Nowbatting19.net presents... the LEAF & FLEER page!

On this page, we are going to show you select LEAF Gum cards from 1948-49. We will also feature some 1960 Leaf cards that came, not with gum, but with a marble! Fleer, makers of the famous "Double Bubble" bubble gum, signed Ted Williams to an exclusive 3-year baseball card contract, so we are going to feature some of those, including the 1961-62 "Baseball Greats" cards. Also on this page we will include some of the 1963 Fleer Baseball Series that was limited to just 66 cards (but it still packed a wallop!). As a bonus, we will have some of the popular 1971 Fleer "World Series" cards. So kick back, relax & enjoy the show!

1948-49 LEAF All-Star Gum

Leaf Gum of Chicago was founded in 1940 by Sol S. Leaf. In 1948. Leaf, along with Bowman Gum of Philadelphia, issued the first mainstream baseball cards since 1941. The Leaf "All-Star Gum" cards measure 2-3/8"x 2-7/8," and feature "colorized" black & white player photos, with bright colorful backgrounds. In a large panel at the bottom of the card front is the players name, also in various colors. The card backs have the card number, players name (even players nickname if they had one), brief biography, and an advertisement for a card album for your collection. Leaf also did a Football & Boxing Series as well! The Leaf cards have a "Leaf Gum Co." copyright as well as the year of issue (1948, & 1949; Leaf must have issued the set in both years). 

Leaf did a bit of trickery to get kids to buy more gum, they intentionally skip-numbered the set! So they issued cards #1 up to card #168, but there are only 98 cards in the set! To make it even worse for set collectors, Leaf short-printed (SP) about half the set, making those extremely difficult to find (which translates to rather expensive cards today, even the "commons"). Another problem Leaf cards had was quality control. There are many out of register (focus) cards, especially the short prints. Also there are many factory print marks, roller marks from machinery, overprints (ink transfer from still wet card sheets), miscuts, etc. It can be pretty ugly. 

What Leaf did remarkably well, was the player selection. You had the big name players of the day- Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Ralph Kiner, Warren Spahn, etc. But Leaf also included some All-Time Great former players like Babe Ruth & Honus Wagner! The key rookie cards in the set include Larry Doby (SP), Ralph Kiner, Stan Musial, Phil Rizzuto, Jackie Robinson, Warren Spahn, & more! The Leaf cards were a bit larger, & more colorful than the 1948 Bowman cards, so I am sure Bowman was not too thrilled, but the curious thing is that Leaf never did another set after their debut. They did issue a black & white set in 1960, but under the name "Sports Novelties, Inc. of Chicago." It appears that Leaf, was like so many of the companies today, that merge or get bought by other companies. So that may be the reason Leaf only did this one set. Who knows. What matters is that the cards survived. They are a piece of "America's Pastime,"  & the card are extremely popular today, 75 years (& counting) later!

• The 1948 Leaf #3 Babe Ruth is extremely popular. It mentions his passing in 1948, so the card is like a tribute card to "The Sultan of Swat." Ruth's final card as a player (with the Boston Braves) was in the 1935 Goudey "4-in-1" Puzzle Back set.

• This 1948 Leaf #79 Jackie Robinson is his true "ROOKIE" card as it was first issued in 1948. Bowman did not have Robinson in it's 1948 debut. The 1949 Bowman Robinson is also considered his rookie card, but for most collectors, the 1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson is the one to get. 

1963 Fleer Baseball  (Issued with a Cookie?)

Yes, that's right! The 1963 Fleer baseball cards were issued with a cherry cookie! Probably because of Topps, because at this time, they were "head honcho" in the baseball-picture-cards-with-bubble-gum market. Supposedly, a lawsuit by Topps halted this issue at just one series of (66) cards (there is also an unnumbered Checklist card, so technically 67 cards). But consider this- of the 66 cards, 12 are Hall of Famers! The big names include Roberto Clemente, Don Drysdale, Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays, Brooks Robinson, & Carl Yastrzemski. The 1963 Fleer cards are not as plentiful as their Topps counterparts. 2 cards are somewhat scarce, Joe Adcock (card #46) & the unnumbered Checklist card. Because the Adcock card was replaced by the Checklist card on the sheet, both cards are short prints. The 1963 Fleer baseball cards are notable as they "challenged" Topps at the time, but being the small kid on the block they got bullied out of the trading card game. Fleer also filled in the gap for Basketball & Football fans, producing cards in the early 1960s. But after 1963, they were gone as a mainstream competitor with Topps. It wasn't until 1981 that both Donruss & Leaf were able to release mainstream baseball cards.

