1960 Topps #293 Gene Conley BATTING RECORD
 

Hi Folks! Several years ago I completed my 1960 Topps baseball card set. This afternoon I was scanning my cards and discovered that the Gene Conley back has a printed block at the bottom reading BATTING RECORD. For centered and miscut cards, you can see the full block or top black border.

What is strange is that the BATTING RECORD block is stand-alone and certainly doesn't seem to be a remnant from an adjacent card that would have been placed on the print sheet. From my limited research, I cannot find any hobby mention or discussion of this phantom appearance.

Can anybody shed some light on what I presume is an uncorrected error? Thanks for your cogitation.

Dan Mabey

That is wild, I never knew that but I imagine others are aware of it. It looks like it's uncorrected and they were all printed that way. ETA there is at least one other uncorrected error on the back, on the Season's Highlights for May 2nd he pitched NINE scoreless innings in relief against the Cubs although he allowed one inherited runner to score. He came in to pitch the first inning with no one out and the Phillies already down 3-0 and Ernie Banks on second.

In checking my set I have this oddity flagged, so knew about it. I wonder if in the long variations thread it was possibly pointed out when the front variations of this card were posted and discussed

1960 Topps Conley - Thanks for Feedback
 

Gents --

I appreciate your quick responses and link to prior discussions on this topic. As a side note, one of my Conley cards -- which is cut with a very thin bottom border -- understandably does not display the black BATTING RECORD outline.

Does anybody have an image of the uncut print sheet that shows the cards surrounding Conley? My thought is this: Since the Conley card in my collection is absent any traces of the BATTING RECORD title block, then one can logically assume that the card printed under Conley would depict the BATTING RECORD block.

So ... maybe there is an undocumented 1960 Topps card where the back of the card displays all or part of the BATTING RECORD title? Thoughts?:confused:

Here's the adjacent cards - I know it's low res quality but this is all I have in my archive for it:

1960 Topps Uncut -- WOW!
 

Hi Greg -- Thanks so very much for the image. This will make my search much easier. I'll let you know what I find. Warm regards -- Dan

It looks like card 339-Harry Chiti is just below 293-Gene Conley on the 4th Series sheet. I found a slightly miscut Chiti, and you can see the full Batting Record rectangle at the top. Hope this helps.

Nice work.

Interesting. In the partial sheet that Greg posted, Don Gross #284 is below Conley. Are there miscut cards of this player with the black box as well?

After looking at it more closely, I think the picture that Greg posted is not actually a sheet, but rather a placement of cards from the 4th series together. It looks like there are too many unique rows for it to be a sheet. The only photo I have seen of a 4th series sheet was posted another Net54 discussion (see below):

Finally looked at my set and I have both back versions of Connelly and Chiti with cross reference notes between them. I know I did not discover those differences myself so they had to have been discussed previously in here someplace

Mea Culpa. I believe this to be correct; my archive is a gathering of items largely from auction listings that I found noteworthy or of future research use - I suspect I misjudged this one now. I apologize.

The Conley/Chiti backs are discussed in post 655, page 9 of the long Variations thread. But I had to have gotten info about it from somewhere else initially

Gentlemen -- Outstanding investigative work. The Chiti revelation on the uncut sheet explains why I was unsuccessful in looking at dozens of centered and miscut Don Gross backs without seeing evidence of the BATTING RECORD block. My thanks to Greg, Bill and all of you for taking the time to enlighten me. Have a blessed and safe Independence Day celebration. -- Dan