The Fleer Sticker Project

Football & Pizza - The 1986 Jeno's Pizza Rolls NFL Stickers

2012-02-01T19:09:00.000-08:00

As we approach Super Sunday, I wanted to take a look at a set that combines the two elements that make the day so special - food and great football action! In 1986 Jeno's ran a promotion where they included NFL team action stickers inside their boxes of Pizza Rolls:

A number of the stickers feature great action shots from previous Super Bowls, such as Joe Namath leading the Jets over the Colts in Super Bowl III:

Thankfully Jeno's put their logo on the back of the sticker instead of the front so that we get a very nice clean uncluttered photo, that just happens to look exactly like the 1966 Philadelphia Football play cards:

Each team had 2 stickers, which means a full set consists of 56 stickers. Here is a look at the full set:

What I really like about the stickers is that the photos are not closely cropped shots just of a single player, but are a wider shot that allows more of the action surrounding the play to be seen, just like the Fleer Team Action cards of the 1970's & 1980's.

The backs have a writeup that describes the action on the sticker:

There was also an offer for "Terry Bradshaw's Action Play Book" on the box which was just a fancy title for "Sticker Album":

The album pages appear to include the same text that was on the back of the stickers, which was nice so that you didn't have to save the backing if you decided to put your stickers in the album:

Its too bad that with sports card licensing being so restricted nowadays that we don't see very many food sets like this any more. It really would be fun to open up a few boxes of pizza rolls this Sunday and get a few football stickers as a bonus.

Football & Pizza - The 1991 Domino's Pizza Quarterback Challenge

2012-01-25T22:09:00.001-08:00

In 1991, Domino's Pizza teamed up with Upper Deck to produce a 50 card set of current and past NFL quarterbacks in a set entitled "Quarterback Challenge":

The backs feature another picture as well as stats and career accomplishments:

The cards came in packs which included 4 cards:

According to Beckett, the promotion launched in August, 1991. Customers who ordered the Domino's Pizza NFL Kickoff Deal received 2 medium cheese pizzas, four cans of Coke/Diet Coke/Sprite, and one pack of cards for $9.99.

The first 31 cards feature then current NFL quarterbacks that were active in 1991:

Cards 32 - 46 featured retired quarterbacks:

and cards 47 - 49 were combo cards featuring 2 quarterbacks from the same team but different eras:

Card 50 was a checklist.

As Papa John's is the official NFL pizza sponsor this year, it would be great if they were doing a similar promotion this year. How much better would your Super Bowl pizza taste if the pizza delivery guy handed you a pack of cards along with your pizza!

IHOP NFL Mugs & Pitcher

2012-01-16T20:47:00.000-08:00

After taking a look at the NFL mini helmets, NFL magnets, and NFL/MLB/NBA/ABA/NHL place mats that were available at The International House of Pancakes during the 1970's, I've got one last item to review that was also available at IHOP - NFL Mugs and Pitchers:

There was an orange mug which featured helmets of the AFC teams:

and a blue mug which featured the NFC teams:

The promotion was featured on IHOP placemats

as well as in print ads:

It appears this promotion ran in 1972 given the copyright date in the ad.

In addition to the mugs, there was a pitcher as well:

The pitcher features all of the AFC and NFC teams as well as the AFC, NFC and NFL logos:

That wraps up the look back at all the great collectibles that IHOP offered during the 1970s to get sports fans to go out for breakfast. Its too bad we don't see any of these types of promotions any more.

IHOP MLB NFL NBA ABA NHL Team Placemats

2011-12-30T18:04:00.000-08:00

In addition to NFL Helmets and NFL Magnets, The International House of Pancakes (IHOP) also offered team placemats from all four major sports leagues which were used to not only promote the local professional sports team, but also promote the local IHOPs in the area as well.

Lets take a look at the examples I've been able to find.

Major League Baseball:

Based on the fact that this placemat honors the 1969 World Champion Mets, I think its most likely that these would have been found in IHOPs in 1970.

I like the fact that they added "This IS Next Year" on the Cubs place mat:

I came across another version of the placemat that features color photos:

I think this version of the placemat is from 1969 as it features Dick Selma who pitched for the Cubs in 1969, but played for the Phillies in 1970. Here is another example of this version where someone was able to get some player autographs:

While the placemat above shows that LA had a ton of IHOPs, the Phillies placemat shows that Philadelphia only had 2:

NFL:

Its interesting that while IHOP and the NFL partnered together on other promotions during the 1970s which allowed IHOP to use NFL logos, for these 1970 placemats, they only had the license from the Players Association so the uniform on the placemat is somewhat generic.

NBA:

There were even placemats for ABA teams:

NHL:

I am sure there are a number of other team placemats besides the ones I've been able to find, but obviously most of these didn't survive, so they don't seem to show up for sale very often.

IHOP NFL Football Helmet Magnets and Standings Board

2011-12-17T23:02:00.000-08:00

In addition to the miniature NFL football helmets promotion at the International House of Pancakes during the 1970's, IHOP also had a promotion featuring NFL team football helmet magnets that were available with a magnetic standards board:

The copyright on the bottom of the standings board shows that this was produced in 1977, so it appears that the plastic helmets promotion was an early to mid 70's offer, while the magnets were offered in the late 1970's.

Just as with the NFL plastic helmets, the magnets were sold individually so you had the choice of picking which team you wanted.

I remember trying to get as many magnets as I could each time we went to IHOP. Unfortunately as you can see from the picture of my board, I wasn't able to find all the teams.

The magnets were produced by Sports Magnets, Inc. who also sold the magnets with a nearly identical standards board:

As you can see, the boards are almost identical except for the top the board which added IHOP's name and replaced one of the NFL shields with an IHOP logo:

To this day, I can't help but think about collecting the helmet magnets any time I pass by an IHOP, and the fun I had keeping track of the standings with my board each week that season.

IHOP NFL Football Helmets and Standings Board

2011-11-30T21:56:00.000-08:00

The International House of Pancakes (IHOP) was definitely the place to get your football fix as a kid growing up in the 1970s.

Whats not to like about getting to eat on a placemat with football helmets on it and having the the chance to buy your favorite team's mini helmet!

If you were lucky enough to come across this IHOP ad, you could get a coupon to buy one helmet and get one free!

The IHOP helmets are just the regular gumball helmets that we all remember collecting, but its still great to think that you could go to the restaurant and have your pick of which team you wanted to buy as opposed to just taking whatever came out of the gumball machine.

Recently someone had up for auction a nearly complete set of the helmets in the original IHOP packaging:

As the header card has a hole in it, it seems like these were probably hanging on a rack near the register so you could search for teams while mom or dad was paying the check.

In addition to offering the helmets, IHOP also sold a standings board which held the gumball helmets:

Here is a view of the back of the board:

Based on the helmet designs on the back, I would say this board dates from 1972 or 1973 as it shows the white Chargers helmet (which changed to blue in 1974).

Here is a picture from the side to show how the board stood up:

It would be great if the NFL and IHOP would consider bringing back this promotion in the future as it would be fun to see ads like this

as well as it would provide a great excuse to go out for breakfast!

Celebrating Thanksgiving with the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers

2011-11-23T21:20:00.000-08:00

As we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving and enjoy the tradition of watching football while getting stuffed, here are a few programs from previous Thanksgiving meetings between the Lions and the Packers:

1950

1953

1954

1961

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Was Terry Crowley Safe or Out on his 1973 Topps Card?

2011-11-11T21:49:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite cards in the 1973 Topps Baseball set is the Terry Crowley card where he is coming in to home where Thurman Munson is waiting for the ball to make the tag:

Last year Chris from the great blog 1973 Topps Photography did an in depth analysis to pinpoint the day this photo was taken, which he determined was June 29, 1972 based on the fact that was the only date that Crowley played against the Yankees in NY where he was able to reach base.

I've come across a photo which appears to be another shot of this same play:

and checking the back, it confirms that the picture was taken on June 29, 1972! Great detective work Chris!

According to the information on the back of the photo, Terry Crowley was out at home on Brooks Robinson's hit to the 3rd baseman Celerino Sanchez who made the throw home in time to get Crowley.

And now you know the rest of the story.

The Many Faces of the Orioles Cartoon Bird

2011-11-07T18:23:00.000-08:00

As a followup to the news that the Orioles are bringing back the Cartoon Bird on their caps next season, Trevor did an excellent post showing all the cap variations of the Orioles Smiling Bird logo over the years, with a great shot showing all the different variations together (with one of the batting helmet versions in the middle):

Trevor also did another great post on the batting helmet logo variations, which seem to have a lot of variety due to the fact that for a while the logos were painted on the helmets

until they were later replaced by decals.

If you like the O's cartoon bird, I recommend checking out Tevor's posts as he has done a great job documenting the many subtle different looks of the Orioles cap logo.

The Orioles had 19 winning seasons during the bird's 23 year span in which they were the winningest team in baseball over that stretch. The bird was around for 7 ALCS appearances, 6 AL pennants and 3 World Series titles.

Here's hoping that the Orioles can get back to their winning ways now that they will once again be sporting the look that they wore during their glory days.

The Bird Is Back!

2011-11-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

According to this item in the Baltimore Sun, the Orioles are bringing back the Smiling Cartoon Bird on their caps next season!

My response - ITS ABOUT TIME!

I've never been a big fan of the "ornithologically" correct cap since the Orioles switched to it back in 1989. It was a change of pace at the time and was a nod back to the original Orioles cap they wore when they started playing in Baltimore, but to me it lacked the personality of the Smiling Bird. I have grown tired of the look, even though they have made minor changes to the bird every couple of years.

The Cartoon Bird was on the caps that the team wore during its glory years from 1966 through the 1980's, and is the uniform I think of when I remember those great World Series teams from that time. I know my preference is heavily influenced by what I grew up with

since to me, the Cartoon Bird is what the Orioles are supposed to wear.

The information indicates that the "cartoon bird will be a combination of the 1970 logo and the 1983 one, but may resemble the older logo a bit more."

As these scans show, the bird's appearance did change slightly over the years, so the designers have a few different styles to work with.

