Wow. Now this is cool. Modern+Vintage combined=Awesome in T206 (2009)

[Al C.risafulli]

I've got to throw in some props for Topps here.

My youngest son is 9. He's seen me collecting cards, but has never shown any interest whatsoever, until just recently. This past year he's gotten into baseball quite a bit, and read the book "Babe and Me" by Dan Gutman, a great book about a kid who can be transported back in time by touching a pre-1950 baseball card.

A few weeks ago he found a stash of shiny stuff that my oldest son (14) had when he was younger, but was never really intrigued by, and suddenly he decided he wanted to start collecting.

I bought him a box of 2009 Topps, and couldn't believe the stuff Topps is doing to get kids interested.

First, they have a whole internet component. In each pack of cards, there's one pack with a code number on it. You log in to ToppsTown.com and create a free account, and then you create your own avatar. Then, as you enter these code numbers, it unlocks a "virtual" binder of cards that includes stars of today, and of the past.

Then, you can use these virtual cards to play an actual game against someone else who's online. It's a simulated game, so you've got to actually choose your players based on their skill levels - so there's an incentive to get to learn who the better players are. And since they include players like Gehrig and Cobb, the kids are being introduced to the all-time greats that way.

As the kids are entering these code numbers, they're accumulating points that they can use to "buy" things for their avatar - my son bought a Yankee jersey for his, and some decorations for the avatar's "clubhouse."

If that wasn't enough, the cards themselves are pretty beautiful, and they've included some historic players in the set. THe #7 card in the set is Mickey Mantle. So when J pulled the Mantle card out of a pack, he was blown away.

But then they've got these "Legends of the Game" insert cards as well. You should have heard the gasp when he pulled a Babe Ruth card, and then said "One more, Dad, and I'll have as many Babe Ruths as you do!"

He also pulled a Cobb, a Roy Campanella, Thurman Munson, Jimmy Foxx, and Ted Williams. Each time one of those cards came out of the pack, he asked me who the player was, and what made him special enough to be included in the set.

My son sorted all 300-something cards into numerical order by himself (asking me the whole time what was the right way to do it), and then put them into a binder. That binder hasn't left his side in days.

Yesterday he dug out the "Shoeless Joe and Me" book, and then asked me if we could start watching the Ken Burns Baseball series that I have on DVD.

I've got to say that the way Topps is going about this has had a big impact on how my son's interest levels are growing. As he's getting these cards, and being exposed to these older players on the internet, he wants to learn more. It's amazing, really.

It's really easy, I think, for folks like us to sit back and criticize how the modern companies are treating the history of the game. But most of us are students of the game's history, who have been at it for years. When a 9-year-old kid opens a shiny new pack of cards, he wants Albert Pujols, or Derek Jeter. He doesn't want Lena Blackburne. So the way Topps is slowly indoctrinating these kids is, I think, fantastic.

-Al