Quote:
Originally Posted by toppcat
There were two categories of players established once the Topps and Bowman suits started being decided: exclusive players and non-exclusive. I forget the year without checking my notes (1954 I think) but at one point Bowman had hundred of exclusive players compared to a few dozen for Topps with a handful, mostly stars, having non-exclusive deals. So Topps started signing prospects and using coaches and managers to round out their sets. It was unrelated to where each company was domiciled.
I have a section on all of this in my new book: http://www.scribd.com/doc/126643197/...m-1938-to-1956
It's a free download so no worries! |
Thanks again Dave. According to the year-by-year account provided in your excellent history, 1953 was the year that Topps really struggled to sign players to exclusive deals: just 26 to Bowman's 388. You state that the next year, 1954, things had almost evened out, with Topps holding 124 exclusives to Bowman's 136.
I suppose that the Cleveland pitchers might have had exclusive contracts with Bowman after 1953, as all but Lemon appeared in Topps' '53 set, but none of them in the '54 or '55 sets, and all reappeared in the Topps '56 set. If it were possible, it would certainly be interesting to compare which players the two gum pushers targeted for exclusive deals in those years.