Escondido A Plena Vista

I was thumbing through the 1989 Guernsey's Topps Auction catalog recently, looking for something or other and realized, after having owned this publication for over thirty-five years, that it contained some images that were used for the 1960 Venezuelan Baseball Tattoos.  Yes, mixed in among the 1960 US Baseball Tattoo images and some from the 1965 Baseball Hot Iron Transfers were illustrations only seen in the South American set, last discussed here and stalled at nineteen confirmed subjects (plus another that is inferred with a high degree of confidence).

Well, it's no longer stalled at nineteen/twenty subjects, or at least I don't think so.  Take a gander at this page from the catalog:

Three distinct looks, three distinct sets! This really makes me think the universe of potential Venezuelan subjects is larger than my previously posited 24.

Some notes:

A) A total of 16 Venezuelan subjects, some already known, run across the top row and part of the second.

B) The captions for those 16 were added for the catalog and do not form part of the original art.

C) The missing caption on the left side of cell A21 is Ruben Amaro:

D) The (very) partial piece of a Zoilo Versalles Venezualan example that is thought to exist is not on display here. 

E) The "Cepida" image is not the same one used for Orlando Cepeda in the US set. If you compare the stateside tattoo...

...to the possible Venezuelan tattoo it's quite obvious:

I think the "possible" Venezuelan Cepeda drawing is taken from his 1961 Topps card, which further cements the issue as coming out after the 1960 US MLB season:

F) Ten additional "Venezuelan subjects" appear likely based upon the imagery in the catalog:

1. Matty Alou
2. Luis Aparicio (previously surmised as a possible subject)
3. Chico Fernandez
4. Tony Taylor
5. Felipe Alou
6. "Clio" (Elio) Chacon
7. Felix Mantilla
8. O. "Cepida"
9. Jose Pagan
10. Chico Cardenas

In terms of nationality, the Alou's were both from the Dominican Republic, while Chico Fernandez, Tony Taylor and Chico Cardenas were Cuban,  We know already that Cepeda was Puerto Rican, as were Felix Mantilla and Jose Pagan. Finally (at last!), Aparicio and Chacon were Venezuelans, with the latter also surmised as the other best bet as representing that country in the set. 

G) Excluding the possible Venezuelan issue-only subjects, a review of the 1960 US Baseball Tattoo and 1964 Hot Iron Transfers checklists show that if a player's image was in this lot, a corresponding issued tattoo exists.

H) It's certainly a coincidence but there's 55 player images from the two different tattoo sets on the page, which matches up with the 1960 US issue in terms of individual player count. There is known overlap between both sets and we see that here in a way.

I) Given all this along with the fact these types of tattoo sets usually have a total subject count divisible by eight that, I was previously hoping that at least three additional players could be found to be part of the Venezuelan issue. I note that five of the Venezuelan subjects are on this sheet in US form: Wynn, Drysdale, Lary, Groat and Woodling. Toting this up, it appears we have rounded the next divide-by-eight corner, so perhaps the final count will hit 32. With 96 subjects in the US set (thanks to various extras added by Topps) that divisor being 8 could also extrapolate out to 32 and the 16 shown here neatly represent half that number, which is a macro kind of thing with Topps in terms of laying out various sets. So, are we missing two subjects still?!

Of high interest then, is Bob Gibson who pitched for three MLB off seasons in the VWL from 1959-61 and then a winter in Puerto Rico. Gibson was also a participant, for two different teams, in the 1961 and 1962 Inter-American Series, the tournament that replaced the Caribbean World Series that year due to the shutdown of pro ball in Cuba by Fidel Castro in 1960 and the subsequent banning of MLB players from the country by Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick. Gibson as a possible additional Venezuelan subject does seem plausible. He is not depicted in the U.S. set.

Possible Subject 32 is another matter. Over 100 different players were involved in the combined 1961 & 1962 tournaments and each team was allowed to "import" a number of players from elsewhere (eight to ten from what I can tell). This led to a large contingent of MLB players on each roster. 