Unfortunately the team will be keeping the ridiculous "O's" cap as an alternate. Given the team is going back to the Smiling Cartoon Bird, I can think of a much more appropriate alternate cap:

The official announcement is expected sometime during the middle of November.

Have a Wacky Halloween!

2011-10-30T20:10:00.000-07:00

Just in time for Halloween comes this special Halloween edition of Wacky Packages from Topps:

This special edition of 2011 Wacky Packages Halloween Postcards was available only through Toppsonlinestore.com, and quickly sold out as it was limited to only 660 sets.

Here is a look at everything that came in the set:

The postcards are large cards that actually do have a back that can be used as a postcard:

Here is a closer look at the 6 postcard titles:

There is also a special Halloween Postcard featuring two other Halloween themed parodies:

In addition to the postcards, there is also a bonus card (which is the standard 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 size)

A mini postcard:

Artist Bio cards:

as well as a sketch card:

This is the 3rd year that Topps has issued postcards with a Halloween theme. In 2010 Topps released a similar set of postcards

that also came with a bonus card

and in 2009, they issued a Wacky Halloween postcard as part of the Series 4 Wacky Packages Postcards set:

It looks like the Halloween Postcards are becoming an annual Wacky Packages tradition.

Happy Halloween!

Congratulations Brooks!

2011-10-23T22:04:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, October 22 a statue of Brooks Robinson was officially dedicated across the street from Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

The bronze sculpture is located on the plaza at Washington Boulevard and Russell Street (which will now be known as Brooks Robinson Plaza), and was commissioned by The Babe Ruth Birthplace Foundation and The Dorothy L. and Henry A. Rosenberg, Jr. Foundation. As a fitting tribute, Brooks is wearing a gold glove:

Brooks and his wife Connie

were joined at the ceremony by several local officials and about 1,000 enthusiastic O's fans.

Brooks joins Babe Ruth and Johnny Unitas as the third Baltimore sporting legend to be immortalized with a statue, which he noted in his remarks. Brooks said “Never did I expect to have a statue, let alone a statue 300 yards from a statue of the greatest player in major league history – Babe Ruth. And another 300 or 400 yards is the statue of the greatest quarterback in NFL history, Johnny Unitas, a dear friend of mine that I miss very much.”

Congratulations Brooks on this well deserved tribute! I am looking forward to visiting the Plaza and seeing the statue next time I am in Baltimore. Here's to a man I've always admired and respected, ever since I was a kid:

"I just want you to know I have never considered you fans. I've always considered you my friends." - Brooks Robinson

For more information about the Brooks Robinson Statue, please visit http://www.BrooksRobinsonStatue.org

1972 Stancraft NFL Posters by George Bartell

2011-10-18T20:42:00.000-07:00

I came across a Baltimore Colts poster that was up for auction that I remember having as a kid which really took me back to the mid 1970s when I first started following pro football and I had this hanging up in my room:

I think I got this poster through the Scholastic Book Club at school. Seeing the poster again made me wonder what the other teams' posters looked like.

Fortunately the seller had a number of other teams up for auction as well, so let's take a look:

These posters were done by artist George Bartell. On one of the posters we can see his signature

and on the bottom of the posters they are identified as the NFL Bartell Series with a 1972 copyright, and were manufactured by Stancraft:

The Illustrated NFL shows some of George's other football work:

As these posters demonstrate, George Bartell's art is full of motion, which is why he is probably more well known for his paintings of race cars

In researching George's work, I found that he even did some album cover artwork:

Turning back to George's football work, here is an ad from the October 9, 1972 issue of Sports Illustrated showing the posters:

In addition to posters for all the teams, there was a poster for the AFC

and another for the NFC

According to the order form, there is also a team helmets poster, which means a complete set consisted of 29 posters (26 teams + AFC + NFC + Helmets).

I'm glad that the seller had so many of these posters up for auction as I really enjoyed seeing George Bartell's artwork. Now I just have to track down pictures of the remaining teams to fully document the set.

NFL / Navy Bumper Stickers from the 1970's?

2011-09-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

I came across some bumper stickers that appear to be a promotion by the NFL and the US Navy which feature individual teams and the tagline "go (NFL team) go Navy":

The look of the helmets leads me to believe they were probably from the mid to late 1970s.

They are certainly from before 1982 as the Bengals sticker features their original helmet

The thing I find interesting is that there does not appear to be any NFL Properties trademark on the stickers.

Here are two stickers placed near a ruler so that you can get an idea of the size:

Here are the other teams I was able to find:

I would assume there is a sticker for each team, but so far I've only been able to find pictures of these 8 teams. I'll keep adding pictures to the post if I come across any more teams.

UPDATE:

Steve from the amazing The Cowboys Guide sent me a picture of the Cowboys sticker:

Thanks Steve!

Changing Jobs In the Middle of the World Series

2011-09-14T20:43:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting picture of Seattle Pilots manager Joe Schultz in a Seattle Pilots uniform during the 1968 World Series when he was still a member of the St. Louis Cardinals:

As this picture shows, the Pilots uniform was almost complete before the end of the 1968 post season. I say "almost" as there are a few differences between the prototype that Joe is wearing and the road uniform that they wore in 1969.

The first difference is the cap. Although its partially cut off in the shot above, the "S" on the cap looks more like a reversed "Z" than a "S". Here is a different shot of Joe in the cap:

The second difference is the lettering. First, the prototype has "seattle" straight across the uniform, whereas the 1969 jersey had the name arching across the front.

The second difference is the "s". Just as the cap features a "s" that almost looks like a reversed "z", so too does the jersey. And finally, the "t"s appear to be smaller on the prototype than what they actually wore in 1969. The letters also appear to be tilting to the right on the prototype whereas they appear to be more straight on the 1969 jersey.

I like the shot of Joe with both of his uniforms, and appreciate the fact that since this picture shows him in the Pilots uniform during the World Series, it gives us an idea of when the Pilots had almost finished designing their uniform.

1978 Kellogg's (?) Baseball Stickers

2011-09-06T19:45:00.000-07:00

Recently a group of baseball stickers came up for auction on ebay that caught my eye:

I believe these were put out by Kellogg's in the late 1970s as they are very similar to the 1978 Kellogg's Football Stickers that were available in packages of Pop-Tarts:

Unfortunately however, whereas the Football stickers have information on the back with the Kellogg's logo

the baseball stickers have blank backs.

In looking around to see if I could find any other examples of these stickers, I did find a few examples of stickers still in the packaging that they would have originally come in

as well as a few examples of some that had been opened

The seller identifies these individual stickers as 1978 Kellogg's stickers based on the similarity to the football stickers, but indicates Kellogg's is not mentioned on the packaging or on the sticker.

The stickers were packaged individually, so the stickers that were recently up for auction look like parts of a strip that was cut into sections of two stickers.

I remember getting some of these stickers as a kid, and still have the A's sticker stuck on the trunk that is the "Original" Fleer Sticker Project:

That is why I was so glad to come across this group of stickers - I have always thought that the A's sticker had come from a breakfast item, and now I think I have the proof:

1981 Fleer and Sports Photo Association Buttons

2011-08-31T11:10:00.001-07:00

After reading Night Owl's great post about the Ron Cey button that he had as a kid, it reminded me of the ad for photo buttons that was on the 1981 Fleer Baseball Wrapper:

Even though it isn't listed on the order form, the Ron Cey button certain looks similar in design

to the Reggie Jackson button that is pictured on the wrapper:

Based on the names on the checklist, I decided to see if I could find some other buttons, and guess what I found. Some of the buttons have the exact same picture as the player's 1981 Fleer card:

(Note the Garvey photo appears to be taken in the same location as the Ron Cey photo and in a similar pose kneeling with a bat)

Other pictures were not exact matches, but were certainly taken at the very same time:

I also found some pictures of proof sheets, which also feature similar shots to the 1981 Fleer cards:

(Note - it also looks like they did some buttons for retired Hall of Famers)

From the proof sheets, we can see the name of the company that was producing the buttons - Sports Photo Association.

I'm guessing that since in 1980 Fleer would have needed pictures for their inaugural set that they were putting together for 1981, it would have made sense for them to work with Sports Photo Association to get images for their cards. That would explain why so many of the pictures on the buttons either match, or are almost identical to the 1981 Fleer set.

It would also help explain why there was an ad for the buttons on Fleer's wrappers. Perhaps as part of the arrangement for providing photos, Sports Photo Association wanted a way to promote their buttons and Fleer agreed to include an ad on the wrapper.

As the Ron Cey button shows, not all buttons feature photos that match or are similar to the 1981 Fleer set. For example, here is the Eddie Murray button

In looking for pictures of examples, I sometimes saw these referred to as being from 1978 and other times from 1981. It could be that SPA also made buttons back in 1978, but with so many of the pictures matching up with 1981 Fleer cards, I would have to say that their biggest set was the 1981 release.

1968 Topps 3D Brooks Robinson Picture Research

2011-08-16T20:09:00.000-07:00

The always amazing The Topps Archives has been doing extensive research on the ultra-rare 1968 Topps 3D prototype card of Brooks Robinson. In looking at the photo on the card

I couldn't help but think I'd seen the photo somewhere else. In digging through my files, I found this picture:

Taking a look side by side, I think I've found a match:

Lets zoom in a bit closer and compare (click to enlarge):

The red circle shows that the hands are in the same position, the yellow circle show the elbow in the same position with the exact same lettering and numbering showing behind the arm, and the green circle showing the belt in the same position.

The interesting thing about the photo on the card however, is to give it a 3D look, they've repositioned the crowd behind Brooks:

The group of people sitting together in the red circle are to the right of Brooks in the photo, but are directly above in on the card. The group of people just to the right of his face on the card are much further to his right in the photo.

It appears they took the image of Brooks and moved it to the right and down a bit relative to the background. I'm assuming this was done to create the illusion of depth for the 3D effect.

This picture is available from a few sellers on ebay as seen by the pictures below, so it appears to be a common photo:

It almost looks like a shot that might have appeared in Sport Magazine back in the early 1960's, although I have no idea if that is where it may have originated or not.

In any case, its nice to see one of the original photos used for of the rarest Topps test issues of all time.

