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Topps debuts 2024 Bowman Draft John Elway baseball card with clever ad campaign
When Topps released its 2023 Bowman Draft set last year, it featured the first baseball card of NFL legend Tom Brady, who was drafted by the Montreal Expos in 1995.
The cards quickly sold for big dollars, with a 1/1 Brady Superfractor selling for $158,600 at Goldin. Other Bowman Brady Superfractors sold for five figures on eBay and other online marketplaces.
Now Topps is releasing a baseball card of another NFL legend with a 2024 Bowman Draft card of Denver Broncos star and Pro Football Hall of Famer John Elway.
Elway was drafted in the second round of the 1981 MLB Draft by the New York Yankees, six picks ahead of Baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn. He played one season in the minor leagues before turning to football. Elway actually has a 1982 minor league baseball card produced by card company TCMA.
Topps kicked off the Bowman campaign on Dec. 4 with a creative video, much like the popular video it produced last year for the debut of Brady’s Bowman card.
The ad, produced by Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, features famous comedian, actor, producer and “Seinfeld” creator Larry David as the voice of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. Entitled “It’s Gotta Be Elway!” the 90-second ad imagines the “Great Baseball What Ifs?”—similar to Topps’ Brady campaign last year.
The ad opens with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith asking Elway about the MLB Draft more than 40 years ago and how he was picked ahead of Gwynn.
“From my understanding, it was all Steinbrenner,” Elway says.
The ad then flashes back to the Yankees assistant general manager arguing with Steinbrenner about Gwynn, who also played college basketball.
“The basketball player?!” David/Steinbrenner says. “I don’t think so … it’s gotta be Elway! I want him out in right field with that cannon of an arm!”
As the GM continues to argue for Gwynn, Steinbrenner says he can see kids lining up for Elway’s baseball card, his name in lights at Yankee Stadium, and on the side of a car dealership.
“I’ve always told you the importance of a good name,” Steinbrenner says. “DiMaggio, Mantle, Ruth. It’s got to be Elway. Make the pick.”
As the Yankees make the decision to draft Elway, an alarm goes off and Elway reappears on his living room coach, with his Bowman Chrome autographed card next to the snooze button. The tagline reads: “What might have been could be yours.”
The ad has a couple of more fun references to “Seinfeld.” When the GM brings up former Mets’ star Keith Hernandez, who had a famous cameo on the hit TV show, Steinbrenner says, “I don’t like that big mustache.”
And at the end of the commercial, Steinbrenner yells “Calzone time!”—a reference to “Seinfeld,” where assistant to the traveling secretary George Costanza gets the owner addicted to eggplant calzones.
Jeff Owens is the editor of SCD.
