2010 Topps National Chicle - Phillies Short-Prints

2010 Topps National Chicle #297 Ryne Sandberg

I'm on the record as being a fan of the new 2010 Topps National Chicle baseball card set, and I recently added the Phillie-related short-print cards from the set to my collection. I don't know what the collation of the packs is, but the short-printed cards are ceded into fewer packs and they're more difficult to find. The first short-print features short-timer Ryne Sandberg in a modern Phillies batting practice jersey and helmet. It's a decent card, but not one of my favorites. (The base non-short-print Ryne Sandberg card from the set is much better, in my humble opinion.)

The next two short-print cards are a little more interesting - one is a definite home run and the other just kind of bugs me.

2010 Topps National Chicle #280 Jimmie Foxx

The home run is the Jimmie Foxx baseball card featuring him wearing a current Phillies uniform. Foxx spent the majority of his career with the Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Sox, although he wrapped up his time in the big leagues with a few seasons with the Chicago Cubs and the Phillies. This is a great looking baseball card, and it definitely helps that Foxx actually played 89 games for the 1945 Phillies at the end of his Hall of Fame career. I don't know of any other Phillies cards out there featuring Double X, so this is a welcome addition to my collection. (Bonus points to anyone who leaves a comment as to why Jimmie Foxx could have been featured in a Blue Jays uniform, and this depiction would have been acceptable.)

2010 Topps National Chicle #304 Ryan Howard

The card that bugs me is the Ryan Howard short-print card featuring him wearing a Philadelphia Athletics' uniform. Anyone aware of the Philadelphia A's history knows this franchise relocated to Kansas City in 1955 and arrived in its current destination, Oakland, in 1968. The family trees of the Philadelphia A's and the Philadelphia Phillies never came close to intersecting. Topps thought it would be clever to feature modern players wearing uniforms of teams that used to play in the same city. For this reason, we have this Ryan Howard card, a card featuring Ichiro in a Seattle Pilots' uniform and a card featuring Senators' great Walter Johnson in a Washington Nationals uniform, among others. Those players and those franchises have absolutely nothing in common.

This bugs me. It's cute, but it's wrong and I hope collectors new to the hobby or unfamiliar with the history of the game realize these cards are nothing but inaccurate representations.

(But the Jimmie Foxx baseball card sure is cool.)