1966 TOPPS LOU KLIMCHOCK #589 PSA 7.5



I own this card, but I'm still not convinced it exists.

I was quite fond of the 1966 set as a young collector, and a fair number of these high-number cards passed through my hands. I would have sworn that I knew my Choo Choo from my Chi Chi.

But then it happened one night several years back that I was trolling eBay for vintage Mets, and this popped up. It was the first one I'd ever seen, so I blinked a couple of times, and then examined the card closely.

I was struck immediately by the quality of the photo, and the layout of the card. Lou stoops into the frame from the border and gives us a nice view of the logo on his shoulder and the emblem on his hat.

Additional patches of radiant blue (his left sleeve, a snippet of uniform number on his back, and the rectangular Spalding emblem on his glove) pop against a flat background setting of brown dirt and browning grass.

The yellow and purple “METS” banner in the upper corner balances out Lou's pose, and the condensed font on his nameplate in the same color combination pulls the whole thing together.

How could I have never seen this card before? Maybe it was an elaborate hoax, a deft parody of a 1966 Topps high number.

I mean, even the name reads like a put-on: Lou Klimchock.

It's an anti-euphonious name. A Don Martin sound effect of a name.

But real or not, I'm keeping my copy just the same...