Baseball Talk was a set of 164 "talking" baseball cards that were released by Topps and the LJN Corporation during the spring of 1989. Each card featured a plastic disk affixed to the back of an oversized baseball card. When placed in the SportsTalk player the cards would play two to three minutes of recorded audio.[1] The player retailed for $24.99 and was labeled for ages six and up. It required four AA alkaline batteries to operate.[2]
The cards featured most of the better known players in baseball in 1988 and were sold in toy stores throughout the United States and Canada during 1989 Major League Baseball season. LJN and Topps planned to debut talking NFL and NBA cards (it stated in print advertising "Coming Soon - NFL Football and NBA Basketball Talking Cards), but those plans, along with follow-up MLB editions, were canceled as the card players often broke or played with poor audio quality.[3] Stores were flooded with returned boxes of Baseball Talk and by the fall of 1989 many of the cards and players could be found in discount bins at places like Toys R Us and Target. At one point, packs of cards that had been priced at $4 a piece were selling for as low as 50 cents by stores that were eager to move a failed product.
The SportsTalk player was sold with four cards (a checklist card that served as an introduction to the series, a Hank Aaron card, and the cards of 1988 stars Don Mattingly and Orel Hershiser). Additional cards were sold with four to a pack and were labeled in a manner that let the buyer know what cards were inside. Mel Allen narrated eight cards that featured highlights from historic games as well as 33 cards of former stars such as Babe Ruth and Duke Snider. Hall of Fame legends like Ted Williams, Sandy Koufax, Warren Spahn, Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio and Bob Feller were omitted from the set as they did not agree to take part.[4]
Don Drysdale interviewed the players of the National League for their cards and Joe Torre did the same for the American League players. Many of the cards featured amusing or humorous anecdotes, such as Mike Flanagan recounting how his Japanese baseball glove manufacturer (Mizuno) spelled his name "Mike Franagan" and that the company's executives told him, "Mr. Franagan, we're very grad you use our grub."
Because the cards and players were on the market for a short period of time and that many of the players did not work well, a complete set and a working player sells for a Beckett book value of $250–300 (Beckett 2008 Almanac).
Each team was represented by at least three players except for the 1988 Baltimore Orioles, who had two (Cal Ripken Jr. and Eddie Murray.) It is possible that the late season trade of Fred Lynn from Baltimore to Detroit did not allow time to find a third Oriole. The New York Mets had the most players with eight.
New York Mets8(Hernandez, Carter, Gooden, Darling, Jefferies, Myers, McDowell, and Strawberry)
New York Yankees7(Winfield, J. Clark, Guidry, John, Mattingly, Henderson, and Righetti)
Boston Red Sox7(Boggs, Clemens, Rice, Evans, L. Smith, Greenwell, and Hurst)
St. Louis Cardinals7(O. Smith, Guerrero, McGee, Coleman, Worrell, Magrane, and Brunansky)
Los Angeles Dodgers7(Hershiser, Gibson, Marshall, Tudor, Sax, Lasorda, and Valenzuela)
Oakland Athletics7(LaRussa, McGwire, Canseco, Welch, Eckersley, Parker, and Lansford)
Minnesota Twins6(Hrbek, Gaetti, Viola, Rearden, Blyleven, and Puckett)
Cincinnati Reds6(E. Davis, Daniels, Larkin, Sabo, D. Jackson, and Franco)
Detroit Tigers6(Anderson, Trammel, Whitaker, Morris, Tanana, and Lynn)
