What it does mean, is that Topps is the only company that has the right to use MLB and team trademarks on their cards. Upper Deck, the only other company that matters (for now), still has a deal with the players' union, which give them likeness rights, but nothing else. I hope you like extreme close-up headshots!

Who is responsible for all this? Michael Eisner. The man who turned Disney into a worldwide entertainment behemoth bought Topps in 2007 and has now worked his synergistic Monopoly-playing skills on the baseball card market. He's says it's all about the kids.

"This is redirecting the entire category toward kids," said Eisner, who acquired the company in 2007. "Topps has been making cards for 60 years, the last 30 in a nonexclusive world that has caused confusion to the kid who walks into a Wal-Mart or a hobby store. It's also been difficult to promote cards as unique and original."

In other words, baseball cards were fun—and more lucrative—when only one company controlled the entire market. So shouldn't Michael Eisner's company control that market again? Why not? He gave us The Emperor's New Groove, the National Treasure franchise, and Herbie: Fully Loaded. I wouldn't want to live in an America that couldn't do that.

Baseball Gives Topps an Exclusive Deal [NY Times]
Morning Reaction: Pondering the Topps' Exclusive [Beckett Blog]
Hold On A Second: People Still Collect Baseball Cards?Sportress of Blogitude]
Baseball Card Reseller Cries Foul As Major Leagues Try To Call it Out [Courthouse News Service]

Since there's been so much talk about old baseball cards lately, I thought I'd show you this clip, which is an excerpt from a YouTube video I was sent this morning (longer version below). Fiumano is the producer of New York Rocks, a television show on Staten Island Cable that draws, according to his web site, more than a million viewers on Monday, Tuesday and Friday nights. Sit Down: The Baseball Card Show, which also features baseball card expert Brian Cotaquet (he's the one on the left), is just one in an eclectic array of entertainment segments, among them celebrity interviews (such as ... Miss America!) and live music.

Hey, how come I've never been invited on? You've wounded me deeply, Phil.

I've pretty much concluded that Phil Fiumano and his Paulie Walnuts interviewing style represents all that is right with America. Long live local cable TV, and long live short-sleeved shirts with suit jackets.

Sit Down: Baseball Card Talk [YouTube]
New York Rocks [MySpace]

If you're like me, you've been following the story of Bernice Gallego, who recently sold an 1869 Peck & Snyder baseball card, depicting a team photo of the Cincinnati Red Stockings, on eBay for $75,285. The original story in the Fresno Bee makes the claim that the card set — of which there are only three or four examples in existence — represents the oldest known baseball card.

But then I got a e-mail this morning from a TV personality who says that is not true. (Hint: It's not Jon Stewart. He's not speaking to us ever since we ran this).

Rick,

Not that this matters, but the PR blitz about "the oldest known card" has been so relentless that it requires a little pushback.

It ain't.

Cards are known from 1868 (team picture of the Brooklyn Atlantics), 1863 (cards of players like Harry Wright that doubled as tickets to an All-Star Baseball/Cricket tournament), and some other time in the 1860's (a memorial to the game's first superstar, Jim Creighton).

And by golly, it only took me a minute on the internets to find the Brooklyn Atlantics card (pictured). From Cycleback.com:

The Trade Cards distributed by Peck and Snyder are generally regarded as the first baseball cards. They were the first 'mass produced' advertising cards with a baseball theme. Peck and Snyder was a manufacturer of baseball equipment, and their cards featured prominent teams of the day.

And, in fact, here's another, earlier card circa 1865 depicting Dave Birdsall, who would later play on that 1869 Red Stockings team (name misidentified on the card pictured).

The distinction, I guess, is that the 1869 Red Stockings card is the first card depicting a truly professional team; in other words, the first team on a baseball card that actually drew paychecks for playing baseball. That distinction seems rather arbitrary to me. Uniforms, handlebar mustaches, pomade ... yep, that's a baseball team. So the 1869 Red Stockings isn't close to being the first one.

However, every news outlet which has picked up the story over the past couple of months has repeated the claim that the Red Stockings card is the oldest. Not a monumental mistake by any means, but just an example of how an unreasearched claim can become fact if allowed to gain enough momentum.

Early Trade Cards [Cycleback.com]
The First Baseball Card? [Robert Edwards Auctions]

It may be the first baseball card ever produced. The card — depicting the 1869 "Cincinnati Red Stockings" — is so rare that experts are still trying to determine its value (it will surely be into six figures). And to think at one point Mrs. Gallego had it for sale on eBay for $10, before she discovered what she really had. There had been a few inquiries at that price, but nobody snapped it up. Ha! That Buy It Now button is there for a reason, schnooks.

