Word leaked on Thursday that both Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association have given their exclusive licenses for trading cards to Fanatics, who will form a new company, of which both MLB and the union will have an equity stake, to produce the cards.  Topps, who have been producing MLB trading cards for 70 years and has had the exclusive license since 2009, is left on the outside looking in when their current deal expires in 2025.

In my younger days, I had quite the baseball card collection.  Well, technically I still do, but I haven’t added to it (or even looked at it) in decades.  I thought about picking the hobby back up last year during the pandemic, but found that so much had changed that I didn’t even know where to begin.  When I was collecting, there were many different companies to choose from, including Fleer, Donruss, Upper Deck, and Score, but Topps was always the card.  It had that legacy and legitimacy that those others just didn’t.  The world will be a sadder one after this deal goes through.