Surprise appearance

 

I pulled the latest magazine issue of Beckett Vintage Collector out of the mailbox on Monday and paged through it without any urgency. I didn't have an article due to run, the last of them was in the previous issue.

 

So I was surprised about three articles in to see my name on a story about the 1954 Topps set. By golly, I did write that! More than a year ago!

 

I had figured that this one wasn't going to run. That happens sometimes, it happened to one of my articles once before. And being a writer and editor for a newspaper, I understand how that goes. Sometimes the article doesn't fit, there are too many other articles that are more timely or have better art or whatever. Or, heck, maybe the idea just isn't solid. I'll acknowledge that with this one, it wasn't one of my better ones.

 

But I was happy to see it in print. I've now appeared in the last three Beckett Vintage Collector issues, which had never happened before (there won't be a fourth straight, I'm tapped out). And this is article No. 22 total.

 

I had intended for the article to run on the 70th anniversary of 1954 Topps. The set is significant for a lot of reasons but I was focusing on the design. Although combining a portrait shot with an action shot wasn't unique with the '54 set -- think the Hassan Triple Folders for example -- it was a first for Topps and could be the first time both images were presented in the same space.

 

This came about because Sy Berger wanted to get action shots onto his cards after conducting a survey that said collectors were interested in that. So '54 Topps came about and that was such a success that Topps did the same design again in 1955 and 1956 in a horizontal format.

 

From that point forward, Topps -- and almost every other major baseball card company -- has revisited that head shot/action shot design in the years that have followed. Topps gets a lot of attention for pulling out the design every 20 years since 1963, as it's popped again in 1983, 2003 and 2023. But here's just an idea of how frequently it's been used:

 

There are lots of other examples, too, which I address in the magazine article (it's really kind of a list regurgitation). 

 

I don't really have anything new as a spin-off topic from this article. But since I'm approaching my seventh anniversary of my first article appearing in Beckett, I thought I'd list my seven favorite articles that have been published since 2019.

 

Here we go:

 

1. MINI CLASSIC

 

My favorite article -- naturally -- was about the 1975 Topps mini set, my all-time favorite set. It was the second article I ever wrote for Beckett and it appeared in the main Beckett Baseball publication as well as the Vintage Collector. I think that's the only time that's happened for me.

 

 

2. LOUD AND CLEAR

 

My second favorite was about the 1972 Topps set. This was for the 1970s-themed issue and the only article that was "assigned" by the editor rather than me making suggestions. I was asked to pick a 1970s set to write about and I selected 1972 because I thought it would be the most fun. I liked the way I wrote this one, colorful and light, just like the set.

 

 

3. BRUSHING UP ON HISTORY

 

The very next article I wrote after the 1972 one. This was about Topps' airbrushing, one of my favorite topics. I especially like that I was able to use a then-recent encounter with Bobby Valentine and his conversation about his airbrushed 1973 card with an autograph-seeker as the lead-in for the article. It made all the difference.

 

 

4. A SUPERB BASEBALL CARD SET

 

Perhaps the article that made me work the most. There are so many elements to the 1991 Topps set and I researched so many different aspects, combing the archives and discovering interviews as well as interviewing a super-collector myself. This article appeared solely in the Beckett Baseball article, and although I'm well past the age of sending clips to prospective employers, I think this would be the one out of all my magazine articles.

 

 

5. PURE FUN

 

I was writing this article exactly seven years ago at this time (it's possible I had already submitted it). It was the first one that showed up in the magazine, my first magazine article!! I drove all over looking for copies of this thing -- my write-up on the 1976 SSPC set. It's an epic moment in my writing career, right up there with my first newspaper article, the first time I covered a pro game and the first article that won an award.

 

 

6. ILLUSTRIOUS ILLUSTRATOR

 

The only article, I believe, where I came up with the title, at the request of the editor. This article was about another set (or sets) that I loved since I was a youngster -- the Laughlin sets of the 1970s, chiefly the early '70s World Series sets. I've since completed the 1970 and 1971 sets (as far as I can anyway) and they have even more meaning after doing research on the artist, the late Robert Laughlin, and talking to his very generous grandson for the article.

 

 

7. BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

 

I like this article because it's a true vintage set-collector topic -- all about the high-number sets from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. I researched which players appeared the most times in the high-number sets (Jose Pagan is number one) and made it a blog post. Then I turned the blog post into a magazine article. I've done that 2 or 3 times.

 

There are several other magazine articles that I've written that I've liked. In fact there's really only 2 or 3 that I wish I could've done better or just don't think the topic was thought out that well.

 

When I started this seven years ago, I didn't know where it would wind up. I was just so happy about the first article appearing, realizing a wish that I had since I was a young teenager. About all I thought about the future was sending along a couple of other story ideas and hoping they'd pick one. But if not, well that first article was something I could hang my resume on for years.

 

Now it's been 22 articles and 7 years. Who knows how long it will last (again, need more ideas). Thanks to the Beckett's editor Mike Payne for continuing to publish my stuff and to Ryan Cracknell for suggesting me for the position.

 

And, as always, to this blog for making it all possible.