this had seemed most improbable

following up on davey lopes' inclusion in the 2013 topps archives set with a short print and an auto, as well as steve garvey's autos in 2013 panini and topps, and the ron cey auto available from panini golden age that same year, 2014 has brought to me a 2014 topps archives bill russell on-card, certified autographed card.  unbelievable!

i did not consider this to be very likely given that topps has not once put russell in a fan favorites issue.  the last time topps issued a card featuring the shortstop of the team of my youth, it was 1987.  upper deck included him in a number of releases much to my enjoyment, but not topps.  we got the likes of tom niedenfuer in 2005 topps all-time fan favorites

 and 2005 topps retired

but never russell.  i was shocked when i first saw one of these cards show up on ebay.

here's the back

not sure how topps decided on truncating the stat rows, but they left out russell's final six seasons with the club.  the career totals are correct however, and so is the cartoon - russell played in 2181 games as a los angeles dodger, just about 230 more than the next player on the list, willie davis.  in fact, the only player to wear the franchise's uniform in more games than russell is hall of famer zach wheat.  wouldn't it be nice to see him in one of these sets sometime…

thanks, topps, for thinking of bill russell.  he definitely was one of this fan's favorites.