Vintage Sports Cards – Baseball – Basketball – Football – Hockey
Here’s the original artwork Dick Perez painted for the 1989 Donruss Mike Greenwell #1 Diamond Kings card.
Ron Oser Enterprises offered it in a lot with a few other signed Perez originals in April 2001. I think the piece is 11” x 17”. I previously shared the Mike Schmidt, Bobby Bonilla, and Frank Viola cards from this lot on the blog.
Here’s the final card, followed by a side-by-side comparison.
Happy collecting, and don’t forget to check out The Original Artwork Archive for more!
Frank Lane was infamous for making many trades, including players like Norm Cash, Rocky Colavito, Roger Maris, Red Schoendienst, and Early Wynn. Among the over 400 trades he made in his career included one for managers. In 1960, when he was the GM of the Cleveland Indians, he sent Joe Gordon to Detroit and brought Jimmy Dykes over to the Indians in the middle of the season.
Many baseball fans may remember Joe Gordon more for playing with the Yankees and Indians. He was the MVP in 1942, a 9x All-Star, 5x World Series champion, and entered the Hall of Fame in 2009. He began his managing career with the Indians in 1958 but had a rocky relationship with Frank Lane. So Gordon, in 1959, said he wouldn’t return to the team the following year, so Lane fired him. However, he rehired him shortly after that. Gordon was 49-46 with Cleveland in 1960 when Lane sent him to Detroit.
Gordon would go 26-31 with Detroit in 1960 but wouldn’t re-sign as their manager. Instead, he became Kansas City Athletic’s coach for the 61 season, where he went 26-33 before being fired and replaced by Hank Bauer. So we never got a Topps Baseball card with Gordon in a Tigers uniform. Gordon would be a head coach again in 1969 for the Kansas City Royals, going 69-93 before resigning.
For his 1960 card, Topps used the same photo from the 1959 Indians Picture Pack. They then used the same image, with a little airbrushing, for his 1961 Topps card as the Athletics Coach.
Jimmy Dykes was also a player before becoming a manager. He played for 22 years between 1918 and 1939 before becoming a manager between 1934 and 1961. He was the player/manager for the Chicago White Sox from 1934 to 1939. As a player, he was a 2x All-Star and 2x World Series champion.
Dykes had a record of 44-52 with the Detroit Tigers in 1960 before being sent to the Indians, where he would go 26-32. He stayed on as the Indian’s coach in 1961, going 77-83 before retiring.
Topps used the same photo they used for Dykes’ 1960 Topps card for his 1961 card. I haven’t been able to find a team photo or type 1 for the 1960 Dykes card; if you have one, please leave a comment down below.
It wasn’t uncommon for Topps to reuse and airbrush images throughout the vintage post-war era. But, as far as I know, this is the only case of a trade involving a pair of managers forcing Topps to do a little of their magic airbrushing.
Happy Collecting!
In the fifth part of my deep dive into 1978 Topps baseball cards, I explored the allure of Topps Dynamite Magazine Panels. So, I was pleased to find this 1978 Eddie Murray RC insert while perusing the September 1996 Oregon Trail Sports Auctions catalog!
In the 1978 Dynamite Magazine Panel deep dive, I even highlighted a Chronicles of Fuji post from June 2013 when the author sniped a copy with Murray on it off eBay for under $30; maybe it’s the same one!
Happy collecting!
PSA described the 1953 Bowman Color set as one of “the most beautiful modern-era sets of baseball cards produced.” It’s got some classically gorgeous cards, like the Pee Wee Reese leaping card, the excellent multi-player card of Hank Bauer, Yogi Berra, and Mickey Mantle, plus cards of other individual stars of the day like Roy Campanella, Ed Mathews, Warren Spahn, and Stan Musial. But among the stars are three gorgeous cards of one-hit wonders, players whose only major baseball card release was in this set. Here are their stories.
Despite having one of the best names in the history of MLB, Jack Daniels only stuck around baseball for a single season. But he got a baseball card in the iconic 1953 Bowman Color set!
Jack spent seven seasons in the minor leagues before making the Boston Braves roster for the 1952 season. That year, he mainly played as a right fielder and hit .187 with 2 home runs and 14 RBIs. Those numbers weren’t good enough to stick in the big leagues, and “Sour Mash Jack” played six more seasons of minor league ball before ending his baseball career. Over his minor league career, he smashed 167 home runs, including 34 for the AA Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association in 1956.
Perhaps Rodriquez could have had a longer career had he not been a shortstop. As a member of the Chicago White Sox organization, he was stuck behind Chico Carrasquel and Luis Aparicio, who played the same position. So, for his one year in MLB, Hector Rodriguez played third base. In 1952, he hit .265, hit one home run, and batted in 40 runs. He also walked 47 times, which means his on-base percentage was .346.
He was a native of Cuba and played in the Negro Leagues and the Mexican League before his season with the White Sox. He followed up his only season in Major League Baseball with a successful career with the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League. He was inducted into the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998. And his 1953 Bowman Color Baseball card is awesome.
Larry Miggins played in parts of two major league seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals (1948 and 1952) but only got one major baseball card with his 1953 Bowman Color example, which is fair since, in 1948, he only had a single plate appearance.
Miggins played outfield and first base. His career statistics were a .227 batting average, two home runs, and 10 RBIs. He also played nine years of Minor League Baseball from 1944 to 1954, during which he hit .265 with 143 home runs.
Just making it to the Major Leagues is a significant achievement, and there are plenty of players who make it to the league but never get a licensed baseball card. But Daniels, Rodriguez, and Miggins did, and their cards are in one of the more popular post-war releases.
