1984 TOPPS PROOF TOM SEAVER
I’m going to skip straight to the big twist here: this post ends with Tom Seaver‘s head in a box.
But fear not, gentle reader, there is no Se7en-style gothic gore attached to our narrative.
Oh, there’s some heartbreak, sure. Seaver returned to the Mets in a late-1982 trade with the Reds that sent Jason Felice, Lloyd McClendon, and Charlie Puleo to Cincinnati. After a thoroughly decent 1983, the Mets left him unprotected and the White Sox scooped him up as a free-agent compensation pick. And we all cried 1977 tears…
The 1984 Topps Traded set pictured Seaver in his White Sox company-picnic softball uniform, but his regular issue card captured him in game action with the Mets. This card also carried a small portrait photo on the front, with the crown of Seaver’s Mets cap breaking the frame.
Topps was apparently a bit conflicted regarding exactly how to present the portrait photos in this set. At some point in production, they ran a proof sheet of 66 cards in which the head shots were contained completely within the frame.
These variants are known today as 1984 Topps Encased Proofs, and the checklist includes Hubie Brooks and George Foster along with head-in-a-box Seaver…
After 30 years in business, Topps started to think outside the box!
I should have posted this on December 26.