Brad Balukjian

It’s Opening Day for baseball, so I’m opening a baseball book! I was initially attracted to this book because of the cover - it is a dead ringer for the 1986 Topps Baseball Cards wrapper! I collected Topps from 1977 to 1992 fairly voraciously, so I had a major Pavlovian response to seeing this book! And to complete my attraction to this volume, on page 2 I find that the author has spent time in my favorite ballpark - the Oakland Coliseum! And he thinks a bit like me about it! About it's difference to the place across the Bay, he writes, "The Oakland Coliseum, on the other hand, is a postapocalyptic crater ringed with hot dog stands." True, but also true, "But the Coliseum is my church and the upper deck my pew." Amen brother! I've practically raised my now 13 year old daughter in that part of the park, so much so, that she actually prefers it! Halleluiah!

The way the author describes opening the pack, and the taste and texture of that nasty pink "gum", just opened up a floodgate of memories for me! All good! And then, his idea for this book, to find the 14 players on the cards in the pack! (it'd be 15, but one of the cards was a checklist, which I personally hated when I got one!) He calls that group, the Wax Packers!

It's a bummer that the "well known" players from the pack couldn't be bothered to make time for this book, and I wanted to know more about Steve Yeager, but this is one cool project! Doubly cool that the "lesser know" players were so forthcoming and real! And along his journey, the author gets to play catch with his childhood baseball “idol of idols”, former Phillies pitcher Don Carman! How cool is that? I know I'd have freaked out!

Thanks for the good read Mr. Balukjian! I'll keep on the lookout for you in "our" church, in "our" pew, when I get back to the Coliseum after this COVID mess clears up! Play ball!… (mais)

This is more of a memoir than I bargained for - the initial premise is a fan chases down the guys he unwraps in a 1986 pack of Topps baseball cards, or wax pack. Most of the former players are helpful, eager to talk, though a few chapters suffer from a star's stonewalling. It becomes a bit of a bit with Carlton Fisk, which ends up being funny. The Doc Gooden much less so, and instead is just tragic.

This was the set I most 'invested' in, at 12, the year after the Royals won it all and really ignited my fandom. I remember most of these cards. A few years ago I got an excited call from my mom that she had found my box of cards in the attic. She wanted to know if she could retire and I had to let her down, as that 1986 set, if complete, would be worth around $30. I told her I would treat her to dinner at Applebees..

A really good read, helped get me a couple days closer to spring training.… (mais)