An Odd 1968 Milton Bradley 'Find'
 

As I was searching for uncut 1962 Topps sheets (for the love of God, if you have a pic of one, send it to me!!!!), I stumbled across this image and now I'm all sorts of confused. Although the pic is blurry, my eyes were immediately drawn to the top middle area, because there's a yellow letter Ed Brinkman staring back at us. Next, I saw the Jim Kaat checklist and thought, "Wait, he wasn't in the Milton Bradley set." In fact, a lot of the cards on this sheet weren't a part of the MB set.

The ones that immediately jumped out were:
2 AL Batting Leaders
4 AL RBI Leaders
6 AL HR Leaders
28 Uhlaender
37 Williams
40 McClain
46 Ricketts
55 Alou
67 Kaat CL
76 Braves Rookies
92 Kranepool
101 Beckert
102 Cardenal
103 Sutton
109 Campaneris

It seems the entire second row down from the top are all MB cards. Then scattered here and there are others, like Brooks Robinson, Milt Pappas, etc.

Attachment 178689

Granted, I don't have any sort of provenance regarding this sheet, it's just an image from a google search. But what's going on? In the many threads about Milton Bradleys that I participated in, it seemed like people around here knew precisely how the set was created--all of the different types of sports/activities included in the game were printed together on the sheets. Did I miss something? Why would all of these non-MB baseball cards be printed along with the ones from the game? That second row has me baffled!! Could the well known checklist of MB cards be wrong and there are actually many, many more that were included in the game? Or is it possible that this is just part of a regular 1968 Topps sheet and the often stated 'fact' that every yellow letter Brinkman card was an MB is, in fact, erroneous?

What am I missing??

The margin both top and bottom means it's probably a proof sheet, and 50 cards is a pretty typical size for Topps proof sheets. So I'd expect odd cards or odd combinations.

Steve B

I don't understand this. Ed Brinkman yellow letter was issued in the regular set.

The sheet is not a regular production sheet for either the regular set or the MB set. It's a proof sheet.

Steve B

The yellow team letter Casey Cox and Ed Brinkman cards are the Milton Bradley versions only and are not the regular Topps issue. Every Cox and Brinkman card with the yellow team letters will also have the more yellow color back. If you have one or more with the yellow team name, flip it (them) over. You'll see the color of the back matches other MBs, not the more gold regular issue cards. The regular Topps issues of these cards have white team names. The white team names were printing errors which were never corrected for the regular set. The Cox/Brinkman yellow team cards have been incorrectly included as variations in the regular Topps set for some time.

Regarding the partial sheet above, I agree that it is proof sheet. Although this isn't an MB sheet; the second and fourth rows from the top are all players which were included in the MB set. The sheet above actually is missing the first column (on left side) because each row should have 11 cards.

Another well deserved shout out to member and contributor Dr. Carlton Miller...please click this link for more comprehensive info regarding the 1968 MBs:

http://www.sportscollectorsdigest.co...on-bradley-set

I want to make sure I have this clear.

The Brinkman / Cox white letter cards was an uncorrected error issued in the regular issue 1968 Topps set.

The Brinkman / Cox yellow letter cards were correctly issued in the Milton Bradley set ONLY. Therefore, if you have the Brinkman / Cox yellow letters, as I have, they are automatically from the Milton Bradley set and thus should have the brighter back.

I will check my copies later and get back to you as to what I have. This will be quite a revelation if true.

What about the yellow / white McCormick variations. Does the same apply here?

Thanks,

Tom

Tom,

You got it right on the yellow letter Cox/Brinkman MBs.

The white McCormick #400 card is a true variation because it was corrected by Topps to yellow team letters in subsequent print runs.
The yellow letter Cox/Brinkman cards are scarce, but the white lettter McCormick variation cards are much more rare.

You are right on the money regarding the Brinkman card. My yellow letters has the Classic bright Milton Bradley back. The Cox is another story, the backs are very close. I will try to post a scan. But you did answer a question I have long held. When I picked up the yellow letters of Brinkman / Cox back in the mid 1990s when I was putting the 1968 Topps set together, the cards were rather cheap. I noticed the prices are sky rocketing in recent years. I now know why!

Hey Steve.
But why would this sheet have full rows of cards featured in the MB set, including the yellow letter/corrected Brinkman, coupled with regular Topps cards? Any ideas on that? Was Topps possibly putting together a proposed set of MB cards (that was changed later) here?

Proofs are sort of a big puzzle, especially from Topps who did a LOT of proofing. That's probably related to either needing or wanting player approval or wanting to get the art just right.


The possibilities that come to mind.

The cards all seem to be series 1, it's possible Brinkman was correct in proofing and was done incorrectly in production. The art would be correct, but still would have to be turned into masks then plates. If the mask made got the yellow removed from the name that would be a fairly simple mistake. The MB sheet reconstruction that's out there doesn't have any of the baseball together in three rows, but in individual rows. Since it's a 132 card sheet it's not certain what the other side would have been, but it should have been the same or similar.

There's a chance it is a proof for the MBs, but they were proofing it at a point where the set was either intended to be larger or all baseball. It would have been simpler for them to send MB a batch of normal first series with the errors corrected.
I found it along with others in this thread. http://forums.collectors.com/textthr...hreadid=840362

It matches the 68 first series layout and goes along with others, one has the same tear at the bottom, but all 11 columns.

Steve B

I followed post #5 to the SCD article and viewed the Milton Bradley uncut sheet and saw the Hot Rod cards there. I collect the "Hot Rods" and always wondered where those yellow cards came from:)
<a href="http://s176.photobucket.com/user/larrytipton/media/backs.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w185/larrytipton/backs.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo backs.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s176.photobucket.com/user/larrytipton/media/fronts.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w185/larrytipton/fronts.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo fronts.jpg"/></a>
Larry

the Milton Bradley set had the baseball cards, the football cards and the hot rod cards all on one sheet.

Definitely the latter as all the artwork and printing had to be signed off by their Art Director, a position filled by Ben Solomon for decades. Topps, for whatever reason, would usually strip off rows of 11 when printing and then for any reprinting/reissuing and while I've never read an explanation as to why, I would guess it was most expedient or technically necessary to compose the rows this way.