Baseball Talk

Baseball Talk was a set of 164 "talking" baseball cards that were released by Topps and the LJN Corporation during the spring of 1989. Each card featured a plastic disk affixed to the back of an oversized baseball card. When placed in the SportsTalk player the cards would play two to three minutes of recorded audio.1989 Topps Baseball Talk Baseball Card Checklist on Keyman Collectibles The player retailed for $24.99 and was labeled for ages six and up. It required four AA alkaline batteries to operate.

The cards featured most of the better known players in baseball in 1988 and were sold in toy stores throughout the United States and Canada during 1989 Major League Baseball season. LJN and Topps planned to debut talking NFL and NBA cards (it stated in print advertising "Coming Soon – NFL Football and NBA Basketball Talking Cards"), but those plans, along with follow-up MLB editions, were canceled as the card players often broke or played with poor audio quality. Stores were flooded with returned boxes of Baseball Talk and by the fall of 1989 many of the cards and players could be found in discount bins at places like Toys R Us and Target. At one point, packs of cards that had been priced at $4 a piece were selling for as low as 50 cents by stores that were eager to move a failed product.

Cards The SportsTalk player was sold with four cards (a checklist card that served as an introduction to the series, a Hank Aaron card, and the cards of 1988 stars Don Mattingly and Orel Hershiser). Additional cards were sold with four to a pack and were labeled in a manner that let the buyer know what cards were inside. Mel Allen narrated eight cards that featured highlights from historic games as well as 33 cards of former stars such as Babe Ruth and Duke Snider.

Don Drysdale interviewed the players of the National League for their cards and Joe Torre did the same for the American League players. Many of the cards featured amusing or humorous anecdotes, such as Mike Flanagan recounting how his Japanese baseball glove manufacturer (Mizuno) spelled his name "Mike Franagan" and that the company's executives told him, "Mr. Franagan, we're very grad you use our grub."

Rare collectibles Due to the cards and players being on the market for a short period of time and that many of the players did not work well, a complete set and a working player sells for a Beckett book value of $250 to $300 (Beckett 2008 Almanac).

Checklist The following is the numerical checklist for the only set of cards ever released for Baseball Talk.

Eight classic games 1. 1975 World Series, Game 6 Boston Red Sox 7, Cincinnati Reds 6 on Retrosheet database 2. 1986 World Series, Game 6 3. 1986 ALCS, Game 5 4. 1956 World Series, Game 5 5. 1986 NLCS, Game 6 6. 1969 World Series, Game 5 7. 1984 World Series, Game 5 8. 1988 World Series, Game 1

33 famous former players

9. Reggie Jackson 10. Brooks Robinson 11. Billy Williams 12. Bobby Thomson 13. Harmon Killebrew 14. Johnny Bench 15. Tom Seaver 16. Willie Stargell 17. Ernie Banks 18. Gaylord Perry 19. Bill Mazeroski 20. Babe Ruth 21. Lou Gehrig 22. Ty Cobb 23. Bob Gibson 24. Al Kaline 25. Rod Carew 26. Lou Brock 27. Stan Musial 28. Joe Morgan 29. Willie McCovey 30. Duke Snider 31. Whitey Ford 32. Eddie Mathews 33. Carl Yastrzemski 34. Pete Rose 35. Hank Aaron (b) Final season 36. Ralph Kiner 37. Steve Carlton 38. Roberto Clemente 39. Don Drysdale 40. Robin Roberts 41. Hank Aaron (a) Rookie season

122 Present Day Players and Managers in 1988 By Team Each team was represented by at least three players except for the 1988 Baltimore Orioles, who had two (Cal Ripken Jr. and Eddie Murray.) It is possible that the late season trade of Fred Lynn from Baltimore to Detroit did not allow time to find a third Oriole. The New York Mets had the most players with eight.