A History of Baltimore's Memorial Stadium Scoreboards

2011-08-13T19:49:00.000-07:00

There have recently been some great photos that have been auctioned from The Baltimore Sun's archives which show the how Memorial Stadium's scoreboards have changed over the years. Looking through these photos gave me the idea of putting together a pictorial history:

This photo shows the new scoreboard as it looked in May of 1954, as the Orioles began their first season in Baltimore. According to the information on the back of the photo

at the time, this was the largest scoreboard in the world. Gunther Beer (a Baltimore brewery) was the sponsor, which is why the information reads "Gunther presents the world's largest scoreboard to citizens of Baltimore".

This news item also indicates that the board will be the world's largest:

Here is a shot showing how the scoreboard looked out in right field during a day game

and another shot taken at night:

The scoreboard originally had a bottle cap in the top left corner (which read "Whats the Good Word"), which was replaced by a bottle by the late 1950's as seen in these photos:

1959 Orioles Team Photo:

The 1959 NFL Championship Game (from a photo taken by my father in the upper deck):

Here is a closer cropped shot of the scoreboard from that picture:

It appears that for a period of time the message to the left of the bottle read "What A Wonderful Beer", but for another period of time it read "Happiest Hit in Beer"

with the word "hit" possibly used to distinguish a hit from an error.

In 1960, Hamm's Brewing Company bought Gunther Brewing Company, and the scoreboard reflected this change.

This photo from The Baltimore Sun from August 1964 shows the Hamm's advertisement on the scoreboard

which also made it on to this 1965 Topps ERA Leaders card in the background behind Dean Chance:

Thanks to Kevin from Orioles Card "O" the Day for pointing out that the scoreboard also appeared on Russ Synder's 1962 card in his post about the card which includes some great memories of Baltimore.

Here is the original negative for the 1962 card:

Hamm's then sold the Gunther brewery to Schaefer Beer, and the scoreboard advertising changed again in late 1964 as this October 1964 picture from a Colts game against the Packers shows:

Schaefer remained the sponsor on the scoreboard for the remainder of the 1960's

which means Schaefer was the sponsor for the 1966

and 1969 World Series

The Schaefer ad even made a sneaky appearance on Dave McNally's 1967 Topps card:

By 1970, the scoreboard needed to be replaced, and work started in 1970 for a new scoreboard in left field

As the information on the back of the photo indicates, the scoreboard was to make its debut on August 21, 1970.

While work was being done on the new board, the Schaefer ad was covered up with a message reading "Watch for completion of your new scoreboard now under construction in left field" as seen in this photo of Paul Blair from what appears to be Picture Day:

Fortunately, we have another shot from that same day of Merv Rettenmund which shows the new scoreboard:

One thing I would like to see is a shot showing both the old and new boards together in one picture.

With the change in the scoreboard, there came a change in sponsor, as National Beer took over.

An interesting side note is that the Orioles were owned by the President of the National Brewing Company Jerry Hoffberger starting in 1965 when he gained a controlling interest in the team, but another company's beer was prominently advertised on the scoreboard until 1970. I'm guessing that is because Schaefer owned Gunther who sponsored the original scoreboard, and since the city owned the stadium, and not the Orioles, perhaps there was nothing Hoffberger could do until a new scoreboard was built.

This is the scoreboard that would have been seen in the 1970 and 1971 World Series broadcasts from Baltimore:

as well as during Johnny Unitas' last few seasons on the Colts:

The new scoreboard was smaller than the original, and did not have room for things like out of town scores. It was a very bare bones scoreboard, which was mainly the result of cost concerns.

At the time, even though the Orioles had been in 2 World Series in a 4 year period, the club was still struggling to draw fans, so there wasn't a lot of money available for a fancy state of the art scoreboard.

However, in spite of that fact, it is the scoreboard I remember seeing every time I'd go to Memorial Stadium as a kid, and as such, still remains one of my favorite scoreboards as seeing pictures of it instantly takes me back to 33rd Street.

Fortunately, the entire scoreboard made an appearance on the 1973 Topps card of Tom Matchick:

As the 1970's went on, the National Beer sign on the top of the scoreboard changed to National Bohemian (Natty Boh)

This version of the scoreboard snuck into Mark Belanger's 1978 Topps card:

As the 1980's rolled around, Jerry Hoffberger no longer owned the team, and National Bohemian was replaced by Busch Beer:

One bit of interesting irony is that fact that the only Topps card I have found that has a shot of the Busch scoreboard is John Elway's 1984 Topps rookie card:

The irony, as any Baltimore Colts fan will tell you, is that Elway refused to play for the Colts who are the team that drafted him, but were forced to trade him as he threatened to play baseball for the Yankees rather than play for the Colts. Colt fans still wonder what might have been had Elway not maneuvered his way out of Baltimore. Even though he never played for the Colts, his rookie card shows him in Memorial Stadium.

Fortunately, Fleer produced a great shot of the scoreboard in their 1981 Football Team Action set:

In 1985, Memorial Stadium added a Diamond Vision board in right field where the original scoreboard used to be. This allowed fans to see video highlights.

Also interesting to note is that the scoreboard no longer had a beer sponsor, as Toyota now had its name at the top of the scoreboard. Budweiser was a beer sponsor on the Diamond Vision board.

1991 was the last season the Orioles played in Memorial Stadium before moving to Camden Yards,

and in 1992, the Diamond Vision board was removed from the stadium.

When the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore to become the Ravens, they played at Memorial Stadium for 2 seasons (1996 - 1997) and Budweiser was the sponsor on top of the scoreboard:

After the Ravens moved to their new stadium, Memorial Stadium was no longer being used, and fell into disrepair.

Unfortunately, the scoreboard, along with the rest of Memorial Stadium was eventually demolished in 2001.

Even though the scoreboard and the stadium are gone, seeing pictures of the various scoreboards takes me back to a time when the Colts still played in Baltimore, and the Orioles were one of the class organizations in baseball.

Unseen Pics of Hall of Famers from The Topps Vault

2011-08-03T19:32:00.000-07:00

Just when I think that Topps must have cleaned out their Vault by now of all the great photos they have in their archives, they continue to surprise me with fantastic shots of some of the all time greats that never made it on to cardboard.

Checking the current auctions, I came across these great photos:

And even though he's not a Hall of Famer, I had to include this great shot of Roger Maris taken in Yankee Stadium when he played for the Indians:

I don't know how long Topps can keep finding treasures like these, but I hope they still have lots more pictures like this to offer.

Here is One Way to Tell Who is Who in a Team Photo

2011-07-15T20:45:00.000-07:00

I came across this great Orioles team photo from 1968:

Everybody seems to be doing a good job of facing back towards home plate except Frank Robinson and Curt Blefary, who we can see looking off to their right towards the 3rd base dugout.

According to the information on the back, the picture was taken in May, 1968.

I like to see that the team and the photographer were having some fun with the shoot. Since this photo is coming from The Sporting News archives, I wonder if it was ever actually published.

UPDATE:

Thanks to Commishbob ('59 Topps) and Dan (11th and Washington) for more details behind the photographer and the "Lets Get Behind The Birds" promotion from 1968 that utilized this photo (with a bit of airbrushing) as we discover in this article that appeared in the December 14, 1968 issue of The Sporting News (Thanks Dan!) (click to see a larger version).

Thanks to both of you for the great information behind this interesting photo!

1971 All Star Game Broadcast

2011-07-11T18:37:00.000-07:00

As the 2011 All Star Game approaches, I thought it would be fun to take a look back 40 years ago to the broadcast of one of the more memorable All Star Games - the 1971 Midsummer Classic.

The game was broadcast by NBC

The broadcasters were Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek, along with Lindsey Nelson down on the field

Quite a contrast in terms of sports coats from three years ago!

The game was played in Tiger Stadium, which was decked out for the occasion:

Talk about some amazing lineups. The NL was managed by Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson

who had the following Hall of Famers in his starting lineup

On the American League side, Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver

had the following Hall of Famers in his starting lineup:

That's 10 Hall of Famers just in the starting lineup! They were joined by 10 other Hall of Famers on the bench, for a total of 20 (22 if you include the managers).

Earl Weaver and Sparky Anderson wore microphones as they exchanged lineup cards and went over the ground rules with the umpire. You can see the umpires microphone below:

Vida Blue started for the American League

and one of the first batters he faced was Hank Aaron, who received The Gillette Award for being the top vote getter for the All Star Game

Also in the top of the 1st, the eventual 1971 AL MVP faced the eventual 1971 NL MVP Joe Torre

Dock Ellis was the starter for the National League

and really seemed to enjoy wearing his unusual Pirates batting helmet as he was wearing it during the pregame interview as well as his at bat

which in itself is somewhat odd as you would figure with all the talent on the bench and in the bullpen that you would pinch hit for the pitchers spot.

The great thing about this game is that all the scoring was done from Home Runs from 6 different Hall of Famers.

Johnny Bench was the first to homer in the top of the 2nd (with Willie Stargell on 1st)

As you can see in this picture of Bench rounding 3rd, the bases were painted red, white, and blue:

Next came Hank Aaron in the top of the 3rd

This was actually Hank Aaron's first extra base hit in All Star competition.

The AL struck back in the bottom of the 3rd, with Reggie Jackson's famous home run off the light tower on the roof (with Luis Aparicio on 1st)

which was followed later in the inning by Frank Robinson (with Rod Carew on 1st)

In the bottom of the 6th, Harmon Killebrew homered (with Al Kaline on 1st)

with the final HR coming from Roberto Clemente in the top of the 8th

Not only were all the HRs hit by HOFs, even the guys who were on base at the time were all HOFs as well!

Speaking of Hall of Famers, there were also a number of HOFs who appeared in ads during the broadcast.

Whitey Ford was eating Product 19

Tom Seaver and his wife Nancy were filling up the car at Philips 66

Johnny Bench was talking about Gillette razors

and Don Drysdale was talking about a Chrysler promotion to win 2 tickets to the 1971 World Series

Surprisingly, there was only one beer ad during the whole game. It was an ad for Schlitz

One other interesting thing that caught my eye was that Norm Cash did not wear a batting helmet.

