Thursday, April 22, 2021

Baseball card stories from photographer Dan Arnold

 Dan Arnold was a photographer for Fleer for almost 20 years. He kindly answered my questions about baseball cards.

"I was a contract photographer for Fleer from 1986 until 2005 and for Photo File from 2005 till 2015. I shot at least 10,000 MLB and NFL cards during my time with Fleer. The players were not all that interested in their own cards, with a few exceptions. The players were very interested in the baseball cards that showed their children. I am sending 2 examples of this. One is from Beckett, the other is a compilation. 

The 1996 Ultra card of Albert Belle is right before he threw the baseball at us. One throw hit Tony Tomsic who was standing next to me. Belle got suspended for that one and lost a law suit. The Casey card shows one of the nicest guys I ever encountered, the Belle card shows the opposite.
I do collect baseball cards still. I just completed the 1968 Topps set and Reds team sets from 1954-2021. My son and I also collect the new Topps cards when we can find them.

My favorite card is my oldest that I collected from the factory. A 1961 Topps card of Gus Bell."

Thanks!











3 comments:

  1. That was fantastic, great little tidbit about Belle.

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  2. I would've liked to have seen a much a longer interview with this guy.

    ReplyDelete