Like baseball cards — after all, we won’t even see the effects of the trade until the following season when guys appear on cardboard with their new teams for the first time.

And even then, sometimes we don’t see it at all — they’re gone to yet another team, as free agents, before they can even settle into their new digs.

But the truth is, August trades can and have had huge impacts on both pennant races and the way we view teams and our baseball cards for decades to come.

As proof of that, here are five August trades from the 1980s that forever changed both baseball history and our baseball cards.

PTBNL+Cash for Don Sutton (August 30, 1982)

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The 1982 Milwaukee Brewers headed into the final days of August with a four-and-a-half game lead in the AL East, but they decided that was no time to rest on their laurels.

Instead, they sent cash and a player to be named later to the Houston Astros in exchange for veteran right-hander Don Sutton. At age 37, Sutton was having another All-Star level season for the Astros (13-8, 3.00 ERA) and basically continued that trend with the Brewers (4-1, 3.29).

It was a good thing, too, because Milwaukee’s leaad evaporated thanks to a torrid run by the Baltimore Orioles who fought back to a tie in the standings on October 2.

With one game left between the two teams to decide the East, Milwaukee sent Sutton to the mound against fellow future Hall of Famer Jim Palmer. Sutton allowed just two runs over eight innings, his Harvey’s Wallbangers teammates scored 10, and the Brewers won their first division title (except for that weird 1981 split-season thing).

In case you’re wondering , that PTBNL turned out to be plural — Kevin Bass, Frank DiPino, Mike Madden.

Bass turned in a nice 14-year career with good power, so the Astros didn’t whiff completely. But you could make a strong argument that that Brewers club would be largely forgotten without a month’s worth of Don Sutton.

As it stands, Sutton is a Hall of Famer, and the ’82 Brew Crew is one of the most popular teams of all time..

Floyd Rayford for Tito Landrum (June 14-August 31, 1983)

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On June 14, 1983, the Baltimore Orioles sent third baseman (and sometimes-catcher) Floyd Rayford to the defending World Champion St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for a player to be named later.

That PTBNL finally came home to roost at the very end of August when the Cards sent outfielder Tito Landrum to the O’s on the 31st.

Landrum appeared in 26 games for the Orioles the rest of the way, batting a robust .310 and helping Baltimore pull away from the Detroit Tigers in the AL East. His main claim to fame, though, came when he smacked the series-winning home run against the Chicago White Sox in Game 4 of the ALCS.

Would the O’s have reached the World Series without Landrum? Maybe, but the fact remains — they did reach the Fall Classic with him.

Interestingly, in 1984, both of these dudes ended up right back where they started — Landrum with the Cardinals, Rayford with the Orioles.

Tom Lawless for Pete Rose (August 16, 1984)

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This is the only trade on our list that didn’t directly affect a pennant race, but it is still monumental for a lot of reasons.

First, I’m a Cincinnati Reds homer, and seeing Pete Rose come home was one of the biggest moments in franchise history between the end of the Big Red Machine and the 1990 World Series championship.

In fact, you could say that this move laid the groundwork for that most recent Cincinnati title.

Sure, the Reds had a lot of talent in the pipeline when Pete returned, but those young guys gelled fast with Charlie Hustle at the helm and with Dave Parker providing big power and veteran leadership.

Rose also helped shape the roster that would eventually take the crown — Barry Larkin over Kurt Stillwell, Nick Esasky over Gary Redus, Todd Benzinger over Nick Esasky, Eric Davis over everybody.

And there is no denying the excitement around Rose’s chase of Ty Cobb‘s all-time hit record that brought the spotlight back to the Queen City and helped make the Reds a relevant franchise again.

Finally … given how things unfolded for Rose, isn’t there something deliciously poetic about the idea the guy who brought him back to Cincinnati was Lawless?

Hmmm?

Doyle Alexander for John Smoltz (August 12, 1987)

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In 1987, the Detroit Tigers were just three years removed from their historic 1984 team, but they had not been back to the postseason since.

So when Detroit found themselves in the thick of the AL East hunt in August, they decided the chance at October baseball was too tantalizing to pass up. To capitalize on that opportunity, they hit up the moribund Atlanta Braves, and the two teams worked out a swap of starters: the Tigers would snag veteran Doyle Alexander, with young John Smoltz  heading to Atlanta.

The move  worked out just as the Tigers had hoped, with them winning all 11 of Alexander’s AL starts and taking the East title by two games over the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Braves finished fifth in the old NL West, at 69-92, and nothing Alexander could have done would have saved them from their fate.

And Smoltz?

He turned out OK, though he did have to spend a couple years as a reliever in order to eventually make it to the Hall of Fame.

Jeff Robinson and Scott Medvin For Rick Reuschel (August 12, 1987)

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At 38, Rick Reuschel was an elder statesman of the game as the 1987 season began to wind down, but his 8-6 record with a 2.75 ERA, his track record made him an interesting figure to contending teams.

One of those teams was the San Francisco Giants, who battled back from an early deficit to catch the Cincinnati Reds in the NL West. Not wanting to lose their momentum, San Fran swung a deal to send Jeff Robinson and Scott Medvin to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for Big Daddy Reuschel.

The new Giant went 5-3 down the stretch as San Francisco pulled away before losing the NLCS to the St. Louis Cardinals. Reuschel wasn’t done, though, as he’d win 36 games over the next two seasons and help the Giants all the way to the 1989 World Series.

Robinson, meanwhile, went 18-18 for the Bucs in 1988-89, then bounced around for three more years before calling it a career. Medvin went 3-0 in 1988 but never won a Major League game after that season

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As sad as that is, and even though we have the denouement of the pennant races and postseason in front of us, this is also the time of year when other sports start to creep into our consciousness.

The allure of football and — soon, basketball and hockey — is not limited to the field of play, either.

Nope, there is plenty of droolworthy cardboard to be found among the non-baseball sports, and this week, those goodies start creeping into our Friday listings.

So, sit back, enjoy, and don’t be surprised if a little variety strikes your fancy.

(Note that this post contains affiliate links, which means if you click over to eBay and buy something, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra charge to you.)

1969 Topps Willie Mays (PSA 10)

By 1969, Willie Mays was squarely in the define phase of his career, but he still had a few seasons left to produce at All-Star levels, albeit with reduced playing tome from his heyday.

More importantly, Mays was a legend, an all-time great who had an outside shot at topping Babe Ruth’s career home run record.

That didn’t happen, of course — Hank Aaron was the one who ultimately took the homer crown — but Willie was and is one of the most popular players who ever lived.

And his 1969 Topps issue features the smiling superstar adorned in his San Francisco Giants home white jersey. It’s a great card, and this eBay lot presents it in perfect PSA 10 condition, one of only six to have ever received that grade.

The Buy-It-Now (BIN) sits at a similarly wowing $11,999.99.

Here is the eBay listing (affiliate link).

1969 Topps Baseball Unopened Wax Pack

Hailing from the same set as the Mays card above is this 1969 Topps unopened 5-cent wax pack.

It’s a great period display piece with vibrant colors — red, yellow, blue, white, black — and graded in PSA 7

The wrapper shows a few crinkles but is in great shape overall (obviously) and features advertising for the rub-offs insert.

A very nice vintage pack listed at $2499.99

Here is the eBay listing (affiliate link).

1969-70 Topps Basketball Uncut Sheet with Lew Alcindor Rookie Card

The NBA season is still a ways off, but as baseball enters the final stretch and LeBron James heads for the Los Angeles Lakers, the sports world is starting to get that hardwood itch.

Evidence of that can be seen in the basketball lots that are starting to make their way to the market.

Take this 1969-70 Topps Basketball uncut sheet, for example.

How many times do you find the rookie card of two Hall of Famers on one sheet that’s nearly 50 years old? Along with a handful of other Hall of Famers?

Hardly ever, in my experience, but that’s what you get here …

A John Havlicek rookie card …

A Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) rookie card …

… and …

… Jerry Lucas, Connie Hawkins, Jerry West, Bill Bradley, Len Wilkins.

Obviously, this thing is loaded, and it’s hard to argue with the seller’s $9999.99 BIN.

Here is the eBay listing (affiliate link).

1981 Topps Baseball Unopened Wax Case

In 1981, Fleer and Donruss broke Topps’ 25-year monopoly on the baseball card market to produce their first-ever sets of current players (although Fleer also tried the same in 1963).

None of the three 1981 sets are great, but Topps issue is almost universally accepted as the most solid among the trio.

Sporting a decent baseball-cap design that suffers from the usual dingy photography and mushy brown cardstock of the era, 1981 Topps baseball is nevertheless basically error-free, a far cry from the mess Fleer and Donruss issues.

And, while the rookie class isn’t the best ever, you can still find first-year cards of Kirk Gibson, Fernando Valenzuela (and Mike Scioscia), Tim Raines, and Harold Baines.

Given all that, this unopened wax case (20 boxes) of 1981 Topps baseball is a bona fide piece of hobby history that the seller is offering up at a $6200 BIN

Here is the eBay listing (affiliate link).

