Leap Day Psychedelic Treat

Today is Leap Day, which only occurs once every four years. In honor of that, here's an awesome card that was shared with me from a fellow collector named Steve that shows a really distorted image of a true original:

1972 Topps #179 -- Dock Ellis, Pittsburgh Pirates

While cards that feature out-of-register photos are generally viewed unfavorably by collectors, the fact that it is on a 1972 Topps card (which are lovingly called "Psychos" by my friends over at OBC) makes it look like you need a special pair of 3-D glasses to look at it.

Additionally, it's appropriate that the card pictures Dock Ellis, a pitcher who is notoriously best-known today for tossing a no-hitter in 1970 while he was under the influence of a hallucinogenic. Here's the story in Dock's own words:

That video never fails to make me laugh. The guitar lick you hear in it, by the way, is from the 1970/71 song "(Do the) Push & Pull (Part 1)" by Rufus Thomas. It adds with the artwork and the audio effects to give it a humorous vibe.

(As a public service announcement, I need to point out that drugs aren't a laughing matter, and neither is the abuse of them. But the description Ellis gives of the effects he experienced on the field that day are just priceless. That said...kids, don't try that.)

"Fake Design" But Not Fake Cards

Here's a card from the past that doesn't get seen as often as it once did:

It's an E91a card of Roger Bresnahan. Here's the back:

As you can see, it was issued by the American Caramel Company, the same company that issued the various E90 sets, as well as the E120, E121 and E122 sets of the 1920s. The E91s were released in three different series, which are generally believed to have been issued in 1908 (E91a), 1909 (E91b) and 1910 (E91c). Each set has 33 players, and each series has a different checklist on the back.

However, these are among the least desirable of the "E" series cards due to the fact that they aren't always picturing the player featured. Due to a generic-type design, sometimes the same picture would be used in each set for a different player.

As a result, you would get the following cards (images grabbed elsewhere on the Web):

E91a "Iron Joe" McGinnity

E91b "Rube"Marquard

E91c Joe Wood

That might have put a crimp in the old habit of searching through cards saying "got 'em, got 'em, need 'em..."

Evolution of a Classic Design, The Prequel

The following picture shows the evolution of Play Ball's design in the three years it made cards:

(This image can be right-clicked and opened in another window if you want to see it larger.)

The first set was issued in 1939 by Gum, Inc. The "plain white border" look was one that would be revisited several times in the future by the company (after they changed their name to the Bowman Gum Co.). In 1948, that company would issue smaller-sized cards with the same design that was used nine years before it. In 1950, the design was given color, and in 1953 they released sets that had both color and black-and-white pictures.

The Play Ball design was given an elaborate makeover for 1940. While the pictures remained black-and-white, a banner and several baseball-related elements were added to "frame" the photo, with many players given a nickname in quotations. In 1941 the banner was still there, but the bat, glove and catcher's mask were gone. However, color was added to the card, sometimes emphasizing shadows as shown in the example above.

Ironically, the back designs didn't change all that much from year to year.

The Ultimate "Double Threat"

In its 1955 baseball card set, Bowman got around the problem of not having all the players under contract by issuing cards of umpires in the final series. There were 31 in all, including this one:

Card #315 -- Cal Hubbard

There's one little thing to note, however: while the other 30 arbiters are shown in those black uniforms they once wore during the games, Cal Hubbard is shown in a suit coat and tie. And he's wearing glasses, which umpires usually get told by fans and managers alike that they need.

There's a reason for this picture. Hubbard had been a major league umpire from 1936 until a hunting accident after the 1951 season damaged the vision in his right eye. He was forced to retire, but was named the supervisor of umpires in 1954. So, he was an executive when this card appeared, which explains the suit.

Before Hubbard took his place behind the plate, he excelled on a gridiron. He was an offensive tackle with the Giants, Packers and Pirates (the team now known as the Steelers) from 1927 through 1936. He was considered to be one of the league's best players, good enough to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame's inaugural class in 1963. He actually began umpiring in the minor leagues during his playing days, as his "summer job" when he wasn't playing football.

When he was inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976, he became the fifth umpire to earn the honor. He also remains the only person who's been inducted into the Hall of Fame in both sports.

RIP "Kid"

Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter passed away last week. Although most of his cards appeared outside of the time frame focused on in this blog, he still had some that did. Rather than rehash what others have said, I'll just let the others speak.

His first card appeared in the 1975 Topps set, as a multi-player Rookie:

This card was shown by Slangon, who was one of the first bloggers to report the sad news (or at least...he was one of the first I saw on my Blogroll).

Soon after that, Big Hair and Plastic Grass featured this 1976 Kelloggs' card in its own tribute. The site is written by Dan Epstein, who has written a book about baseball in the 1970s and does a better job of saying what I would have come up with.

Of course, Night Owl also writes for a living...and offered up this post that examines the inevitable feeling of mortality that seems to accompany these sad bits of news as we get older. I was in the ninth grade the year the Mets won the World Series. Seeing the leader of that team pass away from cancer certainly makes me think.

But the reason I really need to mention "The Kid" in this blog is outlined on this little factoid that was placed on the back of Carter's 1981 O-Pee-Chee card in two languages. 1967ers from Diamond Cuts and Wax Stains remembered the decade Carter spent as one of the biggest baseball stars in Canada.

We didn't just lose a Hall of Fame catcher...but we also lost a person who was a fellow collector. One of my long-time collecting buddies is Bob D'Angelo, a Tampa-based journalist who talked with Carter in 1981 about his collection. Here, he shares that story, as well as Carter's reaction to seeing himself on cardboard for the first time in 1975.

Rest in Peace, Kid.

Tall(er) Boys

Here's a card I saw while working at Irv Lerner's table during last year's National in Chicago:

Well, it wasn't this card. But you know what I mean.

This was included as an insert inside wax packs of 1969-70 Topps basketball. While those cards are called "tall boys" due to their size, these inserts were even taller and had to be folded in order to fit inside the packages. When unfolded, they stood 9 and 7/8 inches high and the standard 2 1/2 inches wide. They were also printed on thin paper rather than cardboard, so many of these have become rather brittle.

An arrow at the side indicated how tall the player was, and the taller players like Lew Alcindor and Wilt Chamberlain were drawn to meet that height. There were a total of 23 players who were subjected to the cartoon treatment; it is rumored that one more was planned but Bill Russell was pulled from production when he retired.

They're "Magic"

Here's a card that you might have never seen before:

It's from 1948 (and probably into 1949 as well), and is really small, measuring 7/8" wide by 1 and 1/2" tall. It may not seem like much, but this is the very first baseball card set ever produced by Topps. That's right...before the 1952 Topps set, or the slew of 1951 issues, they actually released 19 baseball cards as part of a larger series of 252 cards.

These were called Magic Photos, and were issued as undeveloped pictures that needed to be made "wet" (some could dip them in water, and many would just spit on the cards) before the image appeared. The backs had a question that the picture could answer, but because of the manner they were treated, the pictures sometimes developed rather poorly.

The set of Magic Photos went way beyond baseball. Other sports (basketball, football, wrestling, Boxing) were featured, and so were actors and actresses. There were also American historical figures:

As well as landmarks and monuments:

Now there's a card that shows some uneven development.

If you're interested in finding out more about this set, check out The Topps Archives, which dives pretty deeply into the issue and its series.