My 1956 Topps Project

[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 ...