Broders, Popcorn, and Wine

If you've been in the hobby for any significant length of time, especially if you collected in the late 80's, you're probably familiar with the term "Broder cards."  Although they are far less common today, as baseball card collecting became a major business in the decade of Ronald Reagan, Michael Jackson, and hairspray, a wannabe photographer by the name of Rob Broder saw an opportunity to get his work into the public eye.  Broder snapped photographs at Major and minor league ballparks across the country and began to print his work as minimalist baseball cards, under various pseudonyms, and let them loose into a card-hungry market.  Card shows and shops across the country hawked Broder's work as "promos," when they were really more akin to counterfeit and lead to several cease and desists from the powers that be.

Though this strategy did not lead to success in the field of photography for Rob, he was able to make a lasting impression on the baseball card world.  To this day, his surname is used as a catch-all descriptor, applied to all manners of unlicensed cards produced without the approval of Major League Baseball and/or the MLB Players' Association.  I mean, there are certainly worse things to be remembered for, right?

However, this is all fairly common knowledge to the veteran card collector -  these oft-rounded corner oddballs have been lurking in or around our binders for a few decades now.  That said, did you know that trading cards are sort of a Broder family business?  That's right - Rob Broder was not the first of his clan to dabble in the baseball card market... but, we'll get back to that.

First, allow me to introduce you to Frank Ernaga, who, in turn, had one of the greatest Major League introductions of all-time.  Debuting for the Cubs in  May of 1957, the young outfielder homered in his very first at-bat, tripled in his second, and then drew a walk just for good measure.  The pitcher that day -  Hall of Famer Warren Spahn.  From there it was off to the races.

In his next start, Frank went 2-for-3 with a homer, a double, and a walk in a 5-4 Cubs victory. Then, the very next day, he tripled in a pinch-hitting cameo.  All told, the wunderkind's first week in the Bigs produced an astounding five extra base hits (and two free passes) in just eight at-bats.  Surely the Cubbies had a special talent on their hands, eh? Of course, since you probably don't recognize his name, you likely have put it together that it was all downhill from here for Ernaga.

His propensity to strike out is what eventually did him in (16 K's in 52 career AB's) and Frank was back in the bushes by summertime.  After a September recall and a brief cup of joe in '58, that was all she wrote for Ernaga's MLB stat line.

Our shooting star trots home after hitting a home run during his 1st AB. Image courtesy of Lassen County Times.

After that debut for the ages, Frank found himself back in the PCL for a little more seasoning, playing for the Cubs-affiliated Portland Beavers.  It is in a Beavers uniform that Ernaga is pictured with in the photograph which kicks off this post.  Despite his initial smash, Frank was never pictured on a Major League card, due to his fleeting glory, and this Portland oddball represents his only baseball card appearance.  Thus, it has been a target for my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection for many years and, after searching high and low, I was finally able to track down the slippery devil on Ebay last week.

This 2"x3", black and white oddity is printed on super thin cardstock, barely a step above index card quality.  Also, it's hard to tell in this scan, but we know that it was printed as part of a sheet, seeing as remnants of the cards on either side were left behind when Frank was sliced out.  Frank doesn't seemed too bummed about that - he is absolutely beaming in this posed sideline shot, even though the shadows are creeping across his face.

Overall, the simplistic card is extremely basic, devoid of even text.  The backside continues this minimalist theme:

No stats, no write-up, all we get is Frank's name, position, team affiliation. and the set information, type-written and centered in white space.  Based on the info presented, one can thus be forgiven for thinking that this oddball hails from 1957 and being distributed with bags of popcorn.  After all, cards of this very size and "design" were handed out in that very manner by teams across the Pacific Coast League in the mid-50's.  However, despite the simple design, there is actually more than meets the eye going on here.

Remember how we were talking about Rob Broder capitalizing on the trading card boom and how he wasn't the first in his family to enter the business?  Well, Frank Ernaga's only known baseball card is an example of the work of Rob's father, Ed Broder, who issued several semi-legitimate collector's issues during the 1970's.  Like father, like son.

Some of Ed's most famous work includes his sets based around the '74 Mets and the then-current lineups of the Nippon League; additionally, his portfolio included this PCL "Popcorn" set, which intentionally mimicked the originals, though it was released circa 1974  (it's like an unlicensed Heritage project).  Thankfully, his projects shined the spotlight on many forgotten players from the days of yore - i.e., Frank Ernaga and the player who accompanied him in my Ebay mailer:

Here we have a more forlorn-looking Portland Beaver- though, again, it's kind of hard to tell due to the shadows drawn across his face.  Maybe his mood is due to the fact that there's no one in the stands or because his Major League career would only amount to 32 games, from 1956-57, and an anemic .209/.243/.299 batting line.  This third baseman was a Chicago native and a teammate of Ernaga in both the Windy City and Portland and a fellow member of Ed Broder's Popcorn checklist:

The same seller who had Ernaga's Broder had whole heap of them for sale.  Before pulling my hair trigger on the purchase, I made sure to check out the rest of the bunch and, honestly, until I came across the listing for Ed Winceniak's (misspelled) single, I had no idea he was part of the set.  In fact, I had no idea that Ed had ever appeared on a baseball card of any type whatsoever.  Color me surprised!

At four bucks a pop(corn), I was able to cross two extremely obscure names cards off of my CATRC "needs" list, one of which on a card that I didn't even know existed.  Needless to say, I was one happy camper... of course, it probably didn't hurt that I was a little wine-drunk at the time too.   Normally, purchases I make while intoxicated don't seem so great in retrospect; but, I definitely do not regret this one.  Plus, despite my state, I was able to remember that I had a Xmas gift card leftover and charged the purchase to that Visa; so, they were basically free.  

Nevertheless, I probably shouldn't shop for baseball cards while drunk anymore... that situation has disastrous potential:

"Yea, I... *hiccup*... deserve this!"

Has anyone else ever purchased cards while tipsy?  Do you have any horror stories?  Does anyone else have a few of these original Broders?  How do you feel ab out these unlicensed, oddball trading cards?  Do you view them as legit cards or something akin to counterfeit?  Inquiring minds want to know!

Adding Ernaga and Winceniak to my CATRC binder now leaves me with 1,534 Cubs cards out of 2,075 all-time players - this is good for a 73.93% completion rate.  I'm nearly three quarters of the way through my lifetime quest!  

All I can say is thank goodness for Ed, Rob and their unlicensed Broder baseball cards.  Without their work, I'd have never been able to fill those slots.  Also, wine and Visa gift cards are pretty cool too.