Bazooka Joke: UD Pokes Fun at Topps' Eisner

Dec 5 2007 3:58PM

Proof that Upper Deck has a sense of humor (or, perhaps, hard feelings) about its failed effort to acquire Topps earlier this year has been randomly seeded into packs of 2007 UD Sweet Spot Baseball that released this week.

The unannounced card features the caricature of a youthful-looking "Michael Buysner" wearing a "Bazonka" T-shirt, an eye patch and a backward baseball cap (a la Topps icon Bazooka Joe).

Clearly, the card is intended to parody former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, whose Tornante Company along with Madison Dearborn Partners finalized a $385 million purchase of Topps in October after a healthy dose of give-and-take with chief rival Upper Deck for most of the year.

A smaller version of the humorous Buysner illustration is duplicated on the card back along with the following text:

"Upper Deck welcomes this season's newest rookie, Michael Buysner. After humble origins as a page for a top TV network and stints that included crashing a hamboni machine at an Anaheim hockey arena, he is now the topp dog searching for a way to bring Bazonka Joe into the 21st century. As Big Cheese of his own cardboard kingdom, he is enthusiastically searching for the baseball cards his mom threw away and no one will be surprised to see a new big budget film titled, ‘Bazonka Joe and the Temple of Lost Trading Cards' in the very near future. Upper Deck wishes Buysner well – in the candy business."

The card – #'d MB for those set builders – was quite a surprise to Beckett Media's Kevin Haake and Brian Fleischer, who first discovered it while filming a Video Box Busters episode last Friday (the Sweet Spot broadcast, by the way, will air beginning Thursday).

Since then more than a dozen other "Buysner" cards have surfaced on eBay (with presumably countless others hitting now as the new product makes its way around the country). One card in particular sold for the seemingly astounding sum of $310 late Wednesday afternoon.

As far as other pertinent details (how many were produced, how did they make their way into packs, etc.), you'll have to wait. All we have from either company at this point is this comment from Upper Deck, released late Wednesday through a statement:

"It has come to our attention that 2007 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Baseball contains cards that should not have been included in the product release. Accordingly, the Upper Deck Company has sent notices to its customers requiring them to return any and all 2007 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Baseball product that they have received and/or that they may receive in the coming days."

Stay tuned to Beckett.com for updates to this story.