1969-70 Bazooka All-Time Greats: Cap Anson

Cap Anson is one of those Hall of Famers that I know solely through two sources of my nerdy childhood - Ken Burns' documentary and a Gigantic Baseball Encyclopedia I pored through to no end as that baseball mad kid. There wasn't even a chance for Topps to do one of my favorite things, the turn back the clock feature. Topps couldn't turn back the clock on Cap, because Cap existed before the Topps clock was wound up. But, this Anson card comes from the Topps era: 1969-70 Bazooka All-Time Greats.

The card on the left is my card. But, when I purchased this card I bought it as the 1963 Bazooka card and later found out that I had not in fact purchased the 1963 Bazooka card as I thought (pictured right). For awhile I figured I had just picked up a forgery. The card is on thick cardboard and looked like it was hand cut, so I chalked it up to my not following the caveat emptor rule of eBay shopping. But, in doing this blog I decided to do a little more research and found out that it was part of the 1969-70 Bazooka set.

Originally, the cards were attached to a box and looked like this (on left). But, since some kid in the late sixties or early seventies wanted the card, not the box he cut it off and kept it separately. I can't blame the kid because that's what I would have done as a kid. At least when he cut it, he cut it in such a way that I can get it in to one of the Tobacco Card Ultra-Pro sleeves for keeping sake. Besides that, strip cards were often cut in the 20s and 30s so it's not uncommon. Unfortunately though it cuts some of the value out of the card, but it's a nice piece of history nonetheless.