2026

 Welcome to 2026. I know a month has already gone by, but Showdown's announce date was February 4, 2000, so as it's "birthday" the year doesn't truly start until now. I figure here is as good a place as any to give a peek behind the curtain to the goings on for the plans for this place. I do a crappy job of promoting the X / Twitter page where I often give commentary, not gonna lie, but here I can give a 30,000 foot overview of my plans without the tweet restrictions.

Currently, we are in the midst of my WBC series and the plan is to continue with the 2013 sets in their entirety leading up to this years competition. From there I'll be setting up for April, where once again I've planned a 30-sets-in-30-days. Last year was a lot of fun and this time I won't constrain myself as much. This year will be a simpler theme with more flexibility: just represent every team with some form of accomplishment, be it a pennant, title, playoff appearance, pennant run or a notable player award. Apologies to Padres and White Sox fans with their teams getting not-so-memorable sets last year.

Showdown 2001 cover man Gary Sheffield with the preview for one of those upcoming sets

For the rest of the year, I'll be looking to continue some ongoing series that've been underway for a while. With the logos updated on the bot last year, it's opened up lots of teams and ideas to cover. I'll be looking to get the Perfect Games and Hall of Fame sets closer to wrapping up before I tackle new ideas. Hopefully by next year I'll be opened up for a fresh series or two.

And I figure I'd do something special for October as well. Last year I noticed a bit of a disconnect when everyone on X was rightfully excited for postseason events while I was posting updates in relation to non-current events. This time around I'm more prepared. So this October will be all about World Series teams and specifically this year will play off a theme I did a while ago about the domination of NYC baseball; the Yankees winning a record 5 in a row, the Giants final title in the Polo Grounds and when those bums in Brooklyn finally climbed the mountain.

Check back in April for the latest 30-sets-in-30-days and let's enjoy year 26 of the existence of the greatest baseball card game.

April 1: 1908 Chicago Cubs

April 2: 1917 Chicago White Sox

April 3: 1925 Pittsburgh Pirates

April 4: 1931 St. Louis Cardinals

April 5: 1943 New York Yankees

April 6: 1945 Detroit Tigers

April 7: 1948 Cleveland Indians

April 8: 1966 Baltimore Orioles

April 9: 1972 Oakland Athletics

April 10: 1975 Cincinnati Reds

April 11: 1979 California Angels