Panini has issued a number of popular sets in other sports, or so I've been told. I don't collect basketball or soccer or any of the sports where Panini seems to thrive. I collect baseball -- major league baseball only, please -- and, lordy, does Panini struggle in that area. I'll try not to regurgitate all of the issues that I have with Panini here, because this is a happy Panini post. Or as happy as I can get about Panini anyway. This is a post about the only Panini set that matters -- to me. The Panini Hometown Heroes set from 2013. Hometown Heroes is one of a handful of retro sets that Panini issued at that time. There was Cooperstown, which thought it could crop off the tops of heads of players in its photos and I wouldn't notice. There was Golden Age, which had limited appeal for me because I just don't care about race horses from the 1920s if it's not Allen & Ginter. But Hometown Heroes? Hometown Heroes appealed to me in a variety of ways. ...
Up all hours talking baseball, cardboard & collecting