1966 Fleer Match Baseball Game Packs Had Drysdale Puzzle

The sports card industry of the 1950s and 60s was an arduous journey for Fleer with the fierce competition of Topps’ licensing agreement with baseball players. Surely, the company longed for the good old days when just your word and a solemn handshake would suffice. Fleer did retain a small percentage of player contracts throughout these decades but the company finally chose to fight Topps through the Federal Trade Commission. Their claim was that Topps was engaging in unfair competition through their aggressiveness in securing exclusive player deals. A hearing examiner had ruled against Topps but the Commission reversed the decision upon their appeal. The company sold its remaining player contracts to Topps in 1966 for $395,000.

Did that transaction still leave a small window of time open for Fleer to take advantage of issuing the All-Star Match Baseball set of 66 cards at some point in 1966? It’s among the more unusual sports issues of the era—a baseball game sold in wax pack form with a player puzzle along for the ride. Despite its troubles with securing player contracts, Fleer was able to get Drysdale signed to an endorsement deal for a decidedly non-baseball card type product. The Dodgers pitcher famously held out jointly with Sandy Koufax over a salary dispute with the team early in 1966 before both finally agreed to deals.

Each pack of Match Baseball contained five cards with one piece of gum inside a 24-count display box, which carried artwork of a pitcher on the box and included Drysdale’s name.

The cards were designed as an All-Star game between National and American League All-Stars. Each card was numbered F1-F66 and measured 3 ½” x 2 1/2.”

The idea was for two players to compete as either league. The instructions for game play were printed on the back of the wrapper.

By adding up the runs through a nine-inning comparison, one team would generally score more than another. Sometimes there was a tie but that rarely was the case with 2200 permutations.

After exhausting the gameplay, the back of the cards served to satisfy the collector by turning all 66 cards in the set over and assembling a puzzle of one Drysdale, who was one of the game’s most famous names at the time.

*Photo Courtesy: Number 5 Type Collection blog.*

The pose on the completed puzzle, by the way, appears to be from the same photo shoot that produced Double D’s 1967 Topps card.

You can see a pack opening video here.

A complete set of 66 cards sold through Lelands in 2020 for $180.

Sharp marketing by Fleer this year would also utilize the very same game within their Baseball Chews product. This one was targeted more to kids who were after the gum. The cardboard stiffener inside each pack doubled as a game card with instructions on the back.

The Baseball Chews cards measure 6 ½” x 1 3/16” and also house 66 cards that are identical in letter/numbering scheme as the Don Drysdale issue. The box has a cartoon drawing of a pitcher sporting a blue and white uniform, long legs, possibly someone about 6.5’ tall and you can pretty much assume it’s Drysdale– with a pack of Baseball Chews sticking out of his back pocket, nonetheless.

Comparing these two issues in lockstep: both came in 5¢ sealed packs with gum, each set has the same amount of numbered game cards with matching design and color scheme, the only thing out of step is the Drysdale puzzle backs were only issued in the Match Baseball packs.

The desire of a wax pack over a gum pack is respectively more revered in the hobby however, let’s not tread lightly to dismiss the rarity factor here. Few photos of either product exist today so distribution was apparently very limited but the chews are virtually non-existent today.

Here’s a little coincidental trivia: the card sets are both numbered to 66, possibly a nod to the year of issue but the year before Fleer issued both products, Drysdale’s win-loss percentage was…just a shade under 66%.