We all know it's coming, and I'm probably not too far off base to assume there's a room of monkeys with typewriters at One Whitehall coming up with ideas. I'm speaking, of course, about the next Topps gimmick card. Let's see, in the last three years they've sprung Guiliani and the Sox, the Bizarro Jeter, Poley Walnuts and the deftly geo-targeted whoopsie of Alex Gordon in Kansas-area Wal-Marts.

So what's next? I have an idea. Get someone like Manny Ramirez (a popular player who also seems a bit eccentric) to take out his braids and cut his hair like this:





My Photoshop skills used to be a lot better, but I think it would look something like this:




And you know, Manny doesn't even really have to do it. Presumably, Topps' graphic artists could just fake it. God knows they've had the practice. And if it's as big a hit as I think it will be, I think we'll be looking at a full blown insert set for Topps 2010.