Updated as of 11/6/2023

Oddballs & Oddities Page

Mets outfielder Jim "Jimmy" Piersall heads home, backwards, after hitting his 100th career home run in 1963

Enjoy some classic LOONEY TUNES featuring my favorite cartoon loon, DAFFY DUCK! WOO WHOO WHOO WHOO!

Nowbatting19.net Proudly Presents... The "Oddballs & Oddities" Page

1969 Topps 653 Aurelio Rodriguez ERROR

1969 Topps 653 Aurelio Rodriquez?

Topps produced Angels rookie 3rd baseman Aurelio Rodriguez's first card in 1969. Problem was, the photo was not Rodriquez, but Angels batboy Leonard Garcia! No wonder the kid is smiling!

ON this page we are going to feature Oddballs, Oddities, Errors & Variations. These types of players & their cards make collecting so much fun! Enjoy!

1978 Topps 312 Greg Minton

Best TOPPS card ever??? This poor guy... First let me say that I have had my share of horrific photos, notably those generic "school" shots were you get 1 take & get the hell outta here, now. But which Mortician got ahold of this card? Or was it a Topps "artist?" Either way it makes for an All-Time classic baseball card in my book! I will try to post some bad pics of myself if I can find any (I flushed the ones I could down the toilet but you KNOW they are out there in cyberspace getting laughed at as we speak!

1962 Post Cereal Canadian 9 Whitey Ford DODGERS Error

1962 Post Cereal Canadian 9 Whitey Ford DODGERS???

In 1962 Post Cereal issued 200 different baseball cards on the backs of their cereal boxes. Post also issued a set in Canada. While somewhat similar to the regular Post cereal cards here in the states, they have noticeable differences. The biggest difference is the text, written in both English & French. Also the statistics area in completely yellow, while the regular Post cereal cards have either a red (N.L.) or blue (A.L.) border around white in the statistics area. Obviously, the Post Canadian cards are harder to come by, at least down here. So they are very fun to collect. This 1962 Post Cereal Canadian 9 Whitey Ford DODGERS ERROR is one of my favorites. Why? Well being a Dodgers fan there is no love lost on the Yankees, or Giants for that matter. So check out Ford's team- LOS ANGELES DODGERS... "Who goofed? I've got to know!" The error was corrected, but late in the print run so the corrected YANKEES Whitey Ford card is the scarcer of the two. But I like this one better!

What exactly, is an ERROR card? Are all error cards valuable? An error card is a goof, plain & simple. It could be a wrong team or, a wrong player. It can be missing text, statistical errors, grammatical errors. Usually errors are done in printing pre-production. And most of the time they are corrected and proofed. But sometimes they are not caught, and thousands were printed, packaged and shipped off to local grocery stores or markets. Now, there are ERROR cards which are corrected, and there are also error cards that are NOT corrected. These are called "uncorrected" errors (abbr. "UER"). There are probably thousands of error cards out there. Donruss & Fleer alone, probably produced a million of them when they put out their first mainstream sets in 1981 & 1982. So, NO. Not all error cards are valuable. Most in fact, aren't.

The factor that makes an error card is scarcity. Let's use an example: 1990 Topps Frank Thomas NO NAME ON FRONT. A few were produced, but the mistake was caught early on. And probably a million correct 1990 Topps Frank Thomas NAME ON FRONT cards were made. But there are only a few known examples of the ERRROR card. So in this case, the error card IS indeed valuable. Plus you have an ERROR card of a HALL OF FAME player, AND it's his ROOKIE CARD to boot! That is the makings of a rare and treasured ERROR card! There are plenty more examples and we will have several of them here!

