The worst baseball cards of all time
The T206 Honus Wagner, the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, and the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr are among the Hobby's most iconic and celebrated cards. Also high up on the lists of many collectors are classic rookie cards of Hank Aaron and Roberto Clemente, not to mention early cards of Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, and Joe DiMaggio. More recently, prized cards of Shohei Ohtani, Paul Skenes, and Aaron Judge have also entered the chat. But what are the worst baseball cards in the history of the Hobby? Here are five candidates that should rank high (or is it low?) on any list.
RELATED: The Five Essential Baseball Cards of 1978 Topps
1978 Topps Greg Minton
For a set that gave the Hobby one of the greatest baseball cards of all-time, the 1978 Topps release sure does have some clunkers. After all, this was an era where Topps was famous for its often awkward "airbrushing" of baseball caps and jerseys when they lacked photos of a player on his new team. In the case of Greg Minton, however, it's as if Topps airbrushed the entire card! Similar approaches were taken that year with Dave Kingman and Mike Paxton, but neither card can truly compare to the eyesore that is the 1978 Topps Greg Minton.
1951 Bowman Paul Richards
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For those unfamiliar, the 324-card 1951 Bowman set featured 323 absolutely gorgeous cards from the Golden Age of the Hobby, including rookie cards of Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and Whitey Ford. And yet, it also included this ridiculous caricature card of White Sox manager Paul Richards, in which the length of the rookie skipper's neck was only rivaled by giraffes and brontosaurs.
1991 Fleer (720-Way Tie)
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Fact. Staring at these cards for more than a minute will literally make your eyes hurt. Fact. Staring at these cards for even a few seconds will make you sad. These are truly terrible cards, every single last one of them.
1980-87 SSPC Hall of Fame Rube Foster
Let's face it. Mike Aronstein and the team at Sports Stars Publishing Company didn't quite have the budget of a Fleer or a Topps, or even Bowman in 1951, but what the heck was going on with this card? Didn't floating heads go out of style with the 1963 Topps Pete Rose rookie? On the bright side, were a card ever needed to remind collectors that Rube Foster, who founded the Negro National League in 1920, was "a head of his time," perhaps this is just the one to do it!
Topps Project 70 Yogi Berra by Action Bronson
When it comes to horrific cards, reasonable minds might presume the disembodied head to be the genre's end game. Not so! Enter Topps Project 70 artist Action Bronson, whose Yogi Berra card came complete with two disembodied hands and ten disembodied heads.
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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.