To my knowledge, this is the first time Topps has made a Shoeless Joe Jackson card.
I pulled it when I went back last week for a hanger box of 2026 Topps. I opened it at work. When I saw the card, all I thought about it was, “That looks weird.”
But later I remembered how MLB removed Shoeless Joe and other deceased baseball players from the permanently ineligible list last spring, making them available for voting into the Hall of Fame. Since Topps doesn’t take action without MLB approval, that means Jackson (and I assume Pete Rose) is eligible to appear on current baseball cards.
So far my Shoeless Joe cards have been made by Upper Deck, Donruss/Playoff/Panini/Leaf, various TCMA products, Conlon, Pacific Legends, and some reprint issues. I casually pick him up because he shares my birthday. But I never noticed that Topps hadn’t made a card of him until now*.
I understand the recent reasons, but why nothing during the retro craze of the early 2000s or in the Topps food product collaborations of the 1980s? I suspect another company always had the Jackson Estate license and Topps never found him interesting enough to include in a set, or more likely he was too controversial to include in a set.
Regardless of what you think of him and whether he belongs in the Hall or not (I’m certainly not going to get into that), Jackson should definitely appear on baseball cards as one of the game’s on-field greats. If two films were made about him, he should get his share of the cards.
The back. Complete career stats! I don’t think that’s happened too often on his cards. Topps is still the MLB yes man about the Cleveland portion of his career, even though they weren’t called the Indians until 1915. Before that they were the Naps.
That was the most interesting card from the pendant box, although I also pulled the numbered, green-bordered Shota Imanaga card I showed a few posts ago from that box as well.
I also did better on Dodgers pulls with two Mookie Betts inserts. Sure, the 2026 inserts are boring, but it’s better than pulling inserts from Fernando Tatis Jr., which I’ve done way more than the zero times I want that to happen!
This Clayton Kershaw career poet also drew diamond parallels.
He sent me the beautiful card of Mookie Betts, which is his best base card since becoming a Dodger.
JT also hit the mark with this Clayton Kershaw card. I was surprised when I first saw it because I thought it was a fairly recent problem. But when I looked at the back, I saw that it was released in 2014 — it was an archive supplement that somehow passed me by!
Twelve years ago I was much better at spotting Dodgers inserts, that must have been the point where I started to slack off.
I haven’t bought a 2026 since, but I will probably buy something small this week just because the shine hasn’t worn off yet. However, the flagship does not have long left. I see the release date for Heritage 2026 is March 18th.
* – Shoeless Joe was apparently in the Topps Living set in 2025, so if you count online exclusives, Topps had already made a card earlier.
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