Last week, I started the week with a post about cards that I got from JT at The Writer's Journey.
This week, I'm starting the week with a post about a card that I got from JT at the Writer's Journey.
I'll admit it: I had never heard of Bert Kaempfert before this song. Of course, Kaempfert wrote such standards as "Strangers in the Night" and Wayne Newton's signature song "Danke Schoen." Perhaps I should have heard of him before this song.
Anyway, back to baseball cards. Last year, Topps had a bunch of online exclusives that they sold in sets of anywhere from 5 to 8 cards and which were available only for a week. They were called the "Throwback Thursday" collection. While I promised not to rant as much this year, this one's worth a rant. Topps issued a total of 185 "Throwback" cards last year, with designs ranging from the 1988 Topps Glossy All-Stars Design to 1957-58 Basketball (showing guys like Lou Brock and Satchel Paige but annoyingly talking about the card design instead of the player on the back).
So, these cards look great, in my opinion. It's fun to see old football card designs used for baseball. In fact, that might be a better use for Topps Archives.
Amongst the 185 Throwback cards, there were SIXTEEN cards that had Aaron Judge on it (and 21 cards with the Yankees). There were, though, three teams that only got featured on 1 card. I'm pretty sure the "most disdained" team has to be the Detroit Tigers. The only representation they got was having Michael Fulmer on a 1997-98 Bowman's Best Basketball "Mirror Image" design with Aaron Judge (they shared being rookies of the year, you see, so that makes them mirror images).
Otherwise, the other two team to get the "one-card" shrift both got their single card in the same "set." 475 people purchased the TBT set featuring the 1968 Topps Baseball Design -- a true cop out set in light of the fact that it was the Heritage design already last year -- and those 475 people got the only cards featuring a Cincinnati Red (Johnny Bench) and the only card featuring a Milwaukee Brewer -- Paul Molitor.
The backs of these cards each note that this set -- "Throwback Thursday Set 5" -- all featured players that did not have their own rookie cards by themselves. All of them (Bench, Molitor, Andre Dawson, Nolan Ryan, Carlton Fisk, and Willie Stargell) had to share.
This kind of money grab is where I'm fine with Topps being completely oblivious to the fact that baseball exists outside of New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Even though this is a really cool looking card -- which I am very thankful to JT for sending to me -- I'm 100% okay with Topps soaking all the Judgeaholics and taking their $20 a pop every single week.
That's right Topps -- just give them The Judge.
My thanks again to JT for the excellent addition to my Paul Molitor collection!
Bert Kaempfert also produced the first professional recordings by The Beatles, mostly backing fellow Englishman Tony Sheridan on recordings for the German market.
ReplyDeleteFor quite awhile, I refused to look at the lyrics for "One Week," because I wanted the BNL's to be singing "Bert Campaneris" instead of Bert Kaempfert, because baseball needs to be mentioned more in pop music (thank you, Beastie Boys).
ReplyDeleteI have been able to totally ignore the Throwback online sets. Out of sight, out of mind works quite well.
This was the first time that I'd ever seen or held a TBT card, and it was the first time I looked into the sets to see what was in them. If there are more Brewers this year, that's cool -- I hope others buy the sets and send me the Brewers. I am with you on it though...no thanks.
DeleteThis is the only set I bought. The plan was to keep Bench and flip the rest, hope to make most of the money back. Didn't work.
ReplyDeleteThere is another Reds card, at least in my judgment. The 1986 Football "MLB Stars Representing their Countries" show Griffey in a Reds uniform, even though the "team" is listed as USA. Instead of buying the set, I waited for it to hit eBay and picked it up.
JT, The Writer's Journey
Yes, I cheated and used Trading Card Database, which listed it as USA. So, in reality, the Brewers were even more disrespected. As always! :-)
ReplyDeleteI haven't really gotten into these TBT sets. Seen them a few times show up on blogs, but after looking at their site, I think the only one I would actually pick up is the 85T USA Baseball design with the Winter Olympic athletes. Even then... $19.99 + shipping is a lot of dime box cards.
ReplyDelete