Card Spotlight: 2-18-11

1979 Topps Comics #5 - Chet Lemon

OK. So technically this isn't a card, but that won't stop me from spotlighting it. This was a test issue by Topps. It seems like all the cool oddities were test issues and the regular issue oddball issues lack in comparison. Instead of a cloth set, which Topps has tried a few times (and I still think they're cool), this comic was wrapped around gum.

Yes, this was produced back when Topps thought it was still a gum company. Isn't it funny how a company's priorities shift once public opinion gets involved? And yes, I am aware that Bazooka gum is still around. So please no snarky comments about it in the comments.

If you were alive and following baseball in the seventies and eighties, then you'll remember how impressed people were with hitting .300 and getting 55 RBIs for the season. We were easily impressed back then. It was also a time where you could see yourself on a baseball diamond and you always checked out your neighbors carefully, because they just might be the 25th man on your favorite team. Or they could have been secretly working for the Crimson Guard. Come to think of it, there were an awful lot of "Fred's" in the neighborhood back then. Regardless if they were working for MLB or Extensive Enterprises, they have all moved away by now.

It's still jarring to see Chet Lemon in a White Sox uniform. Yes, he was with the White Sox for seven years, but the majority of the games I saw Chet play in were when he wore the Detroit uniform. He did play there for nine years after the Sox, after all. It's always a treat to see him in a Sox uniform. Even if it's a cartoon depiction of him.