• The 1963 Fleer set is notable for having the "Rookie" card of Dodger's star shortstop Maury Wills. Wills had just come off his historic 1962 MVP season, when he swiped 104 bases (a modern day record at the time). Wills had already been around with the Dodgers (since 1959) but Topps had slighted Wills when he was in the Minor Leagues. Topps felt Wills was not going to make it to the major leagues. So they did not even offer Wills a contract. When Wills did become a big leaguer (and a star), he did not forget how Topps had ignored him. So, Wills ignored Topps for the next 9 years! He finally signed a Topps contract in 1967, but by then he was with the Pittsburgh Pirates. To sum it up, if you want a Wills rookie card, you have to get the 1963 Fleer #43 Maury Wills (Wills first TOPPS card is 1967 Topps #570).  It's also interesting to note the '63 Fleer Wills card has  "N.L. Most Valuable Player '62"  in yellow diamond;  this likely means Fleer was planning to include the 1962 A.L. MVP, MICKEY MANTLE. 

1967 R.G. Laughlin World Series Cards - Prototype for the 1971-80 FLEER WORLD SERIES Cards

This is the cool thing about collecting. You haven't seen everything. I haven't. I was familiar with the 1971-1980 Fleer World Series cards. I like that there was an entire series devoted to the World Series.  I wasn't thrilled with the cartoon images on the front, but they were colorful & fun to read. I learned a lot from reading the backs of cards. Well wouldn't you know, decades later, I find out that before those 1970's Fleer World Series cards, there actually was a prototype of the cards done by R.G. Laughlin in 1967! The 1967 Laughlin World Series cards are black & white and are a larger size than standard, measuring 2-3/4" x 3-1/2." The backs have text printed with red ink. I believe these cards were sold by Robert Laughlin himself as complete sets of 64 cards. The cards highlight every World Series played from 1903 to 1967.

R.G. Laughlin & Fleer later got together to create the more colorful 1971-80 Fleer World Series cards. What is unique about the 1967 Laughlin World Series cards is that many have completely different pictures than the 1971-80 Fleer World Series cards. They are also much scarcer! The pricier cards are the ones that depict major stars, like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax (see pic), etc. I think the only reason these cards are not as popular with collectors is because of the cartoon images, but then that means the cards can be picked up for reasonable prices!

1971-80 FLEER WORLD SERIES

The 1971-80 Fleer World Series cards were a collaboration between R.G. Laughlin & Fleer Corp. of Philadelphia. The cards measure standard size 2-1/2" x 3-1/2" & feature every World Series contest from 1903-1977. The cards were updated up to 1977, then Fleer produced World Series/Team Logo Sticker cards in 1980 which updated the years 1978-79. The Fleer World Series cards which were produced from 1971-77 are much scarcer than the previous World Series cards up to 1970. The two cards pictured are examples of the scarcer series.

1960 Leaf - In a word? A "dud"

The 1960 Sports Novelties Inc. cards are commonly called simply "Leaf," so there is probably some likelihood that these cards were produced by a company that was once affiliated with Leaf Gum of Chicago. The cards are simple black & white photos with the players name in bold text. Below, in smaller type is the players position & team. The back has "Genuine Baseball Photo" with the card number in a "baseball" design in the upper left corner. There is a biography and below that Major League Hitting/Pitching Records. The copyright line reads "Sports Novelties, Inc. Chicago, Ill. Printed in U.S.A.  The text is black. The 1960 Leaf set contained 144 cards. They were issued in wax packs for 5 cents and the cards included a marble, not gum. The cards were not popular at the time, as Topps cards were the kids choice for baseball cards. Who would want black & white cards when you could buy very attractive & colorful TOPPS cards, that featured 2 pictures of the player on front (plus cartoons on the back, & gum!)?  The '60 Leaf cards are also not very popular today. The set is rather lackluster, and most of the key stars of the day were probably exclusively Topps. There are a few Hall of Fame players, notably Luis Aparicio, Orlando Cepeda, Brooks Robinson & Duke Snider (pictured). There is also a card of future Reds Manager (& HOFer) George "Sparky" Anderson. The only positive thing I can say about the 1960 Leaf cards is that they are probably one of the more affordable vintage cards that you can buy from the 1960s. And that folks, about wraps it up for this dud. The set is not "awe-inspiring" by any means. Maybe this is why Sports Novelties Inc. did not attempt another. 

1959 Fleer Ted Williams

 How great was Ted Williams? Good enough to have an entire baseball card set devoted to him! Fleer lured Williams away from Topps, & signed him to an exclusive 3 year contract. And Fleer took advantage of that by creating the 1959 Fleer Ted Williams set. The set highlights the career of Ted Williams from his early days up to 1959. There are many highlights of course. Ted is on a couple of cards with Babe Ruth, also Jimmy Foxx & Jim Thorpe (see pic). The key card in the set is #68 Ted Signs For 1959 (pictured). Fleer had to pull production on that card because it depicts Red Sox GM Bucky Harris, who appeared to be under contract with, yes, TOPPS. So the card is scarce & is quite pricey today. The rest of the cards are mostly very affordable, & a great bargain for a vintage Ted Williams card. 

1960-61 Fleer Baseball Greats