2013 Panini Golden Age

Golden Age reminds me of a cross between Donruss Americana and Topps Allen & Ginter. That isn't surprising considering Panini bought Donruss a few years ago. Panini has brought the Donruss brand out of the doldrums and turned it into a legitimate card company again, even if the Donruss label is nowhere to be found. Panini is even recreating its image in North America. At one time, when I thought of Panini, I thought of only stickers. I have had to rethink that comfortable standby, in the past few years.

The White Sox have one player in the regular set. If you want an extra collecting challenge, include Johnny Evers as a second player for the White Sox. Since Panini isn't allowed to use logos, they have chosen to identify players by city. Evers is best remembered for playing with the Cubs between 1902 and 1913, but Johnny played a single game for the White Sox in 1922, making him an interesting collecting alternative for White Sox collectors in this set.

8 - Johnny Evers
134 - Tommy John

The White Sox players in the subsets are...

Bread For Energy
8 - Eddie Cicotte

Delong Gum
17 - Buck Weaver

Exhibits
12 - Johnny Evers
21 - Buck Weaver

Playing Cards
4 - Johnny Evers
5 - Lefty Williams
40 - Buck Weaver

Tip Top Bread
5 - Buck Weaver

The design is very complimentary to the set. These are some nice, but not great, looking cards. Panini has used the lack of player logos to elevate their product past the cheap looking airbrushed messes that plagued food issue sets over the past forty years. The aspect of celebrities mixed in with players of most sports gives this set somewhat of an uneven feel and pushes the set towards Allen & Ginter territory, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.