Look at the back of Don Mattingly’s baseball cards and you’ll see his birthdate listed as 4/20/61. Well, on every baseball card except his 1987 Topps #500, that is.
Collectors who opened packs that year even saw a line in Mattingly’s bio stating that Mattingly’s birth certificate actually indicated his birthday was in 1962, not ’61. The following year and every year since, the birthdate was changed back to ’61.
So what gives? How old is Donnie Baseball? Did he just turn 58 or 59?
ESPN writer Sam Miller went in search of the answer. It’s a fun ride back to the 80s when Topps had one very dedicated employee in charge of researching and writing the card backs.
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Notes: Mantle Hits a Million; Topps & Trump; Beckett’s China Trip; Mattingly Auction
