1971 Topps Floyd Wicker Has Lipstick on Its Collar

Did you know the 1971 Topps Floyd Wicker baseball card is the (old) cardboard equivalent of a modern web browser?

Sounds ridiculous, but …

Have you ever been searching online for, let’s say, a gift for your significant other and then carefully cover your tracks afterward? You close down your browser … maybe even clear your browsing history.

But there’s always something that seems to trip you up.

You forgot to empty your Amazon wish list, and you share that account with said potential gift-receiver.

Or, more insidious, ads for the stuff you were searching for start showing up on websites you visit … and the websites your SO visits because, you know, same IP address, and all.

(It’s coming from inside the house!)

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Well, the 1971 Topps Floyd Wicker is like that.

Wicker first appeared in a few games for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1968, then a few more for the Montreal Expos in 1969 after they snatched him in the Rule 5 draft.

Topps thought enough of the young outfielder to include him as one half of the Expos Rookie Stars Card (#524), right alongside Coco Laboy.

But the ‘Spos traded Wicker after the 1969 season to their expansion brothers, the Seattle Pilots, who had moved on to become the Milwaukee Brewers.

Wicker managed 42 plate appearances for the Brewers in 1970 and, though Topps skipped him in that year’s set, they brought him back in their 1971 black-bordered love-it-or-hate-it affair.

There, he appears on card #97.

With no hat.

Now, you might think Topps had trouble getting photos of the Brewers’ new togs for that early series, since those unis and caps didn’t even exist before 1970 (except as Pilots threads, that is).

But Phil Roof, at #22, argues otherwise …

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And then, well, there is that blue tire/collar thing around Wicker’s neck. You won’t find that on many 1971 Topps Brewers cards, but it does make an appearance elsewhere in Topps cards of the era, like this 1970 Mack Jones:

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Oh, and also on that rookie card of Wicker’s …

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So, by the time Milwaukee traded Wicker to San Francisco in June of 1971 for what would be his last hurrah in the Major Leagues, you have to figure there was some young fan out there watching him take cuts in a Giants uniform while sorting him into the “Brewers” card pile and wondering why he was wearing an Expos uniform.

Eat your heart out, Joel Youngblood!

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Wow! Wax of the Day … It’s a Wrap!

If the black borders and capless treatment Topps thrust upon Wicker up there isn’t enough to put you in a proper 1971 sort of mood, maybe this 1971 Topps wrapper will do it.

The colors and artwork are perfect slices of the period, and wax paper, promise of bubble gum, and Topps logo are sure to make any old-time collector’s heart pound harder. Heck, you even get an ad for Bubble Gum Shake! Yummy, huh?

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