Effectively Wild Episode 1736: The Wildest Week in Sports Card History

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley follow up on a conversation about protective headgear for pitchers by discussing softball face masks, then banter about whether MLB necessarily needs a legalized sticky substance or a pre-tacked ball, and attempt to unpack a distressing message from “Tom” to “Caitlyn” on the video board at a Reds game. Then (37:47) they talk to ESPN reporter Dan Hajducky about a shocking week for the booming sports card industry, highlighted by Fanatics securing exclusive card licenses with MLB, the MLBPA, and other major leagues and unions, baseball institution Topps losing its strangehold on MLB cards and scuttling its plans to go public, and a record-breaking sale of a Honus Wagner T206 card. Audio intro : Sweet, " Tom Tom Turnaround " Audio interstitial : Lunchbox, " Tom, What’s Wrong? " Audio outro : Boat, " Topps " Link to FAQ about softball face masks Link to list of softball face masks Link to Columbia Missourian on face masks Link to the OU Daily on face masks Link to Columbia Daily Tribune on face masks Link to The Oklahoman on face masks Link to Kelly Barnhill tweet about face masks Link to history of first batting helmets Link to history of modern batting helmets Link to video of Lynn ejection Link to Rob Arthur on sticky stuff effects Link to the L.A. Times on Olympic baseballs Link to Reuters on Olympic baseballs Link to first Caitlyn/Tom message Link to second Caitlyn/Tom message Link to Craig Goldstein on Caitlyn/Tom Link to Ben on the Castellanos meme Link to Dan’s Topps/Fanatics report Link to WSJ Topps/Fanatics report Link to Sportico on the Topps merger Link to Dan on the T206 sale Link to Emma Baccellieri on the card boom Link to earlier EW card-boom interview Link to Dan’s website iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!) Sponsor Us on Patreon Facebook Group Effectively Wild Wiki Twitter Account Get Our Merch! Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com var SERVER_DATA = Object.assign(SERVER_DATA || {}); Source