1990 Topps 414 Frank Thomas NO NAME ON FRONT - Cardboard Gold!

1990 Topps 414 Frank Thomas NO NAME ERROR

1990 Topps 414 Frank Thomas (Correct version)

" '78 Greg Minton" - Where Art Meets Life

1962 Post Cereal #109 Sandy Koufax Red Lines, Blue Lines - Error/Variation

1962 Post Cereal 109 Sandy Koufax RED Lines Variation

1962 Post Cereal 109 Sandy Koufax BLUE Lines Variation

The Post Cereal cards from 1961-63 have many errors & variations. Among the rarest of these are the 1962 Post Cereal Red line/ Blue lines variations. Three (3) cards in the (200 card) set have this distinct variation: #109 Sandy Koufax (pictured), #124 Joey Jay, & #173 Roberto Clemente. This is really is a pre-production error, before the cards were even printed. No one caught the error, some cards were printed on Post Cereal boxes, & were shipped out to the stores. But not many made it. The error was caught & corrected to the correct red lines in statistics area. The 1962 Post Cereal cards were printed with BLUE borders (& lines) for American League players (cards 1-100) while the National League had RED borders (& lines) in the statistics area. The players affected are all NL players, so they should have had red lines in the stats area. Anyway it makes for a great error'variation, but it is a headache for Post Cereal collector's who want to collect ALL errors & variations!

I have completed 2 of these sets in my time, & the 1962 Post Cereal #124 Joey Jay was always the most difficult to find. I think this is because everyone WOULD keep a Roberto Clemente or a Sandy Koufax, but a JOEY JAY card? Jay was actually a good pitcher & considered a star for the Reds, but you see my point. Regardless, all 3 blue lines variations are expensive today.

1962 Post Cereal 145 Joe "Adock" Error

1962 Post Cereal 149 Joe Adcock (Last name correct)

1962 Post Cereal 149 Joe "Adock" Error (Last name misspelled)

Another difficult error card in the 1962 Post Cereal baseball set is card 149 Joe Adcock. The card was printed with Joe Adcock's name misspelled "Adock." Like the Koufax variation above, this is also an error that should have been caught before the cards were even printed. Because the error was quickly corrected, it is scarce & expensive compared to the "corrected" Joe Adcock card.
This is part of what makes collecting fun! If we didn't have this goofs, gaffs & errors, everything would be perfect? And who wants that?

1966 Topps 447 Dick Ellsworth - Or, has Ken Hubbs Risen From The Grave?

1966 Topps 447 Dick Ellsworth ERROR

1964 Topps 550 Ken Hubbs IN MEMORIAM

"Can someone tell me what this is all about, mister??? (Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek)." First, Ken Hubbs was an up-and-coming star second baseman for the Chicago Cubs . In 1962, Hubbs won both the National League Most Valuable Player AND the Rookie of the Year Awards. However, on February 15, 1964, just a little over 1 month after getting his pilot's license, Hubbs was tragically killed in a plane crash. He and a friend were flying to Colton California (where Hubbs lived) but crashed shortly after taking off from Provo, Utah. He was trying to beat some bad weather. Ken, along with his friend Denny Doyle, were killed in the crash. Hubbs was just 22 years old. In honor of Hubbs, Topps created a special "IN MEMORIAM" card for him in their 1964 baseball set. So, the only 2 Topps cards of him as an active player was 1962 & 1063. Fast forward to 1966. Someone goofed at Topps and instead of picturing Cubs pitcher Dick Ellsworth on card number 447, a photo of Ken Hubbs was used instead. The error was never corrected.

Topps was involved in another goof involving Cubs players in 1963. They issued a regular Ron Santo card (1963 Topps# 252), but also used a photo of Santo on Don Landrum's card (card #113). It was never corrected either (see below).

1963 Topps 113 Don Landrum UER (photo Ron Santo)

1963 Topps 252 Ron Santo

The One & Only... JIM "JIMMY" PIERSALL!

Clip of Anthony Perkins as "Jim Piersall" in the 1957 Motion Picture "Fear Strikes Out"

Bob Uecker announcing: "Jusssst a little bit dramatic..." One of the most entertaining Major League baseball players & personalities, ever, was Jim Piersall. Piersall was a star baseball player for the Boston Red Sox. He had more than a few "episodes," or antics that the press enjoyed printing. A partial list includes but it not limited to: Spanking a teammates kid for misbehaving, fisticuffs with other like-minded players (like fellow heckler and firecracker Billy Martin), kicking fans butts (literally), doing jumping jacks in the outfield to distract Ted Williams while hitting, running around the bases backwards, running into foul poles in the pursuit of fly balls... you can go on and on. Eventually it came out that Piersall was "manic depressive (early term for bipolar disorder)," certainly one of the first athletes/celebrities to be diagnosed in public as such. So, I have a lot of sympathy, and admiration for Jimmy Piersall.

