C.A.: 1973 Topps Jim Breazeale

(I took a couple of days off from the blog, The first day was because of work and the second was an extra bit of time to get past the negative vibes of last week, as well as to celebrate my daughter's birthday. I was going to make it three days off, but I received a nice phone call yesterday that got me back in the collecting spirit. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 350th in a series!):

 

I learned a couple of days ago that former Braves first baseman Jim Breazeale passed away earlier this month. He was 75 and had been dealing with heart issues for a few years.

 

There wasn't much social media notice about his death. I even checked over on the former Twitter, because there's still more people over there for some weird reason, but even then there wasn't much (and half of the mentions were bots/AI repeating the same sentence and link 🙄).

 

That's probably because Breazeale was a backup first baseman for a couple of years in the early '70s with the Braves, and then for one year in the late '70s with the White Sox. Among baseball fans who remember -- or like doing their research -- Breazeale is known mostly for being second-string to Hank Aaron at first.

 

Here, it says so right on the back of his baseball card:

 

So if you're just a baseball fan, mostly focused on the now, maybe you missed him. This is why I have a difficult time understanding baseball fans who are aware of baseball cards but still decide not to collect. You miss so much.

 

For example, for collectors Breazeale isn't just a name from the past or even a name you don't know. If you collect cards then you do know: He is legend.

 

Breazeale is well-chronicled among collectors, especially among the blogging kind, for this 1973 Topps card, in which he is wearing large, horned-rimed, pink-framed glasses. As Kramer would say: "May I have one of those, madam?"

 

I don't know whether this was a joke on Breazeale's part or the style (teammate Sonny Jackson is wearing something similar on his '73 card). But it entered him into cardboard lore, and this card has been much-discussed during my time as a blogger. 

I first learned about this card while writing one of my early ranking posts 16 years ago. It was called "the best glasses in the history of baseball cards". In the comments of that post, someone pointed me toward the Breazeale card, which I had not included in the countdown and had never seen prior.

 

In perhaps a cardboard sign, while I was visiting X the other day for references of Breazeale, I came across this:

 

 

This is a mention from 10 days ago with a link to my post from 16 years ago. It's amazing -- and a bit scary -- how long your writings can survive on the interwebs.

 

But this link was completely independent from anything about Breazeale. That's a sign, right? To update the "best glasses in baseball card history"?

 

I tried to do an update awhile ago, three years after the original post. But I never did, even after advertising that I would. So I'm making no promises here, but I want to do an update post. I've acquired many more cards in the last 15 years and amazingly some of those cards show guys wearing glasses. Some of those deserve to be lauded, even if this kind of analysis of cards has kind of gone out of fashion.

 

But, what the hell, blogs -- just like life -- could use more levity. Everything's too damn serious. So I'm going to try. Let's say I'm doing it for Jim and his pink frames.