1989 Topps MLB Sports Talk Player

If this is the first time you are learning about the Sports Talk (or Baseball Talk) player and card collection, I don’t know whether to pity you for not knowing sooner or envy you for what you are about to discover. In 1989, Topps made an ingenious record player, mostly from plastic, wherein the needle pops up from the bottom like Dieter Rams’ design classic TP1 from 1959. They then pressed 164 cards, that were actually miniature records featuring legends and current stars talking about their careers, their approaches or famous games. When you put the card into the player and pressed play — voila. Just like a little record player with an internal speaker, you could hear your heroes talk!

Like every “card player,” this comes with an introductory pack of four cards, featuring Don Mattingly, Orel Hershiser, Hank Aaron and checklist Card. But it’s not hard to collect the other 160 cards, which include Stan Musial, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, and late Eighties legends like George Brett, Mike Schmidt, Eddie Murray, Cal Ripken Jr., Nolan Ryan and — need I go on?

This particular item comes in its original box, which has been opened but the player and cards are unused, still in their original packaging. It does have minor wear and tear, as would be expected with a thirty tear old item, but otherwise everything is in awesome shape.