The movie "FEAR STRIKES OUT," starring Anthony Perkins and Karl Malden ("The Streets of San Franscisco") was based on Piersall's book by the same title. Later Piersall said the movie was inaccurate, especially concerning how they portrayed his father. And he said the film made him seem "weird." If you ever watch the film, which is typical 1950s Hollywood dramatics (but good for some lessons on over-acting), you can see Anthony Perkins never played baseball in his life. But the real-life Jim Piersall could and was one of the game's best outfielders his entire career (1950-1957). He was entertaining, likeable, funny and brutally honest. Like when he got fired as a White Sox analyst (alongside Harry Caray) for calling White Sox owner Bill Veeck's wife "a colossal bore," and he also commented that White Sox players wives were "horny broads." He later wrote a hilarious book called "THE TRUTH HURTS" which talks about his life after playing baseball. So below is our little baseball card tribute to the late Jimmy Piersall!

Jimmy Piersall Baseball Card Gallery 1951-1967

Included here is every regular Bowman, Fleer, & Topps card of Jim "Jimmy" Piersall from 1951 to 1967. Jimmy played for the Red Sox, Indians, Senators, Mets, & Angels. Piersall was with the Mets long enough to hit his 100th career home run, in which he proceeded to run the bases, backwards! Unfortunately he was with the Mets so briefly, no regular card was issued of him with the Mets. Most of these cards are easy to find today, though the 1951 Bowman ROOKIE, 1953 Bowman Black & White #36, 1954 Bowman #66, & 1966 Topps #565 SP (Short Print) cards are the toughest to find.

There are many other Jim Piersall issues that were issued during his career. Bazooka, Red Man, O-Pee-Chee (Topps cards issued in Canada), Venezuela Topps & more. These are the regular "basic" Jimmy Piersall cards. You can use your fingers to enlarge the image. Enjoy!

1951 Bowman #306 ROOKIE

1952 Bowman #189

1953 Bowman B&W #36

1954 Bowman #66(b) SP, also card #210

1955 Bowman #16

Bowman issued 2 cards of Piersall in 1954. Originally Ted Williams was card #66, but his card was pulled from production & replaced with #66 Jimmy Piersall. Piersall was already card number 210 in the set. The fronts are identical, with the backs having different card numbers. The #66 Piersall is the scarcest of the two because it was printed in lesser quantities than #210. The 1954 Bowman #66 Ted Williams is very scarce, & is not considered part of a "complete" set.

1956 Topps #143

1957 Topps #75

1958 Topps #280

1959 Topps #355

1960 Topps #159

1961 Topps #345

1962 Topps #51 AL Batting Leaders

1962 Topps #90

1963 Fleer #29

1963 Topps #443

1964 Topps #586

1965 Topps #172

1966 Topps #565 SP

1967 Topps #584 (Final card)

The 1966 Topps #565 Jimmy Piersall was included in the scarce high number series. It was also short printed. Piersall's final Topps card (1967 Topps #584) was also part of the high number series that year as well. Jimmy later became a color commentator with HOF broadcaster Harry Caray with the White Sox. He is gone now, but his cards are a great way to remember the spectacular fielding, & wonderfully entertaining fellow... JIMMY PIERSALL!

For Jim "Jimmy" Piersall

1929 - 2017

"I'm the gooney bird that walked to the bank. I'm doing better than most of those guys who said I was crazy. "

"I've had 117 fights and that's the first time I've ever won."

