Original Artwork For The Unproduced 1958 Topps Don Drysdale and Early Wynn Card

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I ran across this incredible original artwork of Don Drysdale and Early Wynn in an April 2000 Ron Oser Enterprises auction catalog. They advertised it as an unissued original that didn’t make the cut for the 1958 Topps series.

The striking piece was described as being 4 1/2” x 6”

1958 Topps wasn’t the first set to feature multiple players on a card. 1953 Bowman Color had a Rizzuto/Martin card and a Berra/Bauer/Mantle. 1954 Topps had the O’Brien Brothers’ card. 1957 Topps had the Yankee’s Power Hitters and, my favorite, the Dodgers’ Sluggers.

Topps then included Slugger’s Supreme, World Series Batting Foes, and Rival Fence Busters in the 1958 set before expanding to 17 baseball combination cards in their gigantic 1959 release.

If you know anything else about the history of the Drysdale/Wynn card, please let me know. Oh, what could have been!

Update 1: Keith Olbermann wrote, “It’s possible. But Wynn didn’t go to the White Sox until 1958 and Drysdale didn’t make an all-star team until 1959. It’s much likelier this is from the ’59 ASG or World Series, and was rejected from the 1960 set.”

Check out The Original Artwork Archive for more!

1982 Jackie Robinson First Day Cover

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The USPS initiated a Black Heritage Stamp Series in 1978. On August 2, 1982, they issued one for Jackie Robinson. This advertisement, from the October 1982 Trader Speaks, is for a pair of 1st Day Covers with a B. Scott Forst stadium exclusive drawing on the left side.

There seem to be a few different 1st Day Covers for the stamp; the one advertised in Trader Speaks appears to be a little more challenging to track down but not any more expensive than the others.

Now, for the stamp specifically, it was painted by Howard Koslow, and 164,235,000 stamps were issued at a postage value of 20¢ each.

1901 Philadelphia Athletics Inaugural Season Tickets

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With the Athletics moving again, I thought it was a great time to share this strip of four regular-season game tickets from the Philadelphia Athletics’ inaugural season in 1901.

This strip was offered for sale in April 2000 by Ron Oser Enterprises.

Now, 1901 wasn’t just the first season for the Athletics; it was the first for the entire American League, too!

1950’s Wonder Bread Advertising Sign With Mickey Mantle and Stan Musial

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Here’s an early to mid-1950s Wonder Bread Cardboard advertising sign that features black and white portraits of Mickey Mantle and Stan Musial.

Mastro offered it in their July 1998 catalog and described the multicolored, blank-backed counter sign as 10-1/2” x 14-3/4” in Ex to Mt condition but with minor restorations. They also implied the Stan Musial fountain pen signature was authentic. The minimum bid was $1k.

The Mantle looks a little like the 1957 Jay Publishing New York Yankees Picture Portfolio “card,” but a touch wider.

The Musial looks a lot like one of Musial’s 1958 Jay Publishing “cards” (All-Stars Set A, All-Stars Set B, St. Louis Cardinals Set A, and St. Louis Cardinals Set B).

Brooks Robinson Card Show Appearances In Early 1982

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A few weeks ago, I shared an advertisement for the January 1982 Baltimore Sports Collectibles Show. I highlighted it because Brooks Robinson was signing on Saturday, January 16th, of the show. I noted that Robinson was a guest at a lot of shows back then.

Well, in the March 1982 issue of Trader Speaks, two more shows highlighted Brooks Robinson as a guest. First, the Central Jersey 8 had him on Sunday, February 28th, 1982.

Then, the Philadelphia Sports Spectacular 1 highlighted Robinson’s attendance on both days of their March 6-7 show, along with Stan Musial on Sunday and Chris Short on both days.

He was really making the rounds in early ’82!

Hobby influencers In The Spring Of 1981

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The Premier Issue of Baseball Cards was released in the Spring of 1981 as “the complete sports collectors’ magazine,” the team behind it introduced themselves with this great piece.

Bob Lemke was always known to make great cards, so I presume he designed these. Unfortunately, he died in 2017, but his blog remains online.

Here’s the cover of the issue, too.