Monday, March 22, 2021

Cardboard Cousins: 2001 Upper Deck Vintage/1963 Topps

 For a few years in the early 2000s Upper Deck put out a "Vintage" set that was a blatant rip-off of vintage Topps designs. The first one, in 2001, used the 1963 design. 

#109 has two outfielders who started their career with the Braves and ended it with the White Sox, and whose career high in doubles was 44 (Maye led the NL with that total in 1964).

I didn't know anything about Lee Maye until I started researching this post. Maye was uniquely talented as not just a baseball player but as a singer. His Topps card only hints at his accomplishments:
Before he had reached the major leagues, Maye had reached musical success as lead singer of Arthur Lee Maye and the Crowns, who had several local hits in the Los Angeles area, and as a backup to other singers, most notably as one of the back-up singers on the original recording of "Louie Louie". Playing baseball six months out of the year prevented him from having a truly successful recording career, but the chance to travel to major league cities helped in other ways, including performing at the Apollo Theater in New York, which he called one of his "biggest moments". You can read more about his singing and baseball careers on the Spectropop website.


3 comments:

  1. I've started to appreciate the 1963 the more I've seen it.

    Cool info on Lee Maye!

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  2. I read about Maye's singing career somewhere in the last few years, and have been setting aside his cards ever since -- although I'm not officially collecting him, yet!

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  3. Maye's recordings are really, really good. If you like doo-wop and early rock and roll, check them out.

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