Who Wears Short Shorts?

In case you missed it JediJeff, of the always entertaining and well-written 2x3 Heroes, is holding a contest built around custom card-making.  There are some pretty neat prizes up for grabs; so, I highly encourage you to toss your hat into to the ring.  At the very least, it makes for a fun little side project and you get a blog post out of it - win/win.

Anyway, the concept is simple - create a custom baseball card, using the design of a Topps Flagship set of your choosing, that depicts your time playing youth sports.  I believe the arbitrary cut-off point was the age of 16; surely, as a sports fan, you spent some time in Little League, Pee Wee football, middle school basketball, etc.

When I read about this challenge, I couldn't help but fire up the old Photoshop software and rise to the occasion.  After all, I dabble in custom cards and I enjoy winning stuff.

Since Wrigley Roster Jenga is a (mostly) baseball-centric blog, I was aiming to pull inspiration from my 12 years of playing t-ball/Little League/JV baseball.  Unfortunately, seeing as most of that time was before the pre-digital camera age and the endless envelopes of old Kodak prints at my parent's are an unorganized and intimidating mess, I decided that my muse needed to come from elsewhere.  As such, it was only natural that I then turn to the only other sport that I've dedicated a significant portion of my life to - long distance running.

 

Look at that gangly, awkward, squinty-eyed freshman in his super-short shorts.  Here we have 14 year old me during my first season of high school cross country, which was the fall of 2003.  That was 13 years ago?... Wowzer.

Of course, if you've read this blog for a while, you might remember that running is still a passion for me today.  In fact, I just competed in my university's alumni 5k race this past weekend.  Long distance running is surprisingly addictive.

Anyway, I chose the 1960 Topps design mostly because the posed, school photo day shot that I found in my archives seemed perfect for the main photo of the vintage collation.  Furthermore, since I also wanted to use an "action" shot and I absolutely adore sets with bright, bold colors, this seemed like the perfect set to emulate.

I'm fairly happy with how this creation turned out - although, it looks like it's up against some stiff competition so far.  I strongly encourage you all to give this fun little challenge a go - as Jeff put it, "Let's have some fun. show off our computer skills and have a good laugh at our awkward younger selves."  

Short shorts aren't even mandatory!