1984 Topps Football John Elway Rookie Card (PSA 10)

Though the world may not quite be ready for the NBA season, it seems everyone is ready for some football.

Friday Night Lights are firing up across the nation.

The college rumor mill is churning.

The NFL preseason is in full swing.

And some stellar cards are surfacing on eBay.

What could be a better accompaniment for your fall fun than this PSA 10 copy of the 1984 Topps John Elway rookie card?

The man is Denver Broncos through and through, a legendary Hall of Fame quarterback who led the team to two Super Bowl victories and then helped them to another as the lead front office man.

Hard to beat that legacy, and impossible to beat the quality of this card, listed at $3750.

Here is the eBay listing (affiliate link).

Check out our other posts detailing baseball cards for sale here.

The dog days of summer.

The start of school.

The end of summer.

It’s bull, if you ask me. I mean, boys and girls — of all ages — should be free to watch baseball all season long, unfettered by the constraints of school and work, teachers and bosses.

But since we all have to live, and learn, we’ll just have to take our solace where we can get it.

Like in the warm arms of a cardboard embrace … or the soft glow of an eBay listing.

So let’s combine the two and check out this week’s droolworthy lots — five baseball card listings for sale right now that will make you downright giddy and maybe green with envy.

August or not.

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1954 Topps Ted Williams (#1) – PSA 5

Topps spent the first three years of their existence fighting the wolves of the baseball card world without Ted Williams in their corner.

So, when they finally inked the Splendid Splinter to a contract in 1954, they tried to make up for lost time by giving him two cards — #1 and #250 — bookends!

Those bookends also helped create one of the hobby’s toughies in the form of the 1954 Bowman Williams, which Topps’ competitor had to pull from circulation.

This eBay lot, though, offers up that Topps #1 cards, a PSA 5 specimen with a Buy-It-Now (BIN) of $6999.

That’s a big number, but this card is also the tough gray back variety, and the PSA Population Report shows just 16 have been graded. This is the only 5, and there has been only one 6.

They just don’t come much better.

Here is the eBay listing (affiliate link).

1963 Topps Pete Rose Rookie Card (#537) – BVG 9

Think Pete Rose doesn’t carry much weight in the hobby these days?

Listings like this one — and they aren’t all that rare, though this one is exceptional — might change your mind.

Here we have the legendary 1963 Topps Pete Rose rookie card, graded at BVG 9.

According to the seller, only five Rose rookies have achieved that grade, and none have rated higher.

You’d expect nothing less for a BIN of $11,999, right?

Here is the eBay listing (affiliate link).

1959 Bazooka Mickey Mantle (SGC 55 / 4.5 VG/EX+)

One of the cards I always considered untouchable, and almost mythical, as a kid was the 1959 Hank Aaron Bazooka card.

I first laid eyes on this beauty in an old, stripped-down price guide that was probably some Beckett knock-off but that provided a few black-and-white pictures.

And something about that Henry Aaron card just clicked with me …

The wistful follow-through …

The long card dimensions …

The colors I imagined I could see …

The thought of pulling a great card from a whole box of bubble gum.

It was great.

I never did get that card, but this eBay listing brings back most of those old feelings.

You can’t go wrong with Mickey Mantle, after all. And, even though the condition of this one is not great and it’s not graded by PSA, the PSA Pop Report shows that the grading giant has handled just a few of these over the years.

The Mick + scarcity = big bucks ($7499, in this case).

I’d still rather have the Hank, though.

Here is the eBay listing (affiliate link).

1957 Topps Baseball Uncut Sheet

Man, when it comes to baseball cards, t’s tough to beat the sheer beauty of 1957 Topps.

Yes, that sounds cheesy, but these things are just stunning, even more than 60 years after their issue.

I mean if the Jim Gilliam card or the Frank Robinson rookie don’t stir something deep in your diamond soul, something’s just not right.

Anyway, this lot ratchets things up a notch with a 55-card uncut sheet of these beauties, including Mickey Mantle, Warren Spahn, Ted Kluszewski, Bob Lemon, and Red Schoendienst.

Not surprisingly, this thing is a little beat up, but $2750 doesn’t seem all that out of line for those big names and all that beauty and all that uncuttedness.

Here is the eBay listing (affiliate link).

1986 Topps Traded Set Case (100)

In the fall of 1986, I figured out a foolproof scheme for making big money — I’d invest in Kurt Stillwell rookie cards.

He was, after all, going to be the shortstop for the Cincinnati Reds when they reeled off a few World Series victories in a row.

Barry Larkin wasn’t even on my radar.

So I bought 100 of Stillwell’s 1986 Topps Traded cards for $25 and waited.

I came across those babies a year of so back, at the bottom of my closet. The good news is, they’re still pristine.

The bad news is, they’re still Kurt Stillwell.

Why am I telling you all this?

Because this eBay lot could help you recreate my Stillwell thrills, courtesy of a full case — 100 sets — of 1986 Topps Traded.

So, not only would you get 100 Stillwells, you’d get 100 Barry Bonds and Bo Jackson rookies, too.

Oh, and Bill Wegman.

All for a BIN of $1050.

Rejoice, times 100!

Here is the eBay listing (affiliate link).

Check out our other posts detailing baseball cards for sale here.

Fast forward a few decades, and you could find baseball players here and there all over the dial — from variety shows to sitcoms to game shows to dramas.

To celebrate that history, here is a list of 1970s TV shows — and specific episodes — that featured Major League players in one way or another.

Enjoy the memories, and let me know in the comments if you have other favorite baseball player cameos to share.

The Brady Bunch, “The Dropout” – September 25, 1970

The Brady Bunch featured a lot of baseball content over the years, not surprising considering that the Los Angeles Dodgers played in the Bradys’ backyard and that Greg was a hotshot high school player.

When young Mr. Brady decided his future was on the diamond and he didn’t need school, though, Daddy Mike called in the big guns to set him straight.

In this case, “Big Gun” was Dodgers righty and future Hall of Famer Don Drysdale.

That Girl, “There Sure Are a Bunch of Cards in St. Louis, Part II” – November 6, 1970

In this two-parter, Ann headed to St. Louis to meet her future in-laws and to act in a play. While there, she bumped into Cardinals legend Stan Musial, which was bound to happen considering that Stan the Man basically owned the town.

Mission: Impossible, “Catafalque” – February 6, 1971

In February of 1971, Johnny Bench had just won his first National League Most Valuable Player award and was just about the best baseball player on the planet. He was able to parlay that status into this cushy role on Mission: Impossible, where he played the leader of a group of guards charged with protecting a dead body.

Guess that’s sorta like blocking the plate, right?

Sale of the Century – 1971-74

Joe Garagiola wasn’t much of a baseball player, but he was affable, articulate, and an overall great guy by most accounts.

That combination of goodness got him in front of the camera plenty in the last two-thirds (or so) of his life, beginning as a sports announcer and working his way onto the game show circuit before landing on big-time news programs.

By 1971, Garagiola was popular enough to secure a gig as the first host of Sale of the Century.

Would you buy from Joe?

Hee Haw, Episode 94 – January 20, 1973

By January of 1973, Johnny Bench was back in the MVP winner’s circle and also had a Hee Haw credit under his belt (February 1972).

With that much going for him, how could the country-music hoedown not invite him back, this time to sing Jim Croce’s “Big Jim”?

Why, JB was the next Elvis, I tell you! Wonder whatever happened with that.

Ryan’s Hope – Episode #1.46, September 8, 1975

Nolan Ryan struck out 367 batters in 1974, but then made only 29 starts in ’75. Judging by his appearance here on Ryan’s Hope, his absence from the diamond may have had something to do with the crappy hospital where he sought treatment.

And, possibly, being attacked by a group of sneaky kids.

Ball Four, September 22-October 27, 1976

Did you know that Ball Four is not just a tell-all book written by former Major League pitcher Jim Bouton?

Nope, Bouton managed to develop the tome (not to be confused with Thome) into a CBS sitcom in 1976 and even landed the starring role of Jim Barton (original!).

It lasted five episodes, so you’re actually some sort of 70s/baseball trivia genius if you did know about this thing.

Fantasy Island, “Superstar/Salem” – March 28, 1978

May, how great would it have been to visit Fantasy Island and have Mr. Roarke grant your wish? Or maybe just kick back with Tattoo and sip some lemonade?

Pretty darn great, and I’ll bet at least some of your fantasies would have involved baseball.

That’s what Radar … um … Joe (played by Gary Burghoff from M*A*S*H wanted, too — to play with some Major Leaguers.

He got his wish, too, when Roarke set him up with the likes of Steve Garvey, George Brett, Ken Brett, Fred Lynn, Tommy Lasorda, and Ellis Valentine.

Who knows? Maybe this is the episode that engendered all those real fantasy baseball camps in the ensuing decades.

Diff’rent Strokes, “Father and Son Day” – November 14, 1979

Mr. Drummond may have been Daddy Big Bucks, but his physique didn’t exactly inspire visions of athletic greatness.

