a painted desert

if you read the tim wallach blog, you know about the 2025 topps shoebox treasures release. corey has turned wallach's appearance on that checklist into every player collector's goal, realized (check out his posts if you haven't seen them). as for me, no steve garvey on the checklist this year meant that i wasn't looking too closely at the set. until, that is, i saw this card

a watercolor version of the card that began the "tatooine" collection nearly 50 years ago?! yes please!! once i saw this card, i tracked down an ebay seller that had it and a bunch of others from the set for sale. i was able to add a couple of cards to my 1978 topps master set - the george foster/jim rice home run leaders

and keith hernandez

which, to me, was an interesting choice to paint as it's not one of the more iconic cards from the set. i added a fourth card to take advantage of some deal from the seller, and chose this one to round out the purchase

that's fernando valenzuela on a painted representation of his 1986 topps mini card. the back gives some explanation for choosing the card

noting that fernando had a career year in '86. the back also gives us the dodgers' hat logo and their uniform script. i appreciate the cartoon with the player holding a treasure map on the back as well. let's look at the others...

the cartoon kid has found the treasure (in a shoebox, of course) on the back of robinson's 1971 topps card

the text is pretty nondescript, so i'm glad andy friedman chose the 1970 world series highlight card to represent brooks. it's a bit odd that no logos were added to the card back, though. 

it's the same cartoon on the back of the league leader card

with the red sox' uniform script and the reds' hat logo. at first i thought that the "b" added there looked  like it could be the brooklyn dodgers' "b" rather than boston's, but it doesn't have the cutout in the left/middle part of the letter. instead, i accept that it's the blue boston "b" that was worn on the red hats like the one jim rice is wearing on the front of the card.

finally, the back of hernandez' card shows the discovery of a different treasure - the rookie cup!

and we also learn that the reason for the 1978 hernandez is that it was the first year that he won the gold glove, unseating four-time repeating winner steve garvey. that last bit is my contribution to the text, as garvey couldn't overcome the pete rose quote to make the card back.

there are some other cards from this release that i wouldn't mind owning, and i'll be keeping an eye out for them in bargain bins at future card shows.