Card of the Day: James Harrison 2009 Topps National Chicle #24

Card of the Day: “Bull” Tosi 1935 National Chicle #27

Card of the Day: Matthew Stafford 2009 Topps National Chicle #37

Card of the Day: Ryne Sandberg 2010 Topps National Chicle #253

Card of the Day: Cy Young 2010 Topps National Chicle Artist’s Proof Cabinet Monty Sheldon Auto

Card of the Day: Bronko Nagurski 1935 National Chicle #34

Card of the Day: Curtis Granderson 2010 Topps National Chicle – Monty Sheldon Artist Auto

What’s This? Strasburg’s Chicle Rookie?

Art can do a lot of things.  It can inspire.  It can make you feel happy.  It can make you feel sad.  For some people it can tell them the meaning of life.  Art really doesn’t have any limits.  Anything goes.

Artistic sets aren’t anything new when it comes to sports cards.  Manufacturers have been going that route for certain products for a long time.  Topps had an interesting encounter with collectors when they issued Chicle Baseball in 2010.  Twelve artists were commissioned by Topps to create this 329 card set.  Chicle Baseball isn’t your typical artistically driven product.  Some of the cards feature players in uniforms that they never played in.  Probably the most notable example if this would be the Babe Ruth #276 SP.  Collectors were up in arms about Ruth being painted wearing a Braves uniform.  Babe Ruth did play for the Braves, just not the ones from Atlanta.  You would’ve thought Topps had set a basket of puppies on fire given the reaction collectors had to this angle of card design.  Apparently art can make people a little angry too.  Needless to say, Topps hasn’t issued another Chicle set since.  I’m going to buck the traffic and come out and say that I enjoy the set.  It got people talking.  That’s something that very few products do today.

One of the twelve artists that worked on this set was Monty Sheldon.  He’s responsible for painting guys like Stan Musial, Rogers Hornsby, Joe Morgan, and Stephen Strasburg.  Wait a second!  Stephen Strasburg isn’t in this set… or is he?

 Shortly after Topps released 2010 Chicle Baseball, Monty Sheldon was commissioned to do a painting for an individual.  This painting was to be of Stephen Strasburg and designed to look like one of the paintings Topps would use for their Chicle set.  Upon its completion, Monty Sheldon made some 2010 Chicle mock-up cards based on his work which now reside with the painting’s owner.  This card was almost officially released by Topps in the later part of 2010.  Monty Sheldon told Topps about the painting hoping they would want to make it into a card to insert within another product, but they decided to pass.  Between Chicle not taking off, and Strasburg hurt by that time of the year, it just didn’t make it in.  Even though it wasn’t officially made by Topps, I’m sure there are a couple of die-hard Strasburg fans that would like to get their hands on one of these.  This card #330 isn’t easy to find.

Card of the Day: LeSean McCoy 2009 Philadelphia National Chicle Auto

Card of the Day: Brett Favre/Adrian Peterson 2010 Topps National Chicle Dual Auto