Adopted son Willis noticed that puniness, too, with a YMCA father-and-son competition fast approaching. So … he reached out to a jacked neighborhood dude named Larry.

And who do you think played Larry?

None other than Mr. October himself, Reggie Jackson.

The expected hilarity, hurt feelings, reconciliation, and lessons learned ensued.

WKRP in Cincinnati, “Sparky” – December 24, 1979

Cincinnati lost an icon when the Reds fired manager Sparky Anderson on November 28, 1978, after two straight second-place finishes in the old National League West division.

Just over a year later, Sparky made a return engagement to the Queen City when Mr. Carlson hired the new Detroit Tigers skipper to host a sports talk show on WKRP.

Sparky was a mess on the air and got the ax — again.

Said Anderson afterward:

Every time I come into this town, I get fired!

M*A*S*H, “A War for All Seasons” – December 29, 1980

OK, technically this episode did not air in the 1970s, but M*A*S*H was one of the great television shows of the decade, so it counts.

Anyway, though no ballplayers actually appeared in this one, the fabled 1951 National League pennant race played a key part of the plot, with Klinger and Charles wagering on the Giants and Dodgers.

In the end, Bobby Thomson clubbed his famous home run, and Charles took it in the proverbial financial shorts.

(Check out some of our other fun, whimsical, irresistible posts here.)

In 1956, just after they had dispatched rival Bowman to the commons bin of history, Topps began experimenting with their baseball card sets.

And why not?

When you’re the king, the only game in town, you have little to lose by flexing your artistic muscles.

One of the innovations they unveiled in that first spring of the monopoly years was the team card, wherein all players for a particular club were gathered together for a group photo that adorned one of Topps’ cards for the year.

The team card would become a hobby staple over the next 25 years, and maybe no franchise enjoyed a strong association with the concept in collectors’ minds than the Chicago Cubs.

Although the Cubs didn’t win many games over the next quarter century, they were always game to help Topps spice up — and weird out — their team card subsets.

Here is how the Cubs turned, together, during that long stretch of cardboard history.

1956 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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The visual links between this card and the rest of the 1956 Topps set are subtle — the horizontal layout, the black bar that’s reminiscent of the player name and team name bars on base player cards, the thick all-caps block font. Otherwise, you’d be hardpressed to tie the two together based on solely card fronts.

It’s fun to see the Cubs logo on the team card here, though, especially since it was missing from player cards that year. And the player and coach roster list at the bottom is a useful, though space-eating tool that was repeated only one other time on Topps team cards.

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1957 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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The 1957 Topps set features a clean design with gorgeous full-color photos that has made it one of the classic issues of all time. Topps continued their focus on the “picture” with their team cards by encasing each club within a picture frame and bolting on a “nameplate” to let us know who we’re looking at.

They even included a thick white border to eat up the real estate they freed up by dropping the roster listing.

Bonus!

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1958 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards 

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This is another design that bears little resemblance to the base player cards of the year. While Glenn Hobbie and his teammates appear in profile against a solid colored background on their individual cards, they all gathered in Wrigley Field to get — drawn? painted? There’s definitely some sort of artwork going on with the team sot

The baseball in the lower lefthand corner is very 1950s, and the key/roster makes a brief return to the card front. Enjoy it while you can!

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1959 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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Now, this card looks and feels exactly like what it is — part of the 1959 Topps issue. The pale green background, script team name, roundish cartoon Cub, and rendered players all scream 1950s kitsch.

And the big yellow moon in the background adds some much-needed romance to a team who went 72-82 in 1958 and would finish 74-80 in 1959.

1960 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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If you saw this card sitting on a shelf somewhere, what year would you think it was made? 1956? 1960? 1964? And who made it — Topps? Fleer? Leaf? Bowman?

Any of those would be good guesses, because there are almost no visual clues to let you know this gaudy swatch of cardboard hails from the 1960 Topps set, aside from maybe its landscape layout.

But then, aren’t most team card stretched out horizontally?

Regardless, the 1960 Topps Cubs team card does a good job of capturing the feel of the era, from the diamond-shaped “CUBS” designation at the bottom to the red and yellow shapes that would have looked right at home on the floor of any chic 1950s kitchen floor, to the painted(ish) players.

All around, it’s an ugly but beautiful monstrosity of a card.

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1961 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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Aside from the stark yellow background, this card looks like it belongs to the 1961 Topps set — which it does.

Borrowing the two-box format of the player cards, Topps just turned their base design sideways, added a team logo, and slapped on a cutout of the team photo.

Lots of color and that adorable Cubbie make this card stand out, though the team itself could stand about a 50% zoom so you wouldn’t need a magnifying glass to see the (blurry) faces.

1962 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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In 1962, Topps continued their newfound tradition of matching the design of their team cards to that of their player cards, which in this case meant those iconic/hated/misunderstood wooden borders.

Also returning were tiny player images set amid a desert of solid color — red for 1962 — and the typical landscape layout.

In fact, also also returning was the same exact  Cubs team image as Topps used in 1961. Cut down on someone’s expenses, I suppose.

Gone, sadly was the Cubs logo, replaced by a black oval with “CHICAGO CUBS” in white block letters.

1963 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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For 1963, Topps pretty much just turned their player design on its side, added a team logo where the headshot would have been, lathered on a solid background, and called it a team card. The effect is striking and artistic, especially since they blew up the team photo to fill more of the card than had been the case in previous years.

And, in the case of the Chicago Cubs, the headshot remained, thanks to a return of the team mascot.

Yay!

1964 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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Topps continued their trend of using the same basic design for their team cards as graced player cards in 1964. That led to big, bold cards like this one of the Chicago Cubs, where the team takes up more real estate than ever before. The red background may be a bit jarring, but it’s distinctive and complements the Cubbies’ cap “C” well.

You know, the same exact “C”s on the same exact players in the same exact poses as in 1963.

Yes, Topps was a great recycler back in those days.

1965 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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Once again in 1965, Topps copied their base-card design when putting together their team cards, and the translation worked beautifully. How anyone can look at a 1965 Topps card — particularly one like this with the Cubbie head — with its pennants and bold colors and not get all rah-rah about heading out to a ballgame post-haste is beyond me.

Well, there is the little issue of this being the third year in a row that Topps used an identical Cubs team picture. I meant, beyond that.

The only other downside to this card for Cubs fans is a boon for collectors in general — listing each team’s finish in 1964 was an innovation that was, at the least, a flavorful convenience.

And, in some cases, no doubt an embarrassment.

1966 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Card

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This card is pure 1966 Topps, again copying directly from the base player design. The team’s finish from the year before makes a return appearance and is no more encouraging for Cubs fans than it was on the 1965 card.

Sadly, the Cub himself is missing, and the orange and green color scheme is an odd choice for Chicago. Maybe it’s a reflection of the fans’ complexion after watching the team on the field all season long?

1967 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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Simplicity was the name of the game for the 1967 Topps set, and that theme carried over to the team cards. That mad the four-letter C-U-B-S just about the starkest major card ever issued, especially with the shrunken size of the team photo itself.

Mercifully, Topps left team finishes off their 1967 cards, as the Cubs had fared even worse in 1966 — losing 103 games and finishing 10th out of 10 NL teams — than they had the previous two years.

1968 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

The Cubs took a quantum leap forward in 1967, winning 87 games and finishing in third place in the National League. Alas, it was not enough to impress Topps, as the Old Gum Company omitted Chicago from its team-card lineup.

The Cubs were not alone in that, however. Even though Topps did issue team cards in 1968, a total of seven teams were skipped — Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Houston Astros, New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, and Washington Senators.

1969 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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For the first time since 1955, Topps left team cards off their base set roster in 1969. However, they presented a nifty alternative in the form of Topps Team Posters, which were sold individually in their own packs for 10 cents each.

Even though they were folded and creased, the 12″-by-20″ posters made (and make) great display pieces. Featuring 10 of the biggest names from each club, the posters are colorful and give you a good shot of late 1960s/early 1970s style.

Significantly, these posters gave the first hint of the bubble heads to come.

1970 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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Topps brought team cards back in 1970 and rendered them with the same gray borders lavished on player cards. Gone were the solid backgrounds of the team cards from the 1960s, replace with “real” surroundings, which in the case of the Cubs was apparently the inside of a canvas sack.

1971 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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By the early 1970s, things were funky everywhere.

That went double for baseball cards.

Topps had already begun fiddling with their borders, opting for the aforementioned gray in 1970.

Then, in 1971, they fired the artistic shot that still reverberates nearly 50 years later — black borders!

Topps also kept up their tradition of issuing team cards that closely matched the style of their player cards, turning them to landscape and replacing the player info with the team name in big, colorful block letters.

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But the Cubs were also getting funky on the Northside in 1971, at least on their Topps team card.

Instead of the “boring” design afforded to other clubs, the Cubs card is presented in a vertical format with just the heads and necks — “floating heads” — of players and coaches scattered around a green diamond. Each is garnished with a facsimile signature under the disembodied head. The Cubs logo sits dead center, atop the pitcher’s mound.

