Frankly Friday: All Star 1968 Style

1968 All-Star Frank Robinson

I'm in too much of a rush and a little tired to do any big explanation for this one. I think this was an Ebay purchase. I'm not sure and don't really mind that. It is one of the cards on the Frankly Friday Logo Key I posted last episode. It already has a thumbnail on that post so it needs its own full post and this is it.

1968 Topps Baseball 373 Frank Robinson All-Star Orioles

(Front and Back)

Frankly Friday: 1968 Hondo

1968 Topps Baseball Frank Howard

This is one of those cards that I am surprised I didn't have, ditto for the '64 (that excuse is he was a Dodger then) and '69 Hondos (still need to pick those up). I am sure at one time I did have it but don't know how it could have walked away from my collection. It must have happened sometime during the 1970s or '80s when I wasn't looking. Anyway I have at least one copy of it now.

The card came via Ebay ($3.33 + $1.95 shipping) in a PWE. The seller must have gotten a kick out of my screen-name since the 8.5" x 11" page the card was taped to with white masking tape, in a typical sending a card in a PWE way, had the following note:

 "Thank you Capt. Kirk Enjoy! Live Long + Prosper! :)" 

Yes it was complete with the underscore on my handle and the smiley face smilie. A real smilie not the colon and right parenthesis. Oh and then the feedback on Ebay said

"Capt Kirk is USS Enterprise Capt for a good reason! A+++++++ Thank You!"

Touching, I don't know if I should be flattered, embarrassed or annoyed. Maybe I should change my name to Fred, or better yet Frank. You don't want anymore background noise you just wanna see the card. OK here it is:

1968 Topps Baseball 320 Frank Howard Senators

(Front and Back)

Edit: Oh I should have mentioned the card was safely sent in toploader/penny sleeve so it wasn't directly taped to the paper/letter.

Frankly Friday: Playing Around In 1968

TOPPS PLAYING AROUND IN 1968

In 1968 Topps included as an insert a 33 card set of mini-sized cards with rounded corners that resemble standard playing cards more than baseball trading cards. These game cards had a standard back that is reminiscent of the 1951 Topps Red Backs and Blue Backs :

1968 Topps Baseball Game Insert Back of Card

The fronts had a headshot image of an All-Star or big named current player with a facsimile signature and a play result such as "Home Run" "Pop Out" on the top and bottom. The bottom play result was upside down so you could read the card from either orientation. Also on the bottom is the card number that says "No. X in a series of 33". The cards were included in the regular 1968 Topps Baseball cards issue and apparently were also available as a full set (If purchased through Topps I guess). 

Not sure if they ever had some sort of rules card or guide book to tell kids how to play the dang game. Place shuffled deck of cards face down and draw top card follow play instructions. I guess you would draw cards until you got 3 outs then the next player would draw cards. After going through the deck reshuffle and play again? In 1971 Topps came up with a Football game that was similar that was played in conjunction with some mini posters that had a football gridiron field on the back with rules. On my regular card blog CaptKirk42s Trading Cards Blog I have mentioned both and have a want list for each. For the baseball game I only need 10 more cards. I have duplicates of some of the cards from both sets.

Anyway Both Frank Howard and Frank Robinson were included in the set.

 1968 Topps Baseball Game Insert 21 Frank Howard Senators

1968 Topps Baseball Game Insert 7 Frank Robinson Orioles

Senators mentioned in this post:

Frank Howard

Frank Robinson