Going off the deep end

In an attempt to recapture my youth, I have of late started purchasing baseball cards again.

These purchases fall into two categories. The first is the Topps Heritage series. These are “throwbacks,” that is they use the designs from sets I loved as a kid, primarily from the 196os and early 1970s.

One of the nice features of the Heritage collections is that they follow the old posed shots of their predecessors. Clockwise from bottom left, these cards represent sets from 1969, 1966, 1970, and 1971 respectively. The 1970 set was the first to feature full-panel “action” shots, which now seem to be the standard. That’s why it was refreshing to see these old designs again. The only thing missing, from what I’ve been able to see, is that there are not “hatless” head-shots which were done just in case the player in question was not in the uniform of his current team.

The other category is more unusual.

Here’s one from a set of Milwaukee Brewers cards from Daniel Jacob Horine, the brains and creative muscle behind Pop Fly Pop Shop.

Next we have a set of Dick Perez cards I received while attending a screening of the documentary The Diamond King at the Yogi Berra Museum. The event was timed to coincide with Yogi’s 100th birthday. Of course, Perez was famous for these cards which were produced for Dunruss from the 1980s-90s.

These comes from another artist Blake Jamieson, a 52-card set based on the 1951 Topps Red Backs and featuring contemporary players as well as a few all-time greats.

Then there’s Bob Krieger’s homage to African-American players through the “lens” of Topps designs from the 1950s. His work was recently featured at the Panefico Gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia.

And finally, as one more nod to my Canadian ancestry, a set of O-Pee-Chee cards (English and French) from 1991. I still experience “olfactory memories” from the candy store near my aunt’s apartment in Outremont, a Montreal neighborhood, where I would buy a few packs every summer during family visits.