There are 3 big time rookies named Jackson who have debuted this season
Jackson Holliday
Jackson Chuorio
Jackson Merrill.
Will Topps put one of them in Update (Most likely Holliday). (In an attempt to manipulate the market).
If this was 1974 - we would not see these players until 2025.
What is going on in Sports. Does anyone really believe that Ohtani new nothing about the gambling.
How could someone negotiate a 700 million dollar contract (defer 680 million of it) be so naive.
It does not make sense.
What also does not make sense is how did the Pacers shoot only 16 foul shots while the Lakers shot 43. The Pacers committed 31 fouls and the Lakers only 14 in last nights game.
The Lakers are being called foul on only 15.8 times a game. THE LOWEST PER GAME FOUL RATE IN NBA HISTORY - OF Course they have the largest free throw attempt differential in the league (24.1 - 18.2) at 5.9, Boston is second with a +3.0 free throw attempt differential.
Since Heritage began in 2001 with the 1952 set design the sets journey seemed to be heading to this set design (1975). Back in the early 2000s - collectors got to see todays players on the vintage classic Topps design. But are we at the Top of the Mountain with the 24th Heritage set.
1975 Topps seems like the pinnacle of the vintage designs.
Nothing that will follow this set can Top this set in the Topps Pantheon.
Compare the run of Topps sets from 1976 to 1979 with 1966 to 1969. Those latter sets just don't feel as vintage or iconic as the earlier sets.
After 1975, Topps did have some iconic designs such as 1983 and 1991 but maybe that is it.
I would hope that Topps goes back to 1952 and begins another 24 year run of Heritage after this set (They probably are not because they are going to use the Chrome platinum sets to keep giving us Todays players on classic design). Leave post 1975s sets to archives and inserts.
Are we at the Pinnacle of Heritage, I think so and it is only down hill from here.
P.S. Thank God they are using the All Star logo in this set.
Will Ronald Acuna card number 1 have the NL All Star logo on it. He was a starter in the All Star game. I am not sure about this one. I want Topps to put All Star logos on the cards but I think it is 50/50 proposition.
Also, I think there is a good chance that Card number 4 will be a Miguel Cabrera highlights (to mimic Al Kaline). It might say something like Cabrera retires in 3000 hit club.
What a way to ruin a good thing,
The second most anticipated Heritage set of my lifetime (Behind 2021 - 1972 design), Topps finds a way to ruin it.
I knew they were going to SP even though there were none in 1975, but I assumed it would be 401-500.
No, it comes at the front of the set 1-100. I think they are looking to sell more cases because they assume more people then chase the SPs - they may be right because the 1975 seems to the most beloved set until going back to the early 1960s or 1950s.
It can be worse - if they can short print most the the stars such as Trout, Harper, Ohtani, Soto, Acuna
and it could of been even worse where the SP scatter shot throughout the set of 1-500 (which I think they were doing 10 years ago)
What a way to ruin a good thing,
Updated: Also No Minis
Now that is a baseball card. The more I see the 2024 Topps on-line I more disappointed I am - The cards have that dark rainy day thunder storm feel to them. But the card above screams nostalgia with a better clearer photo and a subtle design. Where have you gone 1989 Topps are lonely card collectors turn there eyes to you.
In its preview for 2024 Topps Baseball - Topps (below) promoted new 1/1 first print cards. They cards were supposed to have a first card designation on the front - accept they don't
New First Card parallels represent the first one of that card’s production run. In the 1990s, Stadium Club First Day Issue parallels covered an entire day of printing. These 2024 Topps Baseball parallels have just one copy each and it’s the first made.
How is it possible to mess this up.
Just get 350 different cards and stamp first print on the front -
There is a back card designation but I bet they screwed this one up too.
Bill Barnwell ran a column over at ESPN.com about last Weeks Super Bowl - and Kyle Shanahan decision to take the ball first. Which was a bad idea. Bill Barnwell article mentioned percentages and analytics of taking the ball first or kicking off.
However, he missed one big point. If you kick off you can't lose the game.