All of that is surrounded by the typical small white piping and thick black border of  the 1971s, but there is no text at all outside of the field of play.

So the question is …

Why is the Cubs card so different from other teams’ pasteboards?

I can only assume that Topps either didn’t want to or couldn’t convince the Cubs to gather as a team for a photo. Maybe it had something to do with that collapse in 1969.

1972 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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So in 1972, Topps fully embraced 1970s funk with a psychedelic starburst design that still hurts various brain lobes when glimpsed today.

It’s awesome.

And once again, the Cubs made an already wild set all the funkier by showing up as head bubbles, this time without any necks at all and without the courtesy of a diamond behind them.

If there were ever a haunted baseball card, this just might be the one, what with its ghostly sheet of a background and orbed-up headshots.

At least we still get to see Banks and Fergie Jenkins and Billy Williams and Ron Santo.

1973 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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The 1973 Topps team cards just may be the plainest subset ever issued by a major card maker. They feature the same basic typeface and black piping inside a thick white border as the player cards, sure, but all traces of personality are gone.

Whereas you get a little text and a cool player icon with, say, Jose Cardenal …

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… with the teams, you get just the piping, the team name, the photo … and that’s all. At least the Cubs were able to sneak some ivy into their club shot.

Although … the photo quality is poor enough that the Cubs logo looks sorta like a bullseye or … a rose? …. on their chests.

1974 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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After a one-year reprieve to enjoy the ivy, the Cubs were back in floating-head mode on their 1974 Topps team card.

And this time, the whole thing was more thrown-together than ever.

Instead of a quasi-artistic arrangement like in 1971 and 1972, the 1974 rendition of the Cubbies has a bunch of heads ironed on to a crappy piece of paper that someone then pasted to a corkboard.

“You want a Cubs team card? You want a Cubs team card?? Well, here’s your stinkin’ Cubs team card!!!“

On the plus side, the Cubs are starting to break out the cheese that would come to dominate their cardboard toward the end of the decade.

Check out those beasts perched above the lips of Carmen Fanzone (what a sports name!) and Bob Locker (what a sports name!). Even Billy Williams got in on the act.

1975 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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The Cubs pulled themselves back into Topps’ good graces in 1975, scoring a “normal” team card for just the second time since 1970.

The dark ivy background both makes up for and accentuates the ethereal glow splashed across players’ faces, but at least manager Jim Marshall is happy with his closeup

1976 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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Marshall still looks pretty engaged on the Cubs 1976 Topps card, but the floating heads are back.

As in 1972, we get a ghostly white background and no-neck cabezas, but at least there is some fun facial hair to ponder.

I mean, without this card, how would we have known that old dudes liked to wear white sideburns sans a beard in the middle 1970s?

1977 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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The 1977 Topps Cubs team card brought more disembodied noggins, but with a twist: instead of just plopping the heads on a white background, Topps enclosed each head in bluish-white circle and then plopped that whole thing on a slightly less white, more brown background.

Refreshing.

And, Paul Reuschel‘s black-rim spectacles are featured prominently.

1978 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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The 1978 Topps Cubs team card is notable for several monumental developments:

• The return of necks.
• The expansion of the inner bubble to include the necks.
• A hint of shoulders.
• A bluer inner bubble.
• A maroon background on which the blue bubbles rest.
• The Cubs debut of a wonderfully hirsute Bill Buckner.

It’s terrible.

It’s glorious.

1979 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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Ho hum.

Another year, another floating heads permutation for Topps and their Chicago Cubs team card.

This one conforms pretty well to the base player design, with a simple black piping around the photo leading to a chevron-indented banner at the bottom of the card.

On team cards, this ribbon features a headshot of the manager — Herman Franks for the Cubs.

To be fair, these aren’t your typical head bubbles, as Cubs players got to keep not just their necks but also an even bigger part of their shoulders than the year before. Such progress!

The green background gives the card a very baseball-y feel, and the cheesy mustache ratio is outstanding!

Heck, there is even a doofy looking Davey Johnson thrown in there somewhere, which almost makes up for a glassesless Reuschel (Rick only in this case, Paul was gone to Cleveland).

1980 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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Everything I said about the 1979 Topps Cubs team card applies to the 1980 Topps team card except the basic card design — this one has the 1980 banner, not the 1979 banner.

Oh, and except for there is no Davey Johnson.

There is still Rick Reuschel with no glasses, though, making us miss Paul again. In fact … it’s the exact same glassesless shot as in 1979

And another in fact, all of the repeat players have the same pic as in 1979 — Dave Kingman, Larry Biittner (reeaallyy), a clean-shaven Bruce Sutter, Manny Trillo, Mick Kelleher — all of ’em.

You get the feeling Topps had just about given up the ghost on team cards by this point?

1981 Topps Chicago Cubs Team Cards

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Well, yeah, Topps had just about given up the ghost.

But they hung around long enough to give the Cubs one last floating heads-and-partial-shoulders against creamy background team card in 1981.

There were plenty of holdover photos from the previous two years, but out of 29 players and coaches pictured, a whopping 51 of them have big, cheesy mustaches, which makes it all OK.

One can only wonder …

Did the Topps team cards cause the mustaches to appear, or did the mustaches make Topps team cards self-destruct?

If it was the former, can you imagine what Ryne Sandberg might have looked like had Topps limped their team cards along into the middle 1980s?

Oh, the horror!

Oh … the missed glory!

(Check out our other team pages here.)

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If there was a single trend that defined baseball cards and the hobby in the 1980s, it was the explosion of the rookie card.

We began the decade with the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle (not-really-a) rookie card stirring long-dormant poetry in the hearts of thickening and balding Baby Boomers, and we ended it drooling over the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey, Jr., (true) rookie card.

In between, the 1984 Donruss Don Mattingly rookie lit the hobby on fire and stoked our imaginations … how great would Mattingly become? How high would his card prices rise?

That same year, Donruss rolled out an innovation they called “Rated Rookies” that really wasn’t an innovation at all. Borrowing from Topps’ old “Future Stars” and “Rookie Catchers” concepts, Rated Rookies was Donruss’s attempt to let collectors know which young players were really going to be something, someday.

And, of course, to cash in on the burgeoning rookie card craze as best they could.

Through the years, Donruss Rated Rookies gave us gems like this 1986 mugshot of Jose Canseco with his puberty ‘stache and a still teen-greasy Greg Maddux the next year.

But not all of Donruss picks made it big.

In fact, some of them were pretty much busts.

Just like big brother Topps!

The great thing about busts, though, is that they are often more fun to rehash than the guys who became great.

So, if you’re ready for some Rated Rookies fun, here are Donruss’s 10 worst picks, one for each year from 1984 through 1993.

Sit back and enjoy the show, because these are some great cards … just don’t expect much in the way of gaudy stats or resale value …

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1984 Donruss Rated Rookies

The hobby was really just starting to pick up steam when the first Donruss cards of 1984 rolled off the press, and there wasn’t nearly the amount of pre-release information available as there would be even a few years later.

So, for many collectors, the “Rated Rookie” logo that appeared on some of the cards sliding out of our wax packs was confusing.

Rated by whom?

Rated on what scale? And where were the scores, the ratings themselves? Certainly not on the cards anywhere that I could find.

Still …

These were rookie cards … they said so right there on the obverses.

And they were rated, somehow, which seemed like it had to be better than not being rated.

So, we definitely wanted these babies, and the inclusion of Kevin McReynolds gave the subset a gravitas it might not have had otherwise. Even in those prehistoric days, McReynolds had received plenty of advance press, and we all knew — knew — he was going to be a huge power hitter.

When you looked at Tim Teufel or Dion James or Mike Stenhouse, and he had the same waving RATED ROOKIE banner that Kevin Mac had … well … you knew you were looking at another special player. A future star, even.

Donruss did pretty well with their picks, too. I mean look at the RRs from that first group who would eventually go on to be All-Stars:

• Ron Darling (#30)
• Tony Fernandez (#32)
• Joe Carter (#41)
• Sid Fernandez (#44)

That’s a pretty solid list, even if McReynolds is a notable exclusion. To be fair, he did bang 211 home runs in a 12-year career and finished third (behind Kirk Gibson and Darryl Strawberry) in the 1988 National League Most Valuable Player vote.

So Donruss didn’t really whiff on him.

Also missing from that All-Star list is Chris Smith.

By the time Smith was a Rated Rookie, he had appeared in 31 games for the Montreal Expos and San Francisco Giants over the course of three seasons (1981-1983). He was also 26 years old and, despite a solid .328/.403/.493 for San Fran at the end of 1983, Smith never appeared in another Big League game.

He is our “winner” here in this inaugural version of Rated Rookies.

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1985 Donruss Rated Rookies

By the time Donruss went all 1971 with their black-bordered 1985 set, collectors were getting the hang of this Rated Rookies thing.

We were ready.

And Donruss rewarded us with solid guys like Danny Tartabull, Larry Sheets, Calvin Schiraldi, and Shawon Dunston.

