Topps Holiday Advent Calendar - Day 10

Time for another Topps Holiday Advent Calendar reveal. It's day number ten - shout out Pearl Jam.

As you probably know, Pearl Jam were originally named after NBA star Mookie Blaylock - who wore number ten. 

"When we were recording our first record, we had a per diem of about $10. So when we got lunch at the store across the street, we'd always buy a pack of basketball cards. When we turned in our tape, we didn't have a name for the band yet so we put a Mookie Blaylock card in the case. We were about to go on a tour and still didn't have a name and needed one quickly. We were told it didn't need to be the name that we were going to use forever, just something for the tour. Someone saw the Mookie Blaylock card and said, ‘How about Mookie Blaylock?' We decided to go with it and did a 10-show tour with Alice in Chains as Mookie Blaylock. Mookie was cool about it, too—he didn't sue us. I actually got to meet him later on and shoot around a little bit. We also made a Pearl Jam T-shirt with a picture of him on it. I guess we owe Mookie a lot." -- Jeff Ament

I'd always wondered why the Seattle-based band chose him instead of Sonics point guard Gary Payton.

No basketball cards in this post but here's the tenth door of the Topps Baseball Advent Calendar:

It's another standard 5-card pack. Cue the Nice List insert, the Plaid parallel, and the rookie card:

Night Owl, are you in need of any Holiday Dodgers?

I'm traveling to NYC tomorrow for my office's holiday party but I should be back in time to post pack #11. 

Thanks for reading!

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