Joke is on Jeter!

President and Mantle pop up on Topps' gag baseball card

BY ANTHONY McCARRON

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Topps takes a swing at comedy with its Derek Jeter card, digitally adding President Bush and Mickey Mantle.

It's hard to Topps this one: The card company has issued a Derek Jeter baseball card with a smiling President Bush in the stands.
But there's something very wrong with that picture: Bush wasn't really at the game that day.

A not-so-careful analysis of the card makes it clear that Bush was digitally superimposed - his right arm extended in a waving motion and his left arm seemingly missing.

The mischievous elves at Topps then played another version of Where's Waldo - sticking a picture of Mickey Mantle in the dugout.

The Mick is depicted in uniform, holding a bat as though he were back from the dead and preparing to pinch hit.

"Somewhere in between the final proofing and its printing, someone at our company - and we won't name names - thought it would be funny to put in Bush and Mantle," said Clay Luraschi, a spokesman for Topps.

When the cards were proofread, Luraschi said, "We couldn't do anything but laugh.

"Okay, it's in the set and it's funny," Luraschi conceded. "It's caused quite a stir."

Jeter's card, No. 40 in the set, instantly becomes part of the card-collecting hobby's "long tradition of silly little error cards or odd prints that have taken on a lot of mileage in hobby lore," said T.S. O'Connell, the editor of Sports Collector's Digest, a 33-year-old weekly publication.

"For collectors, there's a real giggle factor for something like that," O'Connell said.

It's possible the Jeter card could join cards such as the 1969 Topps Aurelio Rodriguez, which features a photo of a bat boy instead of the Angels infielder, and the 1989 Fleer Billy Ripken, which showed Cal Ripken's little brother holding a bat that had an obscenity scrawled on the handle, as hobby icons.

Of course, as O'Connell says, printing the wacky card is also "benign guerrilla marketing, however it was done, accident or otherwise."

Alex Gregg, owner of Alex's MVP Cards on the upper East Side, said the images of Bush and Mantle could slightly bump up the value of the Jeter card; the card's currently going for about $2 on eBay.

If a collector got both Jeter and Bush to autograph the card, it could send the value skyrocketing, Gregg said.

"It could be worth $500. Who knows?" Gregg said.

While the card has made news in the card collectors' world, Jeter is apparently in the dark.

Asked about the card, Jeter said, "Oh yeah? I haven't heard anything about it. I have no idea."

Luraschi said Topps hasn't heard anything from the Bush administration about the card - even though using the likeness of Bush for a commercial enterprise requires the White House's permission.

A White House spokesman would only say, "I'll decline to comment at this point."

It's unclear whether the card will ever be corrected - Luraschi said a decision hasn't been made whether to erase Bush and Mantle in the cards that will be sold as part of complete sets.

"I'm not sure George has seen the card," Luraschi said. "I'd be happy to send him a box."


With Mark Feinsand and Bill Hutchinson

Oh, my, Capt.!

Derek's joke card sells for $370,
day after it's worth $2

BY JONATHAN LEMIRE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Jeter's gag card has collectors smiling.

Here's a Derek Jeter error that's actually worth treasuring - for now.
The Yankee captain's unusual 2007 Topps baseball card, which features digitally superimposed images of President Bush and Mickey Mantle, skyrocketed in price yesterday after it appeared on the cover of the Daily News.

The card, which could have been had for just $2 earlier this week, sold for as much as $370 late yesterday on eBay, with some sellers specifically touting, "as seen on the cover of the Daily News."

"I knew the stock market went down today and it might not be a bad time to consider investing in baseball cards," said Craig Pellis, 43, who purchased a card on the Internet auction site for $250. "It was like lightning hit me - I simply had to have it."

"It's been about 20 years since I've collected baseball cards," continued Pellis, who runs a catering business in Mount Kisco, Westchester County, "but maybe this one puts my 5-year-old through college."

But baseball card experts warned the Jeter card's value could be fleeting.

"In a week's time, the value fell from $20 to $6 and then went up to several hundred dollars after the mainstream media attention," said Brian Fleischer, editor of the Beckett Baseball Price Guide.

"We estimate that there could be close to 100,000 of these cards out there, so it simply won't be scarce enough to stay expensive," Fleischer said. "It's going to be near impossible for the cards to keep this value."

Topps has said that the card - which comes in five differently colored versions - would not be recalled, though it would be corrected when the complete 2007 set is issued over the summer.

The card depicts Jeter at the plate at Yankee Stadium with Joe Torre, Jorge Posada and the late Mickey Mantle looking on from the Yankees dugout. The Mick is in full uniform, holding a bat in his hand as if he was set to pinch-hit for Alex Rodriguez.

But perhaps even more jarring is the presence of the commander in chief watching from the stands, even though Bush was not in the Bronx that day.

"The pictures were added as sort of a last-minute joke and we decided that, you know, baseball cards are meant to be fun, so let's keep them in," said Clay Luraschi, a Topps spokesman, who added that a Yankees fan came up with the prank.

Luraschi said Topps had a longstanding agreement with the Mantle estate to use the image of the Yankees legend, which a spokesman for the Mick's family confirmed yesterday.

Though the card company has no official agreement with the White House to use Bush's likeness, an administration official said that no action will be taken against Topps.

Originally published on February 28, 2007