Most Surprising Card in Sportscaster Card Series #001

I was sorting some of the Sporstcaster cards today and I was surprised to see this card in series 001.  I'm sure that in the 1970s I was wondering why this card was included, especially in series 001 of a subscription set.  Series 001 was going to be their big marketing push so the set included Bobby Orr, Muhammad Ali, Jessse Owens, Mark Spitz, Frank Shorter, Johnny Unitas, Pele, Jimmy Connors, Jets vs. Colts (Super Bowl), Tom Seaver, Pete Maravich and track stars Alberto Juantorena and Lasse Viren.  That's a great first set. 

Even the sub-title of the card makes me wonder about the card's inclusion.  It reads "The Unanswered Question".

The text even begins with the question "should fishing even be included in a collection of sports cards?".

The card concludes that fishing is probably not a sport  That has changed a lot since the 1970s.  There are professional tournaments, high school championships and everything in between.  I haven't been to a competition, but I'm guessing that the card is no longer correct when it mentions that "there are no referees and there are no anti-doping control points along the river".

The last line is my favorite, since I'm too impatient to fish - "Luckily, though, the fish almost always win".

My real question from this card is the fisherman depicted.  Is he a professional, the neighbor of the photographer, an actor, just some guy who is hungry, is it you or what?  What is his story?  If there is no story, how great is it for this guy to be included with the famous athletes in Series 001.

Sportscaster Cards That Are No Longer Accurate

I won't get into the exact text of the new blocking the plate rule in baseball, but I am confident that it is not the same as the rules stated on this card featuring Johnny Bench and Steve Yeager.

The text also mentions that the runner is out when hit by a batted ball.  That is not always true.

Another Sportscaster Variation - The Hockey Card Featuring the Espositos

I checked my cards, which are mostly sorted, and found this version of the Espositos card.  The text correctly identified their roles in the 1972 Canada-USSR series.  This was done in print run "A".  I didn't check later print runs yet to see if the card had more variations.

Do Phil Esposito or Tony Esposito fans even care about something this minor?  Most Sportscaster collectors probably don't even care about this.  I'm interested because it gives me something to do.

Are There Other Sportscaster Cards Like This One?

I picked up this Sportscaster card recently.    It features Phil and Tony Esposito.  Are there any other Sportscaster cards that have a player listed it the title where they don't show his picture on the front?  That will take a long time for me to figure out. 

I don't remember ever reading about the Team Canada - USSR eight-game series that was held in 1972.  For those of you younger than me, that is how things were without constant sports news on television.  There are some good recaps of this series online. 

The card mentions it, but I think there is an error in crediting the brothers for their play in that series.  They seem to have switched the names.  

What do I remember most about these brothers?  I had a table-top hockey game that featured both of them.  I think it was called One-on-One Hockey or something like that.  If I saw this game at a flea market I'd be certain to buy it.

Summary of How Many Sportscaster Cards that I Need

Now that I've finished packs 30 - 39, I'd really like to be done from 01 - 49 by getting the Dave Kingman and Walter Payton cards. 

I picked up a handful of cards today that included the Clemente and a few other variations that I needed.  I didn't get anything else to shorten the list below.

Here are the number of cards that I am missing from each range of sets.

01 - 09           0 cards

10 - 19           0 cards

20 - 29           2 cards   (Dave Kingman; Walter Payton)

30 - 39           0 cards   (32-01 Baseball 3,000-Hit Club - Roberto Clemente pictured)

40 - 49           0 cards

50 - 59         13 cards

60 - 69         21 cards

70 - 79         39 cards

80 - 88         41 cards

101-103       13 cards

Total          129 cards

Sportscaster Cards and PSA - Almost a Year Later

In January of this year there were just over 5,100 Sportscaster cards graded by PSA.  Today that number is up to 5,662.  I had nothing to do with that since I've never sent a card of any kind to PSA.  I own a few PSA cards, mostly Kellogg's, but it isn't something I chase.

Are any of you submitted these cards?  Other than the top few cards in the set, what is your reason for this?

64 125 59

In January there were the following totals -

Larry Bird                 57
Wayne Gretzky       119
Magic Johnson         53

today

Larry Bird                64    --- added seven this year
Wayne Gretzky      125    --- added six this year
Magic Johnson        59    --- added six this year

These three certainly didn't help much with the increase of over 500 submitted cards. 

I don't follow player master sets but is this what is happening?

Sportscaster Series #15 Variations that I Have Found So Far

Here is what I found for the 24 cards in Series #15 so far.   It looks like the first print run has no letter.  I've only found those from Italy.  Is there a first print run from Japan?  In addition, I am finding print run "A" and print run "B".  So I'm working on getting all three versions for Series #15.

I have every card from the first print run and the 'B' print run.  I am only missing one card (#22) from the 'A' print run.

Here are the back variations I've seen.  I have yet to check for variations on the front of the cards.

15-01 The European Cup Winner - all three have different results
15-02 Roy Schuiten - 'A' and 'B' have updated results and text 
15-06 Althea Gibson - 'A' and 'B' have reformatted text
15-18 Tornado (Yachting) - 'A' and 'B' have different captions 
15-22 Heinz Gunthardt - 'B' has more awards listed