1986 Topps Jimmie Foxx Makes You Wonder …

If fanciful theories about alternate history get your imagination revving, then you might really enjoy the 1986 Topps Jimmie Foxx baseball card:

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Heck, even calling this thing a 1986 Topps card is a bit revisionist, since technically this baby is part of the 2010 Topps Vintage Legends Collection.

In case you don’t remember, Vintage Legends was a 25-card issue inserted in Series Two packs of the 2010 base product.

But, by all appearances, and for our purposes here, this is a 1986 Topps Jimmie Foxx.

And more than that, this is a 1986 Topps Jimmie Foxx card showing him as a first baseman for the Boston Red Sox.

Hmmmm…

A Red Sox first baseman on a 1986 Topps baseball card?

Sounds familiar, somehow.

Like, maybe …

Yeah, everyone knows Billy Buck was the first baseman on that American League champion Red Sox team, thanks to maybe the most infamous boot in baseball history.

And speaking of history, here’s where that “alternate” bit comes into play…

Just what would have happened had Double X been playing first base for the Sox in Game 6 of that ‘86 World Series instead of Buckner?

Well, considering that Foxx died in 1967, his mere appearance in an October game nineteen years later would have really shook some things up.

But even setting aside the miraculous, you have to figure there is a decent chance Foxx would have fielded, or at least knocked down, Mookie Wilson’s grounder heard ‘round the world.

Most MLB first basemen would have, in fact, including Buckner most of the time.

Heck, give the late All-Star another shot at that same ball, and chances are the outcome would have been different.

Same for shifting Wade Boggs to first or bringing in Jim Rice to man the sack … or Field-of-Dreaming Jimmie Foxx to make the play.

Change just one little thing, and the 1986 Red Sox would have been The Curse-Breakers, leaving the 2004 Sox as … well, who knows.

And if you don’t think any of that could have happened, you’re probably right.

But then you catch a glimpse of that 1986 Topps Jimmie Foxx baseball card, and you have to wonder.