A Red Letter Year

An accumulation of promotional materials here at the Topps Archives Research Complex concerning the 1964 Topps Baseball offerings has finally hit criticality and, after a comprehensive review, I can confirm it's a definite feast for the eyes.

1964 was the year Shea Stadium opened in Queens along with the World's Fair next door, and MLB held the All-Star Game in the borough on July 7th. The Mid-Summer Classic was hosted by the Mets in their brand spanking new ballpark amid all this wonderful tumult, as the National League squad won the star-studded exhibition. Topps clearly decided to take advantage and issued five colorful sets in '64, some of which specifically celebrated the event taking place practically (16 miles away) in their backyard.

The regular Baseball set is well known of course, and sported a design intended to show off the player photos unencumbered by graphics:

That popping out of Stallard's cap from the photo into the frame of the card was a feature of the set and most player cards exhibit this flourish. Now this is all well trod territory but I'm betting most collectors have not seen the 1964 gift box Topps came up with. I'm guessing this was offered after the season had concluded to burn off extra stock:

That image was provided by Friend o'the Archive Tom Daley and it's also appeared over at Sports Collectors Daily, which has some additional details, including a look at the sell sheet, which you should click over to see. However, there is another interesting box from 1964, one that displays Stan Musial, who had retired after the 1963 season, as a possible coin (and inferred card) subject on the front panel:

Musial publicly announced he was retiring in August of 1963, so his use here by Topps seems to have been a deliberate ploy to get the kids buying up packs to find him. It was an early series box (which we will see evidence of below) and the design was eventually changed:

(Courtesy Rockhurst Auctions)

The Baseball Coins were the sole insert for the year and we'll get to them in a New York minute. First though, I just want to highlight the special cello packs Topps issued in '64:

(Courtesy Robert Edward Auctions)

That's a pretty good deal for a dime I'd say; love the red and see-through readability! Here's a peek at two of the coins (not the ones in this pack):

The Baseball Coins look to me like they were issued in three waves. There were 120 early subjects, likely split into smaller coin batches that may have been "overlaid" with each other at various points. Here's an old auction ad from Leland's showing a full sheet, with description:

Some sources indicate the coins were found only in third, fourth and fifth series packs but this Salesman's Sample makes me believe it was really from the get-go:

Mantle, of course, was a first series card and the back of this sample really makes it clear the coins were there along with the cards; now! in fact:

Note the Musial coin image on that front panel!

Later in the season, Topps issued a "high number" series of 44 "All Stars", which were part of their multi-pronged All Star attack.  These had a special design, with blue backgrounds for the AL, red for the NL:

Yes, Lumpe was indeed an All Star that season...

...but many of the players in the All-Star subset were not.  Instead, Topps was going with players who had once or still were, All Stars. There's 44 players in the All Star subset, but 47 subjects in the master series as Wayne Causey was shown on the reverse of his coin as both an NL and AL player with the Athletics, and Chuck Hinton also managed the same trick, albeit with the Senators.  And of course, Mickey Mantle appears as a switch hitter on two different AS coins. Unlike Causey and Hinton though, the Mick has two distinct poses. I make that a 165 coin base set then, plus two variations but your mileage may vary. 

Hinton was a 1964 All Star but Wayne Causey never played on a major league All Star team. He was quite solid in 1963 and in '64 but I can't find any kind of information indicating he was selected and then could not participate; in fact he played in 157 games in '64 so I doubt he was injured and needed to pull out of the game. Maybe Topps believed he would be the representative for the Athletics, but instead that honor went to Rocky Colavito, who was having a really good season, so it's a definite headscratcher.

At least Topps was able to predict the NL starting pitcher for this sell sheet, which also features the phantom Musial:

We now turn to the Baseball Stand-Up set. This 77 subject green and yellow themed issue was not marketed as an All Star set but was essentially one in spirit.  The wrapper was a colorful beacon, in one and five cent form.  Here's the penny version: 

The sell sheet for this standalone set was pretty instructional, with this one straight from Woody Gelman's files:

Here's an uncut sheet of the set, which some notorious short prints. Coupled with the self-destructive nature of these cards, those SP's, which I covered in 2013 (!) can be tough indeed:

(Courtesy Robert Edward Auctions)

One set that did give an actual nod to the All Star theme was the one we refer to today as Giants or sometimes Giant Size All Star cards. The retail wax box was a thing of beauty:

(Courtesy SABR Baseball Cards blog)

By the way, that was not how Ford's card appeared in the set:

Whitey's does not, but some of the card backs reference events from the 1964 All Star Game itself. Check out the narrative on Johnny Callison's:

Talk about hot off the presses!  However, that attempt to harness post game energy flopped big time, and Topps had a gazillion leftovers. Reports from L.A. fans of the Sixties indicate they were sold at Dodger Stadium in made up packs of 25 for years and a well-known dealer purchased an immense lot of them in the Seventies.  You can find nice cards today with ease but don't be deterred by the numbers, it's one of the best looking things Topps ever put out.

A Baseball Photo Tatoo release also peppered the candy counters of the day and it's a little hard to find examples in nice shape. 

Here is the immortal Don Lock:

There were also twenty team logos mixed in:

I should probably revisit this set as it has a fair number of variations and nuances. For another day then but before we go, there's three more sets to deal with, one of which was 1964-adjacent and one of which was more traditional.  In reverse order, the traditional in the form of Bazooka's annual release:

Coupled with its amazin' box insert, long sheets of Bazooka Baseball Stamps:

These were advertised on the end flaps of the box, with ten different sheets available:

As if that wasn't enough, Topps also supplied fifty images for the 1964 Wheaties Baseball Stamps:

1964 was very much the year of Baseball and Beatles (with the mop tops not yet covered here in any kind of depth) for Topps.  Both were concentrated efforts that really helped fill the ol' coffers!