Howard Johnson & Topps?
 

Did Howard Johnson refuse to sign with Topps in 1983 and 1984? He should have absolutely had a card in the regular set or at least 1 of the updates.

He didn't have any mainstream cards in 1984. I noticed a similar lack of Dave Henderson in the 1983 & 1985 Donruss sets.

I wonder if he declined Fleer, Donruss and Topps in 1984 and Topps just missed the boat in 1983.

I've always wondered about the rationale of players who don't sign exclusive deals, yet still don't sign with all the companies. Would be an interesting question to pose to various players. Were they not asked? Did they forget? Did some particular company representative just rub them the wrong way? It's not like Howard Johnson was rolling in the endorsements as a rookie (or as an All-Star later in his career for that matter).

I know in some cases, players are just left out of sets. I've got some production materials for a 1990 Topps Big card of Hensley Meulens and ultimately he wasn't in the set.

If I remember correctly, there was some issues at the time and the players association was advising players not to sign with Topps for various reasons. If you remember, at the time the biggest example of that was Kevn McReynolds who did not have any Topps cards from 1984 until 1987 Topps Traded.

Here is a link to an old Net54 discussion

http://www.net54baseball.com/archive...?t-131821.html

And, today, Matt Wieters of the Baltimore Orioles never signed with Topps

Rich

A Topps boycott until 1985 could be somewhat assumed based on other examples. However, no Fleer or Donruss or even a Fleer Update in 1984 is tougher to understand.