My 1956 Topps Project

[1963Topps Set]

That is from the 1957 Topps set. May 25, 1957 was a Saturday.

[Bocabirdman]

Originally Posted by 1963Topps Set

That is from the 1957 Topps set. May 25, 1957 was a Saturday.

Yes you are right. I grabbed the wrong scan...…… I will see if I can find the right one...….

[Eric72]

I made a second BST purchase from Bocabirdman shortly after the first. My haul included some Phillies, of course, including this team card. 1956 was the first year Topps issued team cards. I can only imagine what collectors thought of the concept 63 years ago.

I realize there are different versions of this card. A total of six, I believe; three white backs and three gray backs. There may come a time when I look to acquire them all. For now, though, I am content with having this one. With 342 cards for a basic set, I'll just keep things simple...and relatively cheap.

[Eric72]

Another neat issue from this group is the Mayo Smith. When I first saw the card, his lack of a glove or bat in the action pose caught my attention. It reminded me of a coach holding the runner at third base. What an odd pose for a player.

Then, as a look of dawning comprehension washed over me, I realized Smith was manager of the ball club.

I find it interesting how much differently I'm looking at these cards while building the set. In the past, I would have simply glanced at the name, muttered "common" to myself, and moved on without a second thought. Now, for whatever reason, I've had a paradigm shift. I'm truly seeing the cards, with a thrill of discovery that wasn't there before.

[cardsagain74]

Originally Posted by Eric72

I find it interesting how much differently I'm looking at these cards while building the set. In the past, I would have simply glanced at the name, muttered "common" to myself, and moved on without a second thought. Now, for whatever reason, I've had a paradigm shift. I'm truly seeing the cards, with a thrill of discovery that wasn't there before.

This thread (specifically when the Polo Grounds was mentioned in the background of the one card) has me doing the same thing. Before that, I only thought of how something initially looked to me (and, much moreso, its value). Which led me to have no general interest in the '56s, especially when compared to my '55s.

But now that I took a second look at the amazing backgrounds in the '56s, I'm getting some commons just to appreciate that too. They are like nice postcard works of art. As a middle-aged guy who's always been a baseball player and connoisseur at heart, it's extra nostalgic.

[jimtigers65]

Eric, I’m assuming you are a Phillies fan?

[Georj]

It seems that most of the 1956 Phillies cards have the polo grounds in the background. Do all of them have that for a background?

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by jimtigers65

Eric, I’m assuming you are a Phillies fan?

Born and raised in Philadelphia, lifelong Phillies fan.

[maniac_73]

Originally Posted by cardsagain74

This thread (specifically when the Polo Grounds was mentioned in the background of the one card) has me doing the same thing. Before that, I only thought of how something initially looked to me (and, much moreso, its value). Which led me to have no general interest in the '56s, especially when compared to my '55s.

But now that I took a second look at the amazing backgrounds in the '56s, I'm getting some commons just to appreciate that too. They are like nice postcard works of art. As a middle-aged guy who's always been a baseball player and connoisseur at heart, it's extra nostalgic.

Second this! Its giving new life to my collecting of the set. Ive found myself admiring my cards in a different light. Thanks for starting this thread Eric!

[jgannon]

Originally Posted by Eric72

I find it interesting how much differently I'm looking at these cards while building the set. In the past, I would have simply glanced at the name, muttered "common" to myself, and moved on without a second thought. Now, for whatever reason, I've had a paradigm shift. I'm truly seeing the cards, with a thrill of discovery that wasn't there before.

Man, good for you. Reading your thread here, caused me to slow down and take my time with my cards - to read them again and absorb them. I'm new to the forum here, but used to collect a long time ago. Unfortunately I gave away most of my cards (long story), but I still have a lot of great ones, and have started collecting again.

But what you're talking about is the way we looked at the cards as kids. Without words, just looking at a card, getting an impression of the player, the picture, etc. Your imagination was a part of it. The backs were informative, and entertaining with the cartoons. You dug the upbeat mini-biographies of each player.

Originally Posted by cardsagain74

This thread (specifically when the Polo Grounds was mentioned in the background of the one card) has me doing the same thing. Before that, I only thought of how something initially looked to me (and, much moreso, its value). Which led me to have no general interest in the '56s, especially when compared to my '55s.

But now that I took a second look at the amazing backgrounds in the '56s, I'm getting some commons just to appreciate that too. They are like nice postcard works of art. As a middle-aged guy who's always been a baseball player and connoisseur at heart, it's extra nostalgic.

And good for you too. These cards are works of art, IMO. I love the big Topps cards from 1952 - 1956.

[Nippy7]

Originally Posted by Eric72

Another neat issue from this group is the Mayo Smith. When I first saw the card, his lack of a glove or bat in the action pose caught my attention. It reminded me of a coach holding the runner at third base. What an odd pose for a player.

Then, as a look of dawning comprehension washed over me, I realized Smith was manager of the ball club.

I find it interesting how much differently I'm looking at these cards while building the set. In the past, I would have simply glanced at the name, muttered "common" to myself, and moved on without a second thought. Now, for whatever reason, I've had a paradigm shift. I'm truly seeing the cards, with a thrill of discovery that wasn't there before.

