Tell us your favorite vintage card reference in the movies..


Here are a few to get started.


1. Lou Gehrig giving cards in Pride of the Yankees to play some street baseball. Of course, he kept Babe Ruth !!


2. Roy Hobbs in The Natural


3. Blast from the Past - Brendan Fraser having to sell dad's baseball card collection to buy food/goods for the bomb shelter. Wanted to sell some Goudeys, Mantles, etc.

A Lou Gehrig card in the wallet of the dead explorer in "The Goonies". Actually, it looked like a 1970's Topps issue.



1960 Topps Ted Klu (among many others) featured in "Rain Man".



1955 Topps Rube Walker, 1955 Bowman Duke Snider and 3 1974 Topps Steve Garveys featured in "Mask".



Not the movies, but Marg Helgenberger found a stack of 1974 Topps cards in childhood the dresser drawer of Grissom's nemesis Paul Mullander in an episode of CSI.



A 1968 Topps Yaz was shown in an episode of "The Wonder Years".



A supposed Joe DiMaggio rookie card and a 1973 "mutton chop" Yaz have been featured on "The Simpsons".


A Tony Micelli baseball card was found among Tony's father in law's personal effects in an episode of "Who's the Boss?". Also, one episode revolved around Tony being forced to sell a 1962 Mets autographed ball that his father obtained in-person as a kid because Samantha needed a dress for the prom (or something equally ridiculous).

Might remember more later.

Dustin Hoffman had BB cards in his room.....I think they were all 1950's and '60s cards.

Also, in Pride of the Yankees, a young Lou Gehrig was exchanging T206's to play baseball.
I recall that he mentioned a Matty card.


TED Z

I could be wrong, but can someone confirm that a Joe Nuxhall baseball card was referenced in an episode of Married with Children?



Thanks - Rob

There's a Leave it to Beaver episode where the Beav and a friend are at a corner store and open a pack of cards. I want to say they were '59 Topps but am not positive about that one...

1962 Topps Marris #1 in Star Trek

Married With Children...

I remember something about Joe Nuxhall

You guys are good!

A Christmas Story, T206s and a Playball on the headboard.


I've not seen Blast From the Past, but friends tell me I should see it.

I need to watch Pride of the Yankees again.

In Brighton Beach Memoirs the younger boy has some kind of baseball premiums tacked on the wall above his bed and near the bedroom door is a cardboard advertising sign with I think Paul Waner on it. There is also a baseball calendar which has the players lining the sides in small pictures...I believe at one time or another people thought those were strip cards until the calendar was discovered....The older boy has boxing memorabilia tacked on the walls around his bed including some old cards (Hassan or Mecca?).

Scott- you are correct. Whitey and Richard were hanging out at the malt shop and pulled out some 59 Topps. The cards were visible for barely a second.

Its actually m101-4 Sporting news cards or at least looks like them in Pride of the Yankees.
Also, in Take me out to the ball game Gene kelly opens a cigarette pack and pulls out a t206-like card of himself

When George Costanza worked for the Yankees, he had numerous reprint sets framed and matted on his walls, among them T205, N162, and 1952 Topps. He may have had a thirties issue also, but the frames were always in the background and difficult to make out.

Not a movie, but I remember the TV series Hart to Hart where a kid was kidnapped by his aunt when he inherited a $250,000 baseball collection.

Watch the beginning to this clip. Show was from 1982. Not too sure because the quality is bad, but some of those cards look real.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7N33cWbvgU

There is a 1941 Disney short cartoon starring Mickey and Minnie called "The Nifty Nineties" (about the 1890's). In the opening scene, Mickey is walking along a path in a park to the soundtrack of whatever that "Merry Merry Month of May" song is.

Right along the path is a billboard that advertises an upcoming Bloomer Girls Baseball game at this same park. Very very cool.

It is drawn with cartoonish exaggeration, but otherwise it's composition is very consistent with the many Bloomer Girl postcards from ~1910 when BG postcards were most prominent. Shows a standing row of players in uniform with equipment.

The billboard is not hidden at all - it takes up much of the center screen for several seconds as Mickey goes past in front of it whistling.

I just saw this within the past month and about fell out of my chair. I even thought that I would just love love love to have a cell (or whatever they are called) of that scene, but I suspect that's impossible.

