I'm late again for another Blog Bat Around. I think it is appropriate that the topic is for the final issued base card and I'm writing this post late on New Years Eve. Heck, half of the world has already rung in the new year as I'm typing. I can also hear all of the yahoos in my neighborhood shooting off illegal fireworks early and making the dog bark. She doesn't enjoy loud noises. If you've been following along this year, you know that 2024 has been very tough personally. I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty detail on this post. To say the very least, I'm looking forward to 2025.
2001 was Cal's last year as a player and it coincided with somewhat of a comeback for Topps' base set. Cal wrapped up his final flagship set as card #1 which I'm sure Topps totally did unintentionally. Since the mid 90's the flagship set had a serious case of shrinkflation. 792 cards had been the standard size set from 1982 through 1994 and then contracted massively through the next few years and it bottomed out at 478 cards with the 2000 release.
I see the gold stamped logo in the top right corner hailing 50 years of Topps and I realize that Cal has been retired for more than half of my life. We'll be coming up on 75 years of Topps in 2026 which you can probably bank on it being Diamond themed. The 50th anniversary was the Golden Anniversary, and all of the inserts had something to do with that particuarl theme. The 70th was the Platinum Anniversary in 2021 and there were a couple insert sets that were centered around that theme too. The 2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary product was born that year (but wasn't released until 2022, I digress) harkening back 70 years putting modern and some past players on the 1952 design.
This card of Cal is not my favorite of his flagship Topps issues (see 1992 or 1983) this photo Cal is watching the ball fly through the air after putting a good swing on it. I believe the picture was taken at Yankee Stadium but the at-bat is hard to pinpoint. Cal played in 2 day games at Yankee Stadium in 2000. Saturday May 6th he went 0-3 against the Rocket and 0-1 against the Sandman. Neither of the results look like what is pictured. On Sunday May 7th, he went 1 for 3 with a walk. The 1 hit was a 2nd inning homerun to deep left off Ramiro Mendoza which could be this particular swing, or it could be the 6th inning flyout... I'd love for this to be the home run but could just as likely be the flyout. I'll leave it as a mystery for now. Just like the coming year. 2025, I hope you have as much prosperity and fruitfulness as I have hope and optimism.
Happy New Year Ryan! Hope 2025 is a bounce-back year for you!
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