Why no "In Memoriam" Cards?

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by skil55voy

I believe that Walt Bond was still an active player when he passed in December of 1967. I didn't see him on the list.

Walt Bond had a 1967 card when he was still living. 2nd series from my memory but I could be off by a series.

He passed late in the season and thus no 1968 card was produced for him.

Rich

[Cliff Bowman]

Topps printed a proof card of a 1977 Danny Thompson but pulled it when he died December 16, 1976. There is only one proof sheet known with the card and the sheet also has the only known 1977 Jerry Grote when he “retired” after the 1976 season with the Mets.

[toppcat]

Short answer: I dunno.

Long answer: The info on how long a player needed to be on a ML roster before getting a Topps card is pretty inconsistent over they years and Topps obviously had workarounds for Rookie Star multi-player cards and the like. So a requirement a player be on a ML roster for 30 days or after a certain date (as per past practice) seemingly didn't apply to Hubbs. (Or Roy Campanella in 1959) so I have to think it's possible a special arrangement was in place.

Hubbs is in the highs (7th series ), so it seems odd he wasn't pulled as he died in February, seemingly well before that series was plotted out as they had time to add the In Memoriam and write specifics on the reverse.

Umbricht maybe caught them off guard and they only had time to correct text on the reverse, which must have been close to when the fronts were printed (backs were printed first but front art likely locked in), just after his death date, so the 4th series seems to have been an April production. Consistency with Topps was always squirrely but maybe someone realized internally they should do more for Hubbs after Umbricht's death.

1969 Mantle, while not a death as he retired on 3/1/69 IIRC, so too late to pull his card in '69. That makes me think the 5th series was already locked in by his retirement date. Topps stared production earlier and earlier every year it seems but some of this stuff doesn't line up.

[ALBB]

and also pretty late in the Topps card printing calendar -

the 67 T Jim Piersall notes May 8th 1967 as - " he decided to retire " ,