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MLB and NFL Cardboard Crossovers – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
The 2024 NFL season is nearing its end, while a flurry of exciting moves has happened this MLB offseason. The two-sport athlete is not uncommon in the collegiate ranks, and we have even seen a phenomenal two-way player, Colorado’s Travis Hunter, win this year’s Heisman Trophy. Shohei Ohtani will likely pitch in a Dodgers uniform…
Playing with the Void – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
I was talking to my friend just a little while ago about this void, this sense of meaninglessness and emptiness that he feels in his life. People fill it with drugs, sex, television, pills, control, power - you name it. And he’s been in the process of slowly but steadily removing these things from his…
Debunking the Myth of 1948 Leaf: How a Recently Unearthed Lawsuit Proves the Case – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
Rosa and Josefa Blazek were violin-playing conjoined twins from the Czech Republic who toured the United States in the 1920s. Rosa’s 11-year-old son, Franz Blazek, was featured prominently in advertisements used to promote the twins’ performances. Feeling exploited and embarrassed by the oft-used tagline “son of two mothers,” a lawsuit was filed in Cook County,…
The first baseball card Easter egg? – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
These days, Easter eggs on baseball cards have become rather commonplace, even apart from literal ones. Here is actor/comedian Kevin Hart on a 2024 Topps Trea Turner parallel, for example. A famous Easter egg now nearly (hard to believe!) two decades old is the 2007 Topps Derek Jeter variation that features Mickey Mantle in the…
Alternatives to “True” Rookie Cards – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
When collecting vintage, it's not always easy to buy rookie cards of the best to ever play the game. Whether due to condition or price, many of these iconic cards often elude us. There are alternatives, for sure. For me, I often like to pick up second year cards, or ones with that player's most…
Bowman’s Knockdown Pitch: Leaf Us Alone – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
Rosa and Josefa Blazek were violin-playing conjoined twins from the Czech Republic who toured the United States in the 1920s. Rosa’s 11-year-old son, Franz Blazek, was featured prominently in advertisements used to promote the twins’ performances. Feeling exploited and embarrassed by the oft-used tagline “son of two mothers,” a lawsuit was filed in Cook County,…
Bubble Gum Bozos – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
When I was a kid in the late 1980s I loved Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo’s Baseball Hall of Shame books. They weren’t the only baseball books I read but something about the stories of “so bad that they’re silly” events were exactly the kind of thing I liked best about the game. That the…
For the love of the strip card – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
Strip cards are a necessary reduction of the baseball card to the essential figuration of what makes a baseball card a baseball card at the psychological, social, cultural, and metaphysical root. It is the imbuement of symbolic significance and meaning into the lowest of the low, the scrap of paper ruefully cut from a long…
Gary Cieradkowski’s Decades Long Quest to Learn What Happened to the Chicago Black Sox Players After the Scandal Results in His Latest Artistic Masterpiece – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
Baseball illustrator and storyteller Gary Cieradkowski stays very busy in his studio researching, drawing, and writing about the colorful lives of baseball outsiders. Photo by Russ Speiller Editor's Note: This interview was first published in volume 4 of Turnstyle: The SABR Journal of Baseball Arts, the official publication of SABR's Baseball and the Arts Committee.…
An Essay: What is the Meaning of Baseball Cards? – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
This essay regards the meaning of the American baseball card - a pastime for children, adults; people of all ages and walks of life. It is a pastime specifically American; spanning a period of time just over a century - a period of the birth and flowering of a sport that has captured the imagination,…
The Leaf HOF rookie cards that aren’t anymore – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
In his new book, RE:LEAF, Brian Kappel definitively puts to rest any lingering notion that the 1949 Leaf set was a 1948 (or even 1948-49) issue. Brian's evidence? Court documents in which Marshall Leaf asserts that the very first shipment of Leaf baseball cards left Chicago for Boston on March 14, 1949. Though PSA and…
My Favorite Common – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
It was sometime in the Fall of 2020, when someone on twitter posted a photo of their “Rainbow,” (a completed run of base and short printed cards, all of the same player, brand, and year) of 2020 Topps Series 1 Travis Demeritte #57. Seeing the image, I remembered that I had one of those and…
The Road to Completing a Vintage Set is Filled with Choices and Compromises – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
I have recently finished compiling a complete set of 1973 Topps baseball cards. And after 25 years I am 23 cards shy of a complete set of 1961 Topps baseball cards. Outlined below are some of the key choices and compromises collectors will face when trying to put together a complete set of vintage baseball…