New York Mets 8 (Hernandez, Carter, Gooden, Darling, Jefferies, Myers, McDowell, and Strawberry) New York Yankees 7 (Winfield, J. Clark, Guidry, John, Mattingly, Henderson, and Righetti) Boston Red Sox 7 (Boggs, Clemens, Rice, Evans, L. Smith, Greenwell, and Hurst) St. Louis Cardinals 7 (O. Smith, Guerrero, McGee, Coleman, Worrell, Magrane, and Brunansky) Los Angeles Dodgers 7 (Hershiser, Gibson, Marshall, Tudor, Sax, Lasorda, and Valenzuela) Oakland Athletics 7 (LaRussa, McGwire, Canseco, Welch, Eckersley, Parker, and Lansford) Minnesota Twins 6 (Hrbek, Gaetti, Viola, Rearden, Blyleven, and Puckett) Cincinnati Reds 6 (E. Davis, Daniels, Larkin, Sabo, D. Jackson, and Franco) Detroit Tigers 6 (Anderson, Trammel, Whitaker, Morris, Tanana, and Lynn) Toronto Blue Jays 5 (G. Bell, Fernandez, Key, Henke, and Flanagan) San Francisco Giants 5 (W. Clark, Mitchell, Reuschel, Craig, and Maldonado) Montreal Expos 4 (Raines, Wallach, Galarraga, and Brooks) Chicago Cubs 4 (Sandberg, Dawson, Sutcliffe, and Gossage) Pittsburgh Pirates 4 (Bonds, Bonilla, Van Slyke, and LaValliere) Houston Astros 4 (Ryan, Scott, Bass, and G. Davis) Cleveland Indians 4 (Snyder, Carter, Butler, and D. Jones) Kansas City Royals 4 (Saberhagen, Brett, White, and Seitzer) California Angels 4 (M. Witt, Boone, C. Davis, and Joyner) Texas Rangers 3 (McDowell, Incaviglia, and Hough) San Diego Padres 3 (Gwynn, Santiago, and Kruk) Philadelphia Phillies 3 (Schmidt, Bedrosian, and Samuel) Atlanta Braves 3 (Murphy, Perry, and Sutter) Milwaukee Brewers 3 (Molitor, Plesac, and Yount) Seattle Mariners 3 (A. Davis, H. Reynolds, and Langston) Chicago White Sox 3 (Guillen, Fisk, and Baines) Baltimore Orioles 2 (Ripken and Murray)