When it was all said and done, Brooks Robinson caught the final out

and the American League had finally won a game after 8 consecutive losses.

Unfortunately for the AL, this would be their only victory of the 1970's, as they would lose 11 games in a row and would not win again until 1983.

Watching this game was a treat as this is what an All Star Game should be. 20 future Hall of Famers led by 2 Hall of Fame managers putting on a great show.

Reggie Jackson Morphs from the A's to the Yankees

2011-07-09T22:21:00.000-07:00

Up for auction from The Topps Vault is the classic airbrush job done on Reggie Jackson in 1977 to turn him from an Oakland Athletic to a New York Yankee on his Hostess baseball card. Now we can see the full negative that was used:

Looking at the lines that were drawn on the shoulder and across the chest to mark off the portions of the picture to be airbrushed, it looks like the artist must have known how the cards were going to be designed since they didn't bother to paint the entire shoulder, but rather just did a portion of it at an angle which is similar to curved design of the photo on the card:

I think the work that was done for the Hostess card turned out better that what was used for the 1977 Topps card that year:

It looks like the 2 pictures that were used were snapped within a few seconds of each other. I can almost picture the photographer saying "Reggie, look to your right. Good. Now look to your left."

The Fleer Sticker Project Makes It To The White House!

2011-07-08T22:11:00.000-07:00

Look who's reading The Fleer Sticker Project, courtesy of a link on Uni Watch (click to enlarge):

Of course I don't have any idea of who on the White House staff might be taking a few minutes to check out the blog (I don't think the President spends his mornings in the Oval Office checking out his favorite blogs), but its pretty cool to see that someone from the "Executive Office of The President USA" is stopping by to take a look.

Even better is the fact that this was a return visit!

1968 All Star Game Broadcast

2011-07-06T19:56:00.000-07:00

As we approach the All Star break next week, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at a broadcast I recently picked up of the 1968 All Star Game.

The broadcast opens with a view of downtown Houston, and then focuses in on the Astrodome:

we see the classic NBC logo

and the intro to the 1968 All Star Game:

The announcers for the game were Pee Wee Reese, Curt Gowdy, and Sandy Koufax

who got a shout out from the Astrodome scoreboard:

The 1968 All Star Game was obviously the first to be played indoors, but it was also the first to be played at night.

As part of the pregame show, we get a tour of the Astrodome, including a look at some of the Suites:

We then move to the player introductions. The 1968 All Star Game was the first to have team captains, with Mickey Mantle being the AL team captain

and Willie Mays serving as the NL team captain:

NBC had a camera up in the gondola which they put to good use for shots like this of the lineups:

The National Anthem is performed, accompanied by fireworks on the scoreboard

Here is a color photo showing the lineups for the singing of the National Anthem with a full view of the fireworks on the scoreboard:

Then it is time for the lineups for the AL

and the NL

NBC shows off its high tech picture in picture capability with a cut in of Sandy Koufax talking about his old teammate Don Drysdale who is the NL starter

Leading off for the AL is Jim Fregosi, who is wearing the Angles batting helmet with the halo on the top:

Here is another view of the helmet that you don't see pictures of too often:

Fregosi doubles, but is stranded at third as Carew, Yaz, and Howard fail to bring him in. This was the biggest offensive threat the AL could put together all night.

Fortunately this broadcast has commercials, so we get to see the great new 1968 cars like this Dodge:

Going to the bottom of the 1st, we see AL starter Luis Tiant and his insane 1.24 ERA:

1968 was the Year of the Pitcher, and this All Star Game certainly drives that point home, with the almost impossible to believe ERAs that some of these pitchers had at the break as well as the fact that there was almost no offense at all in this game.

Willie Mays led off for the NL with a single, and would ultimately score the game's only run.

Here is the pitch from Tiant - check out Willie's pocket - there is something in there which we will see when he reaches first

After being safe at first, Willie takes off his batting helmet

flips it to the first base coach and reaches in his back pocket

and pulls out

his hat!

Willie didn't wear the batting helmet once he got on base. He also didn't wear his hat under the helmet. He simply would swap the helmet for the hat when he reached base. I had never seen that done before.

They try to pick off Mays, but the throw goes past Killebrew, so Mays goes to 2nd, and then ends up at 3rd after a wild pitch. Curt Flood walks, and then Willie McCovery grounds into a DP which scores Mays.

Unfortunately the cameras pick up the double play, and not Mays scoring the run, so the viewers never actually got to see the only run of the game score. All they could see after the DP was Mays walking off the field at the bottom of this screen shot:

That pretty much takes care of most of the offensive production for the rest of the game after only 1 inning. The NL would get two more runners as far as 3rd, but neither would score.

Even though the scoring was already done for the night, there were still some more interesting things to see, including an ad for Right Guard with who appears to be McLean Stevenson in a pre-MASH appearance:

In the bottom of the 3rd, Harmon Killebrew injures himself by stretching out just a little to far and does a split

that leaves him flat out on the ground with a pulled groin muscle

They have to put him on a stretcher

to carry him off the field

NBC did take advantage of the Astrodome gondola, and provided some great shots of Hank Aaron

and Willie McCovey from a perspective that viewers were not used to seeing

There were also nice shots like this from behind home plate, where we see Juan Marichal with his famously high leg kick pitching to Frank Howard

As some of the commercials remind us, the late 1960's were awesome. Name another time when girls in mini skirts and go-go boots just hung out on top of traffic light poles

or women would dance while a guy was shaving

We also get to see the grounds crew in their "Earthmen" outfits drag the infield

We get to see some younger guys who would be All Star regulars during the 1970's make appearances, like Tom Seaver, who struck out 5 in his two innings.

In the top of the 8th, Mickey Mantle came into the game and received a standing ovation

Its an interesting juxtaposition to see one New York legend at the end of his career facing off against a soon to be New York legend at the start of career. In the shot below, Seaver strikes out Mantle in his final All Star at bat:

In the top of the 9th, we see another 1970's All Star game fixture make his first appearance - Johnny Bench.

We also catch a glimpse of the batting helmet worn by Carl Yastrzemski - he is the only player in the game wearing an ear flap, and the announcers point this out.

Jerry Koosman comes in to get the last out, and heads off the field where the NL players congratulate each other:

The Astrodome Scoreboard goes through the "Home Run Spectacular" sequence

and then we see the final score: NL 1 AL 0

This was the first 1-0 game in All Star history. The AL didn't really have much of a chance going against 4 Hall of Fame pitchers in a row: Drysdale - Marichal - Calrton - Seaver. Oh, and by the way, Bob Gibson was warming up in the 9th if Koosman couldn't get the job done.

Willie Mays was named the MVP given he scored the only run.

Taking a look back at these old All Star Games is really a lot of fun. Its great to see so many Hall of Famers and other big stars from the time in one game. Having the commercials as well really makes it feel like you are back in 1968 watching on a B&W TV.

Two More Orioles Spotted in the 1968-1969 Vests

2011-06-14T20:02:00.000-07:00

I recently came across two pictures of the 1968 - 1969 Orioles vest with players I had not previously seen in this rare uniform - Boog Powell and Eddie Watt:

I've been able to find pictures of many of the Orioles from 1968 - 1969 in this alternate jersey, including Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Mike Cuellar, Paul Blair, Mark Belanger, Dave Johnson, and Elrod Hendricks. Adding Boog Powell to the list now leaves me with Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, and Earl Weaver as the last big Oriole names still to find.

Fortunately new pictures keep coming up for auction from The Baltimore Sun archives, so I'm hopeful that I can track down the remaining Orioles to have pictures of the entire starting lineup as well as the main starters from the pitching staff in this great looking uniform.

Half Way to 1 Million!

2011-06-11T20:25:00.000-07:00

The blog hit a major milestone this past week as the stat counter passed the 500,000 page view mark!

I certainly never would have imagined the amount of interest in the site, but hitting the 500,000 mark earlier this week completely blows me away. When I decided to start the blog to catalog all the variations I had found over the years among the various Fleer sticker/patch/quiz card/iron ons/etc., I never would have thought that I'd still be posting more than 3 years later and have so many people stopping by to take a look.

It is extremely rewarding to see that there are other people who are interested in reading what I am interested in researching and writing about.

I'd like to say a sincere Thank You to everyone who follows the blog or just stops by to read a particular post about something that interests them. Seeing that people are reading the blog and posting comments is why I am still posting even after I've covered just about every possible Fleer issue that I could possibly research.

I'd also like to thank a number of people who have contributed to the blog over the years who have helped me with researching a number of the items, and allowed me to share that information on the blog:

Craig - for his wealth of information regarding Fleer stickers and his generous contributions of images for items that I did not have in my collection (as well as some great trades that helped me acquire many of the Fleer items that you've seen pictured!)

Steve - for his help with a number of different NFL related items that he has come across in his years of collecting and writing The Cowboys Guide (and some great trades as well!)

Dave - from the amazing The Topps Archives for help on some of the Topps sets I've covered.

Troy - for the great information he shared with me from hobby publications from the late 1960's through the late 1970's that I covered in the series of posts called The Troy Files. The information Troy provided answered a number of questions I had about some of the Fleer releases during that time period.

Randy - for sharing some of the items from his Cardinals collection to compliment some of the sets that I had covered.

Finally, I'd also like to give a huge Thanks to Paul Lukas, whose fantastic Uni Watch has linked to the site on so many occasions, and has helped provide incredible visibility to the blog. I really appreciate the number of times Paul has linked to something I've posted on the Uni Watch News Ticker and the many kind things that Paul has said about The Fleer Sticker Project.

Thanks to everyone for helping me reach this this very gratifying milestone!

Jim Palmer Pitching for the Marlins?

2011-05-29T20:55:00.000-07:00

I came across this picture of Jim Palmer in a Marlins uniform:

The Miami Marlins, that is. This picture was taken in 1968 when Jim was working his way back from arm injuries that significantly limited his time with the Orioles in 1967 and 1968.

The Marlins were the Orioles' Class A minor league team in the Florida State League. Jim had played for the Marlins for part of the 1967 season (5 games), and returned for 2 games in 1968. It looks like Jim got to keep his #22 when he was down in the minors.

