Front Design: The color photos have a thin black border. The player's name and position are beneath the photo in a yellow band; the cards have white borders.
Back Design: A wavy design holds the card number at the top and a TCMA advertisement at the bottom. The player's name, biographical information, and prior year statistics usually fill the remaining space. The backs are printed in black ink only.Parallels and Similars: All 1979 TCMA minor league sets have the same issue. This card is most likely a TCMA reprint inserted into a collectors set in the 1980s; the only distinction for this issue may be lower-quality printing on this reprint.
Distribution: Complete team sets were sold through TCMA, dealers, and the Tugs.
Thoughts: One of the best names for a baseball team didn't last for too long. They were the Tugs for only one year, between several names based on their associations (Giants, Cubs, Yankees, Twins, and Tigers); they're now known as the Rainiers and are affiliated with the Mariners. The logo wasn't too impressive - the T has an anchor laid over it - which may have hurt the marketing. Granted, 1979 wasn't a good year to market a minor league team, as they were viewed as afterthoughts for small towns that weren't good enough for a major league team.
Additional Links: Matthew has the #5 card from this set, where you can see the darker, bolder inks on an original printing, over at Number 5 Type Collection.
No comments:
Post a Comment