Not exactly movies, and not exactly cards, but still a neat embedded reference to the hobby.

J

There was an episode of Macguyver that revolved around baseball cards and autographs. It was actually fairly ahead of its time, as the episode aired twenty or more years ago. Mcguyver uses a fake Walter Johnson-signed ball to help catch some bad guys, as he planted a tracking device on the underside of the base of the ball holder! All these memories flooding back!

"Dead" hubby (vigo mortgenson) leaves clues written on baseball cards (THE HORROR!) from the 60s that leads wife (andy mcdowell) on a trail around the planet. There's one scene where, after figuring out the clue on the card, she rips it up and throws it in a trashcan (CRINGE).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107999/


Past thread dealing with baseball cards in movies:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/153652/message/1186671274/Pre-War+Baseball+Cards+in+the+Movies

leave it to Macguyver to catch the bad guys with a fake Walter Johson signed ball !


I am surprised he didn't remove the stitching and then plant some bomb device.

"Diminished Capacity", the movie in which the key plot point centers around selling a T206 Schulte...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTw__xcWMz8

I believe there were some Play Balls and tobacco cards in Good Will Hunting in Robin Williams office behind his desk.

Don't ask me how I remember

In Sam's office in Cheers, it looked like T202's and other cards were framed on the wall.

Being more of a memorabilia guy...



In Otto Preminger's wonderful "Laura" (1944), a small baseball dexterity puzzle ("Bases Loaded", maybe)

has a fairly prominent role as a prop in the hands of Dana Andrews, who plays a detective investigating

the murder of the beautiful "Laura." In several scenes, as I recall, the cop is fiddling with the toy as

he gathers clues and talks to suspects. Great movie.


(edited to add still from movie, thanks Anthony S.--I guess "Bases Loaded" was not it...)

There is a baseball card reference at the 0:50 mark of this ESPN clip...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTmReXYNJs0>

one of the last scenes in good will hunting when matt damon is in robin williams office. robin is moving out and will is saying goodbye. on the wall of robin's office hangs a portrait of baseball cards. It looks like a 52 mantle, a ruth goudey and other marquee pre and post war cards.

Edit: Ahh, didnt see Bob's post above! Beat me to it

Joseph,


"Laura." Great movie, indeed. And how beautiful was Gene Tierney.

The hand-held baseball game you referred to appears at the 5:10 point in the clip below...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmlBD2UEC6c

In an episode of Married...With Children Al Bundy and neighbor Steve collect Chicago Cubs cards. Also Al's Dentist has a baseball card collection. It's also noteworthy to mention that Al is beaned in the head by Steve Carlton in an episode.

As memory serves, Al Bundy was delineating all his worldly posessions in his will. His only two items were a Joe Nuxhall baseball card and a Beta video tape. I don't remember the year of Nuxie's card.

...rounding 3rd and heading for home. May he rest in peace.

One of my all-time favorite baseball movies is Sandlot. In the movie there are several interesting things featured...One of my favorites is at breakfast they pour cereal from a complete box of Sugar Crisp with a complete back panel of Post cards.

They have '62 Topps cards tacked to a treehouse as well.

The Ruth signature ball is featured as well as a wealth of older memorabilia in James Earl Jones' characters house including balls, pennants, trophies, and photos.

One of my favorite scenes of all time occurs in Big where the two boys go to the corner store buy packs of Topps, open them, eat the gum, and say "need it, need it, got it, got it...etc.)....I did that almost every day for nearly 4 years with my two friends Mark and Zach.

Joshua

Joshua,

Don't forget the 1927 Yankees team-signed ball that Jones' character gives to the kid to replace his stepfather's Ruth ball that the dog ate!

In the Simpsons, Mr. Burns gave Homer a 1940 Play Ball-style card of Joe DiMaggio. Commenting on DiMaggio, Burns said he lost interest in the game when they started letting in "ethnics."

In the 1970's tv series, "Barney Miller", one of the detectives has on his station desk, a vintage Yankees (I believe) autographed ball. It's part of a recurring theme, as the Inspector, whenever he visits the police station, expresses his admiration for the ball and strongly hints that he would like it for his own.

I'm somewhat foggy in my memory of it, but I believe eventually, the detective does give the Inspector the ball, but it turns out to be a phony, that the detective had made up to give the inspector, while retaining the real one for himself.

