When collectors open a pack of Topps Allen & Ginter baseball cards, they know they could be in for an adventure.
In addition to hundreds of baseball players in every year’s set, collectors often find celebrities, historical figures, and an eclectic mix of inanimate objects, such as flags, beaches, or lighthouses, as they flip through their stacks.
But thanks to the family lineage of one collector – and his sheer determination – the adventure in 2025 Topps Allen & Ginter also shines a light on a baseball player who last pulled on a major-league uniform in 1886.
“It all started when I was writing his (Society for American Baseball Research) biography in 2019, and I thought, ‘It would be a long-shot goal to contact Topps about possibly producing a card…
