5 Baseball Cards Undone by a Summer Wipeout

Just grit your teeth and carry on, and just ignore that wax stain behind the flap

This summer has driven me to excuses over the last few weeks, and they continue today — I swear on all that is Oliva that someone cut 20% off the serving size of my days starting around mid-June.

And they’re charging me the same price for such indignity! Hmmph.

Anyway, here is a quick look at a few cardboard guys who also found summer to be a bumpy ride, once upon a wax stain’s weary.

1980 Topps Mike Edwards (#301)

Edwards is trying to hold it all together, doing his best rear-end levitation act before the fishing twine suspending him from the clouds above the Coliseum snap under the weight of the world. Or, considering this card was issued in the summer of 1980, the weight of Mount St. Helens ash.

1983 Fleer Carl Yastrzemski (#200)

You can tell by the look on its face that 1983 Fleer Carl Yastrzemski had seen some s***. And Yaz himself couldn’t even bear to take that full next breath, lest he rile up the baseball gods and bring down the other spike. Best to just steel yourself for what’s next.

1987 Topps Steve Carlton Side Panel (B)

To paraphrase Wilson Phillips … hold on for one more day, and you, too, could “star” for the 1986 San Francisco Giants on your way to a 15-29 record and 5.72 ERA for five (5!) clubs over the course of your final two seasons.

Or is that, “you got yourself into your own mess”?

Either way, Lefty looks appropriately giddy here.

1989 Donruss Ron Washington (#468)

1989 Donruss Ron Washington knows that you can have a rough night some summers. Keep putting on that happy face, though, and eventually you’ll get things turned around.

1990 Topps TV Cubs Chuck Cottier (#3)

You try your best to hold it all together (see Edwards, Mike above), but sometimes the exhaust pipe from the 1990 Medium Red Compact Car in front of you is just a little too persistent in emitting its noxious wire-to-wire fumes.

All of Chuck Cottier’s Mariners strife came flooding to the fore on this card as he watched the Reds disappear into October.

—

Thanks for perusing (“reading” hardly seems to fit this week). Until next time, I’ll be here trying to get a refund for my missing hours.

—Adam