David,

I mentioned that one earlier. It was given by Mr. Burns in addition to Homer's Christmas bonii.

And I believe that was the episode of The Simpsons that was replayed last night.

Scott- I just watched the clip you provided and that's you on the ESPN show. Would you please share the background of how you got on (if you are well known and I am a jerk for not recognizing you I apologize).

Hey Barry,

Thanks for the comments. You're not a jerk - the only circles where I'm probably known is among bill collectors.

As far as the ESPN clip, I initially had auditioned for their show "Two Minute Drill" back around 2002-ish. I was selected to be on the show, but between the time of being selected and the taping date, the show was canceled. When they introduced the "Stump the Schwab" show a few years later, I went back to NYC and auditioned again, and was selected to be on the show.

The audition process was two-part; the first part was pretty much just a sports trivia test. They try to make sure you have a broad knowledge of all sports. If you pass that, then they interview you to make sure you have a personality and you're not just a dead fish in front of a camera. Somehow I passed those!

"Two Minute Drill" was a great show in my opinion, since it had a lot of older sports trivia. Schwab is meant to appeal to younger viewers (think SportsCenter) so it was much heavier on modern trivia.

this thread just made me watch an entire hour episode of hart to hart from 1982 while i was supposed to be working.

Thanks Scott. You did very well, you topped your other two opponents (but not the Schwab). I have never seen that show before but it's pretty good. The question gets tougher as the easier answers are eliminated. But you made an impressive showing, well done.

How did you do in the final round?

The monoliths in 2001: A Space Odyssey are shaped like T206s.

Of interesting note, the word monolith is never said or used in the movie. The word is a creation external to the film.

I am such a science fiction nerd...If I recall correctly, the monoliths were originally called Sentinels of Eternity...Clarke (a true genius) wrote the Sentinels of Eternity as a short story about aliens giving early humans a helping hand in the use of certain tools.

Oh, almost forgot...they were not metal, I think they were originally crystals.

Joshua

Didn't they have fake Cracker Jacks in the opening?

TV, not a movie - A 1997 episode of Deep Space 9 entitled "In the Cards," written by my friend Michael Piller, featured a Willie Mays card. Mike had a tremendous collection.

Sadly, Mike Piller died in 2005 at age 57. We went to a lot of Dodger games together and traded (what a concept!) cards together. Mike's mom co-wrote the song "Meet the Mets."


http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/In_the_Cards_(episode>)

You know Mr. Pillar? I am a huge Trek Fan. think you could get me his autograph?

Speaking of Star Trek. There are a few other references to Baseball Cards/Mem in Star Trek.

In the Episode of "The Most Toys" (ST:TNG) Kivas fajo a collector had a 1962 Topps Roger Maris baseball card.

Featured prominately in many episodes of Deep Space 9 was an antique baseball on the desk of Station Commander Benjamin Sisko

You mentioned Star Trek, and I suddenly remembered an episode. Wasn't there an episode where some collector of rare items "collected" the character Data since he was a one of a kind. And he was showing off his collection which included what he said was the only example of a Roger Maris rookie card still in existance (1962 Topps).

In an episode where Jeff and Susie's house is burglarized she is reading him the riot act over it and accusing him of not caring until he realizes his baseball cards might have been stolen. Not safe for work due to language. Reference atn the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYNrWKEEzn4

Sic Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc

Thanks Barry - in the final round of the show, I lost when I couldn't list the teams that Nick Van Exel played for in his NBA career, in the proper order.

Fun experience nonetheless....

I can't either...but I think he played for the Lakers and Sacramento. Just a guess.

In the Movie "Memphis Belle" one of the crew members has some playballs

In the movie Needful Things a boy gets gets a 1956 Mickey Mantle from a malevolent guy who may or may not be the devil. Good Stephen King movie if you haven't seen it.

Clint

I always liked the Hobbs card. I had three at one point, just kept the one:

Great thread!

In The Odd Couple II (1998), Oscar Madison (Walter Mathau) presents his childhood baseball card collection to his son Brucie (Jonathan Silverman) as a wedding present. Some of the cards are shown on screen.

