The "rare" Chris Short baseball card
BillJones
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I was born and raised in southern Delaware. When I was collecting cards circa 1959 to 1962, I wanted a Chis Short card. Short was a local hero because he had been born and raised in the area.
Try as I might I could never got a Chris Short card. Finally I learned recently in an Internet search that Short did not sign up with Topps to authorize one until he was well into his career. I never realized that Major League player did or could do that. It was a real surprise.
For you "young timerers" Chis Short was a left handed pitcher with the Philles and, I think, the Cardinals at the end of his career. He was their number 2 starter for Phillies behind Jim Bunting and was the secord best left handed pitcher in National League, behind Sandy Koufax, in the mid 1960s. He died young.
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Topps signed promising minor leaguers to exclusive contracts. Maury Wills is the most prominent one they missed. He was miffed at being passed over, and refused to sign until well into his career. His first card was in 67.
I believe Topps had to sign each player to an individual deal before the Major League Baseball Players Association was established. I think that's why Ted Williams and Stan Musial don't appear in the early Topps sets, because they had contracts exclusively with Bowman. Many other players are omitted in various sets during this time.
Barry Bonds is the most recent player that I can think of that signed his own licensing contract. Rather than sign the MLBPA blanket licensing agreement, he opted out and signed his individual deal for trading cards, video games, authentic merchandise, etc., to monetize himself and capitalize on his marketing possibilities around the time he was approaching the all time HR record.
Stan the Man signed with Topps for the 1958 issue after Sy Berger came to an agreement with Cardinals owner August Busch to donate money to charity.
buying O-Pee-Chee (OPC) baseball
Mantle is probably the most known example. He signed exclusively with Bowman and thus no 54 or 55 Topps cards. Others might correct me, but I think the reason there is a 56 topps is because that’s when topps bought out bowman, not because the contract expired.
This is what always made the 1987 Topps Turn Back The Clock Maury Wills more interesting, depicting his wouldacouldashoulda 1962 Topps card that never was.
George Best famously had a contract dispute with A&BC that resulted in him not having a card printed by what was at the time the top UK manufacturer of world football cards after his appearance in the 1968 set. This was an important event at the time, as he was the biggest sports star in the UK when it happened.
Interesting note:
When Chris Short was player, his nickname was “Styles.” The “homer” (home team leaning) announcers at the time said it came from the fact that he had such smooth and perfect pitching wind-up and delivery. It was really picture perfect.
The REAL source of that nickname was from the players. At least early in his career was not a sharp dresser, perhaps sloppy or out style was accurate. Therefore he got the name from his clothes, like Curly Howard got his name from his bald head.
Never knew that was the reason for a lack of Wills cards during his first 7 seasons. Thank you for sharing.
buying O-Pee-Chee (OPC) baseball
The biggest reason I know who Chris Short is, is because Pete Rose is specified as being in the background on the 1971 Topps/OPC cards of his.
The one I always wondered about was no Rusty Staub in 1972 or 1973 though he had cards before and after.
Brain aneurism, in a coma for 3 years before dying at 53, Chris was one of my favorites too, growing up a Phillies fan in the Sixties. He finished his career with the Brewers in 1973. RIP
Began with 1962 MVP card in the 1975 set. Also used in the 1980 Kmart MVP boxed set.
I enjoyed reading.
Really interesting stuff. Thank you for sharing.
I wonder why I never got a Maury Wills card when I was kid. Now I know.
I forgot about that one. I came up empty on a quick google search.
Google Rusty Staub 1972 Topps. Story pops up re a dispute with Topps.
There are a lot of other players that had this issue. More recently, Alex Rodriguez had an issue with Topps because they wanted him to be in the Team USA set in 1993 Topps Traded (along with Todd Helton among others) and his agent Scott Boras refused because he realized that would be Alex's Rookie Card thus he wanted a higher payment for Alex. It wasn't for a few years, that Alex ended up with a Topps Card and as a result Upper Deck, Fleer and Score were the makers of ARod's Rookie Cards.
Other players with issues were Jason Varitek (he had a couple Team USA cards early on but his first Topps card in a major league uniform was in 2007), Kevin McReynolds, Neal Heaton and Danny Jackson. It's not limited to baseball either. Joe Namath (late in career), Earl Campbell and Lynn Swann come to mind right off the bat.
Wills was miffed Topps didn't think he was a prospect, so he didn't sign with them. But he did sign with Fleer (and had cards with Morrell and Bell Brand and Post/Jello) and had a '63 card in the Fleer set. When Topps sued Fleer and the case was eventually settled Topps assumed Fleer's contracts, and that is how Wills got in the '67 set. Had it not been for the lawsuit I wonder if there ever would've been a Topps card of him.
Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's
So odd that you created this post. I'm jut going thru a stack of 70 Kelloggs 3D and the first card in my stack is...Christopher Short. Always cool to have info you never knew. I would have gone right past this card not thinking at all about it, if not for the post.