BY MARK A. LARSON
”Mound Magicians” … “Sluggers Supreme” … “Batter Bafflers” … “Beantown Bombers” … “A’s Big Armor” …
These colorful titles are found on some of the multi-player star cards issued by Topps as part of its regular sets between 1954-69.
Topps has produced hundreds of cards over the years that featured more than one player: Team cards, League Leader cards, World Series cards, Rookie Stars cards, etc. But only 110 cards included players – usually stars – with unique, sometimes silly titles like those above.
The first Topps multi-player card appeared in the 1954 set. Brothers Eddie and Johnny O’Brien, infielders for the Pittsburgh Pirates, appear together on card #139 that year. However, Topps didn’t immediately follow up on the multi-player card idea. None were issued in 1955 or 1956 and only two appeared in the 1957 set. Here’s a year-by-year rundown from 1957-69:
• 1957: Only two multi-player cards were included, but they were beauties. “Dodgers’ Sluggers” (#400) featured one of the best cards ever of the Brooklyn “Bums” … Carl Furillo, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella and Duke Snider. “Yankees’ Power Hitters” (#407) showed the ever-popular Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra.
• 1958: Topps got into full swing in 1958 with nine multi-player cards. “World Series Batting Foes” (#418) shows Mantle batting lefthanded and Hank Aaron across from him hitting righthanded. “Dodgers’ Boss & Power” (#314) features Duke Snider and Walter Alston with “L.A.” airbrushed on their Brooklyn caps. A sad sight for Brooklyn fans.
• 1959: The 17 multi-player cards in the ’59 Topps set represent a record number. Two interesting titles were: “Destruction Crew” (#166) with Minnie Minoso, Rocky Colavito and Larry Doby of the Indians, and “Corsair Outfield Trio” (#543) featuring Pittsburgh’s Bob Skinner, Bill Virdon and Roberto Clemente. (“Corsair,” by the way, is a pirate.)
Another Pittsburgh-themed card was “Buc Hill Aces” (#428) with Ron Kline, Bob Friend, Vern Law and Roy Face. The way the card is designed with a big yellow circle in the background, they look like a barbershop quartet singing in front of the harvest moon.
• 1960: This was the first of five consecutive sets where Topps included 11 multi-player cards. Many of the 1960 cards featured lesser-known players. For example, “Young Hill Stars” (#399) had Milt Pappas, Jack Fisher and Jerry Walker.
• 1961: Besides the O’Brien bothers in the 1954 set, “Brother Battery” (#521) with Norm and Larry Sherry of the Dodgers was the only other multi-player Topps card to feature siblings. Topps’ headline writers in 1961 must have been in a militant mood as shown on “Reds’ Heavy Artillery” (#25) and “A’s Big Armor” (#119).
• 1962: “Managers’ Dream” (#18) shows Mantle and Willie Mays. The photo was obviously shot at a previous All-Star game as keen-eyed collectors can see Elston Howard, John Roseboro and Aaron in the back-ground. “Rival League Relief Aces” (#423) with Face and Hoyt Wilhelm uses the same photo as 1960’s “Fork & Knuckler.” “Pride of the A’s” (#127) with Norm Siebern, Hank Bauer and Jerry Lumpe is from the same photo session as 1961’s “A’s Big Armor.” Ditto for “Redbird Rippers” (#306) with Lindy McDaniel and Larry Jackson and 1961’s “Lindy Shows Larry.”
• 1963: Stan “The Man” Musial made his only multi-player card appearance during the final year of his career. He appears on “Pride of N.L.” (#138) with Mays.
• 1964: Two of the more ridiculous multi-player cards appeared in the ’64 set. “Hitting Area” (#162) with Dick Sisler and Vada Pinson, and “Bill’s Got It” (#260) with Danny Murtaugh and Bill Virdon. Pinson is pointing to the fat part of the bat on “Hitting Area,” while Virdon is supposedly catching a pop-up next to manager Murtaugh. Pretty exciting stuff. Hall of Famer Carl Yastzremski was featured on “Sox Sockers” (#182), along with Chuck Schilling. It was Yaz’s only multi-player card appearance.
• 1965: For some unexplained reason, no multis appear in the ’65 Topps set.
• 1966: Only five multi-player cards were featured in 1966. Willie Stargell is the only Hall-of-Famer. He appeared with Donn Clendenon on “Buc Belters” (#99).
• 1967: The 13 multis in ’67 were the most since 1959. All were team themes – players on each card were from the same team. Some of the better ones were: “Bengal Belters” (#216) with Detroit’s Norm Cash and Al Kaline; “Twin Terrors” (#334) with Minnesota’s Bob Allison and Harmon Killebrew; “Cards Clubbers” (#63) with St. Louis’ Lou Brock and Curt Flood; and “Bird Bombers” (#521) with Baltimore’s Boog Powell and Curt Blefary.
• 1968: Only three multi-player cards grace the ’68 set, but one of them is one of the best ever … “Super Stars” (#490) with Killebrew, Mays and Mantle. These three sluggers belted a combined 1,769 home runs. Of the 110 multi-player cards, it’s the only one to feature three Hall-of-Famers exclusively.
• 1969: Instead of going out with a bang, the four ’69 multis end the series with something closer to a whimper. Ted Williams appeared on only his second multi-player card “Ted Shows How” (#539) with Mike Epstein. He shared his first multi with Ted Kluszewski on 1958’s “Sluggers Supreme”.
Mays holds the record with nine multi-player card appearances between 1958-68. Mantle is second with six cards, while Aaron and Frank Robinson had five cards each. Snider and Casey Stengel each appeared four times.
Several titles were repeated by Topps throughout the years. The most common were various forms of “Fence Busters” and “Hill Aces.”
Only 12 of the 110 multis exclusively featured Hall of Famers: Mantle and Berra on 1957’s “Yankees’ Power Hitters”; Snider and Alston on 1958’s “Dodgers’ Boss & Power”; Mantle and Aaron on 1958’s “World Series Batting Foes”; Mays and Snider on 1958’s “Rival Fence Busters”; Aaron and Mathews on 1959’s “Fence Busters”; Mantle and Mays on 1962’s “Managers’ Dream”; Mays and Musial on 1963’s “Pride of N.L.”; Banks and Aaron on 1963’s “Power Plus”; Aaron and Mays on 1964’s “Tops in N.L.”; Mays and McCovey on 1967’s “Fence Busters”; Killebrew, Mays and Mantle on 1968’s “Super Stars”; and McCovey and Marichal on 1969’s “Giants Heroes”.
A Topps tradition ended in 1969. Some were great, some were dumb, others interesting. But the 110 Topps multi-player cards issued between 1954-69 were nevertheless unique additions to the sets they appeared in.
• • • • • •
See related article on BaseballCardFun.com entitled:
“BASEBALL HOBBY NEWS — Topps Multi-Player Card Checklist”
Click Link Here
• Originally Published in Nov. 1992 “Baseball Hobby News” •
THIS ARTICLE FROM “BASEBALL HOBBY NEWS” MAGAZINE IS REPRINTED WITH THE PERMISSION OF BOTH THE EDITOR/PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR. IT HAS BEEN RETYPED, BUT NO CONTENT HAS BEEN CHANGED (EXCEPT FOR VERY MINOR ADJUSTMENTS, CORRECTIONS TO TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND CHANGES TO GRAPHICS). COMMENTS OR INFORMATION IN THE ARTICLE MAY BE OUT-OF-DATE.
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