Cards
TALKING BASEBALL: 1989 Topps/LJN audio player brought baseball cards to life for niche collectors
There is a segment of sports card collectors interested in only one type of item for their collection. It might be items from a single sports or entertainment personality, or one type of card—maybe a card-based game or food insert item.
That segment is known as niche collectors. I believe this is one of the more overlooked segments of the hobby, and one that I’ve become interested in. Niche collections can include different types of cards or unusual items that have become hidden gems.
One unique set of baseball cards that came out in 1989 was aimed at a slightly different hobbyist than your traditional wax pack collector.
BASEBALL TALK CARDS
In 1989, toy company LJN decided to enter the highly competitive sports card arena. By then there were three major “gum” card producers: Topps, Donruss and Fleer. Each company had their own approach and had been around for years.
LJN Toys was a well-established toy company and was already competing with Mattel and Milton Bradley in the hand-held video game arena. But LJN shifted gears and attempted to create a new type of sports card product—talking sports cards.
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While not exactly a new idea, LJN’s approach was innovative. LJN formed a partnership with Topps to not only bring the cards to fruition, but also give them the backing of the most reputable sports card company in the world.
The cards look, for the most part, like traditional sports cards in that they have a photo of the athlete on the front with their stats on the reverse of the card. However, they are considerably larger than traditional sports cards and the same size of a 3-by-5 note card. The reverse also includes a method for allowing collectors to play a short audio clip featuring the athlete pictured on the card.
This was a time before there were such things as MP3 players or RFID chips that could be embedded into a card and merely scanned by a sensor to play the desired recording. LJN opted to take a page from early shopping mall kiosks and create small, flexible records that they could affix to the card and somehow play.
It was a huge leap of faith, but they managed to accomplish the task and affix a small vinyl record to the cards, which were just slightly larger than a quarter. The next hurdle was harder, because they would have to allow playback of the recording on the vinyl record, without the device being too large to be portable.
PLAYER DESIGN
LJN faced a sizable challenge with the design phase of the playback device. They wanted the device to be portable so kids could take it with them wherever they went but easy to handle. The tactic they used was one that another company figured out decades earlier.
Toy manufacturer Kenner released a unique children’s record player in 1967 dubbed the Close ’N Play. It was battery-operated and children could play 45-sized records in the portable record player. They would simply put the record onto the turntable, turn on the device and close the lid. The lid’s underbelly housed a stylus, which sat on the vinyl record and allowed the music to play.
LJN must have liked this solution because they took a similar approach, but this time technology enabled them to make their device even smaller than the old Kenner product. LJN wanted the device to be hand-held, so they opted for a palm-sized device that looked like a Communicator from Star Trek. The playback device was blue and had a clear plastic flip-up lid. On the side was an on/off slide switch and the center of the device looked like an upside-down turntable with its own miniature stylus. Also on the base was an orange slider that unlocked the lid.
It was a compact design that not only allowed for portability but was ergonomic in a kid’s hand. It also had a strap for easy carrying. The Trek fan in me fell in love with the design of the player when I first saw it. What kid wouldn’t want to look like Captain Kirk with a giant communicator in his hand?
The device was developed specifically to work with small vinyl records on the back of each of the 164 Talk Baseball cards. The user would place the card so the record would sit firmly onto the base of the turntable, close the lid, and turn it on. If the card was placed correctly, they would listen to a 2-minute recording featuring Mel Allen speaking with one of the 164 featured players in the set.
SOUND QUALITY
When I tried out the Talk Baseball equipment on the cards I was able to get on eBay, I was shocked how well the audio works on the playback. Aside from the fact that the player I got worked, I was surprised by the volume. LJN omitted a volume control, but that’s a minor omission. The sound quality is nice, given that the records on the cards I have had been sitting around on top of each other for a few decades.
A couple of the cards were old and scratched, thus producing typical skipping or repeating. The cards themselves look great, and it’s interesting to listen to the audio they managed to fit onto a record not much bigger than a quarter.
The only downside is the placement of the adjustment dial for the audio. It’s inconveniently placed on the underside of the unit and needs to be adjusted with a screwdriver. I’m not sure how many kids would walk around with a pocket screwdriver to adjust the sound.
COLLECTIBILITY
If you’re wondering if Baseball Talk cards are easy to collect, the answer depends, like all collecting nowadays, on whether the cards are graded or not. A typical ungraded card could go for less than a dollar in good condition to over $100 for a PSA 10 grade.
With tons of superstars and Hall of Fame players, it’s an interesting set to collect.
The one speedbump you might encounter is obtaining a clean, working playback device. The device takes four AA batteries and if you’ve hit any yard sale over the years, you know that toys from this era and older often have old batteries in them. Those batteries are usually corroded and render the electronics useless. This happened to me with the first LJN Baseball Talk player I obtained. I tried to clean the connections, but it was a lost cause. I wound up getting another one on eBay that one was in perfect condition.
LJN had set its sights on also producing a set of Football Talk cards. It produced a small run of test cards which were limited in the Midwest. There were apparently two different blaster packs featuring six players and two cards featuring the last NFL Championship game as well as the first Super Bowl.
I don’t believe the football set received the interest the Baseball Talk cards initially did. The Football Talk cards were never mass-produced and only a small number are still around—if you can find them.
FINAL ANALYSIS
I don’t believe LJN had enough market interest in the Baseball Talk cards to proceed with a second year of cards. This set was basically a one-and-done type of set, but it was an ambitious set that found a unique niche.
I think if a company like LJN approached this type of product today, there would be far more options. Hallmark designs Christmas ornaments of the fabled Peanuts gang with RFID chips in the bottom so the player could simply read them when the ornaments are placed onto it. Could Topps and another company do likewise with another type of device?
LJN gave us a unique set of baseball cards, and while it may not have been the hit they hoped for, they’re still fun to listen to today.
