Wacky Packages Old School Series 2

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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!

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

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.