Ángel Scull and My Road Back to Collecting – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
“I don’t collect cards,” I said. Repeatedly. The last new packs I ripped were in 1993. In 1994 I got my first guitar and, well, priorities shifted. The pandemic drew a lot of people back into the hobby, but not me. That said, I enjoyed seeing the cards you were all posting on social media.…
My Personal Collection So Far – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
I grew up collecting Topps, Upper Deck, Fleer and other brands. I got out of the hobby in high school, and stopped following sports almost entirely while in college. Like many, I got back into cards during the pandemic. Most of what I already owned was from the mid to late 2000s. The last set…
Stamping Out an Old Set – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
Lately I’ve been grasping about what to collect. I have some big goals – 1958, 1962, and 1963 Topps complete sets - but those require the perfect timing: some selling from my collection, a good deal on the sets in the right condition, and both things occurring at the same time (or close enough). I’m…
Bob Laughlin’s earliest sets – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
My first exposure to Bob Laughlin's fantastic artwork came from opening packs of Fleer Baseball Stickers as a kid in 1980. While the product name referred to the various team stickers on the front of each card... The real fun came from the World Series cartoons and captions on the backs of the cards. It…
My Grading Experience, Part 2 – PSA 3 (very good) – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
I hate grading for the same reasons everyone who hates grading hates grading: it’s expensive, it’s arbitrary, it’s disappointing. Graded cards don’t fit in binders, graded cards make it hard to finish sets. You get it. If I get pushed into buying graded cards, I usually bust them out of their cases, but sometimes I…
Daniel Jacob Horine Tells Baseball Stories Through the Lens of Nostalgic Comic Book Art – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
Throughout human history, people have combined elements and ideas that individually are already quite good, but in combination truly lead to greatness. The combination of chocolate and peanut butter into the delectable Reese’s cup. The melding together of circus with theater to create the incomparable spectacles of Cirque du Soleil shows. In 2020, while grappling…
Mordecai Brown: Grumpy Old Man – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
The Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants, and New York Yankees held a joint event on June 26, 1944 at the Polo Grounds where a “Tri-Cornered Baseball Game” was played in which each club had six innings at the plate and six half-innings in the field. The Dodgers won the contest 5-1-0 over the Yankees and…
Behind the Scenes of “The Diamond King” – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
Those who attended the SABR 52 convention in Minneapolis, MN were treated to a screening of the exquisite feature length documentary entitled The Diamond King. The film depicts the history of baseball as told through the life and works of baseball’s Picasso, Dick Perez. Mr. Perez should need no introduction, certainly not to people of…
2005 Donruss Studio: Portraits, Patterns, and Pandemonium – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
A recent Maury Wills tribute post from my friend Chad got me thinking my own Maury collection was a bit deficient, so I headed to eBay expecting to grab some low priced vintage cardboard. Scrolling the listings, one in particular caught my eye, nearly to the point of obsession. The perfect card? It was, at…
A requiem for blue lights and Redlegs – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
Within a few weeks of each other, two things happened that sent me back to 1976. One was the death of Pete Rose, Charlie Hustle, my childhood hero. Volumes have been written about him by fans who, like me, wrestled with his complicated legacy and the dichotomy of the enviable man on the field juxtaposed…
Pete Rose’s Hairy Legacy – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
When the news hit yesterday that Baseball's Hit King had passed away at the age of 83, reactions were predictably mixed. On one hand, Pete Rose's on-the-field play and stat line scream Hall of Fame. Meanwhile, his off-the-field exploits (and not just the gambling!) plant him squarely in the Hall of Shame. "Why not both!"…
Three interesting under-the-radar 1941 Baseball Cards – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
The 1941 baseball season featured Ted Williams’ .400 season, Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak and the Dodger’s return to prominence, but an exciting battle also shaped up at the candy counter. Three companies would produce retail sets of baseball cards in the same season, the last time it would happen until 1981. The baseball cards…
Lin’s Bin, a Requiem: John Racanelli from LaGrange asks, “how can the passing of someone you don’t even know affect you so much?” – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
Every Monday for decades, Chicago’s WXRT radio personality Lin Brehmer answered listener questions for his “Lin’s Bin” segment. His responses regularly focused on seemingly mundane elements of life but were thoughtful, and often profound. Brehmer’s perspective was uniquely optimistic, nostalgic, and conveyed an inexhaustible fervor for the adventure that could be found in the everyday.…
The baseball cards of Rachel Robinson – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
