MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

[SonofSouthie]

Sherman, set the Wayback machine to 1978.

https://twitter.com/OGSins_/status/1428033253265510401

[mookie1995]

https://twitter.com/jessespector/sta...869857794?s=21

mookie is gonna guess Kepler!

[joecct]

Per Sportico;

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association are set to make a massive lineup change—ending an 80-year partnership with Topps to work with Fanatics on licensed trading cards starting in 2026.

Topps has been producing baseball cards since 1951, and received an exclusive license from MLB in 2009. That agreement was later extended through 2025. In 2020, Topps paid the MLBPA $20 million in licensing fees, the union’s largest source of licensing revenue.

Fanatics, recently valued at $18 billion, has expressed its ambition of expanding far beyond sports apparel. The company is the largest official sports merchandise seller, and has already been tied to NFT and sports betting efforts.

Fanatics has also had discussions with the NBA, NBPA and NFLPA regarding their trading card licenses (Panini currently has exclusive rights with each), according to a person with knowledge of the discussions.

The MLB and MLBPA deal with Fanatics will include equity in a new joint venture as well as a possible portion of secondary sales. Panini will not be included in the new ventures, which will be led by CEO Josh Luber, Founder of StockX, according to a source, who was granted anonymity because the matter is private.

The MLB, MLBPA, Fanatics and Topps declined to comment.

The Topps Company first started making baseball cards in 1951, evolving from its initial incarnation as Topps Chewing Gum. In the 1960s, Topps became one of the first companies (along with Coca-Cola) to sign an overarching deal with the MLBPA, then led by Marvin Miller. That partnership continued through trading cards’ boom and bust in the 1980s and ‘90s.

In 2007, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner led a $385 million purchase of Topps. A series of exclusive partnerships between leagues and cardmakers followed shortly thereafter, stabilizing the market before a recent surge in interest.

In recent years, Topps has gone beyond standard packs of cardboard, offering on-demand Topps NOW cards and launching NFTs of its own. It has also branched into the pop art world with imaginative Project 2020 releases. Just this week, the company increased its full-year projected revenue by over 10% to $850 million. It is in the process of going public by a merger with SPAC Mudrick II that values it at $1.3 billion.

[dxmnkd316]

I didn't realize Morris was on in Detroit. Huh.

[Bronco]

Jack Morris made a dumb comment in a fake asian voice when Ohtani batted last night. Jack Morris has been (finally) removed from the Tigers broadcast. Thank god Morris is gone, he is one of the worst color guys in baseball. It is annoying watching Twitter try to defend Morris though. Like, nobody wants Morris in the booth to begin with - take the W anyway we can get it.

[aparch]

I've been kinda pondering what I should do with my collection. I collected as a teenager from '96-'03 or so and have probably 8-10k cards. Hearing about the "boom" made me think about taking a look at what I have and possibly dumping it off.

Specifically I need to go back and dig out any Tom Brady's I might have sitting in my pile of commons. He wasn't noteworthy when I gave a crap, so his stuff never got pulled and put into formal protectors. I'm sure there are probably others that might be worth a few bucks that weren't name guys from the era as well. And like all sports cards, they are sitting in a closet at my parent's place, lol...

Maybe the market has changed, but my understanding is the era you collected is when the card companies flooded the market with so much that there arent many "valuable" cards during that time.

Maybe the Millenials who trashed their sets because the Boomers ruined a good thing helped drive the scarcity up tho?

Or maybe I'm just an out of touch Elder Millenial who last looked up his card collection values during the Bush Jr era.




Side note: anyone want to buy a full (opened) set of 1991 Topps Desert Storm trading cards?

[RaceBoarder]

I got nowhere else to put this

https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/sta...447956483?s=21

PWCC caught shill bidding. Banned from eBay.

I've been kinda pondering what I should do with my collection. I collected as a teenager from '96-'03 or so and have probably 8-10k cards. Hearing about the "boom" made me think about taking a look at what I have and possibly dumping it off.

Specifically I need to go back and dig out any Tom Brady's I might have sitting in my pile of commons. He wasn't noteworthy when I gave a crap, so his stuff never got pulled and put into formal protectors. I'm sure there are probably others that might be worth a few bucks that weren't name guys from the era as well. And like all sports cards, they are sitting in a closet at my parent's place, lol...

[dxmnkd316]

I got nowhere else to put this

https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/sta...447956483?s=21

PWCC caught shill bidding. Banned from eBay.

[JF_Gophers]

Way too little, too late. But the Twins have won a couple series in a row.

[Spartanforlife4]

Why are the Baltimore Orioles consistently so bad? They’re more than 30 games out on August 15, and it’s been like that for what seems like ever. Is it the ownership? Are they cheap? Can they not find a good manager that knows how to lead a team? I know there are times when teams are bad but I don’t get the yearly demise of this team? I suppose I shouldn’t care as a Red Sox fan, being in the same division, but as a baseball fan, it perplexes me. How do any people go to games at Camden Yards?

This is supposedly the last year of their tank.

It doesn’t help they’re in a division with two of top six biggest spenders in the game with Boston and NYY. Plus for the last 15 years or so the Rays have cracked the code on building cheap, but incredibly efficient. Not too many divisions with three good teams almost year in and year out. Add the Jays beginning to spend in addition to their talented young core and any team not actively built to compete for the postseason is going to rocked.

[Fighting Sioux 23]

Why are the Baltimore Orioles consistently so bad? They’re more than 30 games out on August 15, and it’s been like that for what seems like ever. Is it the ownership? Are they cheap? Can they not find a good manager that knows how to lead a team? I know there are times when teams are bad but I don’t get the yearly demise of this team? I suppose I shouldn’t care as a Red Sox fan, being in the same division, but as a baseball fan, it perplexes me. How do any people go to games at Camden Yards?

Perhaps even crazier, the Orioles went from 1963 to 1997 (35 seasons) with the same number of World Series appearances (6) as losing seasons. Since 1997 (24 seasons, including this year), they have a total of 4 winning seasons, and zero World Series appearances.

[Russell Jaslow]

You "despise" the White Sox?

Do you heckle cripples?

Well, Ty Cobb didn't like being heckled by a cripple...

[Scarlet]

Why are the Baltimore Orioles consistently so bad? They’re more than 30 games out on August 15, and it’s been like that for what seems like ever. Is it the ownership? Are they cheap? Can they not find a good manager that knows how to lead a team? I know there are times when teams are bad but I don’t get the yearly demise of this team? I suppose I shouldn’t care as a Red Sox fan, being in the same division, but as a baseball fan, it perplexes me. How do any people go to games at Camden Yards?

[SonofSouthie]

Arizona's Tyler Gilbert no-hit the Padres las night in his first career ML start.

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/loc...start/2693675/

[dxmnkd316]

Do you heckle cripples?
.

I boo the **** out of Danny Kristo