Wacky Packages Old School - Series 1

Word has just come out that Topps has a new type of Wacky Packages series getting ready for release later this summer called Wacky Packages Old School.

Here is the promo poster that was distributed this weekend at the Big Apple Con in NY City:


The set is based around package designs from the 1970's - hence the "old school" reference. But unlike the recent 2 Flashback series that were simply reprints of old stickers with different border designs, these feature new artwork of products from the 1970's in the packaging that would have been used in the 1970's.

Here is a look at the promo card that was also given out this weekend where we see the 1970's version of the RC Cola can, including the old "pop top":


The other great thing about the set is that it features the return of the cardboard puzzle/checklists that were used in the original 16 series,


but have not been used in the more recent All New Series (1 through 6 to this point), or the Flashback sets.

This is basically a Wacky take on the Topps Heritage concept and going back and creating something that is new using an old design (in this case creating new parodies of packages that were around at the time the original Wacky craze first hit in the 70's).

This looks like it will be a real treat for those of us who were around for the first run of Wackys. I'm looking forward to opening packs and having the feeling that I'm looking at the 17th Series (the original series stopped at 16) given the set will be featuring products from that time period.

The set was designed and painted by Dave Gross who has contributed many titles to the recent run of All New Series. According to Dave, he has been acquiring original packaging as well as old ads to replicate the packaging designs as accurately as possible.

Some final details are being worked out (which is why the flier says "more Wacky goodies to be announced"), so there may be a few more surprises in store besides what is listed on the promo poster.

The other nice thing to see is that there are already plans for a Series 2 given the mention of a "Series 2 Mini Promo Sticker". According to Dave, the release date is looking like late July, or possibly early August.

UPDATE 8/9/2009: The set will only be available through the Topps Online Store (and will NOT be sold in retail stores), and should be available for preordering around August 15, with a release set for early September.

UPDATE 3/5/2010: After many delays, Wacky Packages Old School is now available! Here is a review of the set:

http://fleersticker.blogspot.com/2010/03/wacky-packages-old-school-and-series-5.html

Here is the link to the Toppsonline store to order:

http://www.toppsonlinestore.com/servlet/the-537/Detail

It looks like a lot of thought and effort have gone into this new set to make it seem like like an extension of the original series, even down to the box:


For comparison, here is a box from the original 10th Series


as well as a look at the packs:


Yes, later this year, its going to seem like the "good 'ol days"!

Houston Astrodome Documentary

In addition to collecting sports memorabilia, one of the other things I enjoy is watching sports documentaries as I like learning more about the history of my favorite sports. One area in particular that I am interested in is old stadiums like the Astrodome:


I came across a trailer for an upcoming documentary on the history of the Houston Astrodome which looks very interesting. The documentary is called "The Dome - A Documentary About the Life and Legacy of the Astrodome".

Here is the trailer:



The website for the documentary is http://www.thedomemovie.com/

The site doesn't indicate when the documentary will be released, but based on the footage shown in the trailer, and interviews with people like Nolan Ryan and Bum Phillips, this should be a treat to watch.

I've always been interested in the Astrodome given its history of being the first domed stadium, and how it was considered so cutting-edge at the time it opened that it was called "The Eighth Wonder of the World". This documentary appears to have some great footage of the construction of the stadium, as well as footage of what the dome was like when it first opened.

We take such things for granted now, but I'm sure people were amazed at the "exploding" scoreboard which was the first to offer animated graphics:


The AstrosDaily site has a link that shows pictures of the entire "Home Run Spectacular" sequence. Apparently the entire sequence lasted 45 seconds which really annoyed the visiting teams. The site even has a link where you can hear the entire sequence complete with explosions, gun shots, steers, and fireworks.

I'm sorry I never got to see a game in the Astrodome. Fortunately its still with us, unlike so many other old stadiums that have been demolished to make way for newer venues.

It looks like one possible alternative for the stadium that is being discussed is to turn it into a film/video/sound production facility. The plan is to turn it into a soundstage which would be big enough to house entire movie sets. The proposal has been presented to county officials and is currently under review.

I think it would be great if the dome could live on and continue to be a viable facility instead of having it torn down as we've just witnessed with Shea



and the current dismantling of Yankee Stadium.


Its a shame to see these places that hold so many memories for so many people disappear. Hopefully the Astrodome will not meet the same fate.