As the caption on back of the Sporting News photo indicates, in 1968 Palmer was considered a "former Baltimore hurler"

which was a long way from his World Series heroics only 2 seasons earlier:

Jim didn't pitch a single inning for the Orioles in 1968, which explains why he was not included on this card in the 1969 Topps set:

Fortunately Jim was able to rehabilitate his arm during his stint back down in the minors and went on be one of the best pitchers of the 1970's:

First Photo of Reggie Jackson in an Orioles Uniform?

2011-05-22T09:46:00.001-07:00

With the large number of newswire photos that have surfaced through various archives such as from The Baltimore Sun and Chicago Tribune being sold on ebay, there has been the opportunity to see a number of "new" photos (or at least photos that haven't been seen since the picture appeared in a newspaper many years ago). Recently, a few photos of Reggie Jackson's short time with the Orioles have appeared, including what may be the first picture of Reggie in an Orioles uniform:

According to the information on the back of the photo, this picture was taken May 1, 1976 at the Johns Hopkins University Gym:

Why do I think that this might be Reggie's first picture as an Oriole? According to this news item, it wasn't until Friday, April 30 that Reggie agreed to play for the Orioles after having been traded 4 weeks earlier:

If Reggie agreed on April 30, May 1 would have been the very next day. The article says Reggie was scheduled to join the team that evening, but so far, no photos have surfaced of Reggie from that evening. Reggie did not appear in the game, so its not certain whether or not he suited up for the game.

So why was Reggie working out at Johns Hopkins instead of Memorial Stadium? It was due to a rain out on Saturday, May 1. Due to the rainout, the Orioles played a double header the next day against Reggie's former team the A's, and Reggie did not play in the opener, but did play in the second game.

Until a photo surfaces of Reggie in an O's uniform on April 30, I would have to say that the picture of him taking batting practice the day after he joined the team is the first picture of Reggie as an Oriole.

In addition to the picture above, two other photos of Reggie as an Oriole have also surfaced. This is a shot of Reggie looking over Lee May who has been hit in the head by a pitch against Kansas City:

and here is a shot of Reggie in his final month as an Oriole signing autographs:

Its interesting to note that The Baltimore Sun had this filed under "fans" instead of Reggie. The looks in the two kids' eyes are priceless.

The thing that stands out to me in the picture is the kid with the Orioles cap has the alternate orange panel and black brim cap that I had always wanted but was never able to find. The sporting goods stores around us only carried the standard white panel orange brim cap. A few kids I had known had gotten the alternate cap, but I was never able to locate one.

To me, that cap is one of those childhood items you wished you could have had, but never did.

For additional pictures of Reggie on the Orioles , please see my earlier post where I have tried to collect all available photos from Reggie's 1976 season.

The Mystery of the Missing Kansas City A's 1955 Post Sugar Crisp Cereal Patch

2011-05-19T20:42:00.000-07:00

A while back I reviewed the 1955 Post Sugar Crisp Cereal Cloth Patches which included only 15 of the 16 teams that were in existence at the time. For some reason, there was no patch for the Athletics. Thanks to the watchful eye of Dave from the amazing blog The Topps Archives, we now have proof that an Athletics patch was at least initially planned:

This amazing uncut sheet was recently up for auction, and provides proof that originally all 16 teams were intended for release. If you take a close look at the A's logo, you will see that it has an "X" beside it, presumably indicating that this may have been a proof sheet.

The auction also shows the back of the sheet. The instructions on the back of the patches indicates that the set was to be 16 patches:

Here is a closer look:

At some point between the creation of this sheet and the actual release of the promotion however, the decision was made to remove the A's as only 15 patches were ultimately issued.

The auction included a full set of the patches that were issued, and as you can see below, it only included 15 teams and did not feature the A's:

There was also a Post Sugar Crisp Cereal box that was included in the auction, and it shows all the teams except the A's and indicates that a set of 15 patches (not 16) could be ordered through the mail:

The auction also features an ad, again with only 15 teams and excluding the A's:

So why were the A's originally included, and then removed? The only thing I can think of is that it is due to the fact that the Athletics moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City the year this was released, so either Post wasn't sure if they should still use the logo (since perhaps there was some thought that it might get changed), or perhaps they weren't able to negotiate for the rights to use the logo as the team was in the process of relocating.

Since this was well before the days of MLB Properties, it could be that each team would have had to have been negotiated with individually to license their logo, and with the team in transition there was no opportunity to work out a licensing deal, so the A's were taken out of the series.

The auction also features some of the artwork that was used to create the patches, including an alternative White Sox logo that was not used:

Its great coming across finds like this that provide some insight into the creation of a set. Now if only the memo would surface that explains why the Athletics logo had to be taken out of the series!

Thanks to Dave for letting me know about this auction!

The Curious Case of the 1970 Brewers Prototype Jersey

2011-05-09T10:40:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the fact that a number of different archives of newswire photos are currently being auctioned on ebay, there are a number of fascinating images which are showing up for sale.

One of those images is a great shot showing the transition from the Seattle Pilots to the Milwaukee Brewers

The photo is dated April 3, 1970 and was taken at the Pilots/Brewers Spring Training home in Tempe, AZ. The Pilots had just found out that they were going to move to Milwaukee a few days earlier (March 31), so it looks like this was a photo-op to show the changing of the uniforms from the Pilots to the Brewers.

There was apparently at least one other photo taken that made the newswire showing the new Brewers jersey:

This photo was taken a few days earlier on April 1, and shows Marty Pattin in the same prototype jersey. The interesting thing about these pictures is that the Brewers jersey is not what they would wear when they started the season a few days later.

The letting on this jersey reminds me of the late 1960's California Angels jerseys (the "E"s look very similar):

There is one other photo which shows this prototype design, but in this case its not being worn by a player, but by a stewardess:

This picture is from the April 6 edition of The Milwaukee Journal (so the picture would have been taken on the 5th).

So for at least a week, this version of the Brewers jersey was being used to promote the team's move.

However, when the Brewers were warming up on April 6, 1970 (the day before Opening Day) , they were wearing the uniform that was their standard home uniform for the 1970 season:

Even though you can't make out the jersey entirely, you can see that the lettering is different and the stripes on the arm do not match the prototype.

For a full view of the jersey that was worn opening day, here is a picture of manager Dave Bristol after the Opening Day game

Here we can see that the Brewers were wearing the uniform on Opening Day that would be their uniform for the entire season.

If anyone knows why the Brewers jersey that was used for the first week after the Pilots became the Brewers had a different design than what they ultimately ended up wearing that first season, I'd be interested in hearing the story.

Obviously there was a very tight window to get the new Brewers uniform created in time for Opening Day since the Pilots didn't become the Brewers until March 31, so could it be that the company that created the uniforms for the Brewers (possibly based in Milwaukee?) wasn't the same company that designed the prototype (who possibly may have been based in Arizona since the team was just finishing up Spring Training).

That seems like the most logical explanation, but I'm wondering if that has ever been verified.

How Fleer Stickers Solved the Mystery of the Lost NFL Games

2011-05-02T19:05:00.000-07:00

It seems like we can now find just about any piece of information that we want by searching the internet. However, I was surprised to find out that there was one area of information that until now was nowhere to be found - the list of NFL games that were canceled due to the 1982 players strike.

However, thanks to the 1982 Fleer Team Action Football stickers with the team schedules on the back

we now have the answer!

Earlier this year, I received an e-mail from Jon asking if I could provide scans of the backs of the 1982 Fleer Football stickers. He told me he had been trying to piece together the 1982 NFL schedule so that he could then figure out which games had been lost to the strike.

With so much information available online, you would think that the 1982 NFL schedule would have been something that you could find with a bit of research. Unfortunately, the only information that was available was on the games that had actually been played that season. He was unable to find information on the games that were originally scheduled, but never played.

In doing his research, he came across my post on the 1982 Fleer Football stickers, and decided to contact me to see if I would be willing to help him with his project by providing scans of the backs of the stickers so that he could reconstruct the full season.

I was glad to help, and after providing him with the scans, he sent me the link to the Wikipedia page for Canceled NFL Games where he has detailed the schedules for all the weeks that were lost in 1982, as well as listing all other known games that have been canceled over the years, including 1987 when the NFL used replacement players for a few weeks. Jon also created a web page where he talks about the project, and where he has posted the backs of all the stickers to show the complete 1982 schedule.

With the NFL labor situation seeming to change almost daily, hopefully things get worked out in time to avoid the current NFL lockout from adding any more games to Jon's list of canceled games.

I'd like to say Thanks to Jon for getting in touch with me so I could put those sticker backs to good use!

Topps Vault Picture Research - Where Have I Seen That Photo Before?

2011-04-25T19:48:00.000-07:00

I recently saw this negative of Brooks and Frank Robinson for auction on ebay from The Topps Vault:

Looking at the picture, I wondered where I had seen this shot before. After thinking about it for awhile, it hit me:

Topps used this picture for its 2005 Brooks Robinson Topps Fan Favorite card by cropping out Frank Robinson.

Digging a little further, I realized that the shot from the Topps Vault appears to have been taken at the same time as this shot that appears in the Sport Magazine photo gallery:

Here is the actual picture as it appeared in Sport Magazine:

This B&W photo appears to have also been taken from another angle at the same time:

Tying this back to Topps, if you look at the Sport Magazine photo, you can see that the dugout in the background is the very same dugout that Brooks and Frank are standing in front of in this other photo that Topps auctioned off a few months ago:

Looking at Frank's undershirt sleeves which extend to about his elbows and at Brooks' sleeves which do not extend all the way to the elbow, it certainly appears these photos were taken the same day. The other thing that appears to be the same in this series of photos are the towels hanging up in the dugout as well as the player sitting on the bench.

Topps got a lot of use out of this particular photo session since another shot appeared on the 1968 Bird Belters card

and yet another shot appeared on the 1967 "The Champs" card (with Hank Bauer joining in):

Not bad getting three different cards out of one photo session. I wonder if Topps has a few more shots from this photo session in their archives since it appears quite a few pictures were taken that day.

