Spahn Games

Warren Spahn, 1989 Donruss Diamond Kings puzzle

Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, check out my Warren Spahn puzzle, ya’ll.

Do you like baseball? Do you like puzzles? Do you like baseball player Warren Spahn, who was born in 1921? Are you 12-years old but like being patronized as if you were 4-years old?

Can you put together a puzzle that is literally like 10 pieces? Here’s part of a hat! Where does that go? On his leg? The yellow part is confusing! Mommy, where is my sippy cup?

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity! The Warren Spahn puzzle card is a collector’s item, which is why I have 212 of them for some reason. Did they come in pieces or fully assembled? I cannot remember. If they came in pieces, I am the greatest puzzle-put-togetherer in the universe. Just sayin'.

According to Beckett, the Warren Spahn puzzle card is presently worth: Please see a publication that rates puzzles.

According to Highlights Magazine, the Warren Spahn puzzle card is worth three-and-a-half smiley faces. Holla!

The best time to put together your Warren Spahn puzzle card is at a restaurant while you are sitting in a high chair and playing with crayons. Are you done? Cool! Now it's time for the maze. How is that leprechaun going to reach the pot of gold? It seems impossible, I know. Just think about it. Take your time. Oh snap - chicken fingers are here!

Warren Spahn is the ultimate Diamond King. Can you piece together "the puzzle" of his dominance? Here's a clue: Look at the words. For example, 363 WINS. That's a lot of those! 20 OR MORE WINS 13 TIMES. Too much math. What is this, a puzzle for nerd babies? 2 NO HITTERS. No hitter = zero hits. Two times zero is zero. Warren Spahn had zero no hitters. Hey, I know SOME math. Back of the puzzle card, what's poppin'?

The white part means the bottom! Without clues like that, puzzles would only be for genius astronaut brain doctors.

Hey, remember jigsaw puzzles? One time my aunt got me a jigsaw puzzle of some landscape with a lion in it and I was like, "Worst Chirstmas ever!" Who has the time? But this Warren Spahn card is different. It's not a jigsaw; it's just a regular puzzle. To qualify as a jigsaw, you have to have at least a lot of pieces and be stupid. No offense to jig-heads, which is what I assume you call yourselves.

I can bang out a Warren Spahn puzzle in an afternoon, easy. Let's see if I still got it. Gonna take this baby apart and start over ...

I ruined it. These puzzle pieces do not stand the test of time. Shit, how many wins did Warren Spahn have again? I am lost!

Cardboard Mysteries

This post was inspired by an email from Reader Paul in Ottawa:

In 1966, an early checklist listed card 115 as Warren Spahn. This was corrected on later issues as Bill Henry and it is in fact the Henry card that is in circulation...but it begs the question, is there a 1966 Spahn card out there? Clearly Topps was expecting him to return to the Giants for the 1966 season, and it it also clear that his retirement created the switch...but if it was so late that SOME CHECKLISTS LISTED HIM AS THE CARD, is it possible that Topps has a stash of cards made that they didn't release into circulation? It is obvious that at least they would have had a plate for this card.

Anyone out there ever heard of such a card?


While I'm not sure what the answer is to this question, it made me think of other instances that I've dubbed Cardboard Mysteries.

• Where's Steve Carlton in the 1966 Topps set?

• What was the real reason Bowman almost released Ted Williams as card #66 in its 1954 set?


• How did Fleer get so many big names for their 1963 set? Or can we chalk it up to an especially talkative Jimmy Piersall?

• Topps has made at least five cards that are either post career-ending accident or 'In Memoriam' cards, including: Ken Hubbs (1964), Cory Lidle (2006), A. Bartlett Giamatti (1990), Roberto Clemente (1973) and Roy Campanella's 'Symbol of Courage' (1959). So why didn't they do one for Thurman Munson in 1980 Topps?

• Also regarding Munson, Thurman's 1971 Topps card is his second-year card, yet it's more expensive than his rookie. Are there other instances where this occurs?

