Five More Baseball Card Firsts That May Surprise You
The first installment in this series looked at five Hobby firsts and traced them back to their surprising beginnings. In this installment, we take a look at five more, ranging from the first baseball cards with stats on the back to an early precursor to Topps NOW.
Stat Backs
Today we take it for granted that most baseball cards we flip over will have stats on the back. However, this was not at all the case in the early days of collecting. For example, most of the earliest baseball card sets either featured blank backs (e.g., 1887-1890 Old Judge) or advertisements (e.g., 1909-1911 T206). Notably, the first sets from Topps (1951, or if you count it, 1948), Bowman (1948), and Leaf (1949) all whiffed on stat lines, though Topps would get there in 1952 and Bowman in 1953.
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However, turn back the clock four decades and statistics could be found with (at least!) three different tobacco issues: 1911 Mecca Double Folders (T201), 1911 American Tobacco Company "Gold Borders" (T205), and the final series (Type 3) of the 1909-11 Obak (T212).
Admittedly, the stat lines back then are hardly what we're blessed with today, but they no doubt got the job done for the collectors of the era.
Magic Motion
In 1986, upstart Sportflics took the Hobby by storm with its "magic motion" debut offering. For some card collectors, these cards represented their first experiences with this new baseball card technology. Other collectors simply recognized the magic motion cards as bigger and better versions of the 7-Eleven Slurpee coins they'd been enjoying since as early as 1983.
Back up a couple of decades, however, and you'll find similar technology employed on a wonderful pinback of Japan's home run king, Sadaharu Oh. (Alternatively, you can find similar pins of Dodger aces Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale that same year, but the magic motion on those isn't nearly as exciting.)
Mascot Cards
Reactions ranged from smiles to groans when Topps introduced mascot cards as part of its 2007 Opening Day release. While for some collectors these cards of Mr. Met, the Swinging Friar, and Dinger might have been their first experience with mascot cards, the history of such cards goes much further back.
For example, TCMA produced numerous minor league sets with mascots between 1975 and 1986, and Donruss famously included cards of the Chicken from 1982-1984.
Still, if you're looking for a truly old mascot card, head back almost a full century more to the Old Judge set of 1887-1890. (And if you don't want Hall of Fame catcher Buck Ewing "ruining" your mascot card, no worries. Little Willie Breslin has solo cards in the set as well.)
Reversed Image Errors
A near grail card for Braves fans is the hard-to-find 1989 Upper Deck reversed image card of Dale Murphy.
However, 32 years earlier Topps had their own reversed image card of a Braves immortal. Head back even earlier, to the 1940 Play Ball set, and you'll find a reversed image card of Washington's Buddy Lewis. Still, reversed image errors date back nearly three full decades before that, with at least one in the 1909-1911 "White Borders" T206 set and another in the 1911 "Gold Borders" T205 set. (Head to this amazing photo gallery from Andrew Aronstein to spot the latter.)
Topps NOW
Without a doubt, Topps NOW cards, which debuted in 2016, genuinely did originate with Topps. Look at the name after all! A player does something great, and Topps has the card for sale the very next day. Quite a contrast to when Reggie Jackson hit five homers in the 1977 World Series and fans had to wait until at least March to nab their "record breaker" card of Mr. October.
Fittingly, it was "44" years before Reggie's fantastic feat, back in 1933, that young collectors could scoop up cards of that year's Fall Classic. The final series of 1933 Goudey, skip numbered 107-114, 121-127, and 232-240, not only featured card's of the main participants but also included highlights of the Series itself. Check the back of Joe Cronin's card 109, and you'll read this description, for example.
“Led the Senators to the American League championship in his first season as manager of the club, although his club was beaten in the World Series with the Giants…”
- 1933 Goudey Joe Cronin #109
Well, that does it for the second installment of surprising baseball card firsts. Tune in next time for some much deeper cuts!
Jason A. Schwartz is a collectibles expert whose work can be found regularly at SABR Baseball Cards, Hobby News Daily, and 1939Bruins.com. His collection of Hank Aaron baseball cards and memorabilia is currently on exhibit at the Atlanta History Center, and his collectibles-themed artwork is on display at the Honus Wagner Museum and PNC Park.