Another Custom Fleer Baseball Sticker From The Phillies Room - Flashback Edition

2011-04-19T20:01:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't see Jim's post on The Phillies Room previewing the Brewers v. Phillies series, I have only one word to describe this custom Fleer sticker:

AWESOME!

In discussing my appreciation for the great work he is doing with his custom Fleer stickers that he has created to go along with his previews for each Phillies series this season, I asked if he would entertain any special requests, and indicated that I would really enjoy seeing a Seattle Pilots sticker.

Jim really delivered on my request with a great job on this classic cap, complete with the "scrambled eggs" on the brim.

Thanks for the great Pilots sticker Jim!

To see more of Jim's custom work, please visit his fantastic blog The Phillies Room.

Wacky Packages Old School Series 2

2011-04-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

The 2nd Series of Wacky Packages Old School is out now:

The set is based around package designs from the 1970's - hence the "Old School" name. Just like with the 1st series which was released last year, this set does a great job capturing the packaging from those times, and has come up with some great parodies. One of the things I like about the Old School set is seeing products that I remember as a kid, but have forgotten about until seeing the sticker.

The Old School series is a collector release (as opposed to a mass market release) with a limited production run of only 5,000 boxes. The stickers are only available through the Topps Online Store, and are not sold anywhere else. Here is the link if you are interested in purchasing a box which contains 24 packs:

http://www.toppsonlinestore.com/servlet/the-759/Wacky-Packages-Old-School/Detail

Here is a look at the complete 33 sticker set:

Packs contain 3 stickers and a checklist card. The checklist is very similar to the checklist cards that came in the 1970s packs:

The checklists are on the back of the puzzle cards. As the Original Series always did, the puzzle features a Topps product:

In this case, the Topps product being spoofed is Big Tooth Gum:

In addition to the 24 packs, in each box there is a large envelope

which contains the following bonus items:

A Wacky Packages Old School sticker and an Old School Series 3 Promo sticker:

2 Artist Concept Cards (there are 2 cards in each envelope with 6 total in the full set):

3 Giant 5x7 Stickers (there are 3 in each envelope with 9 total in the full set)

and 1 Wacky Artist Sketch card:

The majority of the sketch cards are B&W, but there are a few color sketch cards as well:

And finally, there is also a Wacky Packages Old School binder which is available to purchase separately:

It appears there will also be an All New Series 8 set later this year, so we can look forward to more Wacky releases down the road.

Custom Fleer Baseball Stickers from The Phillies Room

2011-04-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month I came across a post that caught my eye and brought a big smile to my face - new custom Fleer Baseball stickers!

Jim, from the fantastic blog The Phillies Room, has created custom Fleer Baseball stickers to highlight his posts where he looks at each upcoming series between the Phillies and their next opponent:

Jim's work on customizing the stickers is incredible. I am really looking forward to completing my virtual collection of team stickers as the season goes on.

Even though Fleer is no longer with us, its great to see a "new" series utilizing a classic design. It almost feels like an "update set" to the original 1980 - 1982 sets that featured each team's cap:

Jim's custom work is not limited to stickers however. He does an even more amazing job with his custom cards:

Not only does he utilize classic Topps designs to create new cards that look like they must be from an update set from the particular set he is using for his design, he even customizes the backs in many cases:

He's got the back of this 1977 design down perfectly!

He even has checklists for his cards:

Even if you aren't a Phillies fan, I highly recommend checking out The Phillies Room to see many more examples of Jim's custom cards.

Jim - thanks for letting me share some great examples of your work, and for the excellent job you are doing with your custom cards and Fleer stickers.

1970 All Star Game Program

2011-04-11T21:37:00.000-07:00

To finish up my look back at some vintage baseball programs that feature team logos, I'm going to review one of my favorite program covers - the 1970 All Star Game program:

This is the only program cover that I've come across that features all of the team logos from both leagues. As we've seen with some of the other covers I've reviewed, some of them would have all of the teams from either the AL or NL, but this is the only time all the team logos appear together on one cover.

I like the clean white background with all 24 team logos surrounding the Baseball logo (which apparently was used during the 1960s). For the most part, these were the team logos that were being used when I started to follow baseball, so looking at this program with all of these logos takes me back to that era.

Professional Baseball Logo from the 1970 All Star Game AL Media Guide

2011-04-04T19:54:00.000-07:00

It seems that for a while from 1969 to at least 1970, the familiar Major League Baseball logo included the notation "Professional" instead of "Major League" Baseball:

I first spotted this logo on a 1969 Padres program last week

and have now found another version on the back of the 1970 American League All Star Game Media Guide:

This gives us two publications from two different years which used the term "Professional" instead of "Major League". If anyone has any information on why "Professional" was used for a period of time instead of "Major League", I'd appreciate hearing from you.

For the 1970 All Star Game Fan Ballot, the MLB logo was used, and the copyright under the logo reads Major League Baseball Properties:

so why the "Professional" logo on the back of the All Star Game Media Guide?

I could see "Professional" being used in the context of covering both Major and Minor League Baseball combined, but the examples of the logo being used are on publications that are specific to the Major Leagues. I'm wondering if Professional and Major League were used interchangeably, or whether there is any significance associated with using one instead of the other.

If the design of the AL Media (Facts and Figures) Guide looks familiar, its because its the same design that was used on the 1969 Royals program

except that in 1970 the Brewers replaced the Pilots and moved the Twins, Yankees, and A's over one hour on the clock dial to keep the teams in alphabetical order by city.

1969 Expansion Team Programs - Royals and Padres

2011-03-31T19:31:00.000-07:00

Two of the four 1969 expansion teams utilized designs on their scorecards that featured team logos. The Kansas City Royals scorebook featured the 12 AL teams surrounding the American League logo:

Just in case anyone didn't recognize the logos, the program identifies the team insignias, and makes the point that there will be more MLB players coming to Kansas City to play the Royals than previously came to town to play the Athletics (who had moved to Oakland the previous season):

The Padres score card featured the other 11 NL team logos surrounding the Padres logo against a background featuing San Diego Stadium (later known as Jack Murphy and now named Qualcomm):

If you take a look at the scoreboard, you will see an interesting MLB logo celebrating the 100th Anniversary of "Professional" (not Major League) Baseball:

I have never seen the MLB logo using the term "Professional" before. This is what we are all used to seeing:

The "Professional" logo was not used on the uniform patch that was worn in 1969:

Even looking back at the MLB logo variations produced by Fleer (which had a patch in 1969 for the 100th Anniversary), there was never a version that used the word "Professional":

The "Professional Baseball" logo must have been short lived as I have never seen it used anywhere else.

Taking a look at the other two expansion teams, the closest the Seattle Pilots got to featuring other teams on their program was a version of the program that included other team's stars such as Frank Robinson, Carl Yastrzemski, and Denny McClain:

Another Pilots program cover that year featured the domed stadium that was to be built as one of the conditions for Seattle gaining an expansion franchise:

And finally, the Expos had a very plain looking design, with just a circular black and white picture on the bottom half of cover:

Its interesting that only the Padres note that Major League Baseball was celebrating its 100th Anniversary in 1969. The rest of the expansion teams make no mention of it, at least on the covers of their programs.

1969 California Angels Program - Inspired by Fleer Quiz Cards?

2011-03-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

In addition to the program that showed the American League West Division alignment, the Angels had another scorecard in 1969 that included all the American League team logos that looks somewhat similar to something I've covered in considerable detail on the blog:

The 1969 - 1971 Fleer Quiz cards:

Even though the colored borders don't match up for most of the teams, the Twins

and Royals do match:

Whenever I see a picture of this program, I can't help but think of the Fleer Quiz cards given the similar design with team logos inside a white circle surrounded by a colored border. Given the similarity to the Fleer Quiz Card design, this is one of my favorite program covers.

Learning Geography with Los Angeles / California Angels Scorecards

2011-03-16T20:24:00.000-07:00

This 1963 Los Angeles Angels Scorebook shows the geographic disadvantage that the Angels had in their early years as the only American League team on the West Coast:

Unlike the Dodgers and Giants who played each other in the NL, the Angels were by themselves out West in the AL, and had to travel across at least half of the country each time they played a road game.

While the Angels were waiting for their stadium to be completed in Anaheim, they shared Dodger Stadium with the Dodgers, but referred to the stadium as Chavez Ravine as seen on the program.

By the late 1960s with the A's moving to Oakland in 1968 and the addition of the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots in 1969, travel improved for the Angels in terms of having a few teams located closer to them as this 1969 Angels program shows:

Once again the Angles scorecard features a map, this time showing the teams in the newly created American League West Division.

The map design was also used on the Angels 1969 Media Guide,

with the main difference being the Media Guide used the older version of the Angels lettering

while the program features the new lettering with the lower case "a" and a halo:

1963 Cleveland Indians Scorecard - Chief Wahoo and his Amazing Bat Arrow!

2011-03-10T21:52:00.000-08:00

In looking for programs that utilize team logos in the design, I came across this great cover of a 1963 Cleveland Indians Scorecard:

I like how Chief Wahoo is using one of his special baseball bat arrows to take aim at the opposing teams. I'm not sure who he's trying to hit though, since the bat is aimed right at the Orioles, but he seems to be eyeing the Red Sox or the Yankees.

Although not a design featuring other teams' logos, I also liked the cover of this Indians Pictorial magazine from 1965 with the various uniforms represented.

With over 250 photos, I would imagine this would be a great item for an Indians fan who is interested in the team's history over its first century.

The item is currently listed on ebay here.

The Indians later issued another program featuring logos from the other teams in the American League in 1974:

While certainly more colorful than the 1963 program, it isn't nearly as interesting as the earlier version as Chief Wahoo is no longer hunting the other teams (or shilling wide-track Pontiacs).

1962 & 1969 Chicago Cubs Programs

2011-03-07T21:08:00.000-08:00

During the two seasons that the National League added expansion teams in the 1960s, the Chicago Cubs reflected the changes on the covers of their programs.