Life is Just One Big Warren Spahn Puzzle

I’ve wracked my brain for just about the worst card you could prepare yourself for when you opened a pack. Let’s face it, if you were like me when you were a kid, all of your money was going towards cards, but if you weren’t—and I can say that I envy you, but I don’t know if I really believe myself when I say that—and you were only buying one or two packs just to remind yourself you were a little kid and this was what little kids (or pimply teenagers without a girlfriend or any semblance of a life, for that matter) were supposed to buy and be interested in (and could afford to buy, besides Garbage Pail Kids and candy (and yes this would be right around the time your best friend got Super Mario 3 and you couldn’t go over to his house every day)), you’d probably be mega-pissed if you got a crap card in your pack. How much did packs cost? 1986 Topps cost 35 cents a pack, Donruss and Fleer more so, 1987 Topps went up to 40 cents a pack (but you got 17 cards a pack) and it just went up from there…until now you can’t buy a pack under a buck or even two (but that’s a different gripe).

So while I’m mostly writing this entry as a starter for an open forum, I have a few obvious suggestions and one strong suggestion for what the worst card you could pull would be.

1. Juan Samuel, Phillies (any year): Here was a guy whom Topps ‘honored’ as an All-Star in 1988 (this year has arguably the most-awesome design for the All-Star card during the 1980s). Okay, so he did have a great 1987, with 100 RBI and over 25 homers for a pretty crap Phillies team. But no one would be happy to pull a Juan Samuel card, let alone his All-Star card. Here were your Topps All-Star second basemen in the Eighties. American League:1982 gave us Willie Randolph, 83 Bobby Grich, 84 Sweet Lou Whitaker, 85 & 86 Damaso Garcia, 87 Tony Bernazard, 88 Randolph again, and 89 Julio ‘Never Gonna Die’ Franco. I wouldn’t be too happy pulling any of those guys, especially the immortals Garcia and Bernazard, though I think Bernazard is active in the Players Union now (actually, I’m not really sure about that, but I like to think he has a desk with a nameplate and a wall of plaques, including one reading ‘The Topps Chewing Gum Company would like to congratulate Tony Bernazard on being named to said Company’s entirely arbitrarily-chosen 1988 All-Star team. Way to go, Tony.’ National League: 1982 Davey Lopes, 83 Manny Trillo, 84 Johnny Ray, 85 Ryne Sandberg, 86 Tommy Herr, 87 Steve Sax, 88 Juan Samuel, and 89 Sandberg once more. Are you kidding me? They should have just given it to Sandberg every year. It would’ve saved thousands of kids from becoming inconsolable after spotting a 2B All-Star, only to realize it was Tommy fuckin’ Herr, or Johnny Ray, Manny Trillo, Steve Sax, take your pick…no one’s going to remember those guys, and All-Star status lasts forever.

2. Bill Doran, Astros, 1986: The idea of the ‘Common’ is one that deserves its own dissertation, but the idea of the faceless common is entirely different, and deserves a short paragraph. Julio Cruz played a forgettable career, recording every year on a forgettable card. Read the back of his card presented here. ‘Julio can dunk basketball from standing start.’ Do you understand the implications of something like this? Julio Cruz is listed at 5’ 9”. And he can dunk from a standing start? Does that mean he has a vertical leap of almost 5 feet? Is that for real? I really want to meet him and make him dunk a basketball. But Bill Doran? There’s nothing great about his career, nothing great about how he spends his leisure time, and worst of all, his photos aren’t interesting. Just a faceless common Topps needed to fill the 792 card quota. Faceless commons present a very strong case as being the worst cards to pull.

3. Doubles. In the same pack. Get a double in a pack sucks, unless it’s of a very good player, but the odds of that would probably be very slim because of print runs, et cetera. Somehow I remember ending up with tons of Lance McCullers, Padres in the 1989 Topps set, (and I just opened two 1989 Donruss packs just now and got a Mark Lemke in each pack…Donruss might as well as just’ve made the puzzle that year Mark Lemke, which leads me to…)

4. The Boring Puzzle Piece, any year, Donruss: unless you got the face or the logo or bat or something, there was nothing fun about the Donruss Puzzle. It was just wasted space.

I leave the rest of this thought to you. What’s the worst card to pull?