The Inter-American Series was held in February each year, just before Major League spring training kicked off. The inaugural 1961 IAS included a squad each from Panama and the Dominican Republic facing off against two teams from the host country (which was allowed an extra club) and the 1961 tournament was waged in Venezuela. The Series was a major event and the culmination of various Caribbean Winter League seasons, so interest was high.

Unfortunately, it's hard to find rosters for the 1961 series, although some scattered clues are out there.  Assessing all of this, I am very much coming around to the idea that this first Inter-American Series was the inspiration for the set, but that it could have been issued in conjunction with, or even after, with the 1962 event, which was held in Puerto Rico. In addition to the host country's two squads, Panama and Venezuela also competed that year and the rosters of the participating teams are more completely documented than 1961's, although a few gaps exist in what I've determined to date. 

The questions then are:

1) Was the Venezuelan tattoo set intended for 1961 and/or 1962? 

2) How many US players were mixed in?

I think it's plausible the set was issued in each year, just like the Venezuelan Topps card sets that saw a release every other year after 1960 (1962, 1964, 1966) and served double duty. It's also possible a handful of players were changed out, and if so, it's far more likely to my mind that existing subjects from the US set were subbed in as the artwork was already done by Topps. I am guesstimating they would not bother with creating a mere handful of new subjects for a re-release. However, there is a lot of overlap between the active major leaguers in the "possible" pool, not all of them Winter League or AIS participants, plus there are non-US-born natives who played in both MLB and the various Winter Leagues and tournaments (Luis Aparicio for instance). A real possibility too is some Winter League players who did not participate in the Inter-American Series were included in the set beyond those we already know.

One thing I believe may be in favor of a 1962 Venezuelan release is the inclusion of Frank Lary as a subject. He was also in the 1960 US release and his MLB campaign that year was pretty solid, but 1961 saw him go 23-9 and finish third in the Cy Young balloting (across both leagues at the time) and seventh in the AL MVP tally for a strong Tigers squad that finished second to the Yankees.

The Venezuelan tattoos are so hard to find we may never get an answer to what comprises the full set but I would like to narrow down the pool of possibilities with some more research.  First though, I'd like to see if any of you Archivists out there have any thoughts.

Century Mark

A very interesting lot of 1965 Topps Baseball Hot Iron Transfers sold in the recently concluded Huggins & Scott auction that ended on April 10th. There were 100 examples of 24 subjects, or 2,400 transfers offered. The centering makes it seem like they were cut on a good day at the Topps plant:

 I mean, those are fresh!

I'm not sure what the back story is on the find but clearly these are from a full series print run; there are 72 transfers in a full set so in a perfect world they would have been issued over three series.

The 1965 Embossed Baseball inserts also were found in packs this year. That was also a series of 72 and that issue took presumably three full series to distribute as well. Remember these?

 

Both sets would have been pretty simple to crank out but why did Topps feel the need in 1965 to keep enticing the kiddies? There just doesn't seem to have been a viable competing set.  The only thing I can surmise is that they were worried about the Federal Trade Commission decision on the series of complaints filed by Fleer would open the door for the latter to start selling MLB cards. 

The FTC did indeed rule against Topps on some, but not all of the complaints.  Topps was found to be in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, just like the American Tobacco Company was back in 1911. Part of the decision ordered Topps to stop entering into contracts of more than two years length after November 1, 1964.  So I wonder if they were just trying to get as much out of the 1965 Baseball sales as possible.  It would ultimately be moot though, since the FTC decision was  overturned on appeal.

Spirit of '66

Not too long ago I took a look at the early months of 1969, when Topps transitioned their manufacturing indicia from showing Brooklyn to Duryea.  The move to Duryea was completed in early 1966 and Topps designed a new logo in celebration.  Production code dating would soon follow, likely as a way to help coordinate efforts between the creative staff in Brooklyn and the packaging plant in Duryea, with a side trip to Philadelphia for printing.