The card is actually 139 years old. It, and a handful of others like it, are considered the first baseball cards. Sports card collectors call the find "extremely rare" and estimate the card could fetch five, or perhaps, six figures at auction. "I didn't even know baseball existed that far back," Gallego says, between puffs on her cigarette. "I don't think that I've ever been to a baseball game."

Anyway, the card is going back on eBay, where Gallego said she's going to "let it ride." Meanwhile, my Ray Sadecki 1968 Topps card looks on rather sadly from my bookshelf ...

Fresno Collectors Uncover Rare 1869 Baseball Card [Fresno Bee]

Primarily because up to that point the cards were all pretty crappy. Then Upper Deck came along with their tantalizing holograms, great photos, and remarkably bold decision to make Ken Griffey Jr. the first card ever issued by the company. Anyway, no matter what anyone tells you I did not spend Sunday going through my 1989 set and sigh wistfully at the Chris Sabo card. Nope, didn't happen.

The winning bidder, John Rogers, has his own obsession with the Wagner card. Per Fox News:

Rogers has collected baseball cards since he was 6. When he was in the second grade, he said he cut out a copy of a Wagner card and carried it around in his pocket.

"Since I was 8 years old, I've hoped and dreamed that one day I'd be able to get one," Rogers said.

Which is ironic because, like everyone else, when I was 8 years old I wanted the Honus Wagner card, the 1952 Mickey Mantle rookie card, and the 1986 Michael Jordan Fleer rookie card in mint condition. Then I grew up and bought a house instead. I blame my mom. When I was eight, I told her I wanted to make a living owning a baseball card store. She shot that idea down in a hurry. "There's nothing more redneck you could ever do, Clay." Which, of course, wasn't true. Especially not in Nashville. But it impacted me. So now John Rogers is rich and got to buy the Honus Wager card because he followed his baseball card dreams and I'm writing a blog post about him. Thanks Mom, kicks dirt, thanks a lot.

Arkansas man buys baseball card for $1.62 million [Fox News]

The series of 25, five-minute web-isodes for the Topps company debuts next month, and the Sklars agreed to give us a peak at one of the first ones (shown following the jump). Randy Sklar talked with me by phone about the project, a portion of that interview also below. But about the video: You should know that the term "Sweet Mullet of Gaetti" will be invoked, and there will also be hairdressing tips. Come join me; I've got the beer.

Here ya go. This is an excerpt — about half of a full episode — and the picture quality will be better over at the Topps site. But Randy Johnson's facial features come through nice and clearly.

It may have seemed an odd move when former Disney CEO Michael Eisner and his Tornate Co. bought out Topps last year. Much like the comic book industry, baseball cards hit a peak in popularity in the mid 1990s, before the bubble burst in 2000 or so; companies such as Fleer and SkyBox closing shop for good. But Eisner, as one might expect, has a strategy.

Enter the Sklars, whose Back on Topps follows the fictional Topps brothers, heirs to the Topps card fortune who are muscled to the sidelines at the last minute and are struggling to, well, get back on top. It's one of several web series that Eisner has in production, this particular one an attempt to revitalize the card industry by reaching beyond sports.

"This is meant to be something much more than simply a commercial for Topps, and hopefully we've accomplished that," said Randy Sklar, a St. Louis native and University of Michigan graduate, as is his brother. "When we pitched it, we said that we wanted to do a Web series that took shows like Cheap Seats and The Brackets and encompassed all of that.

"The Topps brothers are just basically fuckups who love cards, love sports and are passionate about it," he said. "They love the little things in sports, and are scrambling to get back on top."

A big component of the show will be athlete cameos; with appearances by everyone from Kevin Love, Russell Martin, Matt Holliday and Baron Davis to Dennis Rodman.

"The Topps guys are just amazing," Randy said. "We're supposed to have Greg Oden tomorrow. Agents are really aware of us now and really want to get their clients on. Topps has so many people under contract, that they just call us and ask 'Who do you need?' Everyone's been great."

It's one thing to get athletes to show up, but it's quite another to know what to do with them. As always, the Sklars seem to have a handle on it.

"One seven-episode arc in the middle of the series involves our quest to get Julio Franco back in the game," Randy said. "Franco invented this energy drink, and he drank half of it and grouted his bathroom tiles with the other half."

