Editing Topps (section)

==Card design==
Although Topps did not invent the concept of baseball cards, its dominance in the field basically allowed the company to define people's expectations of what a baseball card would look like. In addition to establishing a standard size, Topps developed various design elements that are considered typical of baseball cards. Some of these were the company's own innovations, such as the [[1971 Topps Card Set|1971 Football Set]], while some were ideas borrowed from others that Topps helped popularize.

===Use of statistics===
One of the features that contributed significantly to Topps's success beginning with the 1952 set was providing player statistics. At the time, complete and reliable [[baseball statistics]] for all players were not widely available, so Topps actually compiled the information itself from published [[box score (baseball)|box scores]]. While baseball cards themselves had been around for years, including statistics was a relative novelty that fascinated many collectors. Those who played with baseball cards could study the numbers and use them as the basis for comparing players, trading cards with friends, or playing imaginary baseball games. It also had some pedagogical benefit by encouraging youngsters to take an interest in the underlying [[mathematics]].

The cards originally had one line for statistics from the most recent year (i.e. the 1951 season for cards in the 1952 set) and another with the player's lifetime totals. Bowman promptly imitated this by putting statistics on its own cards where it had previously only had biographical information. For the first time in 1957, Topps put full year-by-year statistics for the player's entire career on the back of the card. Over the next few years, Topps alternated between this format and merely showing the past season plus career totals. The practice of showing complete career statistics became permanent in 1963, except for one year, 1971, when Topps sacrificed the full statistics in order to put a player photo on the back of the card as well.

===Artwork and photography===
Although the 1971 set was an aborted experiment in terms of putting photos on card backs (they would not return until 1992), that year was also a landmark in terms of baseball card photography, as Topps for the first time included cards showing color photographs from actual games. The cards themselves had been in color from the beginning, though for the first few years this was done by using artist's portraits of players rather than actual photographs and until 1971, Topps used mostly portrait or posed shots. The 1971 set is also known for its jet black borders, which because they chip so easily, makes it much more difficult to find top grade cards for 1971. The black borders would return for Topps's 1985 football set and 2007 baseball set.

After starting out with simple portraits, in 1954 Topps put two pictures on the front of the card – a hand-tinted 'color' close-up photo of the player's head, and the other a black-and-white full-length pose.  The same basic format was used in 1955, this time with the full-length photo also hand-tinted. For 1956, the close-up tinted photo was placed against a tinted full-background 'game-action' photo of the player.  The close-up head shots of some individual players were reused each year.

From 1957 on, virtually all cards were posed photographs, either as a head shot or together with a typical piece of equipment like a [[baseball bat|bat]] or [[baseball glove|glove]]. If using such a prop, the player might pose in a position as if he were in the act of [[batting (baseball)|batting]], [[pitch (baseball)|pitching]], or fielding.  Photographs did not appear in sharp focus and natural color until 1962. However, that year also saw problems with the print quality in the second series, which lacked the right proportion of [[ink]] and thus gave the photographs a distinctly greenish tint. The affected series of cards was then reprinted, and several players were actually shown in different poses in the reprinting. Although Topps had produced [[error card]]s and variations before, this was its largest single production glitch.

In the absence of full-color action photography, Topps still occasionally used artwork to depict action on a handful of cards. Starting in 1960 a few cards showed true game action, but the photographs were either in [[black-and-white]] or hand-tinted color; these cards were primarily highlights from the [[World Series]]. In addition to basic cards of individual players, Topps sets commonly include cards for special themes, the 1974 tribute to [[Hank Aaron]] as he was about to break [[Babe Ruth]]'s career home run record being one example. The 1972 set finally included color photographs, which were used for special "In Action" cards of selected star players. Thereafter, Topps began simply mixing game photography with posed shots in its sets.

Baseball artist [[Dick Perez]] was commissioned to paint art cards for Topps beginning in 2006. His art card series include Turkey Red and [[Allen & Ginter]].

When used for the cards of individual players, some of the early action photography had awkward results. The photos were sometimes out of focus or included several players, making it difficult to pick out the player who was supposed to be featured on the card. In a few cases, a misidentification meant that the player didn't even appear in the picture. These problems diminished as Topps's selection of photographs gradually improved.

Before statistics, biographical information, and commentary became the dominant element on the backs of cards, Topps also featured artwork there. This primarily involved using various types of cartoons drawn by its stable of artists. These appeared on card backs as late as 1982, but gradually declined in the prominence of their placement and the proportion of cards on which they appeared. In 1993, Topps finally managed again to incorporate a player photo on the back as well as the front of the card, after some competitors had been doing so for a number of years.

===Coping with updated developments===
The pictures and information on baseball cards sold during one season came primarily from earlier seasons, so Topps used various tactics to give its cards a greater sense of staying current with the times. Before coming up with the idea of a "Traded" set, the company still tried to produce cards of players with their new team if they changed teams in the offseason. This was sometimes accomplished by showing the player without any team cap, or by [[airbrush]]ing out elements of the former team's logo on his uniform. Cards for rookies could also be prepared by airbrushing over their minor-league uniforms in photos.

In one case, Topps even got too far in front of events, as in 1974 it showed a number of players as being with the "Washington Nat'l Lea." franchise, due to expectations that the [[San Diego Padres]] would relocate to the vacant Washington, D.C., market. The team designation was the only change, as no new nickname for the franchise had been selected. When the move failed to materialize, Topps had to replace these with cards showing the players still as Padres.

On rare occasions, Topps has issued special cards for players who had either died or had been injured.  The 1959 set had card 550 as "Symbol Of Courage – [[Roy Campanella]]", with a color photo of the paralyzed former Dodger in his wheelchair and a [[black-and-white]] photo of him in uniform inserted to the upper left. The 1964 set issued cards for two recently deceased players: [[Ken Hubbs]] of the Cubs with a different "In Memoriam" front design compared to standard cards, and Colts pitcher [[Jim Umbricht]]'s regular card with a special note on the back about his April 1964 death from cancer.  In October 2006, Topps was prepping for its annual updated/traded card release, which featured [[Cory Lidle]] in a Yankees uniform.  After Lidle's tragic death, the cards were pulled and subsequently released with "In Memoriam" on its front.