The new logo, all in lowercase and with a distinctive curved "t", is well known and one I think is a minimalist classic:




Trademark records indicate Topps used this logo for the first time in late 1965, although I have yet to find any 1965 wrappers or merchandising showing it and it was probably phased in slowly, first appearing on letterhead and marketing information for the 1966 sets.  Topps then began using the logo on their packaging in early 1966.  You can see the '65 baseball wrapper uses a slightly stylized verison of the old Topps lettering that dated back to 1938 and the founding of the company:

The logo then transitioned to a very generic looking one by the time the football cards hit the shelves in late summer:

Some wrappers, usually featuring images licensed from TV shows, didn't even mention Topps:

That Exploding Battleship was being pushed all year by Topps, by the way.  For some reason, the massively successful Ugly Stickers had a wrapper that was devoid of any Topps logo as well:

By 1966 the new logo was featured prominently on the baseball packs, which also introduced an early version of the baseball design that would be replicated many, many times in future years.  

Some old branding would remain though, such as on this header card on the 1966 Rak Paks:

That's from www.baseballwrappers.com by the way-go give 'em some love!  I suspect Topps were using up old header cards and of course the branding/logo wasn't even consistently deployed as this 1966 wrapper shows:

It's Topps, so there will always be inconsistencies but by the time the '66 football season had rolled around they were on top of it:

It's around this time that the production codes started to be developed and used.  As I've said previously, those codes require some serious contemplation before they can be dissected but it will happen eventually.

Short To Second

364 days ago I posted on the 1965 Topps Hot Iron Transfers, a crude insert that came with the mid-series 1965 baseball cards. The gist of that post was that the Transfers, despite an old checklisting error, were a static set that hadn't changed since 1965. Then Chris Stufflestreet over at the Vintage Sportscards blog received an e-mail that has rearranged the very fabric of time and space. OK, it didn't even rearrange the fabric of a white T-shirt but was novel nonetheless:

There is variation with the Ron Hunt Transfer. I'll let Chris explain it all and try to take a closer look at the printing and packaging aspects of this set here.

I flipped and lightened the scan Chris received so you can see the difference:



I would agree with Chris that the Shortstop version likely was printed first. Now, does Chris agree with me that the image looks like John Candy?

If we take as true that these were printed in three runs of 24, then at least one run must have undergone a second printing. I had heard years ago a group of these were tougher than the rest of the set but details were (and are) sketchy on that. If Topps started seeding them into the last run of 2nd or 3rd series packs (after the Embossed cards finished off) then maybe a quick first run produced the SS variation and it was corrected for the next. The Transfers would then have been issued 24 per series through the 5th or 6th series.

Now when you look at how these were printed it's pretty obvious little care was taken with these, a common practice with the cheaper 60's inserts. 1965 was probably the last year Topps printed the baseball cards in Brooklyn, before moving production to Duryea, PA (or it was the first year printing took place there) so I wonder if they intentionally created inserts that were simple to design and execute? Both inserts are very generic looking, aren't they? I'll have to take a look at the Embossed set soon here but they are not exactly high art.

This Mazeroski Transfer shows how badly things could go awry in the printing process:



That is flipped obviously but shows the side printing occurred on. You can see that the black in was applied first as it is partially obscured by the color bar but that checkerboard pattern sitting lower left is just bizarre. I have to think the blank area was left as a guide for the cutting machine as shown a little more clearly on the Mantle:



We still have the checkerboard effect. Topps would use a different method to guide the cutters of the 1966 Ruboff inserts (another future post), namely a a black bar dead centered at the bottom of each piece which could have been developed due to problems in cutting these.

The Blue Transfers had a different problem, namely a lack of clarity name-wise. Look at this Lee Maye Transfer to see what I mean:



Miscut but no checkerboard. Good luck reading his name though! That may be from the end of a run but the blues are harder to read, at least in my experience.

You also have a fair share of black print oddities:



That one hurts!

One thing though, is that some Transfers have thicker lettering and I am not sure if it is due to over-inking or a design change. The Willie Mays Transfer shows this effect:



I would not be surprised if other variations lurk within. This set is not widely collected and is a little harder to find than other mid 60's inserts so check your sets and see!

