Gavin's Gifts

Hey look kids...Reggie Jackson's 1976 Hostess card. Well, OK..no it's not. It's a custom version designed by Gavin of the Baseball Card Breakdown blog. And it's pretty sweet. You custom card makers out there make me jealous of your skills.

The Jackson custom Gavin sent illustrates something I've come to think about more and more lately. As I've aged my feelings towards certain things have changed/mellowed. I used to 'hate' Ol Reggie. His A's clubs ripped thru the Orioles in a couple of playoff series in the early 70's during Oakland's dynasty run. And then after an up and down year with my Orioles he moved to the Yankees and became the 'straw that stirred the drink' or whatever that silliness was.

The end result was that I disliked the guy intensely. He joined Derek Sanderson, Joe Namath, the Dallas Cowboys and any and every New York Met on my 'enemies list.' Then I somehow grew up. Now I'm 64 and have sons who feel about all the Dallas teams as I once did about the Mets, Bruins and Jets. I just listen to them and shrug. They'll get over it.

Anyway, to get back to Gavin's envelope of goodness.... I believe this is the actual back of the '76 Hostess Jackson to which he has affixed his own 'sig'.

And for comparison this is the actual card as produced by Hostess:

Another of Gavin's creations was in the package. Check it out:

It's based obviously on the Topps Ripken rookie of 1982. But instead of Bob Bonner and Jeff Schneider Cal is flanked by his dad and brother. Gavin got ***ahem*** creative with Billy and the edit on both front and back is mine. Gavin had a lot more work to do to create the back of this one. You look at it and until you catch the text to the right of Billy Ripken's name you'd never guess it wasn't authentic. Nice work.

And a quick glance at each of the other cards Gavin supplied. Hometown Heroes Brooksie. 

A Topps Brooks card from 2003.

I actually stumbled across the picture Topps used for this one. Check it out:

Notice anything? Yup, Topps flipped the picture for the card. Look at Brooks' uni number on the card. And the 'Bird' on his cap. And his glove.

2016 Die Cut Brooks. At least I think it's a 2016. I didn't scan the back. Heck half the time I can't even read the backs of these things to figure out the year and set. I did mention that I'm 64, right?

Above is a Panini Cooperstown card of him. Below is the jim Palmer from the same set. I thought I had these. Nope. But I do now.

Jim Palmer's card from whatever the 2003 set or subset it is. Like the Brooks card above my scanner cut off some of the white border. Unlike the brooks card the photo isn't reversed.

And finally the only dupe in the package. This is from last year's Archives set. I really like this one. Brooks in the '53 style. One of Topps' better efforts I believe.

Thanks Gavin. I really appreciate the cards.