Eisner is in the series as himself — although played by an actor — and there will be guest appearances by Ed Helms and Phil Morris (Jackie Childs from Seinfeld), among others.

"We wanted to create a pure comedy, something that starts with a web site and could eventually go to television," he said. "But the immediate goal is to introduce cards to a new generation. That's Michael's vision."

Oh, Sklars [Deadspin]

Yep, you can have Babe Ruth's hair. Thanks, Upper Deck!

Upper Deck Hair Cut Signatures cards will include a strand of hair along with a cut autograph for some of the biggest names in American history — baseball players like Babe Ruth, presidents like Abe Lincoln and other key individuals.



I'm not sure if I like this trend out of either company, but there's no doubting that these cards are going to be very, very valuable because of their scarcity, novelty and, at the same time, their significance.

We don't understand how they got the hair, and we don't want to know. (Or, for that matter, what part of the body it's from.) We're not sure this is a natural evolution for collectors, or the end of them.

Upper Deck To Release Cards Containing Hair [Sports By Brooks]

From the site's description of Jim Leyland's '86 Topps card:

Oh, Jim. Before you go. One more thing. We almost forgot. You'll still get the talent, and the raise, and the big chair, and all that. But you're going to have to wear a hat made of mosquito netting. And it's about three feet tall. It's a completely ridiculous hat, Jim, but, well, we feel very strongly about this.

But my favorite card has to be the one below. Bottom of the ninth, down by three, bases loaded with two outs; the only thing that can save us now is a home run. Knoop, grab the biggest bat you can find and get in there!

The Ugly Baseball Card Blog

Future Considerations has an eye-opening report, though, informing us that the baseball cards of that era are worth absolutely nothing.

It came from a number of people discovering around the mid 80's that their childhood baseball card collections from 20 and 30 years prior were now worth hundreds if not thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. And so then a whole shitload of people bought up baseball cards like they were gold bricks and shelved them away thinking that 20 or 30 years (i.e. now) down the road they could make fortunes. Unfortunately, what nobody stopped to think about was that the whole reason the cards from the 50's and 60's were worth so much was because nobody had them anymore. All the children of the 50's with baseball cards went to college in the 70's and their parents tossed em. Created rarity and the like. Nobody did that with the 80's and 90's cards. Everybody's kept em locked away in mint condition waiting for the time to be ripe.

And that time is never coming. Dammit, now what am I going to do with all these damn things? Could you all do me a favor, and set fire to all of your baseball cards tonight, so mine could one day be worth something?

In other baseball card news, Upper Deck is trying to buy Topps. I'd care, if any of their shit would ever be worth anything again. Bunch of fuck faces.

(UPDATE: No Mas has commemorated the "Fuck Face" card with a t-shirt ... scroll down towards the bottom here.)

A Desperate Plea From Those Of Us With Knowledge Of Baseball Cards [Future Considerations]
Say It Ain't So, Bazooka Joe [The Ghost of Wayne Fontes]

If you were never into baseball cards, this post probably isn't doing much but annoying you. But if you're near my age group, and you had any interest in baseball cards at all, this is right in your wheelhouse. Even seeing the gruesomely-unattractive 1988 Donruss Roger Clemens card sent me on a trip down memory lane. I remember the too-long '89 Bowmans. I remember the '87 Topps Bo Jackson Future Stars, and as a young boy, I thought it was just about the coolest thing that could have ever existed.

Anyway, if they make it all the way to #1 while giving the same amount of attention and detail to the first four sets they ranked, The Baseball Card Blog deserves some kind of an award.

Thanks to Mister Irrelevant for bring it to our attention, and he's got his own Top Ten list right here.

Card Critic's Countdown to the Best Set of the 1980s [The Baseball Card Blog]
Top Five Baseball Card Sets of the '80s [Mister Irrelevant]

Well, he's got this pattern, you see: He takes the player who was responsible for the Yankees being booted from the playoffs, and he gives them the number 666. So two years ago, it was the Marlins' Josh Beckett, last year it was Boston's Keith Foulke and this year it's LAofA's Francisco Rodriguez. We will ignore the irony of a Yankees fan giving the sign of the beast to someone else and simply point out that when the year comes that the Yankees don t make the playoffs, and end up six games out with a week to play, whom does he choose then? Cashman? Michael Kay? We d go with Michael Kay.

Unwelcome Honor [Houston Chronicle] (via Baseball Musings)