"Nutrition makes me puke"

Jimmy giving it back to the opposing teams fans

1974 Topps San Diego Padres or Washington Padres? Who goofed... I've got to know!

1974 Topps 250 Willie McCovey (Correct)

1974 Topps 250 Willie McCovey (WASHINGTON variation)

In 1974 it was rumored that the San Diego Padres might be moving to Washington. TOPPS, always ready to push the envelope, went ahead with the rumors and printed most Padres cards with "WASHINGTON/ NAT'L LEA.," instead of "San Diego Padres." Obviously, the move did not happen, leaving Topps to scramble to print correct San Diego Padres cards. This is more an example of a VARIATION, rather than an ERROR card, but either way it makes for some great baseball cards. Oddly, the 1974 Topps Dave Winfield rookie card was not printed with a "Washington" designation. If it had been, it would likely be quite a bit more valuable than the correct version of the card. The 1974 Topps 250 Willie McCovey WASHINGTON variation (pictured) is priced about 2X the value of the regular (San Diego Padres) card.

Topps Don Mossi baseball cards - "A Profile in Courage"

1955 Topps #85 Don Mossi (Rookie card)

1966 Topps #74 Don Mossi

(slightly altered)

1966 Topps #74 Don Mossi

(Authentic)

Either Don Mossi's ears grew in 11 years, or someone "photo-shopped" the 1966 Topps card. I'll have to check that. But poor Mossi. At least I had the chance to destroy my horrific photos. Don Mossi did not and had thousands (& thousands) of his cards printed not only in the U.S.A., but CANADA (O-PEE-CHEE), and VENEZUELA (Venezuela Topps) as well!

By the way... Don Mossi enjoyed a successful 11-year career in the big leagues. He won 101 career games with a fine 3.43 ERA. I would gladly have swapped ears, noses, whatever, to be able to say that. Don Mossi lived to the ripe old age of 90. Which is longer than I'm going to be around!
CONFIRMED! The above 1966 Topps 74 Don Mossi card above (middle) has indeed been "photo-shopped" (altered)! Which is a baseball card "no-no." Shame on whoever committed this baseball card atrocity! As soon as I am done laughing I might remove the card, but it brings me much merriment at the present time. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Baseball cards, with dog food??? - 1954 RED HEART DOG FOOD

1954 Red Heart Billy Martin

(Back view)

Is it me, or does it seem a little weird to issue baseball cards with.... dog food? Red Heart Dog Food did it in 1954. Decades later Ralston Purina made some crappy cards in the "junk" era, but I am not if that was dog food, or people food. Either way, I bet it sucked.

These 1954 Red Heart Dog Food baseball cards do NOT suck! They were well designed, with brightly colored backgrounds. These are not as common as regular TOPPS cards. This is a really cool card of Billy "The Kid" Martin, before the Copacabana incident & the trade to Detroit soon after. Wherever he went, Billy was a fiery, head's up ball player. Off the field, well let's say Billy Martin was very entertaining! The fisticuffs with marshmallow salesmen, the comments ("One's a convicted felon, the other is a born liar..." referring to a Yankees owner & star player), the countless times he was fired for doing these things... Why couldn't they just let Billy MANAGE? Because that was he was born to do, and he was one of the best. He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame as a manager, but he ticked off too many people. So what? He could take a mediocre team and make winners out of them. He could nullify an opposing player's home run (remember the George Brett "pine tar incident'? That was Billy knowing the rule book). Anyways, Billy died being Billy- he was killed in an alcohol-related truck accident on Christmas Day, 1989. He was just 61. Rest in peace Billy.

1970 Topps 670 Ron Santo - Stain variation? PSA Says "Nope." I say Hong Kong "PHOOEY"!

This is an example of an undocumented or "not verified" variation. So look carefully at all (6) 1970 Topps 670 Ron Santo cards (pictured). There are 5 different PSA graded examples, all with different certification numbers. So five different cards. Then I put in an ungraded (or "raw") example as well. Six cards. Notice something similar on all six examples? There is a stain near bottom left corner above "Ron." This stain is on every single one of these cards. same exact stain even. I typed in eBay search for "1970 Topps 670 Ron Santo PSA" and all of these came up. From all over the United States. All the cards are different, but with the same exact stain. There is also a PSA EX-MT 6 Santo with NO stain for comparison.

