Test Your Hobby Knowledge!
Welcome to the July 2025 edition of RIPPED Trivia, where you can test your knowledge of Topps cards — the obscure, the sentimental, the All-Star themed, and the weird. There’s a lot of weird here! Answers are at the bottom, but no cheating!
Score:
0-3: You’re actually pretty normal — these are meant to be hard!
4-6: You likely buy your penny sleeves by the million.
7-8: You are a former or current Topps employee
9-10: You definitely looked at the bottom.
Let’s jump in!
1. The 1970 Topps All-Star cards featured a player’s head bursting out of a Sporting News newspaper page. Which of the following words didn’t appear on the fake page?
- Sharks
- Forfeit
- Series
- Baseball
- Champs
2. The back of Carlton Fisk’s 1990 All-Star card (#392) features the 1989 AL Stolen Base leaders. What was Fisk’s highest single-season stolen base number?
3. This Hall of Famer’s 1984 All-Star card listed “electric trains” as one of his hobbies.
4. The 1981 Topps Sticker set featured All-Stars on foil backgrounds. The NL and AL had different colors. Which league was gold?
5. The 1982 Topps Sticker set again featured All-Stars on foil backgrounds — and the NL and AL still had different colors. Which league was gold this time?
6. The 1968 Topps Action All-Star Stickers set featured 12 players on solo cards. Only one never made the Hall of Fame. Who was it?
7. The back of Barry Bonds’ 1991 All-Star card features the 1990 NL Stolen Base leaders. Unlike Carlton Fisk’s card, Bonds was actually on this one — he was third, with 52. The player in second, with 64, had one of the greatest baseball nicknames of all-time — ”Cool Breeze.” Who is he?
8. Del Crandall’s 1961 All-Star card extols the virtues of the catcher by noting, “The reliable Mr. Crandall did amazingly well” at executing what batting feat?
9. If you’re looking for a card commemorating fireworks, the first place you’d look is Allen & Ginter. The 2022 set obliged, but card TO-9 had a very specific context — a 2016 Reds/Braves game was delayed after celebratory fireworks went off following a Reds home run and sent a plume of smoke onto the field, delaying the game. Who hit that homer?
10. In 2006, hot dog eating champion Takeru Kobayashi was featured on an Allen & Ginter card. Which year did Joey Chestnut get a card in the Allen & Ginter set?
Answers
1. “Baseball” did not appear on the fake newspaper page.
2. Carlton Fisk stole 17 bases twice – in 82 and 85. He finished his career with 128 total steals.
3. Mike Schmidt is an (“the”?) electric train enthusiast!
4. The National League had the gold foil background in 1981.
5. The American League had the gold foil background in 1982. They switched it up!
6. Joe Horlen was the only player featured solo in the 1968 set to not make the Hall of Fame.
7. Eric Yelding’s nickname was “Cool Breeze.”
8. Del Crandall was “counted upon to execute many hit and run plays.”
9. The fireworks-inducing HR was hit by Tucker Barnhart
10. Joey Chestnut was featured in the 2008 set, after dethroning Kobayashi in 2007.