Ironing Things Out

I receive a few e-mails and messages every week concerning what is posted here, all of which are complimentary and courteous, which I appreciate greatly. Most communication seems to lead to new discoveries or re-examination of prior posts or accepted hobby wisdom but some are just everyday inquiries. So when intrepid reader Lance K. sent me a note asking about a checklist discrepancy in the 1965 Topps Hot Iron Transfers, I thought there was nothing new to learn about this set and I'd just send along a link to a listing somewhere. Wrong!

The Hot Iron Transfers were thin, fragile paper inserts with a player portrait meant to be ironed onto a T-shirt by your Mom in 1965. They were inserted in Topps mid-series nickel wax packs (and probably cello as well) that year, following the run of Embossed cards that came with the first couple of series. There are 72 Transfers in the set and as you will see below, they are really just simple line drawings with a team block atop and a name block below the portrait, either in blue or red. Colors alternate between the leagues, unlike the embossed cards which follow a strict Blue for AL, Red for NL pattern.

I'll have a quick post on the Embossed cards someday but for now will show how they were first presented to those crazy kids in '65, with some nicked scans for Ebay:



A couple of series' later, Topps just changed the bottom banner for the Hot Iron Transfers:



At this point I have written pretty much all that I thought could be written about the Transfers but then Lance started off his e-mail by stating:

From what I've found online, there are 72 total in the set, with 24 each released in the three series that year.

Easy enough to answer, right? I check my sources and they reveal no details on series distribution. A quick Ebay search then shows they definitely came in the 4th and 5th series packs, while the Embossed cards have been seen with 1st and 2nd series packs. Not knowing what came in the 3rd series, which doesn't matter much anyway since Topps blended their series' as they were issued, it certainly seems plausible the Transfers could have come out 24 at a clip. I'll have to defer judgement on that due to lack of current evidence but I had merely assumed they all came out at once. It makes sense Topps would stagger the release of their inserts though, avoiding constant repetition in order to let the kiddies find new faces would be a good marketing move.

So now I move on to Lance's second comment:

According to a few checklists I've found, including Beckett, there are two Dean Chance transfers, numbered 10 and 42. Unfortunately there don't seem to be any scans listed as #42 anywhere. I've picked up a couple of #10 over the years, and they appear to be identical to every scan I've found online. I'm at the point where I'm wondering if 42 really exists.

OK, this was a new one on me. It's forty plus years since this set was issued, there's a zillion price guides and checklists available and there is confusion over a Dean Chance insert? Piffle, I thought. Well, not wanting to be a blatherskite, I decided to check my one of my earlier Beckett/Sport Americana Guides (my trusty 3rd edition, if you are wondering, as I know you are) as it is much svelter than the big Almanac and decidely easier on my aging peepers. No listing for the set, althought the Embossed cards are shown. I check back to the first issued guide, then forward through #6 but nothin' doing. I spy another tome on my reference shelf and pull it out:



An esoteric book to be sure, this came out in 1982 and was the source of much information for me on Topps oddball sets prior to the explosion of price guides and the internet. Sure enough, there is a listing for the Transfers but it was a player short. It showed these entries for Chance:

10 Chance
41 B. Chance

Now, the Transfers are not numbered, that's just a price guide maneuver to make things easier to discuss but I think you will agree the first listing is imprecise. So I drag out my binderful o' oddball and find both Dean and Bob (he of the B. in the guide). Here, see for yourself:



Going back to the listing, I note that Beckett and Eckes were looking for information on the 72nd card. Furthermore, the listing seems to cover the blue Transfers first, then the reds, so Dean at #10 makes a lot of sense and we already know it's ol' Bob at #41. So at some point the final Transfer was discovered and added to the list somewhere between Dean and Bob, bumping Bob to #42.

From what Lance says, some checklists still are incorrect to this day, including Beckett's which would have been derived from the Sport Americana list. Well, Topps inserts are not really the focus of many collectors and I have to say the Transfers are not all that easy to find but it's a little surpising information on this set is still in error in some quarters. Well, that's why I write this blog.

Here's how to apply the Transfers, in case you were curious:



They would look like this when applied:



I really can't see too many kids doing this, can you?