Fidel Castro and Derek Jeter Keep The Little Sun Card Company Relevant

At one time there was a small card company located in Monrovia, CA called Little Sun.  They pumped out mainly baseball card sets between 1988 and 1992.  Along with Upper Deck, Little Sun is one of the first manufacturers to include randomly inserted autographs within their products.  The first Little Sun autographed cards can be found in their 1991 High School Prospects set.  Shawn Estes, Cliff Floyd, Benji Gil, and Al Shirley all have autographs in there.  Each one is limited to (500) copies.  Of all the sets they issued, their final one gets the most attention.  The 1992 High School Prospects set not only includes a Derek Jeter base card, but an autograph as well.  An unsigned Proof also exists.  Those three Derek Jeter cards are highly sought after.  Collectors are willing to spend big money for them.  Other autographs include Jason Kendall, Dave Landaker, and Chad Roper.  Each of these autographs has a (250) copy print run.  You could say that Little Sun went out with a bang with this set.  Derek Jeter is pretty much the only thing keeping the Little Sun name relevant these days.

Early on in Little Sun’s card making career, they came out with a minor league product.  The set is called 1988 Little Sun Minor League Legends.  It only features (11) cards – Checklist #1, Pete Gray #2, Ike Boone #3, Lou Novikoff #4, Luke Easter #5, Steve Bilko #6, Frank Shellenback #7, Smead Jolley #8, Jigger Statz #9, Joe Hauser #10, and Fidel Castro #11.  Yes.  You read that correctly.  Former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has a card in here.  Castro was a great athlete who enjoyed playing baseball.  The Washington Senators once held tryouts for Cuban players, but he wasn’t offered a contract.  After he came to power, Castro would occasionally pitch an exhibition game for the Barbudos.  Despite the opposing team always hitting strongly against him, nobody would dare pull Fidel Castro from the game.  Over the years, Castro has popped-up in various products.  Topps even made a few cut signatures of him.  While attending the 2016 National, Iconic Auctions had a Fidel Castro signed baseball on display.

Like most of Little Sun’s sets, this one doesn’t hold much value.  You can easily find the cards for dirt cheap.  I like the artwork.  It reminds me of those Diamond Stars cards from the 1930’s.  National Chicle also comes to mind.  Artist Michael Guccione did all of the artwork for these cards.

“Pin-Up” of the Week: 1994 Williamsport Sun Gazette Little League World Series Champions Pin

Starting in 2004, the Williamsport Sun-Gazette began to issue Little League pins.  Between 2004 and 2015 they have made about (54) or (55) different pins in all.  A few years ago they began to issue handy guides to their pins.  They usually issue a new guide around the time of the Little League World Series.  Inside each guide you’ll find highly detailed descriptions about every pin they’ve made.  At around (50) pages long, its an excellent resource.

We live in an age where nothing isn’t faked or made up.  Little League pins aren’t immune to any of that.  Take a look at this pin for instance.  It looks like a simple little Williamsport Sun-Gazette pin celebrating Venezuela winning the 1994 Little League World Series.  The problem is that the Williamsport Sun-Gazette never made this pin.  Its a knockoff made to look like they did.  I’m not 100% sure when it was made.  A good guess would be 1994, which would make it ten years older than any authentic Sun-Gazette pin.

“Pin-Up” of the Week: 2013 LLWS Sun-Gazette Eagle Pin

If this pin looks familiar, its because I picked one up last week while attending the Little League World Series.  The Williamsport Sun-Gazette has been making pins for the Little League World Series for the last ten years.  According to all of their advertisements, the Sun-Gazette is suppose to have made eight different pins for this year.  So far, I’ve only seen four or five.  The 2013 LLWS Sun-Gazette Eagle pin is one of the more difficult pins to obtain.  There are only two ways to get it.  One of them is to purchase the entire 2013 8-pin Sun-Gazette set.  The other is to sign up for a Sun-Gazette loyalty card over at the Little League complex.  They say it isn’t available as a single pin purchase, but that’s exactly how I got mine.  Shortly after passing through security I saw the Sun-Gazette booth advertising this pin with the purchase of a loyalty card.  I didn’t want the loyalty card or any of the newspapers that came with it, but they said I could get the pin if I paid the $10.00.

Taylor Sun Devils Auto Contest Winner Announced

Congrats to ramsey05 on being the lucky winner of the Charley Taylor 2009 Press Pass Legends Saturday Signatures Auto.  Once ramsey05 sends me their mailing address, I will ship this card ASAP.  Thanks!

Sun Devils Contest Winner Announced

Congrats to Neil on being the lucky winner of the Gerrell Robinson 2012 Press Pass Auto #’ed/99.  Once Neil sends me his mailing address I will ship this card ASAP.  Thanks!

Sun Devils Contest! – NOW CLOSED

This contest will be for a Gerrell Robinson 2012 Press Pass Auto #’ed/99.  Good luck!!!

Contest Details:

• This contest will end Friday, April 6, 2012 @ 8:00 p.m. EST
• To enter, please leave a comment in this post
• You can enter once per day
• The winner will be selected at random
• Please provide a valid e-mail address when entering
• The winner will receive an e-mail when the contest is over
• The winner has one week to send me their contact information or the contest will be held again
• Once the contest is over, I will need the winner’s mailing address so I can ship them this card for FREE!!!