Happy collecting!
A true piece of hobby history! Mickey Mantle’s 1958 Topps contract extension—signed by Mantle, Frank Scott, and Sy Berger!
The scan above is from Mastro’s November 1999 Fine Sports Millenium Auction, where it sold for $4,119. Here’s the complete item description:
A truly unique document released from the Topps archives over a decade ago. This is the actual contract extension signed by the 26-year-old superstar, giving Topps the right to produce baseball cards with the Mick’s image in 1959. The standard one-page contract extension is typewritten on Topps Chewing Gum stationery and is dated Oct. 1, 1958. It basically states that Mickey Mantle and Topps agree to extend their original agreement dated April 1, 1957, and that all the same terms and conditions apply (meaning he probably got five dollars and a toaster!). Signed boldly in blue ballpoint pen by Mickey Mantle, accepted by Topps executive Sy Berger, and witnessed by Mickey’s agent, Frank Scott. Accompanied by a letter from Guernsey’s, the auctioneers who originally sold the Topps archive. An important document linking the King of Baseball Cards to his maker.
When Guernsey’s auctioned it off as lot BB462 in 1989, they described it as a “Topps extended contract of exclusive 1957 agreement, signed by Mantle on 10/1/58.” It sold for $1,300 ($1,430 with the 10% Buyers Premium).
Guernsey’s also sold the “original exclusive contract signed between Mantle and Topps, 4/1/57, binding for years 1958-60.” Reading the extension, I think the pictured contract just extended the agreement into 1961, and wasn’t about giving Topps the right to produce Mantle’s card in 1959 as Mastro wrote, but, I’m not a lawyer!
Guernsey’s sold 11 different lots of Mantle contacts and checks in their famous Topps Auction; the one I’d most like to see is the original Bowman contract for the 1951 baseball season that Mantle signed on 4/17/1951!
Happy Collecting!
I can never get enough of 1952 Topps, so when I stumbled on Ted Taylor’s “Milestones” article from the September ’87 Baseball Cards Magazine, I knew I had to share it. Classic read!
I wish I could still get a high-quality set for $23,000, like in 1987! Also, the author mentioned picking up 1952 Topps cello packs the following summer in ’53; I’ve heard about this before and will dig deeper, maybe for a future Unopened Market Report Newsletter. Anywho, here’s the entire piece.
Happy collecting!
Love ’em or hate ’em, you definitely have an opinion about the faux wood grain bordered cards; they’re pretty unforgettable. In this article, I’ll run down a few details about five key wood grain framed sports card sets in the hobby and share a few thoughts about them.
The first faux wood-grained border set was Bowman’s final vintage postwar set. I consider it the first bold design choice that Topps or Bowman made with the horizontal color television set style (inspired by the 1950 Drake’s cards). Most real TVs at the time had a wood-grain paneled look. The first 64 cards have a lighter wood grain within the set, and the rest are darker.
The look of these cards is incredibly recognizable, show one to a vintage collector, and they KNOW it’s a 1955 Bowman card. Sports Collector’s Digest once wrote in an interview that “if collectors mention the set they hate from the ’50s the most, the 1955 Bowman set is the one that’s mentioned probably 80-85 percent of the time.” I don’t hate ANY sports card set, but I probably fit more in the group that isn’t a fan of this design than the group who loves it; it’s just a little tacky/cheesy; perhaps I’m just too young to appreciate them!
It’s also weird that the card fronts don’t show the player’s first name, team name, or position. However, Bowman’s last set is still important to the hobby. So, I think the best way to summarize the set is something I once heard during a hobby chat: the cards are ugly but historic. I do applaud Bowman for trying to do something different.
The next major release to use a faux wood grain background was Topps’s 1962 baseball set. This time, they made the image look like a sticker peeling away from the wood background, revealing the player’s name, team, and position.
The look of the wood seems a bit more “elegant” this time. Some say they are inspired by the 1955 Bowman design, but Topps did the design in a way that works a lot better to me. The vertical orientation, the move away from the television screen, and additional player information on the front make a complete design. It’s still not the most attractive design Topps has made, but it’s nicer than the 1955 Bowman set.
From a collector’s perspective, the edges in this set show chipping, so, just like the 1955 Bowmans, the cards are tough to find in better condition.
The 1966 Topps Hockey and Football sets have the same color TV-based design of a player’s photo within a faux wood grain border with the player’s name, position, and team printed along the bottom of the horizontally aligned card. They’re just as polarizing as the other sets I mentioned.
The hockey card images are imposed in front of a game crowd, which I think looks pretty cool. The football cards seem to have either the background from where the photo was taken (likely a practice field and usually of the sky) or a pure red or yellow background.
Color TV was still new in 1966, so the cards were probably pretty appropriate for the time. Also, the hockey cards have a TV shape on the back (white text on a black background shipped like an oval TV).
I think the 1987 Topps Baseball set pulled off the wood grain border the best. The frame looks like a baseball bat and fits the era well. Therefore, it’s one of the most recognizable sets from the 1980s.
The box around the player’s name, the black texted Topps logo, and the team logo in the upper circle look great from a design perspective. It’s the cleanest of these designs, so I’m a big fan.
As I said in the intro, these wood grain-bordered cards definitely elicit a reaction and opinion from collectors, so I’d love to hear what you think about them in the comments.
Happy collecting!
PS: In writing this article, I considered including the 1958 Hires Root Beer set but wanted to concentrate on major releases.