Flip 'em, Trade 'em and Chew that Gum

When an airplane carrying relief supplies to Nicaraguan earthquake victims crashed on the last day of 1972, one of those killed was Pittsburgh Pirates' star rightfielder Roberto Clemente. That season, the baseball world honored Clemente--who had ended the previous season with a double off the Mets' Jon Matlack to collect his 3000th career hit--by renaming an award in his honor, having his former teammates wear his old number 21 on their sleeves, and inducting him into the Hall of Fame in an unprecedented special election.

But the gesture which meant the most to nine-year-olds, busy oiling their mitts and swinging weighted bats, was that they could still get a Roberto Clemente baseball card.

The Topps company prints its cards during the winter months, so by New Years' Day thousands of Clemente cards had been packaged, well on their way to becoming collectors' items.

Baseball cards have been young fans' link to the major leagues since the turn of the century, when they first appeared in cigarette, grocery, and tobacco packages. Even the most novice of collectors knows why Honus Wagner's 1909 card is so valuable--Wagner objected to smoking and chewing and forced the company marketing his likeness to round up and destroy his cards, with only nine surviving.

At first, cards came as promotions with tobacco, candy, meat, and cookies, but the manufacturers endeared themselves to generations of traders, flippers, and hoarders by including gum. The horrible, brittle pink slab takes about five minutes to break in, chews well for four, and then makes your jaw hurt more than two hours parked on Inspiration Point.

Since 1951, Topps, which also makes Bazooka bubble gum, has been king of the cards market. By signing players to exclusive contracts while they were still in the minor leagues, the company had kept an almost complete monopoly for nearly 30 years. But two years ago Topps was sued for violation of anti-trust laws, and the door opened for other companies to begin pushing cards.

It is still not a good idea to mix brands by trading a Fleer Mike Schmidt for a Topps Jim Rice, but the new competition has had one good side effect. There seem to be good players in every pack.

It used to be that you had to accumulate six Chris Speirs or seven Fred Lynns before getting a Carl Yastrzemski or Willie Stargel. But now you're assured of a Fernando Valenzuela or Ron Guidry for every 30 cents you spend.

In the old days, Topps printed very few cards of the biggest stars to induce kids to spend money all summer in search of a Tom Seaver. But with Topps having to fend off Fleer and Donruss in the card market, there are now two or three shots of Rich Gossage standing around looking cute, as well as the Rich Gossage in action pose and the Rich Gossage All-Star model.

Big league executives stay up all night once a year, working out deals as the June 15 trading deadline approaches. But all year is trade time for a card collector. In school, on the playground, after dinner and even after bedtime, deals can always be made. Of course card traders have the advantage of being able to swap seven players from six teams for nine players from five teams without really losing anything.

So chase the reading period blues by sitting on the floor, sorting and resorting your cards. Put rubber bands around each team and throw them in an old Pro Keds box. I've got two Reggie Jacksons and am ready to deal.