Wednesday, August 13, 2014

2014 Panini Golden Age - Expanded Look Part 1

I got a hobby box of Panini Golden Age and I'm finally through the base cards and minis. For those unfamiliar, Panini Golden Age is sort of like Topps Allen & Ginter and Upper Deck Goodwin Champions, except it's apparently not based on an old tobacco set. It's not primarily a baseball card set. It features all different sports plus celebrities, historical persons and places and things. I don't think that Panini Golden Age is as good as Allen & Ginter. For one thing, it doesn't feature any current players (especially baseball players due to licensing concerns). The design is much fussier than A&G as well. But I still like the set, enough to have bought a hobby box last year and this year.

Here are some of the more interesting base cards. Part 2 will be tomorrow. I'll show the inserts and hits later.

King Kelly #2
In the 1880s and 1890s Kelly was the real deal in baseball. He played for 16 seasons, 7 years with the White Sox. If I'm not mistaken, the first years of Topps A&G featured Kelly on the boxes and wrappers. He's wearing the 2nd weirdest hat on any of the cards in the box.

Harry Wright #4
Another big early innovator but more as a baseball executive and manager. He's got the weirdest hat. This is what I call a Wikipedia card, in that the photo comes from the Wikipedia article about the player. Goodwin Champions featured Wright a few years ago using the same photo.

John Pemberton #13
The guy who invented Coca-Cola while trying to find a cure for his morphine addiction (acquired when wounded in the Civil War). Another Wikipedia card with the image reversed.

Willis Carrier #17
Nothing particulary impressive about this card, other than the fact that he invented air conditioning, without which I wouldn't be living in the Houston area. In this year's set, the first 50 of each cards are called "Panini Golden Age First Fifty" and are serial numbered to 50. I pulled the First Fifty of this card as well as one of the base cards.

A nice gimmick. I suppose I have the 3rd one of this card that was printed.

Fatty Arbuckle #33
Arbuckle was one of the biggest stars of the silent movie era, signing a $1 million contract with Paramount in 1921. Late in 1921 he was accused of raping and accidentally killing an actress. The first 2 trials resulted in hung juries and he was acquitted in the 3rd trial. But as you might imagine, his career was toast. He died of a heart attack at age 46.

Fay Wray #45
You probably mostly remember Fay Wray as that woman hanging from King Kong's fingers. She had a career that spanned 57 years.

Eddie Gaedel #52
Signed by Bill Veeck to a contract in 1951, Gaedel is the only dwarf to play in American baseball. He made one plate appearance (8/19/51) and walked on 4 pitches. All the pitches were too high for Mr. Gaedel's 3 foot, 7 inch frame.

Tony Dow #71
Best know as Wally Cleaver from the "Leave it to Beaver" TV show. The set also has a card of the guy who played Eddie Haskell.

Northern Dancer #77
 Panini Golden Age loves horses and you can count on 5-6 horses and several jockeys in each set. Northern Dancer won 14 of 18 races in his 2-year career and then became "one of the most influential sires in Thoroughbred history".

Cast of "Lost in Space"
Billy Mumy #99
Angela Cartwright #98 Mini Hindu Brand Red Back 
Marta Kristen #100
There are probably other member of the cast as well.




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