The offense can punt, kick a field goal or score a touchdown on that first possession - but the team that kicks off does not lose. However, the team that kicks off can actually win the game on the first drive. They could get a safety (unlikely), a fumble return for a touchdown or even an interception return for a touchdown. (Or even if the fumble return or interception does not give you a score it can give you great field position.
If you kick off and the other team scores a TD with an extra point - then you know you have to score a touchdown (and you will always be playing four downs). If you score that touchdown and you almost always wants to go for the 2 points. Because it is better to have the ball at the 2 yard line to win as opposed to tying the score - having to kick off and stopping the other team from scoring and then you having to march down the field again to score
If you lose the coin toss and the other team elects to kick off - the team that gets the ball first can turn the tables by scoring a TD and getting the 2 pt, and they then know that when they kick off THEY CAN'T LOSE THE GAME.
He have won of the best rookie of the year races of all time.
If Chet Holmgren can average 17 points a game - He will become the only the 4th rookie in the last 30 years to do that on a team with a winning record.
If Chet Holmgren can average 16 points a game and Oklahoma City wins 50 - He will become only the 6 player to do that in the last 55 years (Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Alvin Adams, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, David Robinson, Tim Duncan)
All won the rookie of the year except Magic (Bird won)
I am assuming Holmgren career sways toward Adams than the other players.
Victor Wembanyama is a highlight reel, looks unreal on the court and probably will have a better career than Chet but I don't know if he will win the ROY.
In the 2022-23 Season - The Los Angeles Lakers averaged 26.6 free throws a game - The Most in the NBA.
Their opponents by contrast averaged 20.8 free throw attempts per games - The least amount in the NBA.
The difference in free throw attempts was +5.8 easily the highest in the league
By contrast the Denver Nuggets free throw differential was -.3 (22.4 vs. 22.7)
This year the Lakers opponents are only shooting 19.3 just below the Boston Celtics at 18.9
While not number one the Lakers are shooting a whopping 24.7 free throws per game for a differential of an unbelievable +5.3 - easily thar biggest in the league.
By contrast Boston shoots 22.0 FTPG for a differential of +3.0.
In a recent games against Boston the Lakers shot 26 free throws while Boston shot 7. Against the Knicks Saturday night the Lakers shot 10 more free throw.
What the NBA does to cheat is help that Lakers against teams to give them a better chance to win. However when they play the Bad teams the referees don't give them a free throw advantage because they don't need it as much and it will bring their Free Throw Attempt differential number down so it does not look obvious.
Tonight they play Charlotte - On 12/28/23 They Beat Charlotte 133-112 however Charlotte shot 28 Free Throws and the Lakers shot 14.
Thus you can be 100% sure that Charlotte will shoot more free throws than the Lakers tonight
It is a great photo of Elly.
The Good - the Fonts - The team name, that font it is cool maybe super cool. Also the player name font - reminds me of 1995 Collectors Choice
The Bad -The faded diamond on the logo and faded baseball on the player position (though like that font).
The Ugly - The faded boarder - Not as ugly as 2015 (Sorry Nigh Owl) but this card would have looked so much better with an all white border
For the first time in a long time. Topps (Fanatics?) has gone this far intime without releasing the next years design.
Usually the have released the design before the prior baseball season ended.
Growing up in the 1970s, collecting Baseball, Football, Basketball, Hockey card, usually the first time you saw the new card designs was when you bought your first pack and opened it up. For me, that was the case until the early 1980s.
Once I reached my late teens in the early 1980s, I realized it was just easier to send away for a complete set as opposed to trying to complete a set through packs. 2 of the companies I remember using (from ads in the Sporting News) Renata Galasso and Larry Fritsch card to get my sets. I think it was 1984 in an advertisement I saw the Topps design (I think it was Strawberry) before I got the cards / at the time they were released. The think Baseball Card Magazine previewed the cards before they were released beginning in the mid 1980s.
However, I can still take myself back to my childhood days and remember holding those unopened packs in my hand and just wondering what awaited me inside. For some reason those first 1972-73 Topps Hockey packs generates that greatest feeling for me.
I know that it is an impossibility today to not see the cards until you open the pack - but we can only wish.
