1968 Topps Baseball Design

[goheels]

Six Eddie Brinkman 1968 cards in chronological order:

1. Regular Brinkman, gold back, white letters, Jan-Feb 1968
2. O pee chee Brinkman, brown back, white letters, Jan-Feb 1968
3. Topps Milton Bradley Brinkman, yellow back, yellow letters, Apr 1968

The card is a beauty, looks flawless

4. Topps Milton Bradley Brinkman, yellow back, yellow letters, Apr 1968

Eddie was great with autographs before his untimely death in 2008. Had a smile as wide as the Mississippi when he signed this.

5. Topps Milton Bradley Brinkman/Winston Hill miscut, yellow back, yellow letters, Apr 1968.

One of my favorite MB cards. I call it the "missing link".

6. Topps Venezuelan Brinkman, brown mustard back, yellow letters, ? in 1968.

Note also the yellow letters!

Between Jan/Feb 1968 and the production of the MB cards in April, Topps corrected a huge mistake they made with the white letter Brinkman and Cox. Unlike all the other 1968 Washington Senators cards, those were the only two that did not have yellow letters. In the first series, the Ed Stroud #31 and Senators rookies #96 are always found with the proper yellow letters.

They continued to get it right with the Venezuelan issue. I am not an expert on that series but I assume they were produced around mid Spring.

In 1968 there were 10 different color schemes for the position/team circle on the front. The Giants also had the green circle/yellow letter scheme. Perhaps the same person who didn't tint in the Cox and Brinkman in series 1 decided to reprise his error in the 5th series with the #400 McCormick card.

I have looked a long time for 1968 Senators and Giants cards with white letters and haven't found any. I noticed the yellow letters on the Cox/Brinkman cards in the first MB game I got. It always bothered me that they were different from the regular 68s in my collection.

That would be a pretty good clinical definition of obsessive compulsive disorder.