The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book
by Brendan C. Boyd, Fred C. Harris
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Book Summary Information
Author: Brendan C. Boyd, Fred C. HarrisEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1991-04-08
ISBN: 0395586682
Number of pages: 144
Publisher: Mariner Books
Book Reviews of The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book
Book Review: What Spinal Tap was to rock'n'roll.....
Summary: 4 Stars
.....this book is to baseball and baseball cards. Nothing to do? Ballgame rained out? Friends out of town? Start reading this book. It doesn't matter if you haven't heard of any of the players profiled - if you love baseball and all of its attendant baggage, fallacies, and foibles, you will enjoy this book. It perfectly captures that almost forgotten age when baseball cards were more valuable to young boys than, well, just about anything on the planet.
Classic? Controversial? This book became almost NOTORIOUS in its day - something you would almost have to sneak off and read away from parental supervision. While downright tame by today's cut-and-run journalistic standards, the purple prose contained within could only have been dreamed up by a collaboration between HL Mencken, Don Rickles, and Jim Bouton (referred to as a "big mouth" on page 100 - talk about the pot calling the kettle black). The authors do show respect and admiration for some of their personal favorites, but otherwise it's open season on the pious reverence that made up the bulk of sportswriting well into the late 1970s. Without this book, the anger of Bill "If you don't agree with me, you're an idiot and I have the numbers to prove it" James would never have been possible. If, however, you consider two guys who never played professionally having a few laughs at the expense of third-string catchers to be evil and mean-spirited, you might want to pass this one up.
Even though the title of this book is The Great Amercian Baseball Card Flipping, Trading, and Bubble Gum Book, the cards themselves (mostly Topps, all from the 1950s-60s) serve mostly as illustrations of the players being profiled. There is a perfunctory visit to the Topps factory, and occasionally there is a discussion of design or photography, but otherwise that's it. Before the wheeler-dealer, mini-mogul age (1982-92) when baseball cards became "investments" and part of "portfolios", this was a child's only close and personal insight into the players themselves. There was no 24/7/365 media and statistical saturation that there is today, so it didn't matter whether the cards were of bench-warmers or superstars. They became ICONIC and were better than money, regardless of how ugly or attractive they looked. If you ever wanted to know what the players or stadiums of the 1950s looked like, you couldn't find a better place to start than the beautiful 1952 or 1957 Topps sets. On the other hand, it would take a great effort to come up with more hideous designs than the 1958 or 1964 Topps sets. Then there is the photography: even a great design can't save a close-up shot of a capless player with a crewcut, of which there were all too many during the 1950s-60s (thanks to a heavy crossover between sports and military). Yet all of these cards were intentionally treasured by their grade-school-age consumers for the simple reason of being an "offical" card of a major league baseball player. What could be cooler? My own age-group had the ultimate eyesore set, 1975 Topps (released 2 years after this book), and we couldn't care less how ugly they looked.
As far as the player profiles go, it is at this time that I must point out three major errors: 1) Charlie Smith's profile (page 38) informs us that he was traded for "Roger Maris in 1966, only 2 years after he had broken Babe Ruth's homerun record". Maris broke the record in 1961, over 5 years before the trade on December 8, 1966. 2) Stu Miller's profile (page 59) mentions a game between the Angels and the Red Sox in July 1959. The Angels did not begin major league play until 1961. 3) Sandy Amoros' profile (page 84) reads that he "helped anchor the numerous Dodger pennant winners of the 50s and early 60s". Amoros only appeared in as many as 100 games in 3 seasons, only appeared in 12 games in 3 World Series, and finished his career in 1960 with the Detroit Tigers. Maybe that last one is a little bit nit-picky, but if you're going to be snarky, at least get your facts right!
For the statistically minded, the 1952, 1958, and 1963 Topps sets are pictured the most, while the 1953, 1966, 1967, and 1968 Topps sets are pictured the least. Two lines from the final profile sum up this book best: "Some things are just funny in and of themselves. They require little or no explanation, and are in fact most often beyond analysis." Yes, this book is a prototype for literary snarkiness. Yes, there is an immense quantity of childhood nostalgia. And yes, some of the self-congratulating humor falls flat, but for the most part, this book is outrageous fun and is recommended for those who love (not worship) baseball and are not too easily offended. The real mystery remains: whatever happened to the authors after their 15 minutes of fame writing this book? They dedicated their efforts to their wives (awww, how sweet), who must have been extremely tolerant of the amount of beer consumed during its composition.
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