Book takes nostalgic look at top 100 sports cards

Posted Jan 12, 2012 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Jan 12, 2012 at 12:26 AM

I normally don’t review books nine months after their release, but I am going to make an exception this time. Mainly because it’s such a fun subject and rekindles so many sports card memories.

Besides, when a book touts the “best of” anything in sports, I want to read it to see if I agree.

So yes, I am late getting to this book, but to me, “Got’ Em, Got’ Em, Need’ Em: A Fan’s Guide to Collecting the Top 100 Sports Cards of All Time” (ECW Press, $16.95, paperback, 291 pages) is timeless.

Love the title. When I first began collecting cards in the mid-1960s in Brooklyn, N.Y., the neighborhood kids would buy packs (at a nickel a pop), then we’d gather together and go through the cards. “Got ’em, got ’em, need ’em” (with emphasis on the last phrase if we really needed a card) had a singsong quality to it. Or, we’d flip cards in order to pick up the ones we needed.

The kid we all envied in the neighborhood was Mario. His father ran the neighborhood candy store. That meant Mario got first dibs on the baseball cards that hit his dad’s shop, including the elusive Topps 7th Series. He’d always have the best cards and lots of doubles. Not sure if anyone really liked the guy, but we all sucked up to him in hopes that he’d pass off a double or two to us. Once in a while, he’d oblige. Not often, though.

Those kinds of memories are rekindled thanks to authors Stephen Laroche and Jon Waldman. Both are lifelong card collectors who have also worked in the business. Laroche is a brand manager for In The Game Inc., which specializes in hockey sports cards. Laroche has a background in journalism, and the Winnipeg resident freelances for Topps in its WWE product lines.

Being from Canada, both men are steeped in hockey tradition. But they did not let that bias color their quest to showcase their top 100 (“as puck hounds, this was a bit difficult,” they write). But I believe they got it right — with one exception, but that’s my bias. More on that later.

The authors’ criteria: No 1/1s allowed were allowed, since that type of card has a limited scope. Also, a card must not only have appeal within its sport, but also among everyone in the collectibles family. And that’s important. It makes for a very eclectic mix in this book.

What’s the top card? Well, the authors dispense with one early, elevating it to “The God Card” and taking it out of the mix. Not surprisingly, it’s the Honus Wagner T-206 card, “the single item that every card collector wants, but knows they’ll never possess.”

OK, so what is the No. 1 card? I am not going to say. Why spoil it, right? But if you know your sports cards, then you can guess, since it is almost as iconic as the Wagner card. So are Nos. 2 and 3, for that matter.

I went through the authors’ lists and found that I had 14 cards among the top 100. My top card, according to the authors, was at No. 5 — the 1989 Upper Deck rookie card of Ken Griffey Jr. Here are my others: 1982 Topps Traded Cal Ripken Jr. (No. 19), 1989 Fleer Bill Ripken (20), 1955 Topps Sandy Koufax rookie (33), 1986 Donruss Jose Canseco rookie (35), 1968 Topps Nolan Ryan-Jerry Koosman rookie (39), 1984 Fleer Update Roger Clemens (62), 1985 Topps Mark McGwire rookie (70), 1962 Topps Roger Maris (71), 1984 Donruss Don Mattingly rookie (74), 1986 Topps Jerry Rice rookie (78), 1991 Topps Stadium Club Brett Favre rookie (91), 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson rookie (92) and the 2007 Topps Derek Jeter card that included Mickey Mantle and President George W. Bush (99).

Thanks for indulging me.

A very interesting card is the 1999 Upper Deck Piece of History game-used bat of Babe Ruth — now, that was a great choice at No. 13. Why? Because the idea of chopping up a piece of a Hall of Famer’s memorabilia seemed like blasphemy. I remember a South Tampa card dealer in October 1998 scoffing at the notion and I reported his comments.

“Some people will do anything for money, and I have a big problem with it,” he said.

Then, several months later he mentioned he had acquired one of the Ruth cards. Why the change of heart?

He grinned and basically said it was too good of a deal to pass up.

If I had my way, I would have ranked the Ryan-Koosman rookie (or was it Koosman-Ryan?) higher. In fact, I would have put it in my top 20. Same with the 1963 Topps rookie card that included Pete Rose. But perhaps that is my baseball bias bleeding through.

However, Lightning fans will like card No. 100, the 1992 Classic Hockey Draft Picks card of goalie Manon Rheaume.

The authors do a good bit of research and give each card two pages, spinning some interesting stories that collectors will love. There are also some nice sidebar stories. For instance, a chapter on the Top 11 Hobby Innovations includes press plates, the influence of the Internet, numbered cards and cut autographs. Not mentioned, but always an intriguing idea, was the rip card, in which one card was contained inside another. The question was whether to rip open the larger card in hopes of gaining a more valuable card inside it. Oh, decisions …

There also is a chapter devoted to top blunders by card companies (this includes marketing decisions, choice of subject, or designs). This will mention the Brien Taylor rookie card overkill of the early 1990s and the infamous 2003 Topps Puffer/Bong rookie card.

Blunders, not errors. That could be a chapter in itself.

The book also contains a glossary of terms used by card collectors. If you are a novice collector, it will help you understand the language of the hobby.

The foreword is written by Marty Appel, the former public relations director for the New York Yankees and PR director for Topps during the 1990s. Appel may not be the father of the modern baseball card, as Topps icon Sy Berger was called. But he’s been like the collector’s favorite cousin, with lots of stories and a ton of knowledge on the hobby. So he’s the perfect guy to open this book.

OK, now to my bias. This card should have been in the top 100, at least in my book. I honestly do love it. I am guessing it just barely missed the cut, like at 101 or something like that. What card? The 1966 Topps card of pitcher Don Mossi. His picture is in this blog post. Say what you want about his looks — but I won’t. A card trading group I belong to made reference to his features about a decade ago on a message board, and we received an angry email from Mossi’s granddaughter. Blisteringly angry.

Mossi, who celebrated his 83rd birthday today, is a genial sort and has never taken offense to the jabs about his looks. He was a darned good reliever in the 1950s and became a decent spot starter in the 1960s. The 1966 card happens to be his last, since Mossi did not pitch in the majors that year. And that’s why I like it.

Enough rambling. Thanks to Laroche and Waldman for a fun book. If you enjoy collecting cards, this is a fine addition to your library.