Now note the grades assigned to each PSA graded card. The first card is mine, PSA NM-MT 8(ST), Cert. 63076428. The "ST" is a qualifier used by PSA to denote a stain, which there is. So why do the other cards not have a (ST) qualifier? So I contact PSA and ask them. And they say, after some delay that in order to be a "variation" it has to be acknowledged by the manufacturer. Which is ridiculous. There are variations that go back to the early tobacco cards. Are you telling me that all those manufacturers acknowledged their mistakes or variations? Here are my thoughts on this; these are a unique variation that no one has bothered to look into. Obviously there are several known examples of this same variation; albeit a "stain." Most of the 1970 Topps 670 Ron Santo cards do NOT have this stain. That is usually the definition of a variation. So, let us now look at 6 different 1970 Santo cards with the exact same stain, and one without the stain. You be the judge whether these should be variations, or if PSA just dropped the ball on these, for a 4-base error!

NOTE- There are more of these "stain" variation cards out there. I found these searching around the internet. However, the stained variation cards are not as "plentiful" as the correct "unstained" version. I say "plentiful, but actually any of the 1970 Topps 670 Ron Santo cards are scarce as they were included in the tougher high number series (card nos. 634-720)

1970 Topps 670 Ron Santo PSA 8(ST)

1970 Topps 670 Ron Santo PSA 6 NO (ST) qualifier?

1970 Topps 670 Ron Santo PSA 8 NO (ST) qualifier?

1970 Topps 670 Ron Santo (ungraded) w/ exact same STAIN

1970 Topps 670 Ron Santo PSA 7 (Common unstained version)

So, if this is NOT a variation, why does PSA give one card a stain qualifier, while NOT the others? Aren't they ALL stained? PSA has made a mistake in not being consistent with their grading on this particular card. If this is not a "variation," which it is, then every one of these PSA cards should have a (ST) qualifier. What's funny is PSA says if I can submit the card to be regraded without the (ST) qualifier, but of course I have to pay regular grading fees. And they also added that without the qualifier they would have to lower the grade of the card, likely no better than a PSA EX 5. Which means basically my card is worth substantially less than all these other cards with the exact same stain. Make sense? Not to me. And you know what? I bet that there is not one person at PSA who was born before 1970. How do I know this? Because of the clueless or ridiculous answers I get to my questions. But hey I get it. I'm old and senile. But I get my "senior" coffee at McDonald's & free literature from FOREST LAWN. I bet those young wiz kids at at PSA don't get that! So "HA-HA... HA-HA!" (Marlon Brando in "A Streetcar Named Desire").

But whatever. We got Chinese "Spy" balloons, mass shootings, earthquakes that kill over 30,000 people, mass shootings, Ukraine fighting for it's survival, cops gone wild, mass shootings... In the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't matter! And all these Ron Santo cards are going to outlive us. I think it's cool these cards survived. And they remind me of when baseball was more of a GAME and less a business. For many years baseball was a great distraction for me. Not anymore. But my website is...

P.S. I am still ticked off the damn National Baseball Hall of Fame waited until Ron Santo had died before they put him in. Same with Dodger great Gil Hodges. Unbelievable. See our very own HALL OF FAME where we don't forget! We had Ron Santo, Tony Oliva, Ted Simmons and Gil Hodges in our HOF years before the "other" HOF got it right. Buttholios. And furthermore, speaking of buttholes...

1978 Topps Football #333 1977 NFL Rushing Leaders Mark van Eeghen/ Walter Payton "NO NAME" Variation

PSA COCK-UP or is it a VARIATION?

1978 Topps 333 1977 NFL Rushing Leaders

(Correct, regular card)

1978 Topps #333 1977 NFL Rushing Leaders van Eeghen/ Walter Payton NO NAME VARIATION- or is it a PSA Cock-up???

This is either a PSA cock-up or a rare variation featuring Hall of Fame running back WALTER PAYTON. Either way, it's a great card. So, there appears to be at least 2 more of these that I have seen online, and all were graded PSA VG-EX 4. The variation card is not only missing the players names, but all the black text including "1977 NFL" and the team names (Raiders, Bears). Because these are not hand cut from a sheet they had to come in wax packs. The card backs are identical. So why does PSA not acknowlege these? Instead PSA labels them as regular cards. They obviously aren't. And what is the difference between this variation and the 1990 Topps Frank Thomas NO NAME & 1982 Topps BLACKLESS cards? It's RARER, that's what. But PSA doesn't seem to understand something they know nothing about. Believe me, I have contacted both Beckett & PSA and because they don't know anything about the card, they just dismiss it. I already know SGC will indeed label it as missing the names or black ink. I had a 1968 Topps 330 Roger Maris BLACKLESS (and it was a true blackless card on front) and SGC labeled it as such. I've never seen another since. So get it together PSA & Beckett and hire some people with more experience who know a thing or two about printing and variations! I do, but they can't pay me enough.

For more on Professional Authenticator/Grading Services see our About Grading Services Page

"BO-PITCHING AND WOOING" by Maury Allen (The Dial Press, 1973)

1962 Topps #592 Rookie Parade Pitchers - "The Odd Couple" on one card!

Yes, it's twoo, it's twoo. On this 1962 Topps #592 Rookie Parade Pitchers card, you not only have one, but two truly "odd" fellows- BO BELINSKY & JIM BOUTON! How's that for a rookie card! Both were not your traditional ballplayer "types." Both happened to come along in the groovy 1960's, and both had their share of fun in the decade. Both players started off with a bang- Belinsky pitched the first No-hit game in (Los Angeles) Angels history, in his rookie season (1963). Bouton, was a young up & coming star pitcher for the New York Yankees, who won 21 games in 1963, 18 wins in 1964, and he also won 2 games in the 1964 World Series (losing to the Cardinals).
Bo Belinsky was a pool hustler & womanizer. Baseball was just a way to make some extra dough. Belinsky was famous for his Hollywood Playboy antics at night, and he was quite pleased to be dating starlets and hitting the nightclubs. He also loved to give "poolside" interviews to the press. The press loved Bo. Too bad he didn't put that much effort into his baseball career. Bo pitched himself out of baseball, but later helped Maury Allen write his life story, called "BO- PITCHING & WOOING (Maury Allen, The Dial Press, 1973)," The title sums it up for Bo's life in the 1960's. But maybe the book should have been called "WOOING & (THEN) PITCHING." Either way, a classic.

Jim Bouton hurt his arm early in his career, so his flame faded fast... until he wrote the Bestselling book "BALL FOUR (Jim Bouton, World Publishing, 1970)." BALL FOUR is a piece of classic baseball literature, written from notes taken during his pitching career through his attempt to comeback to the big leagues as a "knuckleball" pitcher. You knew then he had to be a bit cuckoo. The book is funny, insightful, witty, & considered a classic. It was controversial at the time, as Bouton told it like it was, and a lot of famous ballplayers (& MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn) were not too thrilled about it. Bouton eventually did make brief comebacks with the fledgling Seattle Pilots (1969), Houston Astros and several years later with the Atlanta Braves. During that time, Bouton acted in both movies ("The Long Goodbye" with Elliot Gould- great flick!) and television ("Ball Four"), and helped invent "BIG LEAGUE CHEW," which was (& still is) shredded bubble gum in a tobacco-like pouch. Genius. Sadly both Bo Belinsky & Jim Bouton are no longer around, but they sure made things interesting in their time!

The 1962 Topps #592 Rookie Parade Pitchers Jim Bouton/Bo Belinsky ROOKIE card was part of the scarcer high numbered series. Hence, it is fairly expensive, nearly $100 in a PSA 7 holder. Bo woulda loved that!
There is a very scarce promotional card created by Dial Press to promote the book "BO-PITCHING AND WOOING." The card front uses this image (pictured) from the book and I will have to post one here shortly. I love the book title, image of Bo with his cigarette holder, sitting on the seats of his convertible Cadillac, holding his arms out, overlooking Hollywood (or San Fernando Valley, either way, L.A. baby). For a day or two, maybe Bo really was "King of L.A." The card was printed in 1973,