They all had some degree of success in the Major Leagues.

Donruss also rewarded us with Russ Stephans, a 26-year-old catcher in the Kansas City Royals farm system. He had spent five years working his way toward the Majors, landing with the Triple-A Omaha Royals in 1983.

Unfortunately, he would stay in Omaha through 1986 without ever tasting the Bigs.

That’s a whiff-winner on Donruss’s part if you’re scoring along.

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1986 Donruss Rated Rookies

The 1986 Rated Rookies subset is the one that really put the brand on the map thanks to a slew of sluggers: Fred McGriff, Cory Snyder, Andres Galarraga, Paul O’Neill (slugger light), Danny Tartabull (again), and (of course) Jose Canseco.

Snuggled in there among all the bash muscle was 23-year-old Chicago Cubs pitching prospect Johnny Abrego, who made six appearances on the North Side in 1985 but would never return to the Majors.

Dave Shipanoff nearly mirrored Abrego, as the rightly logged 26 appearances with the Philadelphia Phillies in his only Major League action in 1985

Shipanoff gets the nod here since he was already 26 by the time his RR card made it to collectors.

And, more deliciously, because his name sounds an awful lot like “ship ‘im off,” which is exactly what the Phils did after 1985, Donruss’s mysterious rating system be darned.

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1987 Donruss Rated Rookies

Card #46 of the 1987 Donruss set was the Mark McGwire Rated Rookie and, as Big Mac heated up that summer, his RR climbed through the stratosphere.

He dragged the rest of the subset along with him, and soon collectors were stockpiling guys like Pat Dodson, Jerry Browne, and Duane Ward.

While those players never developed into superstars, Donruss did alright for itself that year.

In addition to McGwire, Donruss hit it big with Rafael Palmeiro, Greg Maddux, Benito Santiago (who was revered for awhile), and slightly lesser lights like B.J. Surhoff, Terry Steinbach, and Randy Myers.

Then you had Ken Gerhart, who was nearly 26 years old when his Rated Rookie hit the hobby and who lasted just through 1988 — in a part-time role with the Baltimore Orioles — before disappearing from the Majors. He did smack 14 bombs in 1987 and 24 overall, though.

And then you also had Bruce Fields, an outfielder and pinch-hitter for the Detroit Tigers who was already 26 years old in the spring of 1987. Although Fields played in 16 games for the Bengals in 1986, he was a MLB no-show in 1987. He did make it back to the Majors for a total of 42 games with the Seattle Mariners in 1988 and 1989, but that was the end.

For his diminutive career totals — 31 hits in 58 games — and for his disappearing act the year his RR was released, Fields is our guy here.

(And, yes, that’s a Leaf card up there, but Donruss didn’t get it any more right with their Canadian version than they did in the States.)

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1988 Donruss Rated Rookies

The 1988 Donruss set was no fun, really.

First, they had those funky blue-red-black-white-undulating borders that just made/make you feel sad in the worst 1980s sort of way.

Then, they coupled that design with cardstock they made from the pages of discarded Bibles.

Happy with their handiwork, Donruss proceeded to produce enough of each 1988 card to fill the entire Astrodome and even build a little flag on top.

And, on top of all that, they sort of aced their Rated Rookie list, in the most boring of ways.

Here are the dudes on that checklist:

• Mackey Sasser
• Jeff Treadway
• Mike Campbell
• Lance Johnson
• Nelson Liriano
• Shawn Abner
• Roberto Alomar
• Shawn Hillegas
• Joey Meyer
• Kevin Elster
• Jose Lind
• Kirt Manwaring
• Mark Grace
• Jody Reed
• John Farrell
• Al Leiter
• Gary Thurman
• Vicente Palacios
• Eddie Williams
• Jack McDowell

Alomar was great, a Hall of Famer.

Grace was good-to-great.

Meyer could blast baseballs a long way, sometimes.

McDowell won a Cy Young award.

And Al Leiter is on TV now.

But who flamed out?

Nobody, really. Not many of the rest of these guys were All-Stars or anything like that, but they all had long Major League careers, ranging from 3-4 year all the way up to way over a decade.

So … who to pick?

I’m going with Shawn Abner here simply because he was supposed to be a superstar but ended up collecting just 191 hits in over six seasons in the Majors.

Such are the perils of being the overall #1 pick, as Abner was in 1984, especially when the pickers are the New York Mets.

As a bonus, Abner was once traded for McReynolds (sort of, in one of those my-mosh-pit-for-your-mosh-pit mega swaps.)

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1989 Donruss Rated Rookies

Alex Sanchez was the 1987 first-round draft pick of the Toronto Blue Jays, and he lit up the minors for two years, striking out 343 batters in 305.1 innings.

That performance earned him a Donruss Rated Rookie card, and a Triple-A slot to start the 1989 season. After logging 141 more Ks to go along with his 13-7 record, Sanchez got the call.

In just under 12 innings pitched with the Blue Jays, Sanchez went 0-1 with an unsightly 10.03 ERA. He was terrible but young, so another shot at the Bigs was in order, right?

Wrong.

Sanchez bounced around the minors until 1995 and had a stint with a couple independents in 1998 but never made it back to The Show.

He’s also doing a pretty good Aaron Rodgers impression on is Rated Rookie card.

And thus, he wins our 1989 award.

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1990 Donruss Rated Rookies

The 1990 Donruss set is often dubbed the “Red Menace” thanks to its garish, bloody borders. A (very) few collectors love the look, but most cringe when they see the cards.

Still, Donruss banged out a few hits with their 1990 Rated Rookies selections: Robin Ventura, Todd Zeile, Sandy Alomar, Delino DeShields, and others were all solid (or better) Major Leaguers.

And then, well, there were the foul tips.

Brian Dubois was 25 years old in 1990 and went 3-5, 5.09 in his second taste of the Major Leagues with the Detroit Tigers. Then … well … he was done, never to appear in the Bigs again. Donruss liked his chances, though, as evidenced by this Rated Rookies card, which maybe buoyed Dubois’ confidence enough to keep pushing in the minors through 1996.

Dubois takes the cake here, but …

Alex Sanchez made a return appearance as a Rated Rookie, too. Donruss just couldn’t give up on the dream.

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1991 Donruss Rated Rookies

Donruss pretty much had their rookie-selection muscles in prime working order by the time they pushed out their 1991 set.

Among the Rated Rookies who made the cut that year were Tino Martinez, Bernard Gilkey, Hensley Meulens, Derek Bell, Jose Offerman, Moises Alou, and Ray Lankford. All of those gents enjoyed at least a few successful seasons in the Big Leagues, with Martinez and Alou flirting with superstar status on occasion.

But no matter how good you get at picking out future stars, baseball prospecting is risky, tricky business. It’ll trip you up even when you seem to be standing on flat rock.

The flat rock — and the tripping foot — for Donruss in 1991 was Texas Rangers speedster Kevin Belcher, who stole enough bases and hit enough homers in the minor leagues to get a call to the Bigs just after his 23rd birthday in 1990.

In 15 at-bats for the Rangers, Belcher hit just .133 but did draw two walks.

Donruss was convinced.

Texas was not.

And so, Belcher joined that exclusive club of players who not only did not appear in the Major Leagues the same season they appeared on a Rated Rookie, but who also never appeared in the Bigs after they appeared on their RR card.

Belcher spent 1991 and 1992 split between Double-A and Triple-A, then wrapped up his professional with the Chicago White Sox‘s Triple-A team (Birmingham Barons) in 1993.

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1992 Donruss Rated Rookies

In 1992, Donruss got fancy, adding high-gloss glitz to their cards (all over) and full-color player head shots to card backs. They also dropped Diamond Kings from the base set and turned them into inserts.

*sigh*

That shifted Rated Rookies from their customary two-hole into the leadoff spot, garnering a bit more limelight for future solid Major Leaguers like Mark Wohlers, Ryan Klesko, Roberto Hernandez, and Eddie Taubensee, and superstar Kenny Lofton.

They also got bitten by the D.J. Dozier bug and included the gridiron star in their RR lineup even though he was already 26 and had put on a good but not great showing with the Triple-A Tidewater Tides at the end of 1991.

Dozier made 25 appearances with the Mets in 1992 and then was done.

John Ramos was also 26 years old in the spring of 1992, and he was coming off his first cup of coffee with the New York Yankees in 1991. In 10 games, the catcher and designated hitter batted .308 with a walk. Not spectacular, but he was a Yankee and they were Donruss, so we got the Ramos Rated Rookie.

He never appeared in the Majors again, though he did hang around the minors until 1996

For his 17 days on an ML roster — all before his Rated Rookie card was ever born — Ramos is our winner here.

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1993 Donruss Rated Rookies

Donruss continued to trounce all over tradition in 1993 when they busted up their 22 Rated Rookies cards and scattered them throughout the 792-card base set (hmmmm, now why does that number sound familiar?).

Among the players included in that disjointed subset were recognizable names like Eric Wedge, Tim Wakefield, J.T. Snow, Tim Salmon, Bret Boone, Mike Piazza, Damion Easley, Dmitri Young, Chipper Jones, and Javier Lopez.

