Thanks Scott!!! Looks Like the Mantle Mystery is Solved.

Scott Crawford may have come up with the answer to "Is This Real?: 1956 Bowman Mickey Mantle."

It seems that the card may have been an insert from a Baseball Cards Magazine from October, 1988. The theme was "The Cards that Never Were" and included a 1974 Topps "Washington Nat'l League" Dave Winfield, a 1952 Bowman Jackie Robinson, and the aforementioned 1956 Bowman Mantle.

An auction is on eBay right now for this exact panel with the Mantle card.  Here are the pictures:

That solves the mystery I guess. Unfortunately, because the card is an insert, specifically from a competitor that no longer exists, even The Number One Source in the Hobby won't even price this card. So I'm going to have to inform Mr. Flachs that his card is an insert and might not be worth much.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Is This Real?: 1956 Bowman Mickey Mantle

I get emails all the time from people asking about cards and how much they are worth. This one threw me for a loop. After getting permission to post the pictures onto the blog, I am finally getting around to writing this one.

Patrick Flachs sent me this email on Monday, December 31:

I have a Mickey Mantle outfield New York Yankees card. It says #1 anC it is a Bowman card and I think it is 1956. Can't find the value of this card. Hoping you could help. He is holding a bat and looking to the right and it is brown card on the outside in a circled picture.

Thanks

Okay, a few red flags here. Bowman and 1956. Now we all know that Topps acquired Bowman before the company could make a set in 1956. So I responded:

Bowman did not make cards in 1956 as the company was bought by Topps that year. Also, none of Mantle's cards were #1, Topps or Bowman, during his playing days.

Based on your description, you have a 1955 Bowman #202 card (looks like an old tv)...

I asked him to send a scan of the card so I can get a closer look at it. This is what he sent:

What many might not know is that before the acquisition, Bowman sent surveys to boys (about 324) to determine what the design would be for their next baseball product. After surveying kids in New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia, the choices were narrowed down to three: a knothole design, a two-picture design, and a full-bleed design with a black box holding the name, position, and team affiliation which looks similar to their 1953 effort. Books were created in a top-secret file titled "1956 Baseball Card Preference Study." But then Topps bought out Bowman, and these books were thought to be lost to the annals of time. It was not until 1983 when two of these books were found in the personal collection of Woody Gelman, the legendary Topps designer, who had saved these as keepsakes. The books, which were put on auction, sold for $10,440.00.  The Topps Archives also did a feature on these books.

Now Keith Olbermann, to call him a collector is an understatement, also had a copy of this book and brought it to Topps Headquarters. The designs were eventually used to create what is now 2003 Bowman Heritage. The knothole design was used for prospects cards within the set.

Back to the point.

I was stunned. STUNNED. Only because I remembered the history of how the Bowman Heritage set came to be (even though I never collected it, I should have the Beckett magazine somewhere that explains all of it...see, printed magazines are worth something after all). So when I saw the pictures...my jaw dropped. I had never seen this card before, and had to ask him:

Where did you find this card? While Bowman did not have a set because Topps bought them out...The card in your hands (the knothole design) would have been an example of what the 1956 Bowman set would have looked like if they made it...

If the card is indeed authentic, then what you have a real find on your hands as not too many of these cards have ever been seen before. Would you mind if I used your pictures and put them on my blog? I'm sure that there are people out there who would know a lot more about your card than I do.

After looking at the scans, all I can say is, "Wow!"

While Mr. Flachs did not go into specifics as to how he found this card, he did offer to send better pictures. Here they are:

Doing a quick check online, I did find one other picture of this Mantle card. But there is no explanation as to what it is, or anything about it's authenticity.

I also know that Hires Root Beer, in 1958, used this design for their baseball cards. But the checklist starts with #10 (Richie Ashburn), and if you look at the example of the Aaron card below, there is a dash between the position and team name. The Mantle card above uses a comma.  (Mantle was also not on the Hires checklist).

Okay, I am no vintage expert. All I have are old books that focus on cards of the past, and of course, the interwebs. I even went onto the Mantle Baseball Cards website and didn't find anything.

