Baseball Cards as American Language

[dbussell12]

https://davidbussellarchive.substack...rican-language

This is the transcript of a talk I gave on Baseball Cards as American Language. Opening paragraphs below; link attached...

"So my topic here is sort of a continuance of the last essay… baseball cards as American language. I want to delve deeply into this because this is a very specifically American phenomenon. A 20th century American phenomenon — where the baseball card really emerges as a powerful way of translating and communicating the language of baseball to a very large group of people. It's a way of making the images and the meaning of baseball, as well as the figures who constitute it, immediately accessible. What I have here is the Jackie Robinson 1954 Topps card. And I think this is a really great example because this is when the baseball card really becomes institutionalized with the Topps sets of the 50s.

Before there was a diffuse — there's tobacco, there's candy — there's many different issues that pop up. Bubble gum, the Goudeys, they pop up and they swirl. They're trying to create ground or establish what is the identity or the fabric of the baseball card. And it coalesces in 1950, 51, 52 when Topps buys out Bowman and establishes itself as the baseball card creator. And through that you have some of, if not consistently, the most iconic designs in baseball card history. And I would also say, art history and American art history — in these early to mid 50s sets. The reason why I say this is you look at what a baseball card is, it's a very egalitarian form...."