Does the 1957 Topps Cubs team card have a connection to a missing card in the Hobby? Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn’t.

THE PREQUEL

In 1959 Fleer returned from a long baseball card absence to issue an 80-card set documenting the life and career of the Splendid Splinter. However, a Bucky Harris exclusive with Topps forced Fleer to pull card 68 early, leaving a great many collectors to settle for 79/80.

As such, 1959 Fleer Ted Williams joined a short list of sets for which collecting almost all the cards was considered good enough. Other famous examples include 1933 Goudey (239/240) and 1909-11 American Tobacco Company “White Borders” (520/524).

“It won’t happen again,” promised the baseball card team to their bosses at Fleer, one might imagine.

“It damn well better not,” responded their bosses. “Do you have any idea how many letters we got from kids and parents?”

But what is they say about the best laid plans? Or as the Spears line goes, “Oops! I did it again!”

THE SEQUEL

The 1960 Fleer Baseball Greats set, as the name implies, salutes the game’s legendary performers and featured (at that time) 47 Hall of Famers, along with numerous other players and managers destined for enshrinement.

The set is much less popular with collectors than the Williams set, but it does have one thing very much in common: only 79 cards!

Unlike in 1959, when the missing card created a glaring hole in the checklist between 67 and 69, the missing card in 1960 may not have attracted much notice if any. The reason is that it came at the very end of the set, card 80, meaning collectors could build a nice run of 1-79 and not necessarily know there should have been one more card: Pepper Martin.

Again differing from the Williams set, the Martin card wasn’t simply a (very) short print. Rather, it was never issued at all. The only evidence of its existence comes to us through a limited number of oddball specimens that somehow made their way into the Hobby.

THE PLOT THICKENS

Curiously, none of these oddballs feature Martin artwork! While the backs are indeed Pepper Martin’s card 80, the fronts feature Eddie Collins, Joe Tinker, and Lefty Grove.

The randomness of these three players, at least where we might have expected Pepper Martin, becomes less so when we consider the numbering of their standard cards: 20, 40, and 60 respectively. As these numbers suggest and as the partial sheet below confirms, these cards essentially masked the Martin card, usurping its spot on the sheet.

The reason for the missing Martin is not known, but a contractual issue seems the most likely. Either Martin didn’t consent to use of his image or, as with the Williams set, there was already a contract in place with Topps. I’ll take a quick look at each possibility.

TOPPS CRIES FOUL?

But wait. Wouldn’t a Topps contract imply that Martin had…you know…actual Topps cards? Not necessarily. Despite only appearing on team cards (1951, 1956, 1957), the preceding year’s Fleer flap reminds us that Bucky Harris was evidently under contract with Topps as late as 1959.

So why not Pepper Martin, who thanks to the great work of Roy Carlson for Sports Collectors Daily, I can confirm makes a cameo on the 1957 Topps Cubs team card.

Admittedly, I was never under the impression that Topps bothered with contracts where only team photos were concerned. Still, as most Topps sets had included coach cards (1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1960), it may be that Topps signed various coaches to contracts just in case. Hard to say.

MARTIN BALKS?

Casting aside the above, we might simply suppose Martin himself didn’t want to be included in the set. Though he appeared in numerous sets as an active player, his post-career cardboard to this point was limited only to two minor league cards and a 1959 “Oklahoma Today” magazine cutout. On one hand, that’s not much. On the other, there weren’t many sets back then trawling the retirement circuit.

Still, the fact that Martin was card 80 in the set feels significant to me. That may well be where you put a guy with whom you haven’t yet signed on the dotted line. Then again, who knows.

NO PEPPER?!

What is known is that getting past 79/80 on this set is a pricey proposition. The various Martin backs, if you can find them, sell in the thousands and cost far more than the rest of the set combined. That’s a lot to pay for a card that doesn’t even boast Pepper’s image. (And God help the completist who needs all three!) One can also rationalize that a set of 79 is not just “good enough” but perfectly complete, seeing as the Martin card was never issued.

For the collector somewhere in the middle, there is this handsome custom to “finish” the set. Just be warned if you keep your set in pages. The designer’s choice to “go green” will eventually drive you crazy.