Brad Balukjian’s concept for his first book — tear open a pack of 1986 Topps baseball cards, chomp the ancient pink rectangle of gum-ish substance, then hit the road to unwrap the post-baseball lives of the players found in the pack — is so obviously compelling that it is the envy of any wannabe-author sportswriter who has never been able to summon the right idea.
It’s such a wonderful and crisp idea that it’s a surprise it’s never been done before. But it hasn’t, and Balukjian is such a likable narrator, who uses his own story as the connective tissue between chapters on his pursuit of players (among them the elusive Carlton Fisk, a kind-hearted Rick Sutcliffe, and the sadly unreliable Dwight Gooden), that this sportswriter finds it easy to list “The Wax Pack” with Mark Winegardner’s “Prophet of the Sandlots” and Terry Pluto’s “The Curse of Rocky Colavito” among his all-time favorites.