From Topps to DraftKings: The Boys of Cardboard Summer

From Topps to DraftKings: The Boys of Cardboard Summer

Topps taught us collecting. The playground taught us odds

Greg Maresca , Bio and Archives--August 6, 2026

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Once upon a time in America, baseball cards weren’t collectibles or “investments.” They were currency, the hard cash of a boy’s childhood. Before anyone ever carried a wallet, you could feel rich just by stuffing your pockets with cardboard.

A pocket full of baseball cards was a boy’s fortune.

Topps, whether they realized it or not, was in the business of printing the unofficial currency of many a boy’s childhood

Every pack began with a ritual tearing open that waxy wrapper and getting hit with that unmistakable whiff of cardboard, sugar and the pink dust from that brittle slab of gum. Most times you pulled a nobody from a team three time zones away. But every so often, the Topps gods smiled and you landed an All Star, and if he wore New York across his chest, it felt like winning the daily number.

This was long before the........

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