If you really know your baseball cards, you probably clicked on this post thinking, "Rachel Robinson has baseball cards?!" After all, despite her exalted status in the baseball world (I consider her Baseball Royalty), Rachel's cardboard footprint is extremely limited. How limited? To my knowledge she only has a single card. Oh, and I'm talking…
The Ultra Rare 1887 Four Base Hits Card Set – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
The Four Base Hits card set is considered among the most important rarities in the hobby. These beautiful photographic cards are similar in appearance to the Kalamazoo Bats cards and have design similarities to the Yum Yum Tobacco issue of 1888. The cards have become legendary in the hobby due to their rarity as well…
Ten baseball card mysteries explained…by Chat GPT! – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
The baseball card universe is full of mysteries, many of which will never be definitively solved by mere humans. While some Hobbyists are happy enough to wander through the darkness, I am the type that demands answers whether they're correct or not! As such I decided to take my questions to ChatGPT. Why is the…
The Back of a Baseball Card – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
The back of Jose Abreu’s baseball card… Back in April, when asked by a member of the media about José Abreu’s struggles to begin the year and if he was confident that the baseball veteran could rebound, Astros manager Joe Espada delivered a simple response that set the baseball community ablaze. “History. You know, the…
Sal Maglie Stori-View – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
It’s been a few years since my last 3D Wiggle Gif post and I’m back with another set of 3D baseball cards. This time it’s back to the 1950s with a set of Sal Maglie Stori-View cards. While Viewmaster is sort of the brand name 3D kids toy, in the 1950s and 1960s, Stori-View was…
The Museum Behind the Door – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
Buck Herzog sits coolly with his fluffy sweater buttoned across his chest. His arms resting across his knees. The red rimmed collar folded down snug around his neck. Eyes gazing across the field as if something delicious is waiting for him there. The pale blue background contrasting with the red piping of his outfit. A…
GOAT Rookie Programs & Scorecards – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
From the time I could remember going to ballgames I was infatuated with the programs and scorecards. Walking through the turnstiles at Yankee Stadium as a kid, pleading to my Mom to get me a program. She would go in her purse and hand me the money so I could pay myself. I would take…
Collecting Rickwood Field cards – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
On June 20, 2024, MLB will host a regular season game between the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals at Rickwood Field, the oldest ballpark in America. Per an MLB press release, “The regular-season game at Rickwood Field will pay tribute to the Negro Leagues and to baseball’s greatest living player: Hall of…
1933 Goudey beauty pageant – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
In admiring my 70 or so 1933 Goudey cards the other day, I was struck most by the set's hidden treasures. While many vintage collectors can picture the cards of Ruth, Gehrig, Foxx, et. al., off the top of their heads, how many collectors—unless they are die-hard Goudey fans—have even seen the many gorgeous cards…
Fox Hunting – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
When I was growing up in Chicago in the 1950s, my favorite team was the White Sox, and my favorite player, along with Minnie Miñoso, was the Sox second baseman, Nellie Fox. Like me, Fox was a little guy. Unlike me, he was also a terrific player: a 15-time All-Star, the 1959 American League Most…
More on Theodore Edison’s T206 Collection – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
In a comment following my post of April 17 ("A Newly Revealed Collection of T206s"), a reader expressed dismay at the fact that the Edison baseball cards were being stored in nine-to-the-page plastic holders. I passed this comment on to the archivist at the Edison National Historical Park, who told me that, now that they…
A Newly Revealed Collection of T206s – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
Years ago, while still engaged in my academic career focused on information and influence campaigns, I got interested in Thomas Edison through his innovative and aggressive campaign to assure that his own system of electrical generation, employing direct current, would triumph over the rival alternating current system developed by Nicola Tesla with equipment manufactured and…
Of March Madness and Multi-Sport Athletes – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
The 1979 NCAA Basketball Tournament featured an epic championship game between Magic Johnson’s Michigan State Spartans and Larry Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores. Indiana State lost, but Larry Bird was not finished with his sporting endeavors that spring. Basically on a dare by Indiana State’s baseball coach Bob Warn, Bird suited up for a doubleheader against…
The Presidential Baller-Topps Attax Finale! – SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee
When I wrote my second piece on Topps Attax baseball cards, I thought that would be the end of any Topps Attax baseball discourse on the internet. “Who else would spend their valuable time looking for cards a decade ago with no significant meaning?” I thought to myself. Well, as it turns out, there were…