What's Weird?

Some Topps paperwork, that's what!  I've been somewhat focused on paper items used or issued by Topps of late and a couple of fairly strange items have randomly popped up.

Leading off is an award bestowed by Topps on Mike Sadek for First Team honors in his NCAA Collegiate District in 1967:

Yes, it's all fancified with ribbons and retaining bands, making it look kind of elegant.  However, the portfolio that contained it was just made of cheap cardboard:

There were eight NCAA Divisions for 1967 and the whole thing ended, of course, at the College World Series.  Assuming they gave ten awards per district (which would match the major league All Star Rookies count as they considered both LHP and RHP) there would have been 80 first teamers in '67.

Sadek was, as noted, a Catcher and had a nondescript eight year career with the Giants covering 1973 and then 1975-81.  He had very little power (five dingers in 813 big league AB's) except when it came to his arm, which was a rocket. The Giants took him in the twelfth round of the 1966 amateur draft but he didn't sign.  The Twins took him a year later (fifth round of the secondary draft) then ended up with Giants after all in a Rule 5 claim in 1969; I guess they really wanted him. 

He was sent down for the entire 1974 season after debuting in 1973, and that year in the minors was the only year he started more than 100 games in his career as the Giants were trying to increase his workload. His competition  after he was recalled was not stiff, with Dave Rader, Marc Hill and Milt May starting over him. 

Speaking of catchers, here's a (fuzzy) document related to the 1975 Bubble Gum Blowing Contest that Topps used as a promotional vehicle for Bazooka. They took this thing seriously, with Joe Garagiola as the host for the televised finals. The contest also gave us some pretty bizarre ephemera but I haven't seen this one before:

I tried to improve the focus but my AI enhancement program just made it worse! It's easy enough to pick out the highlights.  On August 12, 1975 John Stearns (that's the Catcher kids!), Bob Apodaca and Wayne Garrett took parts in the New York Mets heat. As you can see, Stearns won it in a squeaker! Bud Harrelson and Tom Seaver (road roomies did ya know?) were the judges and signed as witnesses.  How did they measure the bubbles?  Why, with this handy device:

We all know Kurt Bevaqcua of the Brewers won the title, but how did Stearns do? Well he lost in the first round:

You may note the Athletics had a pinch bubble blower as their team winner, Angel Mangual, played a mere 8 games for Oakland before being released on June 1, 1976. Why the Tigers and Pirates didn't participate will remain a mystery.

Caliper-sonified

Well I must admit I thought I had exhaustively covered the whole 1975 Bazooka Bubble Blowing Championship here on these digital pages a while back. I cam close but it turns out there is a tiny little bit more to tell.

Friend o'the Archive Jeff Shepherd, while traversing the roadside attractions of Ulster County, New York recently, came across a most curious artifact hanging on the walls of Hickory BBQ in Kingston:

Now I don't know if this was some serendipitous aligning of the stars or just a random event but the bubble gum king finding the king of bubble gum calipers on the walls of a bbq joint in a town best known for being a way station when heading back downstate from Cooperstown is one righteous happening!  I will let Shep relate the story:

"Got to talking to the owner - he had a friend who worked for Topps in the late 80's....used to go to Brooklyn and visit him at work, grab some free swag etc.  On one occasion Topps was moving it's headquarters from Bush Terminal to Manhattan and his buddy told him to grab anything that was in the closet of his office.  So he's piling up unopened boxes of cards (all 80's garbage), and discovers the bubble meter.  The friend at Topps wasn't going to let it go, but the BBQ guy jokingly said he did say anything in the closet."


Unlike the (rare) thick cardboard example owned by our good buddy Shep, this one is made of wood, about 30 inches in length and good quarter-inch thick.  It looks like the logos were painted yesterday, doesn't it?  Here is a close up look at the caliper wheel:

Shep surmises that the cardboard versions were used for the local, elimination challenges held at the various major league facilities while the wooden one was made especially for the grand finale, where Kurt Bevacqua defeated Johnny Oates in an epic battle of bubble blowing proficiency.  I can't see anything wrong with that take.


This reminds me I have not had bbq in a little while.....mmmmmmm!

Forever Blowing Bubbles

Today's post just about came pre-written and gift wrapped, courtesy of Jeff Shepherd, who provided all of the scans.

If you collect 1976 Topps Baseball you either love or hate this card:



My innate gravitation to all things odd means I love this picture. That's an 18 1/2" bubble by the way! The back of the card always intrigued me too:



Why is the back so awesome?

A) The brackets are great;

B) The fact the Tigers and Pirates did not participate always struck me as odd;

C) The little bubbles are neat-o;

D) The A's had to use a substitute bubble blower!

Now I had always assumed each player in the finals just had his best bubble measured in spring training by Sy Berger or something like that. Little did I know this was a highly organized event!

Don't believe me? Well, here's the rule book:





I find it hard to believe the contest was so complicated! Among other things, the rules state: "The tournament is to be conducted in a formal and serious manner." Yeah, sure...... The winner got a thousand bucks and a case of Bazooka, as did his favorite charity.

Here is a picture of the finals:



The man with the calipers sure looks formal and serious....geez, lighten up Bud!

What you are seeing above is Joe Garagiola (he was a major TV personality at the time on NBC) watching the final blowdown between eventual winner Kurt Bevacqua of the Brewers and Johnny Oates of the Phillies.

Let's take a closer look:



That's an uncut sheet of 1975 Topps baseball cards behind Johnny Oates. Take a look behind Joe G, you can see another uncut sheet:



That, ladies and gentlemen is Garagiola's ersatz 1973 Topps business card. I think it highly likely said pasteboards were created for him to hand out at this event. The card does have a 1976 copyright on it and I have to think the contest was held after the end of the '75 season based on the Joe G. card copyright date.

There is more at this site though I'm not certain all the facts presented are correct. In addition, the contest rules state the player had to have spent 30 days on an active major league roster in 1975.

I wonder how long this was actually held as an annual event?