The Topps Living Set continues to grow, but the number of deserving subjects remaining, it can be a long wait between representatives from your favorite team. The Minnesota Twins now have seven cards in the set, two coming in the last two months.
Rod Carew is the first retired Twin to be featured. 1967 A.L. Rookie of the Year, a seven-time batting champ, 1977 A.L. MVP, eighteen-time All-Star, Hall of Fame Inductee, and the only member of the 3,000 hit club from Panama. Carew was in the Twin Cities earlier this season to attend the retirement of Joe Mauer's jersey number, and he continues to be an ambassador for the game. He also hosts an annual golf tournament in California to benefit Pediatric Cancer Research, which was held last weekend at the Pelican Hill Golf Club. He also partners with the American Heart Association to raise awareness about heart health.
This season Max Kepler has taken a big step forward. His 35 home runs are a career high, and he's slugging 100 points higher than his previous career best mark. He signed a 5 year contract extension with the Twins during Spring Training.
This dugout quiz artwork is a red herring - the flag says "Highest Batting Average" but the question is about Runs Batted In! Also, you'll notice that there's an asterisk on both cards for the lifetime totals. On Carew's card it is explained that his career totals are complete "as of 6/24/2019," but Kepler's card does not have a similar caveat. I think Rod's totals are probably not going to change much the rest of the season, but Max is likely to add on even more (he led off Saturday's game with a home run, the 91st of his career)!
It's the little things in life that can make a big difference. Normally I'd give Topps a pass on these little goofs, but don't they only produce three cards a week? If that's the case... then it's kinda careless. And once again... if collectors only had to pay a buck per card... that'd be one thing. However I'm sure it looks like it averages out to around $5 per card.
ReplyDeleteAnyways... I don't wanna come off as being sour... so I will say these cards do look really nice and would look even better signed. Kudos to Carew for his continued work with heart health.
I think the cartoon is intentionally off, the few Living Set cards I have seem to follow that pattern of being a contradiction or a non sequitur.
DeleteThe omission of the current stat date is more of an annoyance, since Kepler is still active it helps to pinpoint the time the card was printed.