210-206

We’re beginning this week’s Stud 400 with a request. Like we did in Spitballin’ and other BallNine institutions, we want you to go back to your childhood. We want you to think of the reasons that made you first fall in love with baseball. Your parents or older siblings likely had some influence on you and if you were born before 1990, you likely have great memories of playing ball with your friends in sandlots or in Little League.

There’s another common thread that helped grow our love and knowledge of the game, especially for us Gen-Xer’s and Baby Boomers: Topps Baseball Cards.

Whether you put them in your bike spokes in the 1960s, traded with your friends in their basement in the 1970s or planned your retirement by investing in rookie cards as kids in the 1980’s, the influence that baseball cards had on young fans for decades cannot be understated.

In the era before nationally televised games, ESPN and the internet, baseball cards were one of the best ways to learn about your favorite players and the players you loved to hate from your home team’s rivals. The evolution of baseball cards, specifically in the new millennium, has seen it grow from a kids’ hobby into a huge business. It may not play as big a role in the development of fandom for youngsters, but there’s no denying that the industry is alive, well and thriving.

But still, we harken back to the days where baseball cards were a tool that hooked you into the sport. Whether you sifted through countless Clint Courtneys, Gene Bakers and Frank Funks in search of that elusive Mickey Mantle in 1961 or invested all your paper route money on that Tim Pyznarski 1987 Topps Future Stars card, there was nothing like ripping open a pack of cards, popping that chalky gum in your mouth and seeing if luck was on your side. Card collecting is a massive part of the baseball world and certainly merits representation in any list that counts down everything that has to do with this wonderful sport.

Before we move on to this week’s edition of The Stud 400, here’s a look at the last five entries as we count down the 400 greatest moments in Major League Baseball history:

215: Brien Taylor injures shoulder (1993)

214: Pete Gray’s Browns career (1945)

213: Red Sox remove Duffy’s Cliff (1933)

212: Ogden Nash publishes “Lineup for Yesterday” (1949)

211: Dave Dravecky’s comeback (1988)

And now, here’s Episode XXXIX of The Stud 400.

210. Topps gets into baseball cards (1952)

According to the Library of Congress, the first ever baseball card dates back to 1865 and was a team photo of the powerhouse Brooklyn Atlantics. A number of companies got into the mix as the decades wore on, including Bowman, Goudey and the T206 set issued by the American Tobacco Company. Topps Chewing Gum, which had recently been producing cards that featured TV shows and movies, decided to dip its foot in the baseball card water in 1951 when they issued a mini set of 52 two-inch cards as part of a Strat-o-Matic type of game. They did a full cannonball into the pool in 1952 with their first ever full set, changing the hobby forever.

In the fall of 1951, Sy Berger, then just 28 years old, sat at his Brooklyn kitchen table with Woody Gelman and designed the iconic 1952 Topps design. Not knowing whether this would catch on, Berger never listed a year on the back of that set so as not to date the cards. Little did he know that he was designing the template that all successful baseball cards would follow for decades. For the ’52 set, Berger incorporated beautiful color artwork of player portraits, a marquis with the featured player’s name and signature and a team logo as well. Picture that iconic Mickey Mantle Topps rookie; that’s Berger’s handiwork. The Topps monopoly dominated the card industry until litigation opened the door for Fleer and Donruss to join the fray for the 80’s, leading to the ultimate boom of the junk wax era.

209. Jimmie Foxx’s 500^th home run (1940)

Baseball loves its round numbers and reveres milestones like 300 wins and 3,000 hits. Home run milestones carry special meaning and when a player crosses the 300 and 400 home run thresholds, it draws significant attention. The 500 home run club is even more special. Thus far, only 28 players have reached 500 home runs.

Babe Ruth was obviously the first and Jimmie Foxx was the second. While it’s still a rare feat, that number was pretty much unfathomable as Foxx careened towards it while still in his early 30s. In fact, Foxx hit his 500^th home run at age 32 while Ruth hit his at age 34. From 1871-1960, the 500 home run club consisted of Ruth, Foxx and Mel Ott. That’s how rare it was for the first 100 years of the sport. Foxx hit his 500^th home run as a member of the Red Sox on September 24, 1940 off George Caster of the Philadelphia A’s, Foxx’s old team. Incidentally, a young Ted Williams hit his 52^nd and 53^rd career home runs the same game and would become the next American Leaguer to reach 500 home runs 20 years –and two wars – later.