In 1962, with the addition of the New York Mets and the Houston Colt .45s to the National League, the Cubs program showed the caps for all 10 NL teams, with the teams shown in alphabetical order by city except for the 2 new teams which are shown at the bottom of the program:

The Cubs used a similar style in 1969 with the addition of the Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres, as well as the newly formed East and West divisions. Once again caps are used to represent the teams, with the 2 expansion teams being listed at the bottom of the program:

The expansion years were the only years that the Cubs featured the rest of the League's logos on their programs. In the other years during the 1960's, they had some great looking covers

but the Cubs were the only team represented on the cover.

These programs come from Cubs By The Numbers, which has a great look at Cubs programs from as far back as 1898 through 2010. I highly recommend checking out the site if you enjoy seeing the covers of old programs.

National League Team Logos from 60 Years Ago - 1951 Giants & Dodgers Programs

2011-02-26T20:52:00.000-08:00

Following up my previous post on the 1951 American League programs which featured team logos, there were also at least 2 National League teams whose programs also featured logos from all the teams in the league:

Just like the AL was celebrating its anniversary (50 years), the National League was celebrating its 75th anniversary in 1951. It appears the milestone anniversaries were the reasons why the Yankees and Red Sox programs were similar to each other, and why the Giants and Dodgers are very similar in design as well.

Taking a look at the logos, the Giants logo is the one they used until the early 1980's

when it was replaced by this

which has evolved into the current logo:

The Dodgers logo really hasn't changed much:

other than adding a few more red lines and changing the script slightly:

Even though both the Giants and Dodgers moved from New York to California in 1958, neither team made significant changes to their logos.

The Phillies are back to using a similar script to what they had in 1951

after having changed their style to this for during the 1970s & 1980s:

The Cardinals continue to utilize a logo featuring 2 Cardinals on a bat:

The Cubs logo is still almost the same

with the main difference being that the logo now has a blue circle around it

The Reds logo also hasn't changed significantly

as the team changed back to having the name Reds inside the "C" instead of Mr. Red who appeared inside the "C" from the early 1970's until the early 1990's:

The Braves and the Pirates are the two teams whose current logos don't really look much at all like they did back in 1951.

The Braves have moved twice since they were in Boston in 1951, first moving to Milwaukee in 1953, and then Atlanta in 1966. During that time, their logo has changed from an Indian chief with a full headdress

to a single feather

to a logo that features a Tomahawk:

The Pirates have gone through a number of different buccaneers since this fellow appeared

starting with this logo in the 1950's

which then changed to this in 1960:

In 1968, the Pirates switched to this logo

which remained until 1987 when it was replaced by this:

Finally, in 1997 the team changed again to the logo that is still being used today:

Its interesting to see that some team logos have not really changed much over the last 60 years, while in some cases teams made changes and have since come back to a similar design.

American League Team Logos from 60 Years Ago - 1951 Yankees & Red Sox Programs

2011-02-20T16:14:00.000-08:00

As I've covered just about every Fleer, Topps, and other card / sticker release featuring team logos over the past 3 years on the blog, I'm going to switch gears a bit and start reviewing some vintage programs, media guides, and books that feature baseball team logos on their covers.

To start things off, here is a 1951 Yankees program which features the classic Yankee logo as well as logos from the other 7 AL teams that were playing back then:

The Yankees logo is essentially the same logo they still use today, and the Red Sox logo is also very similar to their current design.

Speaking of the Red Sox, they had a similar program design in 1951:

Both programs note that 1951 was the 50th Anniversary of the American League.

Looking at the other team logos, Chief Wahoo was being used by the Indians back in 1951, and his look hasn't changed much since then.

The Tigers on the other hand, have a different looking tiger logo than they did in '51.

Although its not used in their primary logo, the A's still utilize the elephant in some of their alternate logos

The White Sox stopped using the wing sock logo in the late 1960s.

The two remaining teams are no longer located in the same cities that they represented in 1951. The Washington Nationals became the Senators in the mid 1950's,

then moved to Minnesota in 1961 to become the Twins:

and the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore in 1954 to become the Orioles.

Taking a look back at these logos from 60 years ago, its interesting to see that some remain relatively unchanged while some other teams have completely changed their identities.

More Rare Orioles Uniform Pictures with Help From The Baltimore Sun Archives

2011-02-17T19:32:00.001-08:00

Following up last month's posts on the Orioles all orange and vest uniforms, I've come across a few more pictures to add to the collection:

Here we have an odd picture of Brooks Robinson, Paul Blair, and a young girl's head on Andy Etchebarren's body. The picture comes from this blog where the young girl in the photo shares some of her other pictures taken with various Orioles players. Apparently this was a cardboard cutout for fans to have their picture taken as an Oriole at one of the annual Bethlehem Steel Family Nights that used to be held at Memorial Stadium. Its interesting that the cutout that was used for taking pictures was a uniform that the team rarely wore.

Turning to the all orange uniforms, we can add Earl Weaver to the list of Orioles that were photographed in the rarely seen uniform:

Here is the back of the photo, which shows it was taken from the same game as the Brooks Robinson photo that I previously found:

Here is another shot of Earl from the same game after finishing the argument pictured above:

Also from that game, we have Frank Robinson hitting home run # 501 and being congratulated by Brooks Robinson:

Here is an article on what the player's thought about the uniforms from the night they debuted:

Its interesting to note that apparently Boog Powell skipped infield practice and Frank Robinson also stayed out of sight after putting on the uniforms. By far the best quote is from Chico Salmon: "I like 'em...It brings out the blackness in me".

The last line of the article mentions that Brooks Robinson's Sporting Goods store filled the order for the uniforms. Here is a picture of Brooks looking at warehouse space for his company:

And finally, the all orange uniforms are making an appearance on TV this week. The MLB Network is airing a show called MLB Network Countdown - Top 40 Memorable Uniforms, and the Orioles all orange uniforms made the list. The hour long show is a fun look back at some of the classic and memorable uniforms from the past. It is airing a few more times this week, so I highly recommend the show if you get the MLB Network.

Blog Bat Around - Fixing Topps Baseball - GET RID OF THE FOIL!

2011-02-08T22:27:00.000-08:00

Stale Gum's Blog Bat Around topic of Fixing Topps Baseball is the perfect excuse for me to rant for a minute about my one pet peeve regarding the Topps flagship brand - namely the fact that I can't read the names on the cards because they are done in foil instead of simply printed on the card.

I can barely make out what is printed above A-Rod's name, have to squint to make out the position, and can only clearly see the name if I treat the card like a 1986 Sportflic and move the card around until the light reflects the right way on the name so I can read it.

Its now been 17 years since Topps printed a base card without the player's name in foil (way back in 1994):

although even then Topps was getting us ready for what was to come with the Topps Gold parallel:

Foil on a card was really cool back in the 1990's as it was new and looked flashy. Now its just tired, and frankly, its getting very old.

Does Topps research show that collectors still demand foil on their cards? Will sales drop if they go back to printing the name so its easily readable no matter what angle you hold the card? I'm not sure why Topps continues to use foil for player's names.

I know I sound like a Grumpy Old Man complaining about how I don't like the foil since I can't read the names:

"Back in my day we didn't have shiny foil on our cards. We collected cards made out of papyrus...the cards were fragile and would fall apart, but you could read the name until the card turned to dust. That's the way it was, and we liked it!"

So please Topps...enough with the foil. Its not 1997 anymore. You won. All the other competitors are gone. You don't need to out foil the other card companies any more. Just go back to making a card that can be enjoyed without trying to make the player's name shine, rendering it nearly unreadable.

In case you forgot, cards like this seem to look just fine without foil:

1974 Hallmark NFL Stickers

2011-02-05T21:52:00.000-08:00

I'd like to say Thanks to Steve from The Cowboys Guide for passing along a picture of a great NFL sticker item he recently picked up:

This is an NFL sticker sheet that was produced by Hallmark from 1974. The football helmet stickers are referred to as "seals" on the header card:

Its interesting to note that they refer to the 2 NFL shield logos on the sheet as "Universal N.F.L. Stickers!"

It looks like Steve will have to add a new entry to The Cowboys Guide in the sticker section for the 1974 Hallmark Seal when he publishes the next edition.

Thanks for passing this along for me to share Steve!

2011 Topps Reggie Jackson Orioles card - Photoshop Trickery?

2011-02-03T20:02:00.001-08:00

In taking a look at the new 2011 Topps cards, I was glad to see that there is a card with Reggie Jackson appearing in an Orioles uniform:

At first, I thought this was a new photo of Reggie as an Oriole as the picture didn't look familiar. However, I went back to the file of Orioles pictures I've been able to track down and found this:

The batting stance is identical, as are the Orioles seen in the dugout. However, for some reason, the crowd in the stands is completely different:

So why in the world did Topps feel that they needed to change the crowd in the stands? In the original, there are some empty seats and a person standing up, but on the Topps card the seats are full and the crowd is completely different.

Its clear that Topps used the image of Reggie from Getty Images (which is where they are getting many of their pictures of retired players), but I can't figure out why they would go to the trouble to replace the background.

NFL Logo Bandz

2011-01-22T21:48:00.000-08:00

For Christmas this year, the kids got NFL logo versions of the popular kids fad Silly Bandz:

The elastic bracelets are not actually produced by the Silly Bandz company, but by Forever Collectibles. There are separate packages of AFC and NFC teams:

The NFC teams are pretty easy to make out for the most part - the Redskins on the top row are the only one that isn't easily recognizable since its just the name:

The AFC teams are more interesting, as they went back to the AFL days for a few of the teams:

The Tennessee Titans are represented by the Houston Oilers derrick, and the Kansas City Chiefs are represented by the old Dallas Texans logo. In addition, they used Pat Patriot instead of the "flying Elvis", Buffalo uses the original standing Buffalo instead of the current helmet design, and Devner uses the old school "D" instead of the current Bronco on the helmet. I have no idea how the green football player is supposed to represent the Raiders, but he is the only band left after accounting for the other teams and the couple of bands that show equipment.

I'm not sure how the kids that these are aimed towards will get the AFL references. I can just imagine a kid in Kansas City getting a package of these and being excited to get the Chiefs logo only to discover its not in there.