1987 Topps Stickers Hardback Test - Scarcer 1980's issue loaded with stars!

1987 Topps Stickers 273 Kirk Gibson

Hardback Test

1987 Topps Stickers 294 Don Mattingly

Hardback Test

1987 Topps Stickers 106 Tony Gwynn

Hardback Test

Topps experimented with various "test issues" in their long history. Among them are these 1987 Topps Stickers Hardback Test cards. Unlike the Panini stickers (printed in Italy) , these were printed here and are actually sticker "cards." The Panini stickers are flimsy, while these are more like "cards." The Harback Test sticker cards are also rare compared to the plentiful Panini issue. On the card backs is a contest for a chance to win a trip to Spring Training in 1988.

Key cards in the set include rookie year cards of Barry Bonds, Will Clark, Mark McGwire, plus the final cards of Steve Garvey, Pete Rose (as a player), & Tom Seaver. I like the Don Mattingly & Tony Gwynn sticker cards. Along with Wade Boggs, these 3 won most of the batting titles in the 1980's thru early 1990's. The Kirk Gibson is also a favorite of mine; I saw him & his heroics in the 1984 World Series vs. the Padres, and wouldn't you know he was traded to the Dodgers for the 1988 season. And all year long, Kirk Gibson was clutch, either with a key hit, stolen base, sensational catch, or head's up base-running. And we all know what he did in just one at-bat in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series! Gibson is not in the National Hall of Fame, but he IS in our Hall of Fame! Check out our new Nowbatting19.net Hall of Fame Page! We will have Ron Guidry (also pictured with Pete Rose) in our HOF shortly, so stay tuned.

1987 Topps Stickers Hardback Test Pete Rose/ Ron Guidry

1987 Topps Stickers Hardback Test Andres Galarraga/ Tom Seaver

1989 Fleer 616 Bill Ripken FF Variation- All 5 of them! And what does "FF" stand for anyway?

Common

1989 Fleer 616 Bill Ripken FF Variation

Less Common

1989 Fleer 616 Bill Ripken Black Box

Scarcer

1989 Fleer 616 Bill Ripken Black Scribble

In 1989 Fleer issued card number 616 (it would have been nice if they had made it number 666, "The Number Of The Beast" - IRON MAIDEN) featuring Cal Ripken's younger brother, Billy. Billy being ever so clever, marked on the knob of his bat "FF" with a magic marker. Then he posed with the bat when the Fleer photographer took the photo for this card. Of course this caused quite a commotion at Fleer I am sure, so Fleer attempted 4 more times to get it corrected. The 5 variations rom the commonest (1) to the rarest (5) are:

1. "FF" on knob, 2. Black box over "FF, 3. "FF" scribbled over in black," 4. "FF" whited out, & 5."FF" scribble over in white

Unbelievable. While PSA calls these "ERROR" cards, they are not really errors because an error is a mistake that somebody made without knowing about it. Billy Ripken knew what he was doing. Actually these are VARIATIONS, all (5) of them, not error cards. Of course the "FF" variation is the card everyone wants, but the whited out & white scribble variations are the scarcest of the five. As of 2/22/2023, PSA has graded just 103 of the "scribbled out in white," & 151 of the "whited out" variations. The "black scribble is next in scarcity with 1,198 graded, followed by the "black box" variation at 3025 copies. The original "FF" card that everyone thinks is rare is actually the easiest one to get! PSA has graded 10,940 of them! That is NOT rare. And that is not counting all the unopened boxes & cases still out there. Remember this was the time when card manufacturers were printing way too many cards. So prices plummeted, and some of it you couldn't give away! Until the professional grading services began grading GEM MINT 10 examples. The last 1989 Fleer 616 Bill Ripken FF variation (the most common variation), graded by PSA as GEM MINT 10 sold for $430 (eBay auction 2/21/2013)! Yippeekiyay mother#$@$er (Bruce Willis in DIE HARD). In contrast, the rarest "scribbled out in white" variation last sold three year ago for $877.56 (eBay auction 2020). When one comes up for sale in the near future, it might very well sell for more than that. PSA has graded just 14 "scribbled out in white" cards. That's rare.

