What a card: This is the first card of Howard Johnson issued by Topps. He appeared on both Donruss and Fleer cards in 1983. By the time this card hit store shelves, Johnson had been traded to the Mets.
My observation on the front: I love home run trot photos. There needs to be more of them on cards.
More opinion from me: Like many baseball fans of the early 1980s, I found Howard Johnson's arrival onto the MLB scene amusing because his name matched that of the restaurant chain. Growing up as a kid, Howard Johnson's restaurant was as prevalent as McDonald's, so to hear "HoJo" refer to something else was a total kick.
Nowadays, I couldn't tell you where to find a Howard Johnson's restaurant and there are probably a lot of people who are too young to have heard of Howard Johnson the player, too. And suddenly, I'm sad.
Something you might know: Johnson set a record for the most home runs by a National League switch-hitter when he slammed 36 in 1987. Todd Hundley later broke the record.
Something you might not know: When Johnson was a kid, his family would go to Howard Johnson's restaurant every Sunday after church. He would always get a free ice cream cone because of his name, which was actually a tribute to his grandfather.
My observation on the back: The Phillies still hold the MLB record for the most losses, except now it is 10,421 as of this writing.
The blog wants to speak now: The Ballgames tab is updated. Baseball played its All-Star Game for the first time on my birthday.
1. The 1985 Howard Johnson is the first Topps card I remember having from that year's set
ReplyDelete2. There used to be a Howard Johnson restaurant right down the road from here. It is now a crappy chinese joint and they painted the roof blue. Every once in a while, one of the tiles will blow off and you can see the orange underneath.
3. I have an irrational love of Howard Johnson the player and no one will every change my mind about that. Hojo forevah!