

I wanted to see more of the set so I've put together a gallery of the 50-card set. Click here to see the entire set or look below for a small sample.

Basement Treasures: Mad Breaks the Pete Rose Scandal in 1987

Digging in a box in the basement, I came across some forgotten treasures. Here is one of them.

 

I was never a huge Mad Magazine fan, although I picked up the occasional copy if I was waiting for a ferry or if the cover gave me a laugh. I was and still am a big fan of Pee Wee's Playhouse. Sure, the guy's a perv but there's lots of them out there. It still doesn't take away from the fact it was one of the weirdest shows of my childhood.

I'm guessing by the price tag that I picked up this issue at a used book store. It's from 1987 and promises a look at baseball inside. There's no sporting feature, but there are several diamond-themed comic strips throughout. Here's one that caught my attention:

What are the chances the Mad crew knew about Pete Rose?

Trader Crack's Book Club: The Soul of Baseball

Oprah has her book club. I want mine.

It's been a while since I read a good, old-fashioned baseball book. Moneyball was probably the last one.While waiting for a couple of hours at the airport in Seattle I grabbed The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America and read it very quickly.

It combines Tuesdays With Morrie, with a biography of Buck O'Neill, an autobiographical perspective from author Joe Posnanski and a historical account of the Negro Leagues. The Soul of Baseball is a must-read - seriously. Posnanski recounts a year he spent with O'Neil at the end of the former Negro League's player and manager crisscrossing America celebrating the game of baseball.

The Soul of Baseball not only sheds light on O'Neil's view of the Negro Leagues, but it's also a joyful look at baseball as a game rather than the business that we often see it as now. There's plenty of insight in the book's anecdotes and wise quotes from O'Neil. It's a light and breezy read, although I couldn't help but get choked up a few times.

And after reading about O'Neil's passion for baseball and the legacy he left behind, why isn't he a member of the Hall of Fame yet? Okay, they just unveiled a statue honouring him, but where's the plaque? It might be a late for O'Neil himself to get his moment in the spotlight he deserves as an ambassador for the game, but there's still his family and the thousands he touched during his long and exciting life that can still celebrate.