How many times have you heard someone say, “Hey, life doesn’t come with an instruction manual?” Well, imagine my surprise when I actually found one last week! And not just any instruction manual but one with a vintage baseball card theme!
I’m referring of course to “The 1954 Topps Guide to Life: Beating the Odds, Getting the Girl, and Making the Team.” (Order here.)
As advertised the book was filled with great advice for ball-playing youngsters, and—even better—illustrated the various tips with baseball cards from the 1954 Topps set.
According to the book, 27 of the 250 cards in the 1954 Topps set have cartoons about players bouncing back from tough injuries. These cards offer a lesson in resilience.
Closely related to bouncing back from injury is bouncing back from failure. The trick, the book suggests, is to have a backup plan.
Though some of it might feel old fashioned to the modern reader, the book also offered advice on love and marriage.
There were also tips on dealing with rejection, which was the theme of six cards in the set.
Fittingly for a book that centered around advice, there is a section on accepting help from others.
Building a positive work ethic was the focus of 11 cards in the 1954 Topps set.
Coming off two recent wars there was of course a chapter on our men in uniform.
Alright, by now you’ve probably figured out there is no book. At the same time, there could have been. The 1954 Topps set was one where nearly every card seemed to moralize, educate, or motivate. Just do what your baseball cards tell you, son, and you’ll turn out just fine.
Oh, wait a minute. A reader has just stopped by, and he doesn’t look happy.
“Not a real book?!?!? NOT A REAL BOOK?!? Are you freaking kidding me, Jason?”
“Hey now, take it easy. It was all in good fun here. Put the bat down. No need for this to escalate…uh oh…this is getting serious. Okay, think, Jason, think. WWPMD? What would Paul Minner do?
SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee 
If only I had collected 50s era cards as a youth, I would have avoided going to reform school! I should have measured rugs like Mickey Micelotta!
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I can thank my LAPD Dodgers cards of the early 80s for teaching me to stay in school, say no to drugs, and put down the can of spray paint.
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Dang, I’m still trying to figure out the “getting the girl” part….
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Yeah, that one took me a really, really long time!
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Interesting…verrry interesting. But seriously, a terrific creative opus.
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Thanks, Paul. From time to time I try to stretch myself on these.
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“Like Dick Cole, I, too, am so glad I finally listened to my doctor, took his advice and got glasses. Once I did, instead of trying to hit a blur, I see the ball clearly when I swing and miss.” —V.E.
PS: To Tim Jenkins, who previously posted (May 22, 2019 at 3:35 pm): “If only I had collected 50s era cards as a youth, I would have avoided going to reform school! I should have measured rugs like Mickey Micelotta!”
Tim,
I’m not quite sure : Are you implying, as I infer, that it is your opinion that if you had collected 50s era cards as a youth, then you would have avoided going to reform school? Or are you suggesting that had reform school looked out for you, as they should have, that you could have been a Contender?
Tim: With all due respect, since I don’t know you: Really? Do you really believe that!?! Considering that your “long-off season was a recipe for falling into bad habits” you know reform school was inevitable. If I may suggest, I think it it is Far Better that you listen to Jim Willis and take his good advice to bide your time by being industrious, which, in your case, if you are sincere in your regrets re: the road not taken, you can bide by measuring rugs. Maybe if Mickey ain’t using his measuring tape, the one he sometimes feels sad about putting away, he will lend it to you.
However, I do agree with your contention that you obviously are a victim of the callous “System”, which by turning reform schools into warehousers rather than rehabilitaters, failed their stated mission “of turning young boys into grown men” by among other things, teaching a marketable skill, like Brother Mathias, having sensed the Truth: Mickey ain’t next Babe Ruth, must have tried to do for his young charge, Master Micelotta, before “They” changed administration policy.
On the other hand, if rehab really worked, Mickey Micelotta would not sometimes feel sad. If Master Micelotta listened to Brother Mathias’ good advice he would have grown into Mr. Micelotta. Mickey had to learn the hard way ’twas Far Better for him had put away his “his Childish thoughts,”instead of his tape measure and, “thinking like a man” “Be Happy in His Work” of measuring rugs.
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Reblogged this on jasoncards.
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OMG, you Rickroll’d us! 🙂
Unfortunately, the only wisdom that took hold as a youngster collecting cards of all kind was the phrase “Collect the entire set.” Kinda explains why my office and garage are overrun with boxes of cards . . .
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YES!! But hey, the song still holds up after all these years. And you’re in good company. I took the wrong advice also!
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