Some vintage paper

Got some card related items for you today.  Not standard cards exactly, these are 1979 Topps Comic cards!  I've seen these called 'Comic Test' cards before, but I don't really know their history, or anything about them.  But they are all mine!

These 'cards' are really just thin pieces of wax coated paper.  Pretty flimsy, but not so bad that they will fall apart.

They feature drawings of the player in both an action shot and a head shot.  I'm not sure about the artist, because some of the drawings are a little off.  There is also a blurb about the player and an 'Inside Baseball' section that highlights a baseball rule.  Let's learn together!

First up is Rod Carew.  One of my childhood favorites.  7 batting titles in his first 12 years in the big leagues, totally amazing.  The action shot of Carew isn't bad, but not exactly good either.  Couldn't get the lips right, I guess. I love the head shot though, that's how I remember Rod!

The baseball rule on this card talks about catchers interference.  Riveting stuff.

Steady Eddie Murray!  Another favorite.  I love Murray cards where there is a lot of orange on the card.  Any of those you got, send my way.  The art is decent on this one.

Did you know that in baseball, the batter must stand with both feet within the batters box?  I'm thinking that I could have had a future as a major league ump if I had gotten ahold of these when I was younger. Unfortunately, I only got as far as a travel ball ump.

The Ryan Express is next up.  Both the action shot and head shot here look a little suspect.  Like the artist was working from memory and had only seen Nolan once or twice.  Close, but no cigar.  I love it when old cards talk about accomplishments that the player far surpassed later in their career.  4 No-hitters?  Pshaw, I bet he can get at least one more.  Wait, three more???  Wow!

Also, the grammar checker failed a little on this one.  "Nolan tied record"  That "the" would have totally thrown off the balance of the card!!  

Since this card talks about the balk rule, I decided to look up how many balks Ryan had in his career.  Any guesses?  33 balks!!  I think I might do a balk related post soon.  Bet you all can't wait for that!!

Last up, the Yaz!  Carl was getting old in the late 70's, and it shows in the art.  Kind of looks like my grandpa.  That 1967 year was an all time classic for Yaz.

And his baseball rule is the infield fly.  I have talked to a lot of people who don't understand the infield fly, but I had to really learn it to become an umpire for baseball and softball.  Doesn't come into play often.  And I read an interesting article arguing that we should get rid of the infield fly rule.  But it didn't persuade me, I like the rule.

So there you have it, 4 comic test cards. But the thing is, I actually have two copies of one of them.  So if you are interested, leave your guess in the comments saying which one you think I have doubles of.  First one to get it correct (one guess per commenter!), I will PWE the extra to you.