Two of my biggest passions are teaching and collecting baseball cards. Each year I integrate these two things by having my students research civil rights leaders and create trading cards for them.
If you enjoyed the Topps Project 2020 and Topps Project 70 cards... then you might enjoy these custom cards. I've also included the card that inspired my students' designs...
#1: Cesar Chavez
1988 Topps #693
#2: Bayard Rustin
1994 Finest #258
2007 Topps #313
2008 Topps #399
1994 Leaf Limited Rookie #54
2004 UD Power Up! #96
#7: Jo Ann Robinson
2014 Topps #305
2007 Fleer #58
#9: Marsha P. Johnson
1989 Fleer #374
So Topps, what do you think? Any of these artists have the skills to work for you?
If not, check out these customs...
#1: Tombo Kopoli from Kiki's Delivery Service
#2: Dola from Castle in the Sky
#3: Nausicaa from Nasicaa of the Valley of the Wind
#4: Porco Rosso from Porco Rosso
These four customs were designed and printed by Nick over at N J V W. The four tobacco sized cards are based on the 1936 Carrera Famous Airmen & Airwomen set. If you are familiar with Hayao Miyazaki's films, then you probably recognize these characters.
Last November, I commented on Nick's post that I'm a big fan of Miyazaki's films, so I was pretty stoked to see these arrive in my mailbox. The problem was deciding which collection to put them into. Normally, I have a special section reserved for blogger customs in my Sports Card Smorgasbord binder. However I ended up sliding these four into my Japanese Non-Sports binder instead.
Thank you Nick! I'm a huge fan of your custom cards. Keep up the excellent work!
And for all of the collectors interested in baseball cards... I didn't forget about you. When the students turned in the trading cards, one of them turned in this Ryan Zimmerman rookie card:
This card is the latest addition to my Damaged Card PC. If you look closely there are two staple holes near his left shoulder on the right side of the card. Usually I'm not the one who damages the cards. I only collect them. However in this particular scenario... I'm the guy who stapled this card to my classroom wall. I display all of the custom cards next to the original cards.
17 comments:
Gandhi wins this round.
What a great project and good job by your students! Do they read the blog?
These are great...a wonderful way to integrate art and history. I especially love the quotes on the Johnson and Robinson cards. I wasn't really familiar with either, so I learned from this project, too!
Creativity at its best. Awesome stuff!
These are all great. My favourite was Malcolm X.
Malcolm X followed closely By MLK Jr. with the cardback being the tiebreaker.
This is the Entry I look forward to the Most every year. You are a man whom deserves recognition 👏 God Bless you Fuji Thanks for your constant uplifting content in an often bleek existence.
That is an incredibly cool project!
There are some talented artists in that bunch.
Thanks for sharing the project! What an incredible way to combine your love of teaching and cards to bring out the creativity in your students. And maybe even introduce cards to a whole new generation of collectors
What are the odds of you and I posting about Ryan Zimmerman on the same day? On my Curly W Cards blog https://curlywcards.blogspot.com/2022/03/so-long-mr-zimmerman-employee-number-11.html I posted about he and his jersey retirements.
Very cool. Interesting to see people like Bayard Rustin on there. Checked TCDB and looks like he never had an official card. And yet both Topps and UD had cut signatures for George Wallace.
elliptical man - can't argue with that
matt - i doubt it. there's only one student i've ever told and it was years after she was in my class (after she graduated from college). if any students have stumbled across my blog, they haven't said anything.
brett alan - nice. that's exactly what i was hoping for.
sumomenkoman - the kids did a really good job. i was proud of their hard work
jongudmund - it's funny when the kids choose malcolm x because they always end up learning about his checkered past. every year they ask me if they should include that kind of information on their card.
xavier higgins - this is one of my favorite projects of the year. the kids get a chance to familiarize themselves with names they hear every now and then, but aren't exactly sure what they're famous for. i just wish more kids were inspired to collect cards.
the lost collector - thanks aj. there's a chance that your custom card of kurt suzuki inspired this project.
johnnys trading spot - there were plenty more to choose from. i was just trying to get a good variety of years and civil rights leaders.
derek - i sure hope a few kids want to start collecting. every year a few kids ask if they can take cards. i tell them to take as many as they want. unfortunately basketball is king at my school with football a close second. where 80% of the cards i own are baseball.
captkirk42 - great minds, i guess. thanks for sharing the link. happy to hear that the nationals are retiring his number.
bo - maybe topps (or fanatics) will produce another american heritage type of set and include more civil rights leaders. as for cards of wallace, that's kind of sad. but then again... cards are a way of documenting history... and wallace was a part of our country's history.
Those are really well done cards. Last year, my students did research on frogs. At the end of the research project, I let them create a baseball card of the frog they researched. Turned out really well, kids loved them.
Excellent job by your students! I'm confused by the Zimmerman though. If you put it up next to the custom card, why was it turned in? Was it from a prior year?
the snorting bull - that's awesome. did the dissect a frog? i remember doing that in high school.
jafronius - yeah, the kids turn in the sample cards every year (unless the really want to keep them), so these staple holes were from two years ago (or possibly even older than that). i'm guessing the card was originally stapled by a TA who hung up the projects... since i probably would have set this card aside and grabbed another 2005 topps card.
Glad you liked the customs. Both of my kids would've loved this assignment since they'll take any chance they can to work baseball cards into school work anyway.
https://sabrbaseballcards.blog/2021/11/09/how-baseball-cards-got-us-through-a-year-and-a-half-of-remote-learning/
Fuji, you would've been one of my favorite teachers. A+ on creativity!
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