As soon as I finished reading, my mind wandered, naturally, to the Cubs. How did their team numbers stack up? Has Topps been doing a better job for the Cubs too?
Of course I had to find out, so I was off to my Topps binders.
Before I share the results, I had some questions running through my head...
...Would the Dodgers have more cards in their sets because they were originally a New York team?
...or Would there be more Dodgers because they had better teams (and better players).
...was there an increase or decrease in the number of Cubs based on the previous season's wins and losses?
So here's what I found. For comparison, Night Owl's Dodger numbers are in parentheses
1952: 28 (33)
1953: 13 (21)
1954: 11 (16)
1955: 12 (18)
1956: 21 (24)
1957: 25 (26)
1958: 29 (28)
1959: 39 (35)
Average Number 22.25 (25.13)
The Cubs beat the Dodgers in just on year, 1959. The Cubs number was goosed by several extra Ernie Banks cards and some rookie cards. Bad teams have lots of rookies. There were, on average, three fewer Cubs cards than Dodgers. The Dodgers also won several pennants and two titles while the Cubs finished no higher than fifth. Honestly, I thought the card gap between the two teams would have been higher.
1960s
1960: 33 (37)
1961: 31 (28)
1962: 24 (27)
1963: 27 (24)
1964: 28 (31)
1965: 29 (29)
1966: 27 (27)
1967: 28 (29)
1968: 31 (27)
1969: 26 (24)
Average: 28.20 (28.3)
There were bigger numbers early on and then things settled in the 27-29 range for a while. There was a bump in 1968 but then a decrease in 1969 (due to four additional teams). For the decade the number of Cubs and Dodgers was nearly identical. Was Topps making a conscious effort to keep the cards fairly evenly distributed among the teams?
1970s
1970: 28 (27)
1971: 30 (24)
1972: 32 (31)
1973: 25 (23)
1974: 28 (26)
1975: 27 (26)
1976: 23 (27)
1977: 25 (23)
1978: 29 (27)
1979: 28 (29)
Average: 27.50 (26.3)
This decade was a shocker. The Dodgers won three pennants but there were more Cubs cards. How the heck does that happen? FYI, the 1972 numbers saw a jump because of the In Action and Traded cards. That added five additional Cubs.
1980s
1980: 26 (28)
1981: 27 (28)
1982: 28 (32)
1983: 27 (25)
1984: 26 (28)
1985: 33 (27)
1986: 28 (31)
1987: 28 (31)
1988: 31 (30)
1989: 35 (26)
Average: 28.90 (28.6)
Another Cub victory over the Dodgers? I wonder if I'm counting the cards in a different way than Night Owl? The biggest head-scratcher is 1989. The Dodgers were coming off of a World Series title and the Cubs had nine more cards? How is that possible?
1990s
1990: 31 (29)
1991: 33 (32)
1992: 27 (29)
1993: 28 (29)
1994: 30 (27)
1995: 21 (25)
1996: 15 (15)
1997: 13 (21)
1998: 15 (17)
1999: 18 (19)
Average: 23.10 (24.3)
This decade goes to the Dodgers. Notice the big drop starting in 1995, as the strike of '94 caused the card market to bottom out and production was scaled back.
2000s
2000: 14 (15)
2001: 20 (23)
2002: 27 (22)
2003: 24 (26)
2004: 30 (25)
2005: 27 (23)
2006: 25 (16)
2007: 18 (22)
2008: 21 (22)
2009: 20 (24)
Average: 22.60 (21.8)
Both teams won three division titles during this decade, but the Cubs ended up with almost one card more per season. I really don't get it. The Cubs biggest jump was the 2004 season, which makes sense after the near-miss of 2003. The good teams at the end of the decade didn't do much for their card numbers, though.
2010s
2010: 24 (21)
2011: 24 (18)
2012: 24 (20)
2013: 19 (22)
2014: 21 (25)
2015: 19 (22)
2016: 21 (28)
2017: 26 (28)
Average: 22.00 (23.0)
The Dodgers topped the Cubs despite a World Series title. The rebuild years in the early part of the decade really took a toll on the Cubs numbers.
So back to my questions...
The Dodgers numbers didn't dwarf the Cubs like I thought they would. Except for the '50s, the two teams were usually within a card of each other each decade.
Did good seasons equal more cards the next year?
Usually.
Cubs won the division in 1984 and the next year there were 7 fewer cards.
Cubs won the division in 1989 and the next year there were 4 fewer cards.
Cubs won the division in 2003 and the next year there were 6 more cards.
Cubs won the division in 2007 and the next year there were 3 more cards.
Cubs won the division in 2008 and the next year there was 1 less card.
Cubs won the division in 2016 and the next year there were 5 more cards.
Thanks for all your work on the research!
ReplyDeleteI really can't see a patter here. It would be interesting to get an inside opinion from Topps.
Interesting, I personally thought Sosa's peak years would have given the Cubs a bit of a bump, due purely to the Cubs being in the national spotlight. That doesn't seem to be the case.
ReplyDeleteIf you just counted the Cubs base cards (along with any subsets that included current players) then you counted the same way I did.
ReplyDeleteI think the total is based more on whether Topps could get the player's photo more than anything. There's some correlation with winning record, but it's limited to certain years (1950s and recently, primarily)
As a numbers and compare/contrast geek, I love this. Thanks!
ReplyDelete