My all-time favorite is an episode of The Fugitive called "Nemesis", which aired on Oct. 13, 1964. Portraying the son of intrepid detective Phil Girrard, a very young Kurt Russell hides in a getaway car driven by Dr. Richard Kimble (David Janssen). As Kimble drives down a remote logging road, the kid tries to leave a trail by dropping his Topps football cards out the window. Kimble figures out what's going on, and puts and end to it ... but not before he chastises the kid for tossing out a Johnny Unitas card. In the last scene of the episode, Kimble, safely out of reach of the law, is show putting a Unitas card in an envelope and addressing it to the kid ...

I recall a Leave it to Beaver episode centered around an autographed 1927 Yankees Baseball. Ward has it on a pedestal in his study and he shows it to Beaver telling him some story how Ward's Dad took Ward into the Yankee dugout and got all the signatures. Beaver and Larry are playing catch and lose their baseball or something but bottom line is they need a ball. Larry convinces Beaver to use the Yankee ball. One of the boys misses the ball and it goes into the street and it is run over by a car and ruined or something along those lines. So the boys don't get in trouble they try to forge the autographs on another baseball that they go out and buy.



Not being too familar with the "old time players" and not being able to read the names very well because the ball has been run over, they botch the names and instead of writing Bob Meusel they write like Bobby Musical or something like that. They put the new ball on the pedestal thinking they have gotten away with getting in trouble.



Later on Ward has a friend over and shows him the ball and the friend laughs at the names and tells Ward that is a good joke. Ward confronts Beaver and the lesson for the episode is acted out.

Not a Movie but I recall an show on TV called Hart to Hart starring Robert Wagner that had an episode about his baseball card collection.

Wasn't that the episode where Ward killed the Beaver?

No, that was the episode where June wore a pearl necklace and Lumpy's car broke down.

I beleive in the locker of the Voodoo-worshipping Serrano
there are a half dozen cards hanging from the top shelf. Looks
like a Leaf and maybe a Bowman among them. Cuban players probably
who could hit a curveball.

I can't remember the boy's name in the movie Mask, but he got a '53 Color Bowman PeeWee Reese and I think he then pinned it to his wall. Also, Barry mentioned that George Costanza had some in his office. In the episode "The Muffin Tops", he has a couple of framed T206's and T205's which you can see very well.

Does anyone remember this episode from the later Twilight Zone series?

http://postcardsfromthezone.blogspot.com/2006/08/302-extra-innings.html

Here is a more accurate synopsis of the episode with Ward's baseball:

Ward shows Beaver a baseball he got when he was a kid, signed by Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Gabby Hartnett, Ki Ki Cuyler, et al. Beaver then shows it to Larry Mondello, who suggests to Beaver they should have a catch with it. Larry the wise guy throws the ball over Beaver's head and into the street, where it is run over by a garbage truck.

Larry decides to forge a new ball and they place it on the pedestal in Ward's study, hoping he won't notice. Fred Rutherford comes to visit and Ward shows him his cherished keepsake. But Larry has signed it Baby Ruth and Ki Ki Gehrig, and Fred thinks Ward is pulling a practical joke. And as always happens, the Beaver gets punished.

"The monoliths in 2001: A Space Odyssey are shaped like T206s.



Of interesting note, the word monolith is never said or used in the movie. The word is a creation external to the film"







i never noticed they are like T206's...are you making this up or do others agree?



i think they use "Monolith" in the chapter titles or something like that

Scott, I came up with the T206 monolith comparison. I wasn't being serious, though they are similarly shaped.







The last picture is what it looks like when you smoke the mold from a T206 card.

Somebody had to do it...

By the way, since we're including other baseball memorabilia, in addition to cards, featured in movies and TV, does anyone have a DVD titled "Reel Baseball: 1899-1926"? There's an 18-minute excerpt on it from a 1917 five-reel silent titled One Touch of Nature, which incidentally also features John McGraw (as himself). The clip includes a sequence in which a character is having updates of a crucial ballgame relayed to him by telephone -- and is prominently keeping track of the results on the gameboard from either Major League Base Ball Game or Major League Indoor Base Ball by the Philadelphia Game Mfg. Co.

Baseball Games
http://baseballgames.dreamhosters.com/

Always got a kick out of the boys finding explorers Chester Copperpots belongings and pulling out a Gehrig Card-funny thing was it was from the 78 Topps set......