I did tell Mr. Flachs that I would put this on the blog to see if anybody out there can verify the truth of this card's existence, and if so, can give an estimated value on the card if it is fact real.

I wish the guy the best of luck.  If his card can indeed be verified as authentic, he has a real find on his hands.   But can somebody, anybody, provide more insight and information about this card?  I think we could all use the history lesson behind this card.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 2006 Topps #274 Clint Hurdle

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Thursday, January 03, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2006 Topps #274.
• Name, position, team: Clint Hurdle, manager, Colorado Rockies.
• Major League Debut: September 18, 1977. Managerial Debut: April 26, 2002.
• Last Line of Statistics: 2005 stats (Rockies): 67-95 5th (NL West).
• Any special information about manager: Promoted to Manager 04/26/2002.
• Any special information about this specific card: Hurdle's eleventh regular Topps card, fourth as a manager (total includes both Topps and Topps Traded cards).
• Commentary: Hey, the Randomizer picked another Clint Hurdle Manager card. By the end of the 2005 season, Hurdle had a 209-255 career managerial record, and was slowly climbing the ranks in all-time wins as a manager for the Colorado Rockies (behind Don Baylor, the team's first skipper). He would eventually get there, finishing with 534 wins as the Rox' leader.  It is said that it always gets worse before it gets better. And in 2005, it surely got worse. The team finished 67-95, one game worse than the year before. But the improvement was going to come soon. In 2006, the team finished in fourth place, and improved by nine games from the year before. Then of course, we know what happened in 2007: He led the 2007 Rockies through an incredible 14-1 run to win the NL Wild Card, a 3-0 sweep over the Phillies in the NLDS, and a 4-0 sweep over the Diamondbacks in the NLCS. So until the World Series, the Rockies were on an incredible 21-1 swing.  He was let go by the Rockies in 2009, and returned to the managerial ranks in 2011 with the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Under his guidance, the Bucs have found themselves in fourth place in two consecutive seasons, and very close to having a winning season for the first time since 1992.  
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.07-$0.20.
• How many cards of this person do I own?: 14 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 1994 Topps #675. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Until tomorrow everybody.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Team Set of the Week: 2012 Topps Oakland Athletics

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Team Set of the Week:

• Team: 2012 Oakland Athletics
• Record: 94-68, first place, AL West Division.
• Manager: Bob Melvin
• Card on the Top: Jemile Weeks

The checklist consists of the following players:

• OAK1 Jemile Weeks
• OAK2 Cliff Pennington
• OAK3 Coco Crisp
• OAK4 Dallas Braden
• OAK5 Kurt Suzuki
• OAK6 Seth Smith
• OAK7 Scott Sizemore
• OAK8 Brandon Allen
• OAK9 Tom Milone
• OAK10 Brandon McCarthy
• OAK11 Michael Taylor
• OAK12 Brett Anderson
• OAK13 Collin Cowgill
• OAK14 Josh Reddick
• OAK15 Brad Peacock
• OAK16 Rich Harden
• OAK17 Oakland Alameda County Colliseum

The cards in order from the set (the checklist at the end was cut from the back of the package. What, you don't do that?):

Key differences between the team set and 2012 Topps eponymous set:

• Rich Harden does not appear in either 2012 Topps or 2012 Topps Update Series.  This is the only product you will find a card of him using the 2012 Topps design.

• Slide, Jemile Weeks, Slide!!!:
  
  

• It's Cliff Pennington in an Athletics Jersey...from 1986??? (Looking at 2011 A's promos, there was an 80's weekend...):
  
  

• Here is Coco Crisp, sliding into whatever base this is on his base card:
  
  

• You get to see more of the same picture on Dallas Braden's base card:
  
  

• Seth Smith was with the Rockies the year before, and Topps photoshopped the A's jersey onto the picture. Next to his base card is the card found in Update Series:
  
  

• Same deal with Tom Milone (or Tommy Milone) because the year before, he pitched for the Nationals:
  
  

