The Express Way

Spinning through some more Topps Vault scans today kids, which brings us to Alvin, Texas, via Brooklyn and Queens. No suspense then, as you have probably all recognized Nolan Ryan as the subject of our post du jour. Specifically, we'll be looking at his gift and merchandise preferences sometimes taken as compensation from Topps.

Here's Ryan's 1969 response to Topps concerning his compensation for the year:

Love how he addresses Sy Berger informally!  Ryan indeed took the check:

This busy reverse shows how they did things back in the long, long ago, in the far, far away:

Those 1969 examples were poorly scanned I'm afraid, but his 1970 check came though crystal clear:

Looks like Sy, or maybe his secretary, was personally signing the player checks, at least those going to Ryan. You can see on the reverse here that signing the check became an acceptance of the "extention" contract with Topps. It was, and remains, a common practice in the business world to have an endorsed check memorialize an acceptance of contractual terms. It's worth mentioning too there no was spell check back then kids! 

This ledger card spans Ryan's rookie card season through his final Topps card and offers a complete look at his choices. He took a furniture set in exchange for his initial cash compensation in 1968 and I'm guessing it's because he had to furnish his home, either in New York or back home in Alvin. Baumritter Furniture eventually became known as Ethan Allan and they are renowned for their Mid Century Modern look these days. 

After the furniture arrived and then following two years of checks, the flamethrowing righty eventually decided to go after some specific merchandise instead of taking the money offered by Topps. He took an option for a Nikkormat camera in 1971, which was a consumer version of what were then professional level Nikon's.  Three years later he got another one, this time with a case.  He had to pay Topps $75 for that setup, a practice that was followed by the company for a long time when a player overtopped his allotment. As befits his later career as a banker, he took the cash in all other years.