Dime Box Heroes: Making an exception

2006 SP Legendary Cuts #157 Cy Williams /550

I am so looking forward to 2012 Topps coming out that it's not even funny. It's not necessarily the set design, the inserts, or anything else. It's just that I'm always this way when the first cards of the new year are about to come out.
 

It was pretty much the same thing last year. The only difference is that I've got 45 bucks worth of gift cards from Christmas to put towards the 2012 Topps "fund". I only had the cash for a few packs last year. So that's why I'm a little more hyped up this time around.

But I've got nothing against the people who aren't going nuts over buying 2012 Topps packs or boxes. I completely understand wanting to save some money for cards you can buy individually for your collections instead of buying packs and getting guys you don't want. I understand it, I really do.

But that's just not me.

After I got home from school today at about two o'clock, I checked Ebay to see if any 2012 Topps singles were available, as I've done every day for the last week or so. Still no luck.

I checked "Baseballcardpedia" and to my surprise, they now list the set as "just released" instead of "about to be released in the near future". (It scares me how anxious I am over these cards sometimes.)

Apparently, they were released to retail outlets today. Naturally, I took the walk to Target, full of excitement. Again, no luck. I guess I'll try again tomorrow. Or the next day.

I got home from Target a few minutes ago and remembered that I was going to do a post on the Cy Williams card you see at the top of the post.

That cheered me right up.

This is easily one of my favorite dime box finds. In sets from recent years, the only retro guys you usually see are Ruth, Gehrig, Wagner, Cobb, etc. And I've got no problem with that, but I would like to see card companies change it up a little more. 

That's where Cy Williams comes in.

Before I saw this card, I didn't really know who Cy Williams was. I'd heard the name before, but didn't know what era he played in or anything. At the time, he wasn't really "binder-worthy" since I didn't know too much about him. So I originally put this card back in the dime box.

But after looking at the card again, I came to the conclusion that I couldn't pass it up and granted Williams a coveted spot in my binders, purely on the awesomeness of this card.

Then I did a little research on him. Turns out he was one of the top sluggers in the National League in the teens and '20s. You might not have ever heard of him because of the guy tearing up the American League at the time. Some guy named Babe Ruth.

Williams won four NL home run titles during his career. He was also the first NL player to hit 200 longballs in a career.

Here's another fun fact: Williams is still the oldest player to win a home run crown, leading the NL with 30 homers in 1927 at 39 years of age.

Maybe I'm the first blogger to ever mention Cy Williams. I guess that could be an accomplishment.

Psssh, who needs 2012 Topps when you've got this card?