208. Lou Brock breaks career stolen base record (1977)

The way baseball is played ebbs and flows over the decades. The game started out with deft base running and small ball before giving way to the home run and big hitter of the lively ball era of the 1920s. As power became more prevalent, the stolen base went the way of the dodo and for many years from the 1930s through the 1950s, there were never more than three or four players in the entirety of MLB who even took the stolen base seriously. Even as late as 1955, Bill Burton led MLB with a whopping 25 steals. That same year, four entire teams stole less than 30 bases all season. During that time, based on the way the game was played, Ty Cobb’s 893 career stolen bases looked as unbreakable as Cy Young’s 511 wins. Then Willie Mays came along. And Luis Aparicio. Maury Wills, too. Suddenly, teams once again began incorporating the stolen base again–and they didn’t even need pizza box bases to do so.

Then Lou Brock happened. After the infamous trade that sent him from the Cubs to the Cardinals, Brock began to run wild and didn’t stop until he was in his late 30s. Brock led the National League in steals eight of nine seasons and shattered Maury Wills’ single season stolen base record by swiping 118 bags in 1974, an incomprehensible total for that time. Brock finally broke Cobb’s “unbreakable” record for career steals on August 29, 1977 in a game against the Padres. He would add 44 more steals to his total before retiring in 1979 with 938 stolen bases, a record that once again was deemed unbreakable. Just don’t tell that to the 20-year-old kid in Oakland who stole 33 bases as a rookie the same year Brock retired.

207. Johan Santana’s no-hitter (2012)

One of the great baseball paradoxes of the 50-year period between 1962 and 2012 was that the New York Mets, one of the most pitching-rich franchises in baseball, had never thrown a no-hitter. The franchise of Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver and Dwight Gooden never had a guy go out there and have that magical night, although there were plenty of close calls. Looking at you, Jimmy Qualls. By comparison, the Astros came into the league the same time and threw 10 no-hitters while the Mets were still stuck on zero.

Johan Santana finally turned the trick in 2012 against the Cardinals—thankfully instant replay was not allowed to be used on foul balls yet—and as joyous an occasion as it was, it did have a negative impact as well. For Mets fans, it was an amazing feeling to break that 50-year curse and do so with a pitcher so revered by the fanbase. For Santana, it was a crowning achievement for an incredible pitcher who had missed all of the previous season from surgery due to a torn shoulder capsule. For Mets manager Terry Collins, it was something much different. Collins has always maintained that Santana’s health was the most important thing and Santana has said he told Collins he felt fine all game. Collins had also said Santana’s climbing pitch count tore up his insides.

Collins expressed that he felt he owed Santana the chance to go for it and owed it to Mets fans to let him do so. When David Freese struck out for the final out of the game, it was pitch number 134 for Santana. He would make only ten more starts in his career after reinjuring the shoulder. Santana got tattooed in seven of his final ten starts and by August of 2012, the career of a potential Hall of Fame pitcher was over. Some say it was a result of the pitch count on the no hitter, some don’t. The impact it had going forward is that teams are much more reluctant to stretch pitchers out to try to make baseball history, robbing fans and players of special moments and bringing rise to the loathed “combined no-hitter.”.

206. Mickey Mantle sets career switch hit home run record (1956)

Usually, when someone sets a career record in any statistical category, you’d figure it would happen at the end of their careers. After all, we’re talking career, which normally insinuates compiling stats over the course of one’s career. However, this entry in the countdown features Mickey Mantle, so there’s nothing normal about his accomplishments. It’s not surprising that Mantle set the career switch hit home run record, or that 58 years later he still holds the mark, or even that there’s really only one player who ever came within shouting distance of him. What might be surprising is that Mantle set the career switch hit home mark at the age of 24, early in his sixth season!

The previous mark was held by Ripper Collins, who hit his 135^th and final home run in 1938. Was there ever a career record that was blown away more definitively? I’m not so sure about that.

Stay tuned for next week’s episode of The Stud 400 when we pack our bags for Washington, get wild in 2012 and revisit what it took for a moribund franchise to finally reach the World Series. Here’s an obvious hint: it took a damn World War. You better be careful about protection too if you join us for the next installment of The Stud 400.