I’ve been up and down on ManuPatches over the years.
Some of them are kind of neat for player collectors, while others are just a nuisance. I mean did we really need ManuPatches of the Rookie Card Logo? Ugh.
But I think I found one that I actually really, really like:
I pulled this from a blaster of 2012 Topps Olympic Team & Olympic Hopefuls on Monday. They’re not super tough to pull and are not even serial numbered. But these are done PERFECTLY.
Good job, Topps.
For the last decade or so, I’ve been searching my collection high and low for a card that I absolutely loved when I was a kid. I grew up in the junk wax era, and busted a ton — probably literally — of products from 1991. But probably my favorite card from that year is this 1991 Score American Flag card. At age 11 I really didn’t understand what it meant to be at war. All I knew is that we were supposed to hate Saddam Hussein and support our troops. Well, Score went one step further to make sure card collectors got the message as well. A simple American Flag adorns the front of card No. 737 from the set, and this poignant message covers the back.
Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, I’ve been on a mission to find this card in my collection. Sure, I could have went out and bought a few on ebay or elsewhere, but I knew I had one from my childhood. It meant more to me to have one that came from a pack I opened at a time when we were at war a decade earlier.
Fastforward almost another decade to Saturday. As my wife and I were purging our belongings in preparation of the birth of my son, I unearthed this cardboard gem right before the box it was in hit the pile destined for Salvation Army.
It’s not easy for many people to dismiss this day just as any other. Hundreds of people lost their lives in the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001. But what has the event meant to our hobby? Two words: American Flag.
About a week and a half after the attacks, Major League Baseball resumed play with players wearing American Flag patches on the back of their uniforms. Some of these patches ultimately ended up in the hands of collectors via 2002 Donruss Studio baseball.
A shorthand set from Donruss, the Spirit of the Game insert set featured a 1/1 parallel featuring flag patches from the uniforms of players. The flags were affixed to the back of the cards. They are extremely sought after and impossible to find. I think the last one I saw on eBay was about three years ago, and someone wanted $2,000+ for a non-star. And it sold.
I digress, American Flags also have been everywhere since the 2001 events. Check out the Jeff Cirillo cards featured above. This card comes from the same set as the epic Flag patch inserts, but is a parallel of a base card that supposedly was some sort of unannounced redemption that never was fulfilled.
Donruss was not the only company to make these cards. Others jumped on the bandwagon, too, making cards featuring American Flag ManuPatches and incorporated the country’s colors into their design.
While our hobby is quite minor in the grand scheme of things, it, too, was impacted by 9/11. And through these cards we are forever reminded of the events of that morning.
I spent about an hour this morning searching through my collection for the 1991 Score card featuring the American Flag. Figured that’d be an appropriate card to post today since it is Independence Day. But I could not find one. Instead I did uncovered this. Have you ever seen one of these before? I pulled this from a pack in 2002 while I was living in Salem, Oregon. It’s a Jeff Cirillo 2002 Donruss Studio card, but there is a silver foil American Flag printed on the bottom left, and the card is serial numbered on the back 15/43. I seem to remember a discussion on the Beckett Message Boards about a year ago, but the details of the thread escape me. Something about the cards initially inserted into packs as some sort of redemption. I searched the Beckett Price Guide and even my annual (which is now five years old) but the parallel set is not listed anywhere. Anyhow, given the fact that this card features the American Flag, it was suitable to posted today. Happy Fourth of July.
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