By the 1970s and 1980s, the newspaper industry had undergone decades of cheapening, and there just wasn't room (or money) in a newspaper for cartoons that were neither funny or political. But in as a small bonus some papers included series of short profiles designed as collectible "cards", to be clipped out of the newspaper and saved, such as these mentioned by the Uncataloged Baseball Cards blog:
1958 Cincinnati Enquirer Reds Scrapbook
1984 Cincinnati Enquirer Reds Scrapbook
1970-1971 Dayton Daily News
1981 Long Beach Telegram - Steve Garvey/Rod Carew
Some of these have actually been catalogued and included in the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, such as the sets from the Minneapolis Star in the late 70s:
1977 Minneapolis Star Twins Scrapbook - Rod Carew
As I dig around in various online newspaper archives, I'll post the "card" sets I find here and the newspapers and issues they appeared in. Incidentally, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazettes below are all available in the Google News Archive (free).
Cincinnati Enquirer, "Reds Scrapbook" printed in 02 March - 14 April 1958
Cincinnati Enquirer, "Reds Scrapbook" printed in 22 February - 31 March 1959
Cincinnati Enquirer, "Reds Scrapbook" printed in 22 February - 29 March 1962
Cincinnati Enquirer, "Reds Scrapbook" printed in 09 March - 10 April 1963
Cincinnati Enquirer, "Reds Scrapbook" printed in 12 March - 10 April 1964
Cincinnati Enquirer, "The Enquirer Book on the Reds" printed from 11 March - 08 April 1965
Cincinnati Enquirer, "Reds Scrapbook" printed in 06 March - 04 April 1966
Cincinnati Enquirer, "Meet your Reds" printed in 12 March - 09 April 1967
Cincinnati Enquirer, "Reds Scrapbook" printed in 1984
Cincinnati Post, 1938
Dayton Daily News, "Bubblegumless Cards" printed in 05 April 1970 - 26 May 1971
Minneapolis Star, printed from 4 July - 12 August 1977
Philadelphia Inquirer, "Fightin' Phillies printed in 1950
Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, "Sports Stamps" printed in 1936
Pittsburgh Press, "Buc-A-Day" printed in from 05 March - 29 March 1972
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, " '72 Pirates Album" printed from 06 March - 06 April 1972
(1) Gene Alley
2 Steve Blass
3 Nelson Briles
4 Dave Cash
5 Roberto Clemente
6 Gene Clines
7 Vic Davalillo
8 Dock Ellis
9 Dave Giusti
10 Richie Hebner
11 Jackie Hernandez
12 Ramon Hernandez
13 Bob Johnson
14 Bruce Kison
15 Milt May
16 Bill Mazeroski
17 Bob Miller
18 Bob Moose
19 Al Oliver
20 Jose Pagan
21 Bob Robertson
22 Charlie Sands
23 ?
24 Rennie Stennett
25 Willie Stargell
26 Bob Veale
27 Luke Walker
28 Bill Virdon
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, " '73 Pirates Album" printed from 21 Feb - 21 March 1973
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, " '75 Pirates Album" prnted from 03 March - 04 April 1975
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "Pirates Portraits" printed from 13 June - 18 July 1977
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Pilot Profiles, 1969
Wichita Eagle-Beacon, Monday papers (found on eBay)
October 10, 1983 - Don Dreher Wichita State Shockers; Franco Harris Pittsburgh Steelers & Penn State University; Ken Anderson Cincinnati Bengals
November 28, 1983 - Ron Kittle Chicago White Sox, Walter Payton Chicago Bears, Darryl Strawberry New York Mets
December 5, 1983 - Joe Theismann Washington Redskins & University of Notre Dame; Lisa Hodgson Wichita State University Shockers; Jan Van Der Veen Wichita Wings
January 9, 1984 - Jan Madsen Wichita Wings; Kelly Knight University of Kansas Jayhawks basketball; Jeff Smith University of Nebraska Cornhuskers
July 30, 1984 - Dave Winfield New York Yankees, Mark Bell Indianapolis Colts, Mike Schmidt Philadelphia Phillies
February 11, 1985 - Al Kaline Detroit Tigers, Stan Musial St. Louis Cardinals, Catfish Hunter New York Yankees
One of the Seattle papers did a set for the Pilots in 1969: http://www.seattlepilots.com/profiles01.html
ReplyDeleteDon't know off hand if it's in the Standard Catalog or not. I had a reprint set for it years ago.
I dug around in the Standard Catalog and couldn't find any references to a newspaper-based Seattle Pilots set, so I guess it's undocumented. So far, the Post-Intelligencer isn't available that far back in any of the online newspaper archives.
ReplyDeleteAh, Beckett does list the Pilots set as being from the Post-Intelligencer in 1969. It was also reprinted in 1977 as an actual set of cards.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if this fits the bill, but the San Francisco Chronicle issued a series of "cards" as Barry Bonds made his home run progress in 2001. Here's a scan: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FcWLz_OXp0k/TgAho1KQIjI/AAAAAAAAB_Y/mpmKXVNrCkA/s1600/scan0217.jpg
ReplyDeleteThey were printed in the newspaper, and while I don't believe they start at #1, I've seen them from the 30s or early 40s all the way through the end of the season.
Thanks again, by the way, for your all your feedback today!
After a little digging, it appears there were two versions of these "cards". The versions issued in the daily papers, mostly in black and white, and with Bonds' name in the solid stripe at the bottom, and then at the end of the season, the Chronicle re-issued a new version of the entire set, in color, in a souvenir pull-out edition with the date of each home run in the stripe at the bottom. It looks like the updated edition also used different photos, so it is essentially a whole new set.
ReplyDelete