PSA populations current as of 2/22/2023
P.S. - Billy RIpken is a punk

Rare

1989 Fleer 616 Bill Ripken Whited Out Vulgarity

Rarest!

1989 Fleer 616 Bill Ripken Scribbled Out In White

"M - i - c... k - e - y... M - o - u - s - e"/ Lew Burdette Error x2/ Talkin on the telephone???

1976 Topps Traded 74T Oscar Gamble

After including several "TRADED" cards in 1972, Topps came out with a separate Traded Set for 1974 & 1976. Among the highlights is this amazing 'Fro proudly displayed by Oscar Gamble! Note Topps amateurish attempt to show us Oscar in his new "Yankees" uniform. Wouldn't it just have been easier to take a photo of Oscar in his new uniform?

1976 Golden Press Walt Disney Mickey Mouse Book

Simply uncanny!

1959 Topps 440 Lew Burdette UER

Lew Burdette pulled a fast one on the Topps photographer for this photo. A right-handed pitcher, Lew switched to a lefty for this photo. Of course neither the photographer or Topps caught it & the error (or prank) was never corrected. Topps compounded it further by misspelling Lew's first name ("Lou"). So now you have 2 goofs on 1 card!

1994 Collector's Choice 240 Cal Ripken Jr.

I'm sure this isn't Ripken's fault, but this was a problem during the "junk" era of cards (1980s through 1990s)- being "clever" with fresh ideas for creative cards Notice the now obsolete early cell phone Cal Ripken is holding. Now why in world would you want a card of a baseball player holding a phone? At least this Ripken didn't write "FF" on the bottom of the phone. Cal Ripken Jr. had a little more class than his punk brother, Billy.

"My... that's a BIG one..." -Scorpio (Andy Robinson) to Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) in "DIRTY HARRY"

1976 Topps 564 Joe Garagiola/Bazooka Joe Bubble Gum Blowing Champ - Kurt Bavacqua

Dodgers Manager Tommy Lasorda said of Kurt Bevacqua, "He couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat." While Lasorda was right (Bevacqua batted .236 lifetime), Bevacqua was actually one of the hitting stars of the 1984 World Series, batting .412 with 2 HR in a losing cause for the San Diego Padres. He also could blow gigantic bubble gum bubbles! And in 1976, Topps printed a card of the 1976 Joe Garagiola/Bazooka Joe Bubble Gum Blowing Champ to prove it! Take that, Tommy!

" My... that's a big one..."

Where to start... This is the kind of crap that came out in the 1990's- absolute CRAP. And these are just 2 examples of the billions or trillions of crappy cards that were mass-produced by greedy (crappy) manufacturers. I mean, what exactly is the Jose "No Way" Canseco card even trying to be? A Christmas ornament? It really has way too much going on & it makes me dizzy looking at it. In 1 word- Crap! P.S - Jose is a butholio!

The "Classic" baseball sets I believe had trivia on back. But certainly these cards are not "classic" in the traditional sense. They are however, "Classic Crap.". Look at the card design- have you ever seen something so hideously crappy? Couldn't they just have dropped the borders alltogether and have just the photo on front? Did they have to actually pay an "artist" to come up with this (crappy) "bile-looking"piece of cardboard crap? It looks like someone ate a blueberry pie and upchucked it on this Bonds (Barry) card. And Classic made even more ugly (crap) cards. I can't believe someone would waste a minimum of $14 (not including shipping to and from PSA) to have this piece of crap graded! I never thought I would live to see the day a "Classic" card (crap), from the 1990's era of crap-ola, slabbed in a PSA holder. It's like taking a turd (crap) & freezing it so that you can look at it (crap) forever! Unbelievable. These are the types of crappy cards that "cause riots & maggots." See video clip below for more "crap," & "filth."

"Classic" Crap & filth

Have you ever seen such crap???

"...crap & more crap..." "That's what starts riots & maggots!" -"Palm Apodaca" in "Five Easy Pieces"

Questions? Comments? Please email me at Nowbatting19@yahoo.com (Just don't give me any "crap")

"This is a DAMN fine cup of coffee!" - FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper

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