1989 TOPPS DOUBLE HEADERS TIM TEUFEL Topps spent the better part of the '80s in a panic. By 1989, they were facing competition from Donruss, Fleer, Score, Upper Deck, Sportsflics, and, I don't know, you and your baby sister. No doubt this was a shock to the system for a company that had enjoyed an [...]
1988 TOPPS EXPERIMENTAL CLOTH BARRY LYONS So what of Topps and its abiding fascination with cloth? Seems someone in the hallowed halls held fast to the hobby-horsical notion that the kids wanted to see cloth versions of their cards. In 1972, Topps created a test set of brown-backed cloth stickers. These made it out of [...]
1979 TOPPS Willie Montanez We all have them. Those good-not-great players from our youth for whom we have a deep and abiding affection. Take Guillermo Montanez here. He showed up at Shea with a decent if unspectacular resume-- finished second in the 1971 ROY voting, 24th in MVP voting twice. Was an all star once, [...]
GARY CARTER ON TOPPS: THE EARLY YEARS Gary Carter was born on this 1975 Topps Rookie Catchers-Outfielders card, occupying the Marsha slot on a Brady Bunchesque piece of cardboard. And surely Marc Hill, Leon Roberts, and Danny Meyer spent many years lamenting their place in this particular family. “Gary, Garrry, Garrrrry!” they could be heard [...]
1986 TOPPS BRUCE BERENYI Every extraordinary event has its Bruce Berenyi. They are the faceless actors who make a barely measurable contribution to a great achievement. Perhaps they performed a quick spot weld on the plaque that was attached to the ladder of the Apollo 11 lunar excursion module. Or maybe they knocked a dowel [...]
2011 TOPPS GYPSY QUEEN CARLOS BELTRAN Over at Wolfgang's Vault you can watch video of what would turn out to be the Sex Pistols' last concert, at Winterland in San Francisco back in January of 1978. This show came at the end of a short but brutal tour through the American south, where it was [...]
1966 TOPPS EDDIE BRESSOUD ORIGINAL ART When I was a kid, my friend's dad had LeRoy Neiman lithographs lining the corked walls of his study. Sometimes I'd press my nose against a picture frame and examine the angles and arcades of the penciled signature along the white border. I haven't acquired much original art of [...]
1986 TOPPS LEN DYKSTRA Nails, we called him. He showed up in 1985, raw and disruptive. He was a dervish, always adjusting a batting glove or fidgeting with his helmet. He got dirty, diving and sliding and dribbling brown spittle down the front of his shirt. Tough as nails. But come 1986, Lenny's value amounted [...]
1981 TOPPS MARK BOMBACK During a game in the recent Mets-Phillies series, talk in the broadcast booth turned to hitters who over the years have owned the Mets. And as these discussions are wont, the topic soon shifted to Willie Stargell and his 60 career HRs against our boys. In an effort to lionize Stargell, [...]
1973 TOPPS HANK WEBB I was fortunate enough to catch the Mets' opening weekend, thanks to a free preview of MLB Extra Innings. Opening Night was a crystallization of much that I expect will be wrong with the Mets this year: a jaw-grindingly enigmatic showing from Pelfrey, a somnolent offensive performance. Things improved over the [...]
1974 TOPPS BOB APODACA ERROR I’m in medical publishing, so I know a thing or two about printing errors. I recall running a cover once that referred to “resluts” instead of “results.” And we all know that it is bad enough to slut once. But to reslut? This was such a signal mistake that we [...]
1976 TOPPS RANDY TATE It can be hard to distinguish Randy Tate from the Bobbs and Todds and Webbs and Crams and all the other single-syllabled 1970s Mets' pitchers of no particular report. He has just one major league season to his name, during which he went 5-13 with a 4.45 ERA. He was back [...]