The "Original" Fleer Sticker Project

I recently had the chance to return to my childhood home to visit my family, and discovered where I left my Fleer baseball and football stickers: This was a trunk that I used to store some of my baseball and football cards in which I decorated with stickers during the mid to late 1970's. Lets take a closer look: In addition to Fleer stickers such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland A's as seen above, the trunk has some stickers that went on gumball football helmets (like the Giants and Oilers stickers), as well as helmet decals (like the Chargers lightning bolts) from the larger football helmets like this: Here is a picture of a decal sheet for those larger helmets that is similar to what I would have had, but my sheet was likely from 1975 as I don't have any Seahawks or Buccaneers helmet decals on the trunk: Interesting Orioles sticker without "Baltimore": Based on the Bicentennial sticker, it looks like I was working on this project in 1976 with additional stickers such as the Yankees World Champs from either the 1978 or 1979 Fleer set being added later: I've got my Baltimore teams placed together along with an Orioles magnet. Also a Reds World Champs sticker from the 1977 Fleer sticker set and more bicentennial stickers: I think the Reds cloth patch in the bottom left corner was a miscut that I used to fill in that section. The "NY" Giants stickers give another clue that the helmet sticker sheet I used was probably from 1975. One superhero made it on to the trunk - Aquaman: Here is an unopened pack of Super Friend stick-ons, which is where I would have gotten this sticker: Here is a view of the front of the trunk: Moving in for a closer look, we've got another miscut cloth patch - this time it is the Astros. I also stuck a few Topps Hockey stickers: Of course, I had to get at least one Wacky Package (Beastball) on the trunk. The trunk, afterall, was for my baseball cards: I even managed to stick a Monster Initial sticker in the bottom corner. I wish I could remember where the A's sticker came from. Its not a Fleer sticker. I believe it came in a Kellogg's product, but I'm not certain. Now for a look at the sides. Remember Eastern Airlines? As for the other side, its got some bumper stickers from my favorite radio station at the time - WZYQ, otherwise known as 14ZYQ, and later as Z-104. I also had some room for Star Wars and Charlies Angels stickers as well. There were no stickers on the back of the trunk, presumably because it was up against a wall and you would not have been able to see the back. I think the trunk pretty well sums up why 30 years later I'm blogging about stickers!

Reggie Jackson - Baltimore Orioles Confidential

Mario's recent Wax Heaven post on the upcoming Ballpark Collection featured a Career Legacy Triple card of Reggie Jackson with a very familiar picture:


Unless I'm mistaken, the picture of Reggie on the A's is simply a tightly cropped shot of this photo that I reviewed back in March after finding it on the Corbis website:


I think its great that a picture that I had never seen before and spotlighted on the blog since I really liked it has turned up on a baseball card. This picture may have been used before on card, but if it has, I don't recall ever seeing it.

However, the reason I wanted to write today's post was based on something Mario said in his review noting the fact that there was no Orioles jersery to go along with the other teams Reggie played for: "Memo to Upper Deck, Reggie Jackson played with the Baltimore Orioles in 1976 and even led the league in slugging."

This comment got me to thinking about the fact that there really are very few pictures of Reggie as an Oriole. Certainly that is due to the fact that he only played for the Orioles for one season, but it is made even worse by the fact that 1) he wasn't traded to the Orioles until right before the beginning of the season on April 2 (and therefore never attended Spring Training with the team when lots of pictures are typically taken), and 2) even after he was traded, he held out for a month before joining the team due to a salary dispute, missing the first month of the season.

Given he never spent a day of Spring Training with the team and missed the first month of the season, its not surprising that you don't see that many photos of Reggie as an Oriole. I've been trying to track down pictures of Reggie from that 1976 season, and here's what I've been able to find:

Probably the most familiar shot of Reggie on the Orioles is his Sports Illustrated cover:


Here is the lesser seen picture that accompanied the SI story:


The other well know picture is from the 1988 Score card:


One of the more famous pictures of Reggie in an Orioles uniform is the card that was never produced - the Topps proof card showing Reggie on the Yankees but still using a picture of him on the Orioles before the Topps airbrush artists doctored up another picture to make Reggie look like a Yankee:


The Renata Galasso Reggie Jackson set also features this photo as well as one other shot on the O's:


Reggie did actually show up in the 1977 Topps set in an Orioles uniform - on the Orioles team checklist (middle row, far right):


The Star Company also featured Reggie on the Orioles on this 3 card panel from their 1985 Reggie Jackson set:


