The Nationals aren’t the only Washingtonians who get their faces on trading cards.
The Topps company has just released a set of cards designed to look like slim-style Allen & Ginter cards from the 1880s. The current set includes baseball players, historic figures and 20 world champions from various fields.
One of those champions is Washington resident Michael Aponte, the inaugural World Series of Blackjack champion and formerly a member of the famous MIT blackjack team, which devised a card-counting system and won millions of dollars at casinos around the world.
As a side note, the story of Aponte and his team will the subject of the movie “21,” slated for a 2008 theatrical release.
Aponte is the first-ever blackjack player featured on a Topps trading card.
“I never thought a blackjack player would be featured” on a Topps card, he said in a release.
His fellow card honorees include Bruce Lee, Mia Hamm, Danica Patrick and John Wooden.
