Quickie Quiz (and answer) on Topps baseball cards

Pharber

Question:
What are the fewest number of players it would take to cover every Topps baseball card from 1952 to present?

THe answer is three.

The real question is who are they.


I'm posting the answer on the next reply if you want to look.

Pharber

The answer is

20
19
18
17
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1


Willie Mays from 1952 to 1973,

Nolan Ryan from 1970 to 1994

and Derek Jeter from 1993 to present (and he could go another 10 years.

The 65 cards, by the way, at Beckett's high price, would cost you $10,514.90

(Boy do I need something to do today!)

BigRedMachine

I wonder how many possibilities there are of this???

Something tells me there are a few more.

Mantle 52-69
Phil Niekro 65-87
Bonds 87-present

Perhaps Bonds doesn't have regular issue topps cards every year, I don't know. But this is one possibility that immediately came to my mind.

Come to think of it, I guess Mantle didn't have a card every year. Perhaps Johnny Pesky or Gil Hodges go from 52 to 64??

shawn

Bosox1976

Too bad Don Zimmer didn't have a card every year he was in the bigs, playing or coaching/managing, he could have made almost the entire run in his 55 year career (incl. minors).

Zim has 6 rings (and it is argued - particularly by Bill Lee - that he cost Boston one more in 1975) - nice read below:

2004 story

Nice question.

Pharber

That's a good one, but I'm looking further down the line. Jeter will be still playing when Bonds is hoping he's elected to the Hall of Fame. When he returns, you could have three players through over 60, 65 years or more,
Yes, I'm sure there are others. But it's not as easy as you think. I started with the 52s and looked for guys like Mantle, etc. Mays lasted longer. I thought of using Carlton Fisk as the middle man and there would be plenty of players to fill the third leg. But Ryan takes us to Jeter, which is a nice transition.

Pharber

Zimmer had cards in 1955-56-57-58-59-60-61-62-63-64-65- 1973-74-77-78-80-81-88-89-90- and 1991, a span of 36 years.
Wonder who has the longest span in Topps cards?
That's easy, Mickey Mantle
1952 to now.
On regular cards as a player: 1952-53, 1956-1969
However, he was included in something like 69 different sets of Topps cards

fsjeter

<<Nolan Ryan from 1970 to 1994>>

Wouldn't that be 1968 to 1994 or am I not understanding something?


<<Perhaps Bonds doesn't have regular issue topps cards every year>>

Nope, I think he missed a year or two when he opted out of the MLBPA agreement.

Scott

sandmanfromlv

how about 51 topps?

Pharber

I didn't do 1951 because there were so many small sets, the red backs and blue backs and connie macks, etc.
but if you did, warren spahn might lead it off.

Pharber

Going back to the 1951 set is interesting
You could have all pitchers:
Warren Spahn 1951-1965
Don Sutton 1966-1988
and either
Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Greg Maddox or Roger Clemons if you wanted all pitchers
or you could go with
Gary Sheffield, Julie Franco, Craig Biggio, too

BigRedMachine

Yeah, I like the Warren Spahn, Phil Niekro, Roger Clemens trifecta.

That covers every year of topps. Cool.

Next thing you know you'll have these in the set registry.

shawn

Pharber

I like the Warren Spahn-Phil Niekro-Tom Glavine trifecta better. All three are Braves pitchers and cover the Boston to Milwaukee to Atlanta wanderlust. Also, Beckett's has its high price of $1,611.90. You could put it together for a lot less and it would be an impressive display.

yankeeno7

How about Berra 51-65 (and if you include Bowman you can go back to 1948 and make it over 4 decades!), Pete Rose 1963-1989, Roger Clemens 1985-current

I like that collection

BigRedMachine

<< <i>How about Berra 51-65 (and if you include Bowman you can go back to 1948 and make it over 4 decades!), Pete Rose 1963-1989, Roger Clemens 1985-current

I like that collection >>



I'm guessing that would be a little more pricey than the Braves pitchers???

It would be a neat run to put together if you were a Braves fan though.

shawn