• Josh Reddick was celebrating with the Red Sox in his base card and he was named to the 2011 All-Star Rookie Team. While his Red Sox card does not have the cup, the short-printed card found in Series 2 (with the same number) does:
  
  

• In the same deal that sent Milone to the Athletics, here is Brad Peacock in his National duds in his Series 1 card, and in his Athletics jersey in Update Series:
  
  

So of the 16 players included in this set, eight feature pictures of players that you will only find in the retail set.  The Reddick card threw me for a loop, but then I remembered that it was an SP.  Nice to see that the retail set used the same picture, but without the Rookie Cup (the same situation here with Blue Jays catcher J. P. Arencibia).  The 2012 retail sets contained a lot of variations between the eponymous base and traded sets and the retail ones, which is great if you're a fan of team sets and want a bit more variation to your regular cards.  Speaking of 2012...

Next week's featured set will be the 2012 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Hope you'll be here when we compare the cards from the retail set to their counterparts found in Topps and Topps Update Series.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1995 Topps Traded and Rookies #31T Todd Steverson

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Wednesday, January 02, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1995 Topps Traded and Rookies.
• Player Name, position, team: Todd Steverson, outfielder, Detroit Tigers.
• Major League Debut: April 28, 1995.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1994 stats (Knoxville, AA-Southern): 124 G, 415 AB, 59 R, 109 H, 24 2B, 5 3B, 9 HR, 38 RBI, 20 SB, .410 SLG, 71 BB, 112 SO, .263 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Blue Jays, #1st, June 1992.  Selected by the Tigers in the Rule V Draft 12/05/1994. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 2. This is his second and final Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Under the rules of hte Rule 5 Draft, teams are required to retain selections on their ML roster the entire season.  Todd, drafted from Toronto, didn't need the "grandfather clause" in 1995, proving he belonged.  The former Arizona State All-American and cousin of ex-Tiger Ron Leflore."
• Commentary: You can't call Todd Steverson, a veteran of 31 games in two major league seasons, a one Topps Card wonder.  He appeared in the 1993 Topps set as a Draft Pick of the Blue Jays, something you couldn't have in today's baseball card world.  Oh well.  As a Rule V draftee, the Tigers had to keep Steverson on their roster for the year or send him back to the team who left him out in the market.  With the Tigers in 1995, he appeared in 30 games, hit .262 with two home runs and six rbi's as a bench player.  He was out for significant amounts of time due to injuries though, but he did remain on the MLB roster for the year (nine games on a rehab stint not included).  The following year, he was traded to the Padres and struck out in his only at bat in 1996.  It would also be his final appearance as a major league player.  He ended his playing career in 1998 and since then has been a coach and manager in the minor leagues, and a first base coach for the Oakland Athletics.  He made headlines in 2012 when, as acting manager for the Stockton Ports, ordered an intentional balk in an attempt to end an 18 inning ballgame where even position players where taking the mound.  In his defense, he says he was trying to protect his players, and did not want either pitchers or position players hurt.  Noble, but he was given a one-year suspension.
• Beckett value: $0.07-$0.20.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 2 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be 2006 Topps #274. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Hope you will be too.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1984 Topps #637 Philadelphia Phillies '83 Batting & Pitching Leaders

It's a brand new year, and the Topps Card Randomizer is running at full strength since October. The Randomizer now includes 2012 Topps and Update Series cards (991 cards) to the spreadsheet and who knows what else will come up as the year progresses.

