The baseball-football overlap

 

I'm sure you can feel it coming, it's never actually left. Football is here. And it's trying to push baseball out of the way.

 

This is how it's been for decades -- once training camps start for the NFL I begin to feel that seasonal dread of summer winding down, sports I care less about or don't care about at all ramping up, and, worst of all, my job -- and life -- getting busier.

 

Actual NFL games don't begin until September, so the true baseball-football overlap is September and October, but tell that to the sports wire, in which the football stories have already outnumbered the baseball stories.

 

But instead of fighting it, I'll lean into it for at least this post. Just the other day I received a handful of cards from Bo of Baseball Cards Come to Life! He was giving out cards to celebrate a new job! (Hey, I need to do a big one of those when I finally retire!). I picked four of them.

  

Two baseball and two football. As I mentioned on another social media site, I have no intention of attempting to complete any of these sets (although the Fleer For The Record set is just six cards and I now have four). I just like the designs or theme for all of them so I add cards like that casually.

 

And these cards, particularly the football, was the spark for this post. 

 

I've written about my interest in Topps football designs of the 1970s and 1980s in the past. Since I primarily collected baseball cards as a youngster, only collecting football for a couple of years, Topps' football designs from that period are still somewhat of a novelty to me. And Topps' habit of using  different designs for its baseball and football product helped create that novelty.

 

This is why I don't like this:

 

This is baseball-football overlap. Using identical designs for two of your major sports may be some sort of branding thing, but it doesn't exactly make the set that came out later (football) all that interesting. It's like another series of baseball, but with football players.

 

 

Another "relapse" for Topps beginning in 2007 and ending in 2011. Topps would lose its NFL license just a few years later and maybe it was because Topps wasn't showing enough interest in its football product if this was any indication.

 

 

Sometimes Topps' baseball and football sets for the year would be similar but feature little differences as in 1990 and 2006. I kind of like this. But I'd prefer if they were completely different like in the '70s and '80s.

 

That way I can compare each year's designs and pick which one I like better and which would one I would like to have seen used with baseball or with football.

 

 

1970

 

I prefer baseball, even with those blasted gray borders. The 1970 football design looks much older than 1970 to me, it looks like it could pass for late '50s or early '60s. And there's just not enough room for the photo. So football on the baseball design would be at least a little more interesting. (I goofed and put the football card on the left here, everything to follow, it's on the right).

 

 

1971

 

My bias toward baseball will show up a lot on this post, can't help it. I like both of these designs a lot and it would be interesting to see the football design used with baseball with a little baseball cartoon guy. But I like the '71 baseball set way too much.

 

 

1972

 

Strangely, I do not own a single 1972 Topps football card, and you know that's trouble for '72 football. The '72 baseball design is already in my top five of all-time, so I would think football players would have fared better in the '72 baseball design.

 

 

1973

 

 A couple of pretty plain designs after the previous two years. The football design would work easily with baseball (maybe Topps has already used it for baseball with some of its online cards). For football players to show up on the baseball design, a new position logo would need to be created. ... I slightly prefer the '73 baseball design but it's pretty much a toss-up.

 

 

 

1974

 

A very football-centric design for the '74 football set, how do you wedge a baseball player into that? I'm not much of a fan of "literal designs" (see my immediate frown when I first saw 1982 Donruss), so I prefer the baseball set, though it's more reserved.

 

 

1975

 

I feel a bit sorry for the '75 football design, the first football cards I saw by the way. It's rather bold without taking away from the photo -- which is why I know many would prefer it to the wild colors of the '75 baseball design. But I grew up on those wild colors, so I've long thought the '75 football set was plain.

 

 

1976

 

Easy football pick here, sorry '76 baseball. But to get baseball players on that '76 football design, you'd need to change the shape of the ball and I think that would kill the design.

 

 

 

1977

 

 Interesting that all the design elements are at the top of both sets. The '77 football set is my all-time favorite look, so it's my preference here. I'd love to see Dodgers players on that football design.

 

 

1978

 

Not a fan of the '78 football design. The sideways writing, the limited real estate for the photo. The '78 baseball design is as clean as they come and I admit I thought it was boring when I first saw it back then. But I think it's classy now and football players deserved better this year.

 

 

 

1979

 

The little flag symbol that appeared on the 1973 football set reappears in 1979. I'm not completely sure of the football reference with this. But it's definitely a football design with the position football. Both sets feature that sport's ball. I lean toward the football set slightly.

 

 

1980

 

Yeah, more pennant flags but the baseball design is classic, and it doesn't look like a 1980's computer- generated hot dog in a bun like the football design does.

 

 

1981

 

Two more sport-specific designs with the baseball one a lot more obvious than the football design. I prefer that one.

 

 

1982

 

The 1982 football design is a harbinger for the 1983 baseball design and that alone makes it the winner here.

 

 

 

1983

 

As difficult a choice as the 1971 comparison. I will never vote against 1983 baseball, but it sure would be cool to see baseball teams on the 1983 football design.

 

 

 

1984

 

A lot of territory devoted to the graphic elements in both sets. I've always found the 1984 football set a little disorienting, but it would be interesting to see a baseball set with that design. A slight edge to the baseball set though.

 

 

1985

 

I like the 1985 football set for the same reason I like the 1971 baseball set. It's difficult to imagine a baseball set with that design, though, and I know baseball collectors would probably riot with all that sideways writing. Even though I'm not the biggest 1985 baseball fan (despite a whole blog devoted toward it), I think it does a better job of presentation.

 

 

1986

 

What would be a baseball version of the 1986 football design? Dirt and grass, I suppose. I've never warmed to the football design, it looks too cartoonish for me. But I've mentioned that many times. Obviously, I like the '86 baseball more.

 

 

1987

 

As overplayed as the '87 baseball design is, it's much more interesting than the '87 football design. Topps football turned rather plain for the rest of the '80s after its 1986 set. I am not curious at all about what baseball teams would look like on that design. Baseball with the easy win.

 

 

1988

 

For baseball to use the '88 football design, it would have to feature baseball helmets, maybe an update to the '81 baseball design? I like the '88 Topps baseball set a whole bunch but I'm more interested in how a baseball version of the '88 football set would look.

 

 

1989

 

 Two very basic designs to end the decade and this exercise. Not very interested in seeing football players with the baseball design or vice versa. I don't even know which is my favorite, I guess baseball since I devoted so much of my 1989 to it?

 

So that comes out to a 15-5 advantage for baseball, with probably a whole lot of bias baked in. 

 

After using the same designs as baseball in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011 (the 2009 was another design tweak similar to 1990, 1994 and 2006), Topps football used separate designs for 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 with them getting more and more ornate.

 

Not my cup of tea and I didn't really care when Topps lost its football license. But it's really better if Topps is producing football sets (with a license), so if it ever does again, I hope it doesn't borrow from baseball.  That's too much baseball-football overlap.