This picture seems to be taken from the same game as the Star card on the right based on the person dressed in white in the dugout:


and these 2 shots appear to be from the same time (but just a different angle) as the picture on the middle card in the panel of Reggie signing autographs at Yankee Stadium:



The final Orioles card is from the Crown Gasoline Orioles set which features a picture of Reggie

that looks like it was taken as the same photo shoot as the picture that was used for the team post card set that year (note the same undershirt in both pictures)

This picture also seems to be from the same photo session:


Here are a few more pictures of Reggie in an Orioles uniform, including Reggie's first home run as an Oriole:


An unused shot from Sports Illustrated that appears to be taken the same time as the picture that made the cover:


Reggie scoring at the plate while Carlton Fisk waits for the throw:


and a few other shots:




Here is a picture from Tiger Stadium of Reggie standing behind Mark Belanger and Lee May as they are warming up:


and another picture of Reggie at bat at Tiger Stadium:


And finally, perhaps my favorite shot - the classic Reggie Jackson corkscrew swing where he completely ends up turned around (which just happens to be against the Yankees):

Reggie only played 134 games for the Orioles due to his holdout, yet still managed to finish 2nd in HRs in the AL with 27. The Orioles finished 2nd that year, 10.5 games behind the Yankees.

Even if Reggie hadn't held out the team likely wouldn't have made up that much ground to catch the Yankees, but when I think back to that season (which is the first season I really started following the Orioles), I wonder how that season might have played out differently had Reggie showed up in Baltimore on day 1 ready to prove Charlie Finley wrong for trading him rather than sitting out a month trying to negotiate a better deal with the Orioles.

Even beyond the 1976 season, I wonder how things might have turned out had the Orioles been able to work out a long term agreement with Reggie. Reggie did not have a contract for the 1976 season which is why he was a free agent at the end of the season.

Apparently Reggie wanted a 3 year deal for $675,000 which the Orioles were not willing to pay as they did not have the revenue stream to support this level of salary (in hindsight this would have been a steal as Reggie ended up signing a 5 year deal with the Yankees at the end of the season for $3 Million).

While they were trying to work out a contract, the Orioles agreed to pay Reggie around $200,000 for the season as he played without a contract. Unfortunately, this caused quite a problem in the Oriole clubhouse as there were a number of players who had not signed contracts for the 1976 season that had been forced to take paycuts. There was a lot of resentment from the other players who were not playing with a contract that season that Reggie was getting a better deal even though he'd never played a game for the team before.

Remember, these were the final days of the Reserve Clause, which meant that essentially a player belonged to a team forever, whether or not there was a signed contract. This would all change at the end of the 1976 season with the first free agent draft. That is why the team was able to force paycuts on players who would not sign a contract - the players had no other option at that time. But this is also exactly why the players who did not have a contract in 1976 didn't want to sign one - they wanted to be in that first free agent class at the end of the season.

With Reggie holding out and the turmoil that was caused by him not joining the team at first, and then the additional problems caused by the Orioles rewarding Jackson with more money than he was making with the A's to get him to show up while at the same time penalizing the other players who would not sign contracts, the 1976 season ended up being a difficult one for the Orioles.

As a kid, I'd wondered why the 1976 Topps Traded set didn't feature a card of Reggie as an Oriole since the traded set seemed to cover the other preseason trades:

In retrospect, given the A's didn't trade Reggie until right before the season started, I guess Topps already had the traded set ready to print before the season started, and didn't have time to add Reggie, or Ken Holtzman, Don Baylor, Mike Torrez, and Paul Mitchell who were also involved in the trade. Looking back, its probably for the best, as at least we don't have a Reggie card with a terrible Orioles cap airbrush job like this:


UPDATE: 2/2011

Speaking of the 1974 design shown directly above, the Dick Allen Hall of Fame site created a great looking custom card of Reggie using the SI Cover shot:

Even though Reggie wasn't an Oriole in 1974, the classic 1974 design which features the Orioles team colors makes for a great looking card. Excellent job! This is something I would love to see from Topps as a Vintage Legends card.


UPDATE: 2/2011

Speaking of Topps, there is a new Reggie Jackson card to add to the list as Reggie appears in an Orioles uniform on an insert card in the 2011 Topps set:


At first glance I thought this was a new shot of Reggie, but it appears to be this picture with some changes made to the crowd in the background: