Too distracted by my pull of the year

After finding 2017 Allen and Ginter on the shelves of my local Walmart early this afternoon, I had intended to give the usual exhaustive blaster-breaking rundown.

A&G is always interesting and I think this year it might be particularly so.

But I can't give it the attention it deserves because I pulled the biggest card I am going to pull all year from one of the two blasters that I bought.

My luck with A&G has been pretty surprising the last couple of years. I seem to be pulling hits quite easily and of decent players, too. (You old-timers remember my Jeff Clement Years). I don't know if that's sudden good fortune or Topps seeding its blasters more liberally than in previous years. But whatever the case, today was the first time that I had bought two blasters of anything at the same time and pulled hits from both of them.

The first blaster yielded this hit:

This is the second time this year I have pulled an Anthony Rizzo relic out of an Allen & Ginter blaster. I found a discounted 2016 blaster a few months ago and pulled one then. In fact, I just sent that Rizzo relic to a Cubs fan a couple of days ago.

Apparently the card gods really wanted me to own a Rizzo relic.

Then I opened the second blaster.

In the sixth pack, I spotted a framed hit of some sort. As I was getting my first glimpse of the picture, I knew it wasn't a baseball player. I was guessing a college football coach, which doesn't do me any good. But I was really hoping it wasn't a fabric swatch from some comedian I didn't know.

It wasn't.

That is the autograph of actor Gene Hackman, written below the image of him as Norman Dale, the basketball coach in the 1986 movie "Hoosiers".

Holy smokes.

If you were a movie-goer during the '80s, you know the impact of Hoosiers. It's one of the better sports movies ever made, a movie that may follow the usual "underdog" script, but does so memorably that it makes an impact even on cynics like me. I know school sports very well and some of the stuff in that movie really strikes home.

Also, Hackman, come on, only one of the greatest actors of the '70s, '80s and '90s!

Here is a list of the non-baseball player autographs one can pull in A&G this year:

I would put Hackman right at the top of that list.

As impressive as this card is, I don't expect to hold on to it for very long. My guess is I will probably sell it. College bills are calling.

But it's pretty cool to pull something that you know right away will be the biggest thing you pull all year.

I'll be back tomorrow with a lengthy review of 2017 A&G.