5 Baseball Cards that Need a Break
Or that had one force on them, like an All-Star Wednesday
Welcome to the All-Star Break!
This fake-halfway point of the baseball season is always cause for celebration and reflection, and it even comes in with a built-in hard stop.
I mean, that Wednesday after the big game is like a diamond morgue.
But we can still celebrate the break-iness of the Break with some baseball cards that feature their own break.
You’ll see what I mean once we get rolling.
So … let’s get rolling!
1976 Topps Tommy John (#416)
By the time this card started popping out of wax packs, the world was about to witness the start of a whole new era in pitching rehab.
Was there any way possible Tommy John could come back from being “ON DISABLED LIST” with an elbow injury that would have spelled pitching death before 1974?
Well, yeah, as it turned out.
And, for younger collectors who looked at the back of John’s late-career cards without that injury context, that 1975 void was nothing but a brief interruption in a long and storied career.
1978 Topps Gene Pentz (#64)
This is the type of card, and the type of “break”, that really made for some in-your-head story-spinning as a kid way back when.
How did Pentz go from playing at Lakeland in 1973 to playing at Montgomery in 1975 while posting a “DID NOT PLAY” at Evansville in between?
Did he just move to southern Indiana to study the mounds for a year while he put his baseball career on hold?
Sure, we can Google it now, but that’s not nearly as romantic as the tales we can dream up instead.
1983 Topps Bob Lillis (#66)
Lillis is our representative here for both managers and military men.
I clearly remember pulling this card from packs in 1983 and being disappointed because 1) this was a skipper card and 2) I’d never heard of Lillis.
But even then, I was impressed with how long Lillis played pro ball and wondered what those numbers on the back of his card might have looked like without the 2-year hiatus.
1984 Topps Bert Campaneris (#139)
Campaneris wasn’t in the first card sets that I cared about, those issued in 1983.
And so, when I pulled this card in 1984, I thought the old man shown was a coach or manager or something.
Imagine my surprise when I turned the card over and found that he was both an active player and one who was very accomplished.
How had I never heard of him??
Of course, this card back mesmerized me for minutes, at least, and probably for hours. And eventually, I discovered the “hidden” break — where the heck was 1982?
And where was he in 1982?
I knew I’d eventually have to find out more about this guy.
1985 Donruss Rollie Fingers (#292)
Donruss sort of jumped the gun when they included Fingers on a Living Legends card with Gaylord Perry in 1984. The other LL featured Johnny Bench and Carl Yastrzemski.
The implication was that, since the other three dudes were done, so was Mr. Mustache.
But surprise!
Fingers made it back to Brewers in 1984, picked up another 23 saves, and posted a nasty 1.96 ERA.
His 1985 season wasn’t quite so strong, but that 1983 break, sandwiched by full stat lines in 1982 and 1984, on Fingers cards made their 1984 “tribute” look sort of silly.
—
So, enjoy the last games of the “first half” today and then all the All-Star festivities.
Then maybe use your downtime later in the week to dig up some old cardboard breaks of your own.
And if you do, feel free to fill in the backstory like you would have as a kid. Just because you have every answer at your fingertips doesn’t mean you always have to go find it.
Thanks for reading.
—Adam