Dennis Martinez, 2001 Topps Archives #78

The 2001 Topps Archives set consisted of reprints of classic Topps cards, but they took some creative license with this re-imagining of a Dennis Martinez rookie card. In the original 1977 Topps set, "El Presidente" shared a four-player card with three other rookie pitchers: Mike Dupree of the Padres, Craig Mitchell of the A's, and Bob Sykes of the Tigers. You can see the real deal here. For the Archives card, they just cropped the Martinez quadrant and zoomed in on it. It's funny to see Dennis without his customary mustache, isn't it?

George Kell, 2001 Topps Archives #329

Back in 2008, when this blog was still a young pup, I posted the genuine article that this card replicates - George Kell's 1958 Topps card, #40. I still haven't gotten around to upgrading that well-worn artifact, which has Kell's position, team name, and the Orioles logo scratched out by hand. That same hand scrawled a proclamation that George was the Oklahoma City 89ers manager, though Baseball Reference begs to differ. In general, reprint cards don't do much for me, but in this case, I've got an interesting frame of reference for the battered, altered original card, so I guess that's worth something.