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C.A.: 1962 Topps John Anderson

(Today we recognize Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Day. It comes along every Aug. 8. Does August need a holiday or what? Welcome to another edition of Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 228th in a series):


You guys have been holding out on me.

I've been blogging for close to seven full years and I've seen plenty of cards for the first time in that period. Certain interesting cards I've seen featured repeatedly. The Oscar Gamble '76 Traded card. The Bip Roberts sombrero card. The Gus Zernial balls-glued-to-a-bat card. The Glenn Hubbard snake card.

The blogosphere has a talent for rooting out amusing little card photo tidbits and reshaping them into something glorious and desirable. But somehow -- unbelievably -- I saw this card for the first time maybe a month or so ago.

I had to have it.

The mind reels with so many questions. Was this the only photo Topps had of Mr. Anderson? Did he insist on having his photo taken right there and then as is? Was this some sort of rookie hazing ritual popular in the early '60s? And, most of all, for the love of basic grooming skills, didn't anyone have a comb?

This is the only card of Anderson. I wondered how he felt about his unintentional/intentional tribute to Alfalfa of the Little Rascals after all these years. But, sadly, Mr. Anderson died at age 68 back in 1998. When I looked him up on baseball-reference, there was that same mug shot on his player page, with the renegade hair strands discretely cropped out of the frame.

I also wondered how this card could go so long unmentioned on so many blogs. So I searched around a little bit, and -- I knew I wouldn't be let down -- I did find '62 Anderson on a couple of them. The Great Orioles Autograph Project featured the card in a post, casually mentioning what caused me to suddenly lunge at the keyboard so I could add it to my cart. And there is one from Wax Pack Pastime in which he justifiably refers to Anderson's hair in all caps, but at the very bottom of the post.

That's about it.

So I'm featuring this card right up top and placing it right with all of those cards that are mentioned repeatedly, the Keith Comstock Pro Cards ball-to-the-groin card, the Brian Harper giant cellphone card, the Jay Johnstone Fleer umbrella card.

John Anderson and his careless disregard for his hair deserves to join them forever.

Comments

Is that... is that hair gel?
steelehere said…
Didn't he run as an independent in the 1980 Presidential Elextion?
Rob said…
There's something about...Anderson?
Anonymous said…
Looks like he got another card 30 years later...

http://www.comc.com/Cards/Baseball/1991/CrownCoca-Cola_All-Time_Baltimore_Orioles/10/John_Anderson/1993238
This John Anderson had a couple of TCMA cards also (he is in my Name Game binder). There are 3 other John andersons in baseball too, 1 before this one, and 2 after, then there's the Country singer.