Yeah, even as a kid (6 years old), I was fascinated by the backgrounds of the '56's. Growing up on the West Coast, I never saw a big league stadium (I spent most summer nights at the Sacramento Solons PCL stadium) and looking at the backgrounds of 56's was like seeing the stuff on TV except they were in color. Does anyone know how they created the backgrounds? Were they just touched up photos or did they create paintings/copies of photos. I know they did paintings for earlier series of Topps Cards. It would be fun to find the artwork. Thanks for sharing Eric and y'all.

[Eric72]

I picked up a few more cards for the set and will touch briefly upon them when posting images.

Card #257, Bobby Thomson, was part of a graded lot eBay pickup. Interestingly, the seller shipped the cards twice. Initially, they were lost in transit for 11 days. Then the package arrived...back at the seller's mailbox. Fortunately, the seller was super easy to deal with and the cards made their way to me quickly the second time around.

Thomson, of course, took part in one of the most famous moments in 20th Century baseball. His dramatic pennant-winning home run has been called, "the shot heard 'round the world" by more than a few fans throughout the years. Additionally, Russ Hodges' iconic (if somewhat redundant) call of, "the Giants win the pennant" has become almost as well-known as the Thomson homer itself.

The card front features Thomson grinning rather defiantly, almost smirking. Perhaps even five years wasn't quite enough time to wipe the smile off his face from the end of the '51 regular season. Topps paired his portrait with an image of Thomson unleashing a powerful swing. Giving the customer a view from above the batter's box was likely a deliberate choice. For me, this makes it easy to imagine being at the ballpark, perhaps even on that memorable day.

The card back has a trio of cartoon panels, as is typical for the 1956 Topps set. The first of those panels references Thomson's memorable 9th inning blast. As we approach the 65th anniversary of this set, that homer is (sadly) the only thing most people know about him. While being remembered primarily for a single at-bat may not be an ideal legacy, one thing is certain.

Bobby Thomson made damn sure we wouldn't forget him.

[1963Topps Set]

Originally Posted by Eric72

I made a second BST purchase from Bocabirdman shortly after the first. My haul included some Phillies, of course, including this team card. 1956 was the first year Topps issued team cards. I can only imagine what collectors thought of the concept 63 years ago.

I realize there are different versions of this card. A total of six, I believe; three white backs and three gray backs. There may come a time when I look to acquire them all. For now, though, I am content with having this one. With 342 cards for a basic set, I'll just keep things simple...and relatively cheap.

Didn't Topps issue team cards in 1951?

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by 1963Topps Set

Didn't Topps issue team cards in 1951?

Well, how about that. They sure did.

And the learning continues. I should remember to think outside the box (and the packs) a bit more often.

[Eric72]

As I continued to sort through my second BST purchase, I took a close look at this New York Giants team card. I pored over the info on the back, read through the names, and gazed at the image. It didn’t have the same level of detail as the single player cards. Rather, it seemed like Impressionist art. The more closely I looked at the piece, the less crisp and defined the small details became.

Some of the players were sporting features that looked almost cartoonish. For instance, the person sitting front and center (Leo Durocher) fell victim to an errant brush stroke, leaving him with half a mustache. A couple spots over, third from the right, Willie Mays seemed to have been given a huge head and toothpick arms.

At least, I believe that’s Willie Mays. The player depicted seems to be African American, the only one in the front row. And therein lies something very interesting. At the bottom of the card, Mays is listed as being in the front row, third from the left.

The image doesn’t appear to be a reverse negative or anything like that. The “New York” on the front of everyone’s uniform seems to be correctly displayed. Topps simply put Mays’ name in the wrong spot.

Looking a bit further into this, I attempted to identify someone else in the team photo. The player whose image I felt most confident about is in the back row. At the far left it would appear Hank Thompson is depicted. Again, Topps has him in the wrong spot.

Based on this info, it appears that the players are listed and pictured in reverse orders. I realize this has probably been spotted and discussed countless times by hobbyists throughout the years. However, discovering little things like this is making it so much more interesting than simply crossing number 226 off my checklist.

[Chris-Counts]

I really like the action photos and the backgrounds, as well as the many "cameo" appearances some players make, in the 1956 Topps set. Just like they do in 1957, the backgrounds in 1956 are mostly Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium, along with some of of Ebbets Field. I only wish they had done a of few of Crosley Field, Forbes Field, etc.

Most of the spring training backgrounds are generic, but Charley Neal's is clearly the old Dodgers training field in Vero Beach.

The cameos include the player sliding into home on Hank Aaron's card, who is actually Willie Mays, and Jackie Robinson sliding into Bill Sarni on the latter's card. I'm pretty sure Yogi Berra is on a whole bunch of cards — just see how many cards you can find showing a catcher with a No. 8 on his back. Roy Campanella's is one. I'm sure there's a bunch more. I'm curious if anybody here has made any discoveries?

I can only imagine how much time it took for someone to create all those images. There's nothing really quite like them. Topps built on the design of 1954 and 1955 sets, and replaced their single color backgrounds with stadium panoramas like they used in the 1955 Double Header set, only with better artwork ...