THE BEASTS OF THE BREAKAWAY

By Jon Gold

You know what they say about speed, right?

In both the game and the hobby, it kills. The world’s fastest athletes have often been fan favorites. Speed demons on the basepaths haunting pitchers' windups. Blazing wideouts sprinting past ankle-twisted cornerbacks. Run-and-gun point guards going rim-to-rim. Olympic heroes cementing their legacies with spectacular dashes and downhills. Nike is the Greek goddess of victory. Do you think she went slow?

Since the invention of the finish line, we’ve been obsessed with going faster. Chalk it up to the thrill of the chase, but there is something about catching an athlete in a dead sprint with another closing in that quickens the pulse of everyone watching—or collecting.

For sports card and memorabilia fanatics, there is no shortage of cardboard devoted to the fastest among us.

If you can catch them, of course.