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Tuesday, January 01, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1984 Topps #637.
• Player Name, position, team:  Gary Matthews, outfielder, Philadelphia Phillies; John Denny, pitcher, Philadelphia Phillies.
• Special:  Batting & Pitching Leaders:  Philadelphia Phillies
• Commentary: When I first seriously started collecting Topps cards back in 1989, I noticed that Topps, within the realm of their 792 card sets, always made room for team leader cards.  Which, when sorting sets into teams, made sense when cards included EVERYBODY, down to the third-string catcher and mop up reliever.  The manager included the checklist of the players on the team, down to the position, and occasionally, their uniform number.  The team leader card included the batting and pitching leaders in a number of key categories, often including players who do not get the recognition the stars of the team usually get.  When I started buying sets from years prior to 1986, I began to see that the way things were done in 1989 were not always the case.  For instance, in 1984, the team leader cards did not include the team leaders in key stats, but a team checklist (for the record, the manager's cards included the man's playing statistics and managerial statistics).  However, the cards featured two players Topps considered the batting and pitching leaders for each team.  In the case of the Phillies, the defending NL Champions, the subjects included Gary Matthews, who lead the team in batting average with .258 (among those who would qualify for the batting title anyway); and John Denny, who went 19-6 with a sparkling 2.37 ERA that year. All 26 batting & pitching leader cards feature the teams batting average and ERA leaders.  Nothing against Sarge, but Topps could have picked Mike Schmidt to represent the batting leaders.  Why?  Because Schmidt led the team in homers (40 to Matthews' 10), rbi's (109 to 50), and maintained a .255 average.  Schmidt even had higher percentages in the OBP/SLG/OPS department ( .399/.524/.923 to .352/.374/.727).  But this was 1984.  Batting averages carried a lot more weight in the statistics world (and on cardboard) than the other percentages, so that's why Matthews got the card.  Even on a team that included Steve Carlton, Willie Hernandez, and Tug McGraw, there was no doubt that John Denny was the pitching star of the Phils that year, even winning the Cy Young Award.  In 1984, Sarge was traded to the Cubs and led the league in walks (103) and on base percentage (.410) while providing protection to the "Daily Double" combination of Bob Dernier (who was traded in the same deal) and Ryne Sandberg.  Denny, on the other hand, missed all of June due to injury in 1984. Although he went 7-7 in his decisions, he still finished the year with a 2.45 ERA, 94 K's, and a WHIP of 0.978. 
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.08-$0.25.

Tomorrow's card will be: 1995 Topps Traded and Rookies #31T. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. We're looking back at a card from 1995 here on the blog tomorrow.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Updating the Sports Card Blogroll to 2013 Standards

And the first post of the year on this humble little blog is a post to update the Sports Card Blogroll.  Now, in 2012, I was a bit lax, letting inactive blogs slide into 7 months of inactivity.  It is my hope to be a bit proactive when updating the SCBR this year.

Let's review the numbers from the last time I ran this:

After removing the last round of inactive blogs from the roster, I had a list of 350 blogs on the Sports Card Blogroll.  As of this morning, January 1, 2013, there were 357.  Today, the following blogs will be removed due to six and seven months of inactivity:

• No Relics Pulled
• Sharpe Since 92
• Chef's Cards
• Cool Breeze Baseball Buzz
• The Bullpen Cardboard
• Card Anathema
• Silver Slugger
• Hey, That's Mine!
• HoopsHobby
• gratzi's collection
• Cards Beyond Oceans
• Old School Breaks
• The 87 Topps Project
• Project '62
• Pirates Treasure Room
• A Giant Blog
• Drinking the Orange Kool-Aid
• The Zistle Blog

Eighteen blogs taken off will bring the list of active blogs on the SCBR down to 339 to start of the new year. By the time I was done cleaning up the blogroll in December, 2011 (I missed January, 2012), we had 338.  That means the blogroll had a net gain of +1 for all of 2012.  So maybe 400 blogs was a bit too optimistic.  At this point, I'll be happy if the blogroll can reach 350 by next year.  But that will mean that people must keep on posting.  People have to keep on writing.  We need new voices in 2013 and I hope that the voices from the past come back to bring their insights into the Hobby Blogging Community.

If you or somebody you know has a blog about the Hobby that we all love (that of Sports Card Collecting), and you don't see it on here, please e-mail me at bdj610@hotmail.com.  If your site has been removed from the site and you plan on making a comeback, please let me know as well.  The medium has seen some of it's best writers moving on to ply their writings to other sites.  It's time that we as a community get back to its independent roots and make our voices heard as well.  Have a good 2013 ladies and gentlemen.  Let's keep the journey going.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama