Saturday, August 18, 2007

A Fantasy 2008 Allen & Ginter Checklist

If you haven't read Ben Henry's latest, you should. The poor guy finally broke down and ripped a box of 2007 Allen & Ginter.

While that in and of itself may not seem all that special, what he wrote at the tail-end got me thinking.

"I’d like to do the next checklist of special cards for A&G 2008, precisely because I think Topps dropped the ball in not including David Beckham in this set, but also because Ernest Hemingway, Keith Richards and the Lusitania need their own cards."
So if you were Topps, what do you do for (another) encore? I came up with this list of athletes and celebrities I'd like to see in next year's TA&G -- assuming that there is one.

And if you don't know who any of these people are, look 'em up on wikipedia.

Old Time Baseballers

Albert Spalding
Ed Delahanty
Bill James (Alright, so he never actually played. But c'mon, he's Bill James!)
Bill "Spaceman" Lee
Dock Ellis
Buck O'Neil
Tommy Lasorda
Ban Johnson
"Shoeless" Joe Jackson
Fred Merkle (2008's the 100th anniversary of "The Boner!")
Vin Scully, Harry Caray, Mel Allen and Harry Kalas (Why don't they made announcer cards?)

Non-Baseball Athletes

Cristiano Ronaldo
Jozy Altidore
Sir Donald Bradman
Willie Mosconi
Amanda Beard
Shaun White
"El Wingador" (and yes, I consider competitive eating to be a "sport")
Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins
That guy who fell off the 40-foot vert ramp at the X-Games
Maria Sharapova
Michael Phelps
Secretariat
Kelly Slater
Ronaldinho
Chris Harris -- New Zealand cricketer
Chris Harris -- Carolina Panthers defensive back
Chris Harris -- English motorcycle rider
"Wildcat" Chris Harris -- Professional Wrestler

Non-Athletes and Historical Figures

Robert Peary
Henry Ford
Booker T. Washington
Sarah Silverman
Hunter S. Thompson
George Washington Carver
Milton Friedman
Edward Teller
Penn & Teller
Trey Parker & Matt Stone
Sid Vicious & Nancy Spungen
Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
Michael Larson
Kevin Mitnick
Ayn Rand
Frank Lloyd Wright
Edward R. Murrow
Keith Olbermann & Bill O'Reilly (An Olbermann/O'Reilly double autographed box loader. Hmmm...)
Charles Nelson Reilly

Monuments

The Grand Canyon
Big Ben
The Sphinx
The Panama Canal
The Golden Gate Bridge
Machu Picchu

Got any suggestions of your own?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about Milo Hamilton, Peter Gammons every MLB Ballpark that is no longer standing and the 1980 Team USA Hockey Team? Oh and give me a Mark "The Bird" Fidrych please.

Chris Harris said...

Isn't Peter Gammons already on the $20 bill?

The old ballparks idea looks like a good idea for a mini-insert.

dayf said...

Dangit Chris, one simple question and I've been thinking up subjects for an hour. I'll post my full list on my blog, but here's an expurgated version:

Baseball
Seconded on Buck 'O'Neill
John Irvin Kennedy
Fleetwood Walker
Harry Wright
Jim Bouton
Don Mossi
Bow Wow Arft
Joe Schlabotnik

Non-Baseball
Pele
Richard Petty
Jack Nicklaus
Peggy Fleming
Bobby Orr
Garry Kasparov
Deep Blue
Babe Didrikson Zaharias
The female pole vaulter whose picture is all over the internet
Venus and Serena Williams

Non Athletes
Emperor Norton
Nikolai Tesla
Bert Randolph Sugar
Frank Zappa
Lenny Bruce
Kurt Vonnegut
Charles Schulz

Monuments etc.
Elysian Fields
Ebbets Field
The Big Chicken
The Hindenburg

Special unannounced insert set 1:
Lou Costello
Bud Abbott
Who - First Base
What - Second Base
I Don't Know - Third Base
Why - Left Field
Because - Center Field
Tomorrow - Pitcher
Today - Catcher
I Don't Give A Darn - Shortstop

Bryan said...

Very disappointed in this year's selection and the fact that they were mixed in there with the players...

Generals of WWII:
Patton
Bradley
Monty
Rommell
McCarther
Young Ike

Famous Musician Fans
Geddy Lee - Toronto
Paul Simon - NY

Deeper Negro League players
More Hall of Famers
All Eight Men Out
and
Mick Foley, just because...

Anonymous said...

a Hunter S Thompson card would be the shit!