Saturday, February 19, 2011

Alan Trammell #5 (the First Baseball card to ever mention a players contract amount?)

I never realized it before but the 1982 Diamond King cards look a little bit like a fore runner to Topps Allen Ginter sets which would come more than 20 years later. Of course, the Diamond King cards could have been an ode to the 19th century Allen Ginter cards. Even though the Tigers uniform does not stand out on this card it still retains a vibrant look almost 30 years later compared to todays cards.

Back Facts: In 1980 the Tigers signed him to a seven year $2.8 million contract, the longest in the club's history. As I mentioned before I believe the 1982 Donruss set was the first to discuss the contract status of the players on the back of the card (which kind of makes sense since 1981 was the year of the first big strike in Professional Sports).  I believe this card is the first to ever give a contract amount that a player signed for ($2.8 million). Does anyone know of an earlier baseball card that mentions how much money a player signed for. (I think one of the Topps Football cards could have mention Joe Namath's $400,000 contract but I am not sure).

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