1976 Topps

I only recently learned about this 1973 Topps-style Joe Garagiola card from the April 1986 issue of Baseball Cards Magazine. They wrote that Joe used it as his business card, but there’s a little more to it than that!

The Topps Archives has a series of posts about the card; the first, from February 2009, identifies it as part of “a small but distinct list of baseball issues from Topps that consist of a single card. The most famous of these is Joe Garagiola’s 1976 NBC Business Card that is a dead ringer for a ’73 Topps baseball card.”

Then, in June 2009, The Topps Archives connected the card to Joe Garagiola’s Bazook Big League Bubble Gum Blowing Championship that gave us the classic 1976 Topps card of Kurt Bevacqua!

And from a photo from the event, The Topps Archives pointed out the uncut sheet behind Joe G., writing, “That, ladies and gentlemen is Garagiola’s ersatz 1973 Topps business card. I think it highly likely said pasteboards were created for him to hand out at this event. The card does have a 1976 copyright on it and I have to think the contest was held after the end of the ’75 season based on the Joe G. card copyright date.”

A pair of articles from the Baseball Hall of Fame explain the competition further. You can also watch the event on YouTube, which originally aired on October 14th, 1975, before Game 3 of the 1975 World Series.

The Topps Archives then shared a few photos of Garagiola’s card as reprinted in 1991.

BaseballCardPedia summarizes the entire story of the card as follows:

Sometime in the mid-1970s, Topps produced for former Cardinals catcher and then-current NBC broadcaster Joe Garagiola a business card done in the style of a baseball card. The front of the card has the design of the 1973 Topps set, while the back is set up like a 1976 Topps card. 

It is unknown exactly when this card was produced; however, a framed uncut sheet of the card was seen in the background of a 1975 made-for-TV bubble gum blowing contest hosted by Garagiola for NBC. The contest was sponsored by Topps and was commemorated with a card (#564) of winner Kurt Bevacqua in the 1976 Topps set.

A second run of this card was produced in the early-90s, to coincide with Garagiola’s appointment as co-host of NBC’s Today Show. This card is identical to the 70s card, with the addition of both a Topps and Today Show logo to the front.

However, there’s still one more mystery. You can see up above the back of the variation I shared above has a 1976 copyright and Garagiola’s phone number on the back. There’s another version with a different phone number and 1976 copyright along with the 1991 reprint!

Happy collecting!