Check Your Collection: 5 Baseball Card Connections That Prove the Universe is Weird
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Maybe you watched the originals. Maybe you settled for the re-runs. Or maybe you just know the Golden Earring song. Either way, the Twilight Zone has been seared into our popular culture for decades. But what does that have to do with baseball cards? The answer may be "more than you think!"
1962 Jell-O Maury Wills
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The 1962 Jell-O set included 197 different baseball cards, meaning the card of Los Angeles shortstop Maury Wills could have been numbered anything from 1 to 197. Remarkably, however, the card bore the number 104, exactly the number of bases Wills would steal that season to break Ty Cobb's single season record. The more skeptical collectors are happy enough to write this cosmic coincidence off to chance, but smart money is on the card, if not Maury himself, coming straight out of the Twilight Zone.
1973 Topps Hall & Oates
With 660 cards in the 1973 Topps set, it's not really that surprising that there's a Hall and there's an Oates. What is surprising is that the two cards appeared back-to-back on the checklist as cards 7 and 8 in the set. Coincidence? Maybe. A huge music fan drafting the checklist? Possibly. But again, can the Twilight Zone really be ruled out? "No can do," as the players' rocker namesakes were apt to say.
1981 Topps "Blue Monday"
Expos fans remember all too well how their magical 1981 season ended, with an improbable ninth inning home run by Rick Monday off ace Steve Rogers in the final game of the National League Championship Series. The death blow was so crushing that the game, which coincidentally took place on a Monday, has forever been known in Montreal as Blue Monday. Now a Monday home run on a Monday may not sound straight out of the Twilight Zone but the Topps set ending the exact same way as Montreal's season, with Rogers and Monday the final two cards in the set...now that's spooky AF.
2019 Topps MLB Stickers Babe Ruth
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Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, also known as the Notorious RBG, passed away on September 18, 2020. While she never made it onto a true baseball card, Topps did manage a Ruth Bader card (or more accurately, sticker) the year before. That is the say the front of the sticker featured Babe Ruth while the back of the sticker featured Harrison Bader. For that matter, Topps also made a Judge Ruth card that year as well! Shrug your shoulders if you like but things like this are hardly normal occurrences.
The Moyers
Prior to 1986, there had been only one major leaguer with the last name Moyer. Specifically, Ed Moyer, a pitcher, went 0-3 with a 3.24 ERA for the Washington Senators. Then on June 16, 1986, Jamie Moyer made his major league debut for the Chicago Cubs en route to a 25-year big league career that would include 269 wins and more than 2400 strikeouts with eight different franchises. (Don't laugh but there might just be a Hall of Fame resume in there somewhere.) Of course nothing about this is Twilight Zone material. Two guys named Moyer who combined for 269 wins. So what? Well, just what if Ed Moyer passed away on the exact same day Jamie was born: November 18, 1962!
Jason A. Schwartz is a collectibles expert whose work can be found regularly at SABR Baseball Cards, Hobby News Daily, and 1939Bruins.com. His collection of Hank Aaron baseball cards and memorabilia is currently on exhibit at the Atlanta History Center, and his collectibles-themed artwork is on display at the Honus Wagner Museum and PNC Park.