They also got creative with the Browns using a bone for the "Dawg Pound", which I thought was a nice touch.

If you are interested in looking for these, we found them at Dick's Sporting Goods.

Topps - I've Found Your Secret Photo Stash!

2011-01-17T20:16:00.000-08:00

In researching the last few posts on the Orioles All Orange and Vest uniforms on Getty Images, imagine my surprise when I found this picture of Eddie Murray from the 1983 ALCS:

This is the same picture that was used in the 2010 Topps Short Printed Legends variations subset:

Then I found this picture of Brooks Robinson from the 1971 World Series which looked familiar

since it is the same photo that was cropped for his SP card:

Continuing the search, I found Jim Palmer's picture was also taken from the 1971 World Series according to the photo information on the Getty Images site:

And finally, I found Frank Robinson's photo as well (although it was an undated shot, it appears it might have been from an ALCS game against the A's).

All four Orioles Legends SP card photos can be found in the Getty Images collection. Its nice to see Topps using other sources besides their own archives for new photos. This year's collection of pictures is much better than last year's Legend SP cards, which seemed to rely on familar shots

that have been used before:

so its nice to see some great new action photos in this year's set.

MESSAGE TO TOPPS: Since I know where you have been finding your photos, PLEASE find some way to use this photo in an upcoming set:

It really would be great to have a card of Brooks in the rare 1968-1969 vest!

Just for fun, I decided to see if I could find a few other photos that showed up on this year's Legend SP cards, and here is what I found:

Reggie Jackson:

Johnny Bench (from the 1972 World Series):

Tom Seaver:

Bob Gibson:

Steve Carlton:

Thurman Munson:

Carlton Fisk:

Robin Yount:

Ozzie Smith (where we see Topps airbrushed out Jose Oquendo):

Andre Dawson:

Dale Murphy:

Bruce Sutter:

Rickey Henderson:

Tony Gwynn:

Brooklyn Dodgers:

New York Giants:

Great work with this year's SP photos. Based on the many great photos on Getty Images, I'm hoping you decide to use more of these in the future!

This just in! After I finished the post, I see that JayBee has posted the 2011 Topps Series 2 Sell Sheet, and look what I found:

Since I see that you are using photos from Getty Images again in 2011, I'm begging you Topps - PLEASE USE THIS PICTURE!!!!

The Rarely Seen 1968 - 1969 Baltimore Orioles Vests

2011-01-11T20:08:00.000-08:00

After MP34 recently pointed me to Getty Images to find some more pictures of the Orioles all orange uniforms, I came across this amazing picture:

This is the first picture I'd ever seen of Brooks Robinson in the rarely seen 1968-1969 Orioles vest. In fact, after seeing this, I realized I have not seen very many photos of this uniform which was only worn a few times and then retired.

Once I came across this picture, the search was on for more pictures of the Orioles vests. I found pictures from an auction of a Brooks Robinson vest

as well as a Curt Motton jersey:

I also asked Paul Lukas from Uni Watch if he had any pictures, and he put the word out to Rick Pearson who provided these shots (thanks Ricko!):

Since the caption under the Paul Blair photo looks like it was from Sports Illustrated, I checked out the SI Vault, and searched the 1968 - 1969 issues and found an additional shot of Brooks

as well as this great SI subscription ad featuring Brooks and Elrod Hendricks:

I was only able to find one other picture of the vest on Getty Images:

Since I have the 1969 Orioles ALCS and World Series programs, I checked those as well, and was able to come up with a few more pictures, including this shot of Frank Robinson:

another shot of Brooks:

a nice series of shots of Dave Johnson and Mark Belanger:

another shot of Dave Johnson:

and another shot of Paul Blair:

I really like the look of these vests, and would enjoy seeing the Orioles bring them back as an alternate. I'm not sure why the Orioles discontinued the vests, but I could have sworn that I read at one point years ago that the pitchers didn't like them so they stopped wearing them. Don't quote me on that, but I seem to remember reading that somewhere.

I'd like to say thanks to MP34 for directing me to Getty Images where I found the Brooks picture that started this search as well as the help from Paul Lukas and Rick Pearson that led me to check out the SI archives and find a few extra shots.

If anyone has any other shots of the Orioles in their vests from 1968-1969, please let me know, and I'll add them to this pictorial collection.

UPDATE: 2/2011

I came across another picture of the vests in which something doesn't look quite right:

This is picture of Brooks Robinson, Paul Blair, and a young girl's head on Andy Etchebarren's body. The picture comes from this blog where the young girl in the photo shares some of her other pictures taken with various Orioles players.

Apparently this was a cardboard cutout for fans to have their picture taken as an Oriole at one of the annual Bethlehem Steel Family Nights that used to be held at Memorial Stadium. Its interesting that the cutout that was used for taking pictures was a uniform that the team rarely wore.

UPDATE: 6/2011

Two more additions to the collection:

Boog Powell:

Eddie Watt:

One of the Coolest Jersey Tags of All Time - Brooks Robinson Sporting Goods

2011-01-05T20:21:00.000-08:00

After my recent post about the Orioles 1971 -1972 Orange Uniforms, ESPN writer / Uni Watch blogger / clothing label aficionado Paul Lukas sent me this amazing picture of the tag that would have been found on those uniforms :

I really like the Orioles original logo on the top left and #5 himself on the bottom right.

As mentioned in Bill Henderson's MLB Game Worn Jerseys of the Double-Knit Era, the Orange Uniform was produced by Powers Manufacturing and sold to the Orioles by Brooks Robinson Sporting Goods.

The interesting thing about the picture of the tag / label is that it actually comes from another very rare uniform - the Baltimore Claws ABA team according to the person who sent the picture to Paul.

In 1975 the Memphis Sounds moved to Baltimore, where they were going to be called the Hustlers, but then were renamed the Claws. The team only played 3 exhibition games in the Fall of 1975 before the team folded due to financial troubles. Remember the ABA has a detailed account of the teams short history if you'd like to learn more.

The jerseys they wore during those exhibition games were simply their old Memphis Sounds jeresys with "Claws" sewn over "Sounds" as clearly seen in the picture below:

Even though they only played 3 preseason games, the uniform did make the cover of Sports Illustrated (from the same game shown pictured above):

Lets pan out a little and get a better look:

Since these are the old Memphis Sounds jerseys, the tag did not come from these preseason jerseys. The tag comes from a prototype jersey pictured on the Remember the ABA site:

Its almost impossible to see any detail, but the white tag at the bottom of the jersey appears to be the same as the image that Paul sent.

Getting back to Brooks Robinson Sporting Goods, it looks like they also produced "souvenir" jerseys as these pictures from Hunt Auctions show:

Unfortunately the scans are small, but it does look like these jerseys are carrying the Brooks Robinson label.

Another great item that was included in this auction was a Brooks Robinson Sporting Goods jacket:

I would love to have that jacket!

Unfortunately for Brooks, the Sporting Goods business was not good to him. Of course it didn't help that the Orioles shelved the Halloween uniforms and the Claws never did need any jerseys, but in the end, the Sporting Goods company almost drove him to bankruptcy.

According to this sidebar item in the March 23, 2009 Sports Illustrated about athletes going broke, Brooks was on the verge of bankruptcy due to his investments in the sporting goods company

and a restaurant

before he became a partner with Ron Shapiro at Professional Management Associates, as mentioned in this Info World article from December 1981:

Unfortunately Brooks Robinson's Sporting Goods company is no longer in business, but they sure did come up with some great (and extremely rare!) items.

Thanks again to Paul for passing along this great looking label!

UPDATE: According to the comments below from Bruce Genther who was the uniform designer and art director for Brooks Robinson Sporting Goods, the maroon Baltimore jersey pictured above was actually a road jersey for the University of Baltimore, not the Baltimore Claws, which means that the tag pictured at the top of the post is most likely from a University of Baltimore jersey, not a Claws jersey.

Bruce - thanks for setting the record straight!

2010 Milestones: Joining the 3 & 400,000 Club

2010-12-31T18:49:00.000-08:00

As 2010 winds down to its final hours, I want to wish everyone a safe and Happy New Year in 2011, and thank everyone for their support of The Fleer Sticker Project over the past 3 years.

The blog reached 2 milestones this month:

This month marks the 3rd Anniversary of the blog. When I decided to start the blog as a way of cataloging all the variations I had found over the years among the various Fleer sticker/patch/quiz card/iron ons/etc., I never would have thought that I'd still be posting 3 years later.

I certainly never would have imagined the amount of interest in the site, but the stat counter tripped the 400,000 mark earlier this week, which completely blows me away. It is extremely rewarding to see that there are other people who are interested in reading what I am interested in researching and writing about.

I'd like to say a sincere Thank You to everyone who follows the blog or just stops by to read a particular post about something I've covered that interests them. Seeing that people are reading the blog and posting comments is why I am still posting 3 years later even after I've covered just about every possible Fleer issue that I could possibly research.

I'd also like to thank a number of people who have contributed to the blog over the years who have helped me with researching a number of the items that I've covered, and allowed me to share that information on the blog:

Craig - for his wealth of information regarding Fleer stickers and his generous contributions of images for items that I did not have in my collection (as well as some great trades that helped me acquire many of the Fleer items that you've seen pictured!)

Steve - for his help with a number of different NFL related items that he has come across in his years of collecting and writing The Cowboys Guide (and some great trades as well!)

Dave - from the amazing The Topps Archives for help on some of the Topps sets I've covered.

Troy - for the great information he shared with me from hobby publications from the late 1960's through the late 1970's that I covered in the series of posts called The Troy Files. The information Troy provided answered a number of questions I had about some of the Fleer releases during that time period.

Randy - for sharing some of the items from his Cardinals collection to compliment some of the sets that I had covered.

Finally, I'd also like to give a huge Thanks to Paul Lukas, whose fantastic Uni Watch blog has linked to the site on so many occasions, and has helped provide incredible visibility to the blog. I really appreciate the number of times Paul has linked to something I've posted on the Uni Watch Ticker News, and the kind things that Paul has said about The Fleer Sticker Project on Uni Watch.

Thanks to everyone for 3 great years, and Best Wishes to everyone for a Happy 2011!