By Card Number

42. Dave Winfield, New York Yankees 43. Alan Trammell, Detroit Tigers 44. Darryl Strawberry, New York Mets 45. Ozzie Smith, St. Louis Cardinals 46. Kirby Puckett, Minnesota Twins 47. Will Clark, San Francisco Giants 48. Keith Hernandez, New York Mets 49. Wally Joyner, California Angels 50. Mike Scott, Houston Astros 51. Eric Davis, Cincinnati Reds 52. George Brett, Kansas City Royals 53. George Bell, Toronto Blue Jays 54. Tommy Lasorda, Los Angeles Dodgers 55. Rickey Henderson, New York Yankees 56. Robin Yount, Milwaukee Brewers 57. Wade Boggs, Boston Red Sox 58. Roger Clemens, Boston Red Sox 59. Vince Coleman, St. Louis Cardinals 60. José Canseco, Oakland Athletics 61. Fernando Valenzuela, Los Angeles Dodgers 62. Tony Gwynn, San Diego Padres 63. Doc Gooden, New York Mets 64. Mark McGwire, Oakland Athletics 65. Jack Clark, New York Yankees 66. Dale Murphy, Atlanta Braves 67. Kirk Gibson, Los Angeles Dodgers 68. Jack Morris, Detroit Tigers 69. Ryne Sandberg, Chicago Cubs 70. Nolan Ryan, Houston Astros 71. John Tudor, Los Angeles Dodgers 72. Mike Schmidt, Philadelphia Phillies 73. Dave Righetti, New York Yankees 74. Pedro Guerrero, St. Louis Cardinals 75. Rick Sutcliffe, Chicago Cubs 76. Gary Carter, New York Mets 77. Cal Ripken, Baltimore Orioles 78. Andre Dawson, Chicago Cubs 79. Andy Van Slyke, Pittsburgh Pirates 80. Roc Raines, Montreal Expos 81. Frank Viola, Minnesota Twins 82. Don Mattingly, New York Yankees 83. Rick Reuschel, San Francisco Giants 84. Willie McGee, St. Louis Cardinals 85. Mark Langston, Seattle Mariners 86. Ron Darling, New York Mets 87. Gregg Jefferies, New York Mets 88. Harold Baines, Chicago White Sox 89. Eddie Murray, Baltimore Orioles 90. Barry Larkin, Cincinnati Reds 91. Gary Gaetti, Minnesota Twins 92. Bret Saberhagen, Kansas City Royals 93. Roger McDowell, New York Mets 94. Joe Magrane, St. Louis Cardinals 95. Juan Samuel, Philadelphia Phillies 96. Bert Blyleven, Minnesota Twins 97. Kal Daniels, Cincinnati Reds 98. Kevin Bass, Houston Astros 99. Glenn Davis, Houston Astros 100. Steve Sax, Los Angeles Dodgers 101. Rich Gossage, Chicago Cubs 102. Roger Craig, San Francisco Giants 103. Carney Lansford, Oakland Athletics 104. Joe Carter, Cleveland Indians 105. Bruce Sutter, Atlanta Braves 106. Barry Bonds, Pittsburgh Pirates 107. Danny Jackson, Cincinnati Reds 108. Mike Flanagan, Toronto Blue Jays 109. Dwight Evans, Boston Red Sox 110. Ron Guidry, New York Yankees 111. Bruce Hurst, Boston Red Sox 112. Jim Rice, Boston Red Sox 113. Oddibe McDowell, Texas Rangers 114. Bobby Bonilla, Pittsburgh Pirates 115. Bob Welch, Oakland Athletics 116. Dave Parker, Oakland Athletics 117. Tim Wallach, Montreal Expos 118. Tom Henke, Toronto Blue Jays 119. Mike Greenwell, Boston Red Sox 120. Kevin Seitzer, Kansas City Royals 121. Randy Myers, New York Mets 122. Andrés Galarraga, Montreal Expos 123. Orel Hershiser, Los Angeles Dodgers 124. Cory Snyder, Cleveland Indians 125. Mike Witt, California Angels 126. Mike LaValliere, Pittsburgh Pirates 127. Pete Incaviglia, Texas Rangers 128. Dennis Eckersley, Oakland Athletics 129. Jimmy Key, Toronto Blue Jays v130. John Franco, Cincinnati Reds 131. Dan Plesac, Milwaukee Brewers 132. Tony LaRussa, Oakland Athletics 133. Hubie Brooks, Montreal Expos 134. Chili Davis, California Angels 135. Bob Boone, California Angels 136. Jeff Reardon, Minnesota Twins 137. Candy Maldonado, San Francisco Giants 138. Mike Marshall, Los Angeles Dodgers 139. Tommy John, New York Yankees 140. Chris Sabo, Cincinnati Reds 141. Alvin Davis, Seattle Mariners 142. Frank White, Kansas City Royals 143. Harold Reynolds, Seattle Mariners 144. Lee Smith, Boston Red Sox 145. John Kruk, San Diego Padres 146. Tony Fernández, Toronto Blue Jays 147. Steve Bedrosian, Philadelphia Phillies 148. Benito Santiago, San Diego Padres 149. Ozzie Guillén, Chicago White Sox 150. Gerald Perry, Atlanta Braves 151. Carlton Fisk, Chicago White Sox 152. Tom Brunansky, St. Louis Cardinals 153. Paul Molitor, Milwaukee Brewers 154. Todd Worrell, St. Louis Cardinals 155. Brett Butler, Cleveland Indians 156. Sparky Anderson, Detroit Tigers 157. Kent Hrbek, Minnesota Twins 158. Frank Tanana, Detroit Tigers 159. Kevin Mitchell, San Francisco Giants 160. Charlie Hough, Texas Rangers 161. Doug Jones, Cleveland Indians 162. Lou Whitaker, Detroit Tigers 163. Fred Lynn, Detroit Tigers

One Checklist card 164. Checklist

Baseball Talk

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