That’s some major talent who produced some pretty awesome Major League numbers, and you could probably have won a lot of games with a roster of only those 10 guys.

Of course, not every player can be a world-beater, so Donruss decided to also make Rob Maurer a 1993 Rated Rookie.

Maurer was a 26-year-old first baseman and pinch hitter for the Texas Rangers who hit .063 in his first call-up with the big club in 1991, spanning 13 games and 19 plate appearances. He also made it back to the Majors in 1992, raising his BA to .222 in eight games. As with Kevin Belcher, Donruss was more impressed than the Rangers were, and Maurer was done in the Big Leagues.

But, as specious as Maurer’s Rated Rookie case was, our 1993 winner is Fernando Ramsey.

Ramsey was a speedy centerfielder for the Chicago Cubs who had made 18 appearances in the Majors in 1992 and batted .120. He was also 27 years old in 1993 and would never see the Bigs again. He edges out Maurer here because of his age and because he tallied four fewer plate appearances in his Big League career (25 to 29).

Amazingly, both Ramsey and Maurer racked up 25 total at-bats in the Major Leagues, and both collected exactly three hits for a cool .120 career batting average.

Rookies don’t come much less rated than that!

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(Check out our other “just-for-fun” posts here.)

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As the old year whithers away and gives way to the bright and shiny New Year, people take stock of what they’ve been doing and what they want to do differently this time around.

For baseball card collectors, the New Year means early glimpses of new card issues, thoughts of Spring Training and a new baseball season, football playoffs, and visions of hobby grandeur for the coming 12 months.

But sometimes the New Year just sneaks up on you, right? I mean, you’re chugging along a couple of days after the World Series, making holiday plans when, BAM! — the New Year is bearing down on you.

If you ever find yourself in this situation and can’t quite get your bearings, your old-school hobby roots can help you right the ship.

Here, then, are 50 foolproof collecting signs that the New Year is upon us …

1. You’re saving a wad of 1987 Topps wax wrappers because they’re going to be worth something someday.

2. You got your first monster box full of new commons and are considering using them to paper your bedroom walls.

3.  Upper Deck

packs are space aged and impenetrable … but you suddenly realize you like wax better.

4. Topps increases prices by 1/6th, to 35 cents per wax pack.

5. You’re excited about Gary Sheffield.

6. Your local card shop owner is considering giving you his empty wax boxes from last year.

7. You’ve read all the baseball books you got for Christmas and started working through The Baseball Encyclopedia, page by page.

8. Sports Collectors Digest devotes a cover to the new 1985 Donruss Action All-Star cards.

9. Someone mentions that Spring Training is less than two months away.

10. You inexplicably organize your football cards to match the playoff brackets.

11. Your rounds of Atari baseball are fueled with the fire of anticipation of a new baseball season.

12. The new Fleer baseball cards have tiny little player photos on card backs.

13. Pat Tabler is Mr. Clutch.

14. You can’t wait to see what Kevin Mitchell will do for an encore.

15. You start making grand plans for finishing your Mario Soto collection.

16.The new Fleer wax packs contain 17 baseball cards and bubble gum.

17. You hear that Donruss cards will be scarce this year.

18. You wonder if you could trade your dried-up Christmas tree for more baseball cards.

19. You get a hankering for Street & Smith’s.

20. The new Topps cards are made with the same old soft card stock for the 109th year in a row, and you wonder when they’ll use something better.

21. You’re excited about Tim Pyznarski.

22. You woke up face down on your bedroom floor in the middle of a pile of baseball cards. The overhead light wason. It was 4 am. Thank God for Christmas break.

23.The new Fleer Baseball Greats cards come with bubble gum and a team emblem.

24. Your grocery store has marked down their football cards to 15 cents a pack.

25. You feel like this is the year you will finally o

rganize your collection.

26. The new Topps cards are made with thick white stock … and you think you liked the old soft gray stuff better.

27. You hear that Fleer cards will be scarce this year.

28. The new Donruss baseball cards come with puzzle pieces.

29. Your room is littered with odd-shaped Magic Motion Score trivia cards.

30. You wonder when baseball cards will replace chocolates as standard Valentine’s fare.

31. You’re excited about the Cleveland Indians.

32. The new Fleer Ted Williams cards come with bubble gum.

33. You just bought a Ray Guy poster from a gum machine at the front of the grocery store.

34. You have a new piece of exercise equipment to stack your baseball cards on.

35. The new Donruss wax packs contain 18 baseball cards and bubble gum.

36. The Dallas Cowboys trash can your grandma bought you for Christmas even though you’re a Chicago Bears fan is jammed in the corner of your room and you feel guilty because you think it looks pretty neat.

.37. You’ve opened all your cards from Christmas but got only one Gary Redus rookie card and it’s still only the Wednesday before school starts and you won’t have any chance at more new cards for at least two weeks. Ugh!

38. The new Fleer baseball cards come with a cookie.

39. The new Donruss cards smell like a chemical factory.

40.The new Fleer baseball cards come with team stickers.

41. Beckett doesn’t have pricing for the current year’s cards yet.

42. You’re considering buying last year’s empty wax pack boxes from your local card shop owner.

43. You wonder how Donruss can fit so many cards into wax boxes that are so thin.

44. Rick Rhoden is a Diamond King.

45. Ty Gainey is a Rated Rookie.

46. Your local newspaper just told you that your favorite team traded for Hubie Brooks at the Winter Meetings in December — a month ago.

47. You just spent the day scouring your collection for Hubie Brooks cards.

48. You get your hands on the supercool new Sportflics cards but end up disappointed … and confused.

49. You start itching to get a look at who’s on the Donruss box bottoms this year.

50. The new Fleer Baseball Greats cards come with bubble gum and a “decal and sticker too”.

(Check out our other “just-for-fun” posts here.)

There has been a resurgence of the baseball card hobby in recent years, and the evidence is all around us in the form of hobby blogs, Twitter chatter, and a growing smattering of local card shows.

And, if you’ve hung around these (gummy) dusty corners of the web much, you may have noticed that a lot of us who are embracing the hobby with new vigor are the same ones who helped the thing boom in the first place more than 30 years ago.

So, are you one of the old-timers who never really was able to break the hobby’s hold?

Let’s find out …

Here are 101 signs that you may, indeed, be a hopeless old-school baseball card collector:

1. You have a ball of rubber-banded wax wrappers tucked away … just in case.
2. You carry your driver’s license in a top-loader.
3. You save shoe boxes because … well, because that’s where baseball cards live.
4. You have dreams about skiing on white card-gum dust.
5. You have nightmares about wax-stained Buddy Biancalana rookie cards.
6. You own a Buddy Biancalana rookie card.
7. You know who Buddy Biancalana is.
8. You know what “C. Nettles” means.
9. You giggle whenever someone mentions Billy Ripken.
10. Sewing room, my a**! Once they leave home, the kids’ rooms are for baseball cards. Why do think you had them in the first place?
11. You buy extra-long bed linens because you love uncut sheets.
12. You shy away from black outfits and shoes because you’re afraid the borders will chip.
13. You don’t really trust any movie that doesn’t show at least one baseball card.
14. You don’t trust anyone who doesn’t know who Buddy Biancalana is.
15. You know that “baseball ephemera” is an oxymoron.
16. You can calculate your own d*** OPS and SLG — in your head — if you have to.
17. You know that “junk wax” is mythical. It’s all good.
18. You’ve done the math — you only need 75 more vending cases to hit the 1-million card mark.
19. White printer paper thrills you because it’s missing the black ink.
20. Your vanity plate is “NNOF.”
21. Your vanity plate is “SASE.”
22. Your vanity plate is “GEM MT.”
23. You’re afraid to post your cards on Pinterest because you don’t want to put Pin holes in them.
24. You still drive down to the Holiday Inn every other Sunday hoping that a card show will break out.
25. You think baseball cards should get credit for inventing Mylar.
26. You know that Mylar belongs nowhere near baseball cards.
27. You think baseball cards should get credit for inventing real holograms.
28. You like your cards without holograms.
29. You’re still upset about the 1978 Topps Greg Minton card.
30. You’re still update about the 1978 Topps Mike Paxton card.
31. You know that Topps predicted — and named — the Washington Nationals back in 1974.
32. You want SSPC to come back.
33. Publicly, you denounce Broder’s because they’re unlicensed, but you love them when you’re alone with your thoughts.
34. You love the Star Wars franchise partly because they have their own “baseball cards.”
35. You would eat anything — anything — if it came with baseball cards.
36. You remember the Constant Rater.
37. You remember Pepper Hastings.
38. You know that box-bottom scuffs don’t count as damage.
39. You sort through 1988 Topps commons like you’re holding delicate Fabergé eggs.
40. If you could live in a literal house of cards … you would.
41. You know that, sometimes, “The 19-year-old righthanded curveballer is just 18 years old!”.
42. You know that Carton and Fisk are also Steve and Carlton.
43. You stand exactly in middle of  your bathroom vanity to look in the mirror each morning because you don’t want to start the day off-center.
44. As you age, you don’t get wrinkled … you just develop surface creases.
45. Your children don’t have birth certificates … they have certificates of authenticity.
46. You take offense when someone tells you that your work is “very good” or “excellent.”
47. You misunderstood your wife when she said she wanted a “gem” for Christmas.
48. Every time you see a piece of wood, you think, “Managers’ Dream.”
49. You know what floating heads are — and you love them.
50. Every so often, your really wish you could TBTC.
51. You still wonder what the heck happened to Mitchell Page … and Al Cowens … and Jerome Walton … and Kevin Maas … and Jason Thompson … and Bob Horner.
52. You remember Bump Wills as a Texas Blue Jay. Or a Toronto Ranger.
53. In your spare time, when you’re alone, you still try to beat Kurt Bevacqua‘s record.
54. You suspect that Don Stanhouse and Bob (from Bob and Tom) were separated at birth.
55. You love orange slabs of bubble gum.
56. You love rough-hewn off-white cardboard — it always makes you think of orange slabs of bubble gum.
57. You would chew orange slabs of bubble gum even if they were 40 years old.
58. You know that real cards come with bubble gum … or at least cookies.
59. You consider a cello to be a vehicle for viewing Vern Ruhl in his natural habitat rather than a musical instrument.
60. You dread finding a rack pack with broken dividers.
61. You keep empty Kraft Macaroni and Cheese boxes around because they have Johnny Ray and Steve Sax on them.
62. You know that Lou Piniella appeared on a rookie card for, like, 15 years in a row.
63. Fuzzy corners make you warm and (yes) fuzzy.
64. You have a wallet card.
65. You use baseball cards as bookmarks.
66. When your time comes, you’re seriously considering a Lucite slab.
67. You know what Fun Foods buttons are.
68. You wish you’d had a dog in the 1950s, because Red Heart.
69. You know 1951 Topps baseball cards aren’t really baseball cards … but you covet them anyway.
70. Corrugated cardboard make you want to sort.
71. Give you a full monster box and a card table, and you’re good for the weekend.
72. In your dreams, your salary is paid in cardboard.
73. In your nightmares, Topps never decided to make that first card.
74. There is no room for a Milwaukee-Brewers-clad Hank Aaron in your collection … except it’s Hank Aaron, and it’s 1976 Topps, so …
75. There is no room for a New-York-Mets-clad Willie Mays in your collection … except it’s Willie Mays, and it’s 1973 Topps, so …
76. 1976 Topps Traded Oscar Gamble.
77. Even though those damn Yankees/Reds/A’s/Pirates/Dodgers beat your Giants/Red Sox/Reds/Orioles/Yankees in 1962/1975/1972/1971/1963, those World Series cards the next year sure were fun!
78. When your wife asks you to do something at home, you ask her which cards she’s willing to give you in return.
79. Pulling back that first flap on a wax pack still takes your breath away.
80. You like doubles — hey, you can always trade them!
81. You have fond memories of Riverfront Stadium or Veterans Stadium or the Metrodome or Shea Stadium or …
82. You’re still holding onto 100 Kurt Stillwell rookie cards.
83. You’d rather go to The National than to an NFL game.
84. Your favorite toys were all made out of cardboard.
85. You’re still sore because Topps raised their prices to 35 cents a pack in 1985.
86. You don’t get Sportflics … but you bought them anyway.
87. You don’t get excited by Score … but you bought them anyway.
88. You begrudgingly admit that Upper Deck cards were gorgeous … but you couldn’t afford them, so you didn’t buy them.
89. You can afford Upper Deck now but are not convinced you want to buy them. You have your pride, after all.
90. The whole crop of “new” cards — you know, anything issued after about 1993 — is just so complicated!
91. You once thought you’d buy something very cool with the profits from your baseball cards.
92. You once thought you might make a living selling baseball cards.
93. You can’t imagine a future without baseball cards.
94. You reckon you’d be a different person without baseball cards in your past.
95. You know why “Ted Signs for 1959” is important.
96. You remember that time you sold a Nolan Ryan rookie card for $5.
97. You remember that time you sold a Kevin McReynolds rookie card for $10.
98. You remember that time you traded all your cards for a Darryl Strawberry rookie card.
99. You remember that time you chose baseball cards over a girl.
100. You remember the first time you chose a girl over baseball cards … and wish you could go back and change it.
101. You remember the times you spent with your dad and your baseball cards … and you wish you could go back and not change a thing.

(Like some cardboard with your #FridayFeeling? Read the whole series of related posts here.)

Driving through town this morning, I caught sight of an older gentleman waiting to cross the street, and something about him struck me.

It was his ears.

And his nose.

The former jutted from the sides of his head and climbed over the sides of his John Deere baseball cap.

The latter was the most prominent feature of a weathered face that probably looked older than it was.

And all I could think of as he faded from view was, “I wonder what Don Mossi is up to these days.”

After a bit of digging, I found that Mossi is still kicking and is, in fact, the last surviving member of the 1954 Cleveland Indians pitching staff.

I also came across this 2012 piece from Jim Caple calling out what he termed, “The Weird, The Bad and The Ugly.” Among those pasteboards, Caple included the 1966 Topps Don Mossi. And while the ESPN piece didn’t specify a category for Mossi — Weird, Bad, or Ugly — we can make some inferences from the text.

Anyway, that got me thinking about the subjective way we judge baseball cards (and everything else) and made me ponder just what other collectors — or at least cardholders — consider to be weird or bad or ugly.

Leaving weird and bad on the cutting room floor for now, I decided to focus on Ugly. And for my source, I went right to a real live market — eBay — and consulted the sellers themselves.

Because, if you’re trying to sell me something, and you yourself say it’s ugly, then there is a pretty good chance that it’s not gorgeous.

So here are the specimens I uncovered when I typed “ugly baseball cards” into the wondrous eBay machine on the morning of October 27, 2017.

Pete Rose “Pesque Hueso” Beer Game Card Test Issue

I had never seen these cards before, but this baby jumped out at me from the listings for three reasons:

1. I’m a longtime Pete Rose collector, and it was clear that this drawing was meant to represent Charlie Hustle.
2. The design looks an awful lot like 1974 Topps cards and especially calls to mind the San Diego Padres/Washington Nat’l. cards.
3. It’s really ugly.

I mean, Pete may not be the best looking guy to ever pull on the spikes, but this is rough even for him.

Even so … it’s something “new” to me, and it’s darn interesting for less than 10 bucks.

1910-11 Sporting Life M116 Clyde Milan

Sometimes, beauty is conditional. On the surface, there is nothing really ugly or unappealing about the M116 set or the Clyde Milan card in particular.

Sure, it’s not quite up to the standard of the dazzling colors of the T206 set, and there is no Honus Wagner card to drive it along, but this issue is pretty solid.

In the case of this particular Milan card, though, the ugliness is all about, well, the surface. In particular, there is a large water stain over the top half or so of the card that makes ol’ Clyde look like he’s drifting off into the clouds.

As the seller notes, this is a good, solid “ugly filler” card if you’re looking to make some hay on your M116 quest.

1974 Topps Team Checklists

I first came across these gems in a shoebox full of rough 1974 Topps cards I bought at an antique shop in the early nineties. I honestly thought at the time that they were little sheets of paper that some collector had scribbled on. Only after a bit of research did I realize that those weren’t scribbles — they were facsimile autographs of the players on each team’s roster.

This is a pretty cool concept in theory, and the cards have enjoyed a modicum of popularity in the hobby over the last 20 years or so.

But there is no denying that these puppies are homely, and the 1973 versions might be even worse.

1959 Topps Star Lot

The 1959 Topps set was an issue caught in between two decades, eschewing the paintings that dominated most pastebaords of the 50s but not quite ready to let go of the solid colored backgrounds of its predecessors. The result was a porthole design that was fine but left player photos a bit small for my taste.

But are they ugly?

Not especially, though some of the special cards are a bit garish. Maybe the seller here takes exception to the blue-and-red scheme on the Roy Campanella tribute card or the busy design of the All-Star cards.

Hard to say, but perhaps the 1959s deserve another look just to see if we can spot the ugly?

1965 Topps Lot

In general, the 1965 set is a classic issue that any collector, any fan, would be proud and happy to slide into sheets or paste on the walls of his man cave.

But, given the featured image accompanying this listing, we can make some observations, a few with “ugly” implications:

• Dean Chance was really good, even if he looked a bit vampirish.
• Johnny Romano wore an expression that at least verged on ugly.
• I’m changing my name to Bill McCool.
• Don’t mess with Gates Brown.
• Don Blasingame ate something ugly that didn’t agree with him.
• Charlie Smith just woke up.
• Bob Tiefenauer is checking the oven to make sure the holiday biscuits haven’t caught fire.
• The Minnesota Twins are all kinds of yellow ugly.

I guess there really is ugly hiding just around every corner if you look hard enough.

1976 Topps Complete Set

OK, this is not ugly.

Growing up, the 1976 set was not my favorite, but I’ve really grown to appreciate it over the last couple of years. There are a lot of subtle details — like the player figurine on each card front that roughly matches the pictured player’s position — that make this issue a winner.

And several individual cards are among my favorites ever, including those of Mike Schmidt, Johnny Bench, and Dave Parker.

So why does this listing come up in a search for “ugly baseball cards”?

Maybe eBay doesn’t like George Brett‘s gap-toothed deadpan.

Or maybe Pete Rose’s scowl is just a bit too much Willem Dafoe.

Who knows?

Ugly or not, though, it’s a winner.

1968 Topps Lot

This one has a few things working against it …

First, the cards are from the 1968 Topps issue. Burlap borders and missing team logos are hard to love even after all these years.

Then there are the listing photos, which feature the cards against a beautiful hardwood surface and awash in golden light that *might* actually be sunlight. Nice.

Well, except for the overall effect, which makes everything about the cards look like they got hold of some bad spray-on tan.

And finally, there is the beat-up card of Jim Lemon peeping through its brethren in the third photo. At first, I actually thought the card was a 1969, and a bit of research shows that the two issues do use the same photo.

But this Lemon card is from 1968, and when you combine the iffy card design with big, worn creases and corners softer than a bunny’s belly fur, you might consider it ugly.

The more I look at it, though, the more I think Lemon might be the best of the bunch. Certainly appears to have been the most loved.

1975 Topps Lot

If you had never seen a 1975 Topps baseball card, then you might be forgiven for thinking that this lot is, indeed, ugly.

But anyone who’s spent even a few minutes with these classics knows that what at first seems to be a big ol’ pot of visual dissonance is actually a master stroke of color combinations that perfectly captures the era in which the cards were issued and renders them instantly recognizable. Chills, I tell you!

That said, there is some funky airbrushing going on with that “1975 Rookie Outfielders” card, don’t you think? Nyls Nyman deserved better if for no other reason than his amazing name.

—

So what do you think?

Are these baseball cards ugly or not?

And what do you consider to be the ugliest baseball card around?  Let me know in the comments below.

If you grew up in the early 1990s or before and are reading this right now, there is a pretty good chance you spent many hours devouring the backs of your baseball cards.

They were great for learning about statistics and sharpening your math skills, finding out more about your favorite players and discovering new favorites, and drinking in the flavor of the game through cleverly worded gems such as, “The 19-year-old right handed curve-baller is just 18 years old.”  (See Topps, 1964, Dave Bennett rookie card)

Nowadays, of course, we don’t need baseball cards to learn about the game — everything we could ever want to know is at our fingertips if we can just muster the strength to bang a few words into a Google search.

But us guys who lived through the baseball card boom and are now living through the first generation of the digital age have it good because we can combine those two worlds.

And, man, that can be fun. And terrifying, sometimes. But mostly fun.

Take Google Translate, for example. One of the games my son and I like to play is taking passages from a famous book — say The Bible or Carrie — and translating them from English to another language using Google Translate.

Doesn’t matter which one, really.

The fun comes when you take that Google translation and stuff it back into Google Translate to render it in English again.

Boy, howdy, old Moses can get up to some real screwy no-good when he makes the Google roundtrip, let me tell you! It has us rolling on the floor most of the time. (My wife, not so much.)

So  I thought, why not apply this same word-boomerang principle to some of those cool and insightful baseball card backs from our youth?

And then I did it.

The results are below, but let me explain what you’ll see.

First, a picture of the card back.

Second, the snippet of the text that I had Google translate.

Third, how that snippet came back after Google translated it to French and then back to English.

Fourth, how that snippet came back after Google translated it to Spanish and then back to English.

(Spanish and French because those are the two languages besides English that you’re most likely to hear at a Major League park — probably.)

Some of the results were fairly hilarious, some were odd, and some were confusing.

Again, though, all were great fun.

And how could it not be? Google plus baseball card backs?

It’s like you dropped your chocolate in my peanut butter and then Yogi Berra walked by and ate the whole thing — and then told us about it in Yogi terms.

Good stuff, in other words.

Enjoy.

1987 Topps Howard Johnson — Pretty Ribbons and Pork

Topps said: Howard was co-winner of a rib-eating contest among professional athletes after 1985 season.

Google says …

Howard was co-winner of a costume competition for professional athletes after the 1985 season. (French)

Howard was co-winner of a ribbons competition among professional athletes after the 1985 season. (Spanish)

1981 Topps John Stearns — Detecting for the NFL?

Topps said: Set mark for catchers with 25 stolen bases in 1978.

Google says …

Marking for sensors with 25 stolen bases in 1978. (French)

Set brand for receivers with 25 bases stolen in 1978. (Spanish)

1964 Topps Mickey Mantle — Red-Faced in Paris

Topps said: Mick was hampered by several serious injuries in ’63.

Google says …

Mick was embarrassed by several serious injuries in ’63. (French)

Mick was hampered by several serious injuries in ’63. (Spanish)

1985 Topps Traded Rickey Henderson — Rickey Recreates with … Other Rickeys?

Topps said: Lists swimming and fishing among his hobbies.

Google says …

Shows swimming and fishing among his hobbies. (French)

List of swimming and fishing among their hobbies. (Spanish)

1974 Topps Rick Monday — Goals

Topps said: Rick would like to be a sportscaster.

Rick would like to be an athlete. (French)

Rick would like to be an athlete. (Spanish)

1977 Topps Mike Schmidt — Tri-Sport Man of The Odyssey

Topps said: Mike went on a Homer rampage in April of 1976. He hit 4 homers in one game a Wrigley Field, had stretch of 8 straight games with 9 Homers and walloped 11 round trippers in April to tie record.

Google says …

Mike made a raid of Homer in April 1976. He hit 4 homers in a game at Wrigley Field, had a 8-game consecutive match with 9 Homers and scored 11 strikers in April to record. (French)

Mike went on a Homer rampage in April 1976. He hit 4 homers in a Wrigley Field game, had an 8-game stretch with 9 Homers and hit 11 3-pointers in April to level the record. (Spanish)

1965 Topps Dave McNally — Possibly Erotic Ace

Topps said: Breaking into the majors with a bang, Dave hurled a brilliant two-hit shutout in his big league debut. A good hitting pitcher, the lefty clouted two home runs in his first three at bats in organized ball in 1961. Dave’s top pitch is his sharp breaking curve ball.

Google says …

By entering the majors with an explosion, Dave launched a brilliant beat of two strikes in his debut of the great league. A good pitcher, the left-hander nailed two domestic innings in his first three to bat bats held in 1961. Dave’s highest pitch is his curved ball curve. (French)

Entering the majors with an explosion, Dave pitched a brilliant two-stroke shine in his Major League debut. A good batting pitcher, the southpaw clouted two homers in his first three in the bats at Organized Ball in 1961. Dave’s top pitch is his sharp curve bow ball. (Spanish)

1969 Topps Jim Grant — Legally Passed the League

Topps said: In 1965, Jim paced American League with 21 victories. That year the right-hander shutout the competition six times. Jim was picked by the Expos during the ’68 Expansion draft.

Google says …

In 1965, Jim beat the American League with 21 victories. That year, the defender beat the competition six times. Jim was chosen by the Expos during the draft expansion of 68. (French)

In 1965, Jim passed the American League with 21 wins. That year, the law closed the competition six times. Jim was chosen by the Expos during the expansion project of ’68. (Spanish)

1960 Topps Gus Bell — Grueling Hobbies

Topps said: Last year was the 4th time Gus has driven in more than 100 runs.

Google says …

Last year was the 4th time that Gus traveled more than 100 races. (French)

Last year was the 4th time Gus has driven in more than 100 races. (Spanish)

1981 Topps Jerry Garvin — Set in (Head) Stone. Set in (Head) Stone.

Topps said: Has worked as a cemetery grave digger.

Google says …

Worked as a cemetery engraver. (French)

He has worked as a gravedigger gravedigger. (Spanish)

1973 Topps Pete Rose — What’s the Monthly Payment on Something Like That?

Topps said: Pete narrowly missed reaching the 200 hit plateau for 6th time in career last season. Still he led both leagues in Hits and continued to be one of the finest leadoff men.

Google says …

Pete scarcely reached the 200-seat plateau for the sixth time in his career last season. Yet he headed the two leagues of Hits and continued to be one of the best leased men. (French)

Pete was unable to reach the 200-hit plateau for the sixth time last season. However, he led the two leagues in Hits and remained one of the best leadoff men. (Spanish)

1986 Topps Traded Bo Jackson — Knows Duos Bo

Topps said: The first brother duo to play concurrently with the Royals was 3rd baseman George Brett and lefty Ken Brett in 1980.

Google says …

The duo’s first brother to play at the same time as the Royals was third baseball player George Brett and left-hander Ken Brett in 1980. (French)

The duo of the first brother to play at the same time with the Royals was third